Leamington Community Primary School

Leamington Community Primary School Inspection report

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133333 Unique Reference Number Liverpool Local Authority 316090 Inspection number 7 °8 November 2007 Inspection dates Maureen Coleman Reporting inspector

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Primary Type of school Community School category 3 °11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 375 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Pat Monagham Chair Mrs Marie Egerton-Jones Headteacher 9 June 2003 Date of previous school inspection Leamington Road School address Norris Green Liverpool Merseyside L11 7BT 0151 2847848 Telephone number 0151 2847849 Fax number

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3-11 Age group 7 °8 November 2007 Inspection dates 316090 Inspection number .

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by three Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

Leamington Community Primary School is larger than average in size and serves an area with above average levels of social and economic deprivation. The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is double the national average. There is a considerably higher proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities than average although no pupils have a statement of special educational need. The vast majority of pupils are White British. The school is specially designated by the local authority for pupils with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Awards gained by the school include, Basic Skills Quality Mark and National Healthy Schools Award.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007

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Grade: 2

Leamington Community Primary is a good school which has outstanding strengths in pupils' personal development and welfare and the level of care it provides. Parents speak highly of the school and a typical comment received by inspectors was: 'Teaching staff and non-teaching staff at Leamington School are dedicated to the education and welfare of all pupils. They generally go the extra mile to support their pupils and involve parents whenever possible in both educational and non-educational activities.' Pupils enter Nursery with skills which are well below those typical for their age. Due to good teaching and an interesting curriculum, they make good progress. By the end of the Foundation Stage, overall standards remain below those expected nationally. However, pupils' skills in language and communication have been much improved because of the strong emphasis the school gives to developing these basic skills. In Key Stage 1, pupils make satisfactory progress

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Grade: 2

and reach below average standards in reading, writing and mathematics. In this key stage, progress is not as strong as elsewhere in the school because recent improvements made to the curriculum provision are at an early stage. In Key Stage 2, pupils make good progress and by Year 6 achieve broadly average standards in English, mathematics and science. This represents good overall achievement from their starting points. Effective strategies to improve teaching have been put in place by the school's leadership. This has resulted in pupils working hard and enjoying their lessons because the quality of teaching overall is good. Pupils are enthusiastic and keen to talk about their work. A typical comment from pupils during the inspection was, 'This work is exciting.' A good curriculum, focusing on the basic skills, promotes pupils' academic development. However, writing skills are not sufficiently developed across all subjects. Specialist

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Grade: 2

teaching in many areas, frequent visits and visitors together with a good range of extra-curricular activities ensures the curriculum is targeted to match the pupil's interests and needs. The excellent care guidance and support the school provides for its pupils promotes good behaviour and outstanding personal development. Pupils are happy to be in school and say they feel safe and secure and have some one to talk to if they need help. Learning mentors work very closely with pupils and parents, ensuring that many families benefit and take full advantage of the many opportunities that the school offers. The school has successfully initiated many strategies and monitoring procedures to improve pupils' attendance. As a result, attendance is rising and is just below the national average. The quality of leadership and management is good. The strong focused leadership given by the headteacher, deputy headteacher and leadership team gives a clear direction for the school.

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Grade: 2

This has very effectively raised standards as a result of increasingly good teaching and providing a curriculum tailored to the needs and interest of all pupils. Governors work closely with the school and are very committed to school improvement. They have a good understanding of the school's strengths and weaknesses and feel confident that they are able to challenge and support the leadership team. The school's own evaluation of its effectiveness is accurate and the school has tackled issues from the previous inspection well. The school has a good capacity to improve and gives good value for money. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007

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Grade: 2

Good teaching and provision in the Foundation Stage enable the youngest children to make good progress in all areas of learning, particularly in language and communication. The warm atmosphere and high level of care ensure that children settle quickly, are happy to come to school and feel safe and secure. Teachers and teaching assistants focus on developing the children's basic skills. They interact well with the children, playing alongside them, modelling and promoting language and encouraging them to broaden and develop their vocabulary. The classroom is organised well into areas of learning providing good provision for children to use all their senses to learn through discovery: for example, hunting for worms and using magnifiers to observe them and see how they move. Personal and social skills are developed well through the good opportunities the children have to develop independence. They respond well to the

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Grade: 2

simple routines like tidying away and self-registering and enjoy making choices in what they want to do. Progress is carefully monitored and evaluated through frequent first-hand observations. These chart children's achievements and progress and inform future planning for groups and individual children. Good links with parents and, where appropriate, agencies such as Sure Start are used to enhance and enrich provision.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Raise standards in reading, writing and mathematics at Key Stage 1.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Improve writing skills throughout the school

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Grade: 2

Most pupils enter Nursery with skills that are well below those expected for their age, especially in their language and communication skills. Children make good progress throughout Foundation Stage and make up much ground. However, by the beginning of Year 1 they reach standards that are below those expected nationally for this age. Progress in Key Stage 1 is satisfactory and standards in reading, writing and mathematics remain below average as recent changes to the curriculum provision have yet to impact on standards. Good progress for pupils at Key Stage 2 results in standards at age 11 which are broadly average in English and mathematics and above average in science. Pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities make good progress throughout the school. Given pupils' low starting points, their overall achievement is good.

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Grade: 1

Pupils' personal development and well-being is outstanding. Pupils have a very positive attitude towards their work, like coming to school and enjoy lessons. They are eager to talk about school life and the impact the school council has had on improving facilities, such as the school menus. Pupils display a strong understanding of healthy lifestyles and the need to take regular exercise. The improved playground facilities and staggered play-times support this aspect particularly well. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good and was well supported by the recent visit from a language specialist from Hungary who spent a term working in the school. The support of the learning mentors, buddies, reading partners and mediators strongly promote pupils' personal development. The importance of community is well understood and pupils willingly take on responsibilities. For example, pupils were closely involved in creating and

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Grade: 1

5 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007 implementing an individual travel plan to school, considering many issues about the environment. Pupils also display a good understanding of the need to care for the environment through their Gardening Club. Pupils are actively involved in risk assessments in and around school, which help them to monitor the recently re-furbished playground area ensuring it remains safe and litter free. The skills the pupils gain equip them well for the future and their positive attitudes shine through their good behaviour and the good relationships they have with their teachers and classmates.

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good. In the vast majority of lessons teaching is lively, engaging and challenging: pupils are well motivated. In these lessons teachers' high expectations that pupils complete their work within a time-frame ensure good pace and keep pupils on task. A good example of this was a lesson in Key Stage 2, where pupils had to write a news report to specific requirements within a specified time and then read it back to the class as a newsreader. Whilst writing is taught well in some lessons, not enough opportunities are provided for pupils to use their writing skills in other subjects. A variety of teaching methods and strategies are used to help maintain pupils' attention and interest: for example, the use of interactive whiteboards to show excerpts of a firework display to stimulate and motivate poetry writing. The use of praise to promote learner's self-esteem was used well as pupils saw

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Grade: 2

themselves as effective learners. However, in some lessons there is insufficient clarity in explanations and some inconsistency in the strategies used by teachers and teaching assistants. Pupils have opportunities to evaluate their own and others work. Pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities have very carefully monitored programmes and are well supported.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum makes a good contribution to pupils' personal development. Good provision is made to develop pupil's basic skills. However, at Key Stage 1, this is recently established and is yet to fully impact on standards. Links between subjects strengthen pupils' enjoyment of learning and make learning more meaningful. The good range of visits, visitors and wide range of extra-curricular activities promote pupils personal and academic development. Pupils are given good opportunities to develop creatively through art, music, dance and drama. These activities are provided by specialist teaching and contribute well to pupils' cultural development. There are limited opportunities for sustained writing across the full range of the curriculum. Innovative provision, such as philosophy for pupils and problem solving activities, increase pupils' thinking skills and enjoyment.

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Grade: 1

The quality of provision for care, guidance and support is outstanding. Hard working and conscientious staff know and care for pupils very well. Excellent relationships are developed between adults and pupils. The level of supervision provided for pupils is very good both in and outside the school building. Appropriate safeguarding checks are made including those to the Criminal Records Bureau when staff are appointed. Learning mentors give outstanding 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007 support to pupils who may be vulnerable. Parents speak very highly of the school and responses from their questionnaires praise the availability of staff and indicate parental confidence in approaching staff with concerns. The school has very effective systems for assessing pupil's academic progress, based on regular testing. Appropriate targets are set which help to guide pupils learning. Pupils' learning is well

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Grade: 1

matched to their needs. The quality of marking is good and successfully supports pupils by clearly informing them what to do next to improve.

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Grade: 2

The quality of leadership and management is good. The headteacher provides strong and clear direction and is ably supported by the deputy headteacher and senior leadership team. An outstanding feature of senior leadership is the quality of care guidance and support it gives to its pupils. Due to the good and effective procedures for monitoring the school's work, the leadership team has an accurate view of the school's strengths and weaknesses. Improvements have been made to the quality of teaching, curriculum provision and the standards that the pupils achieve and this demonstrates the school's good capacity to improve. Well-established middle managers have good subject knowledge and they monitor the standard of pupils' work and the level of resources. At all levels leadership makes an effective contribution to school self-evaluation and this is used well to keep the governing body informed. Governors

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Grade: 2

are knowledgeable about the strengths and weaknesses of school. Governors provide good support to the school's leadership and they are committed to improving the quality of provision for pupils. Good financial management combined with pupils' good levels of achievement means the school provides good value for money. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007 .

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Grade: 2

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007

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Inspection judgements

School Overall Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

2 How well do learners achieve? 3 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 1 How well learners enjoy their education 3 The attendance of learners 2 The behaviour of learners 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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and interests of learners?

1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 9 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 10 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Following our visit to your school we would like to thank you for making us feel so welcome and for talking to us about your experiences. We would like to tell you what we found out about your school.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Pupils and parents told us that Leamington is a caring school and we agree.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Your headteacher is very good at improving your school.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Governors know your school very well and know what they need to do to make Leamington an even better school. ■ You make good progress and, by the time you are ready for secondary school, you have learned much that will help you. ■ You enjoy being at school.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ You told us you feel safe in school and that staff are very approachable, caring and helpful. We agree. We have asked the school to make sure you achieve higher standards in Key Stage 1. You also need to have more opportunities to develop your writing skills in all your subjects. Thank you for helping us so much with the inspection of your school. We hope you will carry on enjoying learning and helping your teachers to make Leamington Community Primary School an even better school. 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Leamington Community Primary School, 7 °8 November 2007

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