Setting

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 404040 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr P Turner Headteacher Birchfield Primary School Birchfield Avenue Gildersome Leeds West Yorkshire LS27 7HU

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Ofsted survey inspection programme - Physical Education (PE)

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff, during my visit on 12 June to look at work in PE.

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Ofsted survey inspection programme - Physical Education (PE)

As outlined in my initial letter, as well as looking at key areas of the subject, the visit had a particular focus on assessing the PE contribution to the outcomes of Every Child Matters, particularly being healthy.

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Ofsted survey inspection programme - Physical Education (PE)

The visit provided valuable information, which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text. All feedback letters will be published on the Ofsted website at the end of each half-term.

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Ofsted survey inspection programme - Physical Education (PE)

The evidence used to inform the judgements made included discussions with you and your PE coordinator, pupils, scrutiny of relevant documentation and two lesson observations. I also inspected provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage and spoke with the unit leader. In addition I observed lunchtime games provision.

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Ofsted survey inspection programme - Physical Education (PE)

The overall effectiveness of physical education was judged to be outstanding.

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Achievement and standards

Pupils make outstanding progress in developing their skills, knowledge and understanding of PE during their time in the school and reach high standards.

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Achievement and standards

 From average starting points pupils make rapid progress during the Early Years Foundation Stage and profile scores are well above national expectations for physical development. Excellent progress is sustained in Key Stages 1 and 2, where high standards were observed. Swimming standards are high and all pupils met the Key Stage 2 attainment target a year earlier than expected.  The school has a long and proud track record of sporting success. Some very able pupils go on to gain regional and national recognition, in activities such as gymnastics, football, athletics and swimming. Lesson observations during the inspection confirm these high standards.  Boys and girls make equally impressive progress, and they are developing the four strands of PE well. Pupils with learning difficulties make the same good progress as all other pupils.  Pupils say PE in this school is ‘absolutely brilliant’ and this is reflected in

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Achievement and standards

their obvious enjoyment and eagerness to learn. High participation rates and impeccable behaviour also signal pupils’ satisfaction. Pupils’ success is celebrated and rewarded, which boosts their self-esteem.

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Quality of teaching and learning of PE

The quality of teaching and learning in the lessons observed was outstanding.

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Quality of teaching and learning of PE

 Teachers have very secure subject knowledge, which they use expertly to capture the interest of pupils and provide them with the confidence and competence to develop advanced PE skills, knowledge and understanding. Unusually for a primary school there are a number of PE trained specialists on the staff. Their expertise in PE enables them to offer a higher level of challenge, support and guidance than a teacher without their training, which pupils respond very well to and thrive as a consequence.  Teaching is inspiring at times and the pupils feed off this and strive for excellence. Teachers’ delivery is vibrant, enthusiastic and highly focused. A combination of guided learning and opportunities to work independently encourage pupils to be creative, problem solve and work effectively together. Pupils also receive sessions from highly qualified external coaches, parents, and staff from the local school sport

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Quality of teaching and learning of PE

partnership including an advanced skills dance teacher.  There is a big emphasis on making learning enjoyable and encouraging everyone to participate and achieve well. These high expectations, coupled with the excellent rapport staff build with pupils and highly focused, engaging activities underpin pupils’ success.  Teachers use questioning, observation and analysis techniques to good effect in lessons to evaluate the depth of pupils’ understanding of key PE concepts and processes. But current arrangements do not include formally assessing and tracking pupils’ attainment or progress. Similarly PE reports make a judgement about pupils’ ability and achievement but this not in relation to National Curriculum criteria.

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Quality of the PE curriculum

Curriculum provision is outstanding overall.

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Quality of the PE curriculum

Unusually it ensures pupils experience all activity areas of the PE National Curriculum and is very well balanced in terms of the time given to each aspect. PE staff make use of a very good range of on-site and off-site PE facilities, including in the Early Years Foundation Stage to deliver high quality programmes of study and enrichment opportunities, based on sound PE principles.

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Quality of the PE curriculum

 Pupils receive well in excess of two hours of PE, and benefit from structured and varied lunchtime games sessions. A cameo which epitomises the profile and impact of PE in this school is the daily ‘wake and shake’ activities where pupils devise and lead routines to music with the whole school, including staff, taking part. On the day of the inspection this was expertly and confidently led by Foundation Stage children, who had recently won a regional competition for Key Stage 1 pupils. In addition there is an annual outdoor and adventurous residential, where pupils delight in ghyll scrambling, canoeing, abseiling and caving.  Teachers skilfully link learning across subjects to consolidate pupils’ understanding of key concepts not just in PE, but also science, English, history and mathematics, as well as reinforcing key skills such as cooperation.  Pupils from across the age range regularly compete against other

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Quality of the PE curriculum

schools, participate in festivals of sport and multi-skills activities organised by the local sports partnership. They also take part in the school’s mini-Olympics and non-traditional activities such as dodge ball.  Lunchtime supervisors and older pupils have completed training to act as play leaders and this has resulted in a variety of interesting and well supported games being enjoyed every day.

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Leadership and management of PE

Leadership and management are outstanding.

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Leadership and management of PE

 The larger-than-life PE coordinator is very well respected and hugely popular in the school, the local community and beyond. His sphere of influence extends authority wide through his role as an advanced skills PE teacher. He is an excellent role model, dedicated to his work and very professional, setting an excellent lead for other staff to follow.  As a result of the quality of his work over the past 20 years or so, PE has achieved a very high profile in the school. The impact of this is very evident in the tremendous PE experience pupils receive and the accelerated progress and high standards they attain in PE by the time they leave the school. PE runs very smoothly and planning, deployment of available resources and staff development are all excellent and underpin the sustained high outcomes in PE over time.  The quality of teaching and coaching, planning and assessment are all monitored regularly albeit informally at times. Discussions and scrutiny

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Leadership and management of PE

of action plans reveal a good awareness of the strengths of existing provision and what further refinements could be made to improve. There is no complacency and as such good capacity for further improvement.  An important element in the success of PE in the school is the full support given by you, your involvement and commitment to PE and sport and recognising the whole school benefit it has. You are ‘hands on’, lead the residential visit and run teams at the school.

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Matters particularly being health

 PE provision supports the development of a number of the Every Child Matters outcomes. The values the school promotes in relation to PE include staying safe, enjoying and achieving and being healthy. These were very evident when pupils sensibly handled large apparatus and equipment, in the smiles during ‘wake and shake’ sessions and the quality of their movement during a gymnastics lesson.  Pupils also develop very good leadership and organisational skills, which will help them in later life. Their involvement in school teams and as play leaders show the positive contribution they make to wider school life.  The school has attained national healthy school accreditation, and the Activemark, in recognition of the large numbers of pupils who participate in high quality PE and extra-curricular activities and its promotion of adopting healthier lifestyles among pupils.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

 introducing more formal assessment, tracking and reporting of pupil attainment and progress relative to National Curriculum expectations  succession planning for the retirement of the inspirational head of PE.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop physical education in the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

As I explained in my previous letter, a copy of this letter will be sent to your local authority and will be published on the Ofsted website. It will also be available to the team for your next institutional inspection.

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