Setting

Mrs Kath Yarnall Park View Primary School Park View Road Prestwich Manchester M25 1FA

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Thank you for the help which you, your staff, pupils and the Chair and Vice-Chair of governors gave when I inspected your school on 25 February 2010 and for the information which you provided during my visit .

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

As a result of the inspection on 12 and 13 October 2009, the school was asked to:

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

 Urgently ensure that safeguarding requirements are fully met, that care, guidance and support is improved, and that the governing body fulfils its statutory duties.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

 Improve pupils’ achievement by making sure that the work set in the lessons matches the abilities of pupils more closely, by providing more opportunities for pupils to work more independently or with others of similar ability and by improving the curriculum in Year 1.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

 Identify strengths and weaknesses in the school’s performance by improving the quality and rigour of the ways in which the school monitors and evaluates its work.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time the school is making satisfactory progress in addressing the issues for improvement and in raising pupils’ achievement.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Good progress has been made in addressing the previous inspection’s concerns around safeguarding. New security arrangements, such as intercom-controlled entry points, ensure an enclosed site. Checks on the suitability of staff are now thorough and up-to-date policies to ensure the safety and well-being of pupils are in place. The newly established policy for safeguarding pupils, for example, makes clear what steps are to be take when making checks on staff and visitors. The school agrees CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancashire Investment Centre Maple View White Moss Business Park T 0300 123 1231 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566934 Direct F 01695 729320 e-mail gtunnicliffe@cfbt.com Page 2 this policy would be improved if it made reference to other safeguarding policies, behaviour and child protection for example. Improvements in safeguarding are evident in risk assessments undertaken for educational visits. These highlight any

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

potential risk involved and provide measures to manage them. While many of the more recent examples are of good quality, they do not record any evaluation of their effectiveness. The school agrees that such evaluations would be of value. The governors’ overview of safeguarding is more robust than it was at the last inspection. Both they and staff take their duty to promote safeguarding seriously. All staff have recently undertaken training in child protection. As a result, they are more confident in identifying signs of abuse and neglect and in knowing what steps to take if such signs become evident in children. The headteacher and assistant headteacher manage systems to promote child protection well. Pupils report they feel safe in school.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Progress in the second and third areas for improvement, concerning pupils’ achievement and the monitoring and evaluation of the school’s performance, has been satisfactory. Four lessons were observed during this monitoring inspection. All were of good quality with pupils making good progress in their learning in each. These observations confirm the accuracy of the headteacher’s judgement about the quality of teaching and learning in the school. The accuracy of her overall evaluation of strengths and weaknesses is further evidenced by her acknowledgement that work still needs to be done to better match work to pupils’ abilities. Teachers’ planning, for example, does not consistently make clear what the different groups of pupils, including those of higher ability, are to learn. More often the planning outlines tasks and activities which in themselves do not present challenge to pupils. In a very few cases planning is weak because it does not follow agreed school policy

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

and relies too heavily on generic plans which have not been annotated to meet the needs of the pupils present. Nonetheless, improvement in this area is being made as seen by good levels of challenge in the lessons observed, in weighing and balancing activities in Year 1 for example, and in Year 6 pupils’ mathematics books where pupils were encouraged in word and number problems not only to give the answer but also explain their thinking.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Members of the wider senior leadership team are developing their awareness of whole-school strengths and weaknesses. Currently, their monitoring of the success or otherwise of new measures to improve achievement is limited. Nonetheless, there is a keen sense of awareness of what needs to be done. Having correctly prioritised safeguarding, senior leaders can go forward with confidence to improve pupils’ achievement.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Good support has been provided from the local authority, for example in securing improvement in the Year 1 curriculum. As a result of the local authority’s work – and the commitment of Year 1 staff to make the necessary improvements – pupils spoke with great enthusiasm of their ‘Garden Centre’ topic which has met their interests well. The local authority’s view of the school’s progress is accurate. Page 3 I hope that you have found the visit helpful in promoting improvement in your school. This letter will be posted on the Ofsted website.

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