Bradshaw Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Bradshaw Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 3 April 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in April 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. One area of strength in school is around the work to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

These pupils' needs are well understood, and this helps them to make strong progress and to work increasingly independe...ntly in the classroom. The work of teachers and leaders with these pupils also helps them in their personal, social and emotional well-being and development. Additionally, for a sustained period of time, the early years provision has been a strength of the school.

This continues to be the case. Children arrive in the pre-school class or Reception class and make good progress from their starting points. They settle quickly because adults understand their needs and interests.

The provision also ensures that children can access a range of activities which strongly support their development across the different learning areas, including in reading, writing and mathematics. As a result, children are well prepared for their next stage of learning. At the last inspection, inspectors made a number of recommendations to support further improvements in school.

Inspectors suggested that the school work to improve its relationship with parents. Since the last inspection, there has been a marked improvement in the relationship between the school and the parents. Parents now report that they are well informed about how well their children do in school and they state that if they report a concern, you deal with it effectively and efficiently.

Because of your quick response to parents' concerns, parents feel assured that pupils are well cared for and that behaviour in the school is strong. They also believe that bullying is rare and dealt with effectively. Pupils agree with parents' views and they also report that they feel safe and happy in school.

Another suggestion made by inspectors was to improve pupils' spelling, punctuation and grammar to support better accuracy in writing. When pupils are tested in these skill areas they do very well and a very high proportion exceed the expected standard for their age. This can also be seen increasingly in the writing of some pupils.

However, this is not always the case and at times pupils do not apply the skills they have learned into their extended writing. This is particularly the case for boys and disadvantaged pupils, who do less well in writing than other pupils. At the last inspection, inspectors suggested that middle leaders needed further training to ensure that they were able to support senior leaders fully.

Middle leaders now have a very clear understanding of their roles and work well as a team to support pupils' well-being and strong progress in the curriculum. Safeguarding is effective. You and your leadership team have ensured that the procedures and systems you use to keep pupils safe are fit for purpose and effective.

These arrangements are checked and updated on a regular basis to ensure that adults know how to keep pupils safe and well safeguarded. Staff and governors receive regular training and know what to do if they spot a concern, or if a concern is reported to them. The school keeps parents, staff and pupils informed about what to do if they have a concern.

The website has a record of the school's policies and there are posters around the site with the names and pictures of key personnel who work to safeguard pupils. There are also assemblies and other special events to keep pupils informed, for example to make sure they know how to keep themselves safe when using the internet. There are checks made on staff, including volunteers, to ensure that they are suitable to work with children and that they have the right qualifications for the roles they have.

These checks meet legal requirements. Whenever issues are reported, the school keeps detailed records of them and you liaise closely with a range of external agencies to ensure that the right people are made aware of concerns, and so the school can seek specialist advice when necessary. Inspection findings ? During the inspection, I wanted to see if writing is improving.

In recent years, writing outcomes have been weaker than those in reading and mathematics. I was particularly keen to know if the outcomes of different groups of pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, and boys, were improving in writing. ? Writing is improving and this is because pupils regularly write at length and across the curriculum.

Pupils' accuracy in writing is also improving due to better spelling, punctuation and grammar skills. However, progress in writing is still weaker than progress in reading and mathematics, and the progress in writing made by disadvantaged pupils and boys remains weak. ? You are aware of the relative weakness in writing for certain groups and you have implemented strategies to make improvements.

However, you have not been sharp enough in your assessment of the impact of different strategies, and have sometimes been too focused on the action taken rather than evaluating which actions have, and have not, worked. ? In addition, governors have not always challenged you enough where writing is concerned. They have not insisted that you identify the impact of your work, as well as the action you have taken.

• I wanted to understand how you have improved pupils' outcomes in mathematics. Since the last inspection, and until recently, outcomes in mathematics have been very weak compared to the national average. In 2018, however, progress in mathematics was very strong.

I wanted to know how this happened, and if these improvements are sustainable. ? The teaching of mathematics has undergone many changes recently, with teachers receiving a lot of training to help them. Now, pupils routinely practise their mental agility in mathematics on a very regular basis.

They also apply their skills in multi-stepped problems, ensuring that they can use their skills appropriately. Such routines, alongside a strong level of challenge in lessons, has led to very strong progress over the past 18 months in mathematics. This is the case for different groups of pupils.

Such a systematic change has led to significant improvements, which have been embedded and maintained across the school. ? During the inspection, I was interested to see how you maintain high attendance overall, and how well different groups of pupils attend. In the past year, much of the pupil premium funding which disadvantaged pupils attract has been spent on supporting the pastoral team to meet the needs of these pupils and their families.

This has led to a particularly firm focus on these pupils where attendance has been an issue, and where some of them have been persistently absent. The work of the pastoral leader and the inclusion team has led to much improved relationships between the school and some families. In turn, these families now work much more positively with you and your staff and they understand the need for their children to attend school on a regular basis.

They have accepted support, where necessary, and this has led to much improved attendance for disadvantaged pupils, and much lower levels of persistent absenteeism. ? I wanted to see how well the curriculum serves the needs and interests of pupils. The curriculum is broad and balanced.

It supports pupils' reading and mathematics development in particular and it provides opportunities for pupils to write at length in other subjects of the curriculum. The curriculum is engaging, with the various topics offering pupils the chance to learn about the world around them. Topic work is often enhanced with an out-of-school visit or a special assembly, which makes learning more tangible and accessible.

• In addition, the curriculum offers pupils the chance to talk about different issues, which may be personal to them, or beyond their everyday understanding. This gives pupils the chance to discuss different issues and hear the views of others. It helps pupils to learn about different faiths, cultures and lifestyles and so pupils show great respect for, and interest in, the different ways in which people live.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? leaders focus on the impact of their strategies to make improvements, so that they can respond by adjusting plans, as necessary ? governors consistently challenge leaders where outcomes in certain subjects and for certain groups are less strong to ensure that strategies in place are having a sustained impact ? pupils' writing continues to improve and that the attainment and progress gap between disadvantaged pupils and boys and their peers closes rapidly. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Calderdale. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Fiona McNally Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I observed teaching in all classes to see its effect on learning. I also looked at a wide range of pupils' work in books from several year groups, across a variety of subjects. I met with you and with other senior and middle leaders.

I also held a meeting with governors and held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority. I looked at the school's information about the safeguarding of pupils and examined behaviour and attendance records. I also checked a range of other documentation, including your self-evaluation, your school development plan and your assessment information.

I held formal discussions with some pupils from Years 3 to 6, and I spoke informally to several pupils during breaktime. I considered the parents' responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, and to parents' responses to the free-text questionnaire. I also spoke to several parents in the playground as they brought their children to school.