Park View Community Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Park View Community Primary

Following my visit to the school on 26 April 2018, 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 October 2013. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Since your arrival in September 2014, you and your leadership team have seen a number of staffing changes. You have successfully challenged underperformance when necessary and you now have a more settled and effective staff team. You an...d your staff care deeply about the pupils in your charge and want the very best for them.

You have adapted the education you provide to meet the evolving needs of your pupils. For example, more of your pupils now speak English as an additional language than at the last inspection. There are also more pupils who start school with speech and language difficulties.

You support these pupils well by providing extra sessions to develop their language skills. This enables them to have better access to the curriculum and to make strong progress. You have successfully addressed the areas for improvement that inspectors identified at the last inspection.

The teaching of reading is now more effective. You have introduced a new system in key stage 2 that involves a more focused approach to practising a broad range of reading skills, such as prediction and inference. You provide wider opportunities for all pupils to read for comprehension and have begun a new scheme to support this in key stage 1.

You also have an online system to diagnose gaps in pupils' reading skills, which enables you to provide the best support. Published assessment information for key stage 2 in 2017 shows that there was improved progress compared to 2016. The school's own assessment information for current pupils shows that the majority make strong progress.

You have increased the proportion of pupils, especially in key stage 2, who reach above average standards. Evidence from pupils' work and from the school's assessment information shows that the majority of the current most able pupils now make improved progress in reading, in writing and in mathematics. This builds on their improving progress seen in the published assessment information for key stage 2 in 2017.

You have taken effective steps to bring about these improvements. These include the training that the subject leader for mathematics provides for teachers to enable them to focus more sharply on problem-solving and reasoning skills. Your assistant headteacher also shares his expertise in moderating writing with staff to enable them to have a better understanding of the standards required.

However, you acknowledge that some of the most able pupils in lower key stage 2 do not yet progress quite as strongly. Some instability in staffing has been a contributing factor in this, but you are addressing the issue. You recognise the need to continue with your strategies to improve progress for these pupils.

You have an accurate overview of standards in the school and you know the areas for development. You devise purposeful plans for school improvement, with appropriate actions and resources included. However, you accept that a greater precision in the criteria by which you measure the effectiveness of your actions, with a firm focus on pupils' achievement wherever possible, will enable you to target those actions to greater effect.

The vast majority of pupils show positive attitudes to their learning. Our joint visits to classrooms revealed lessons that, in most cases, contained well-planned and interesting activities and teachers with appropriate expectations of work and conduct. Staff who spoke with me or responded to the online survey were overwhelmingly positive about the school.

They appreciate the variety of training you provide, such as phonics 'master classes' and regular training from subject leaders, and say it improves their performance. Only a few parents responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey. Those who did were unanimously positive about the school and no parent or carer communicated any concerns to me at any time during the inspection.

The local authority has a secure understanding of the school's priorities and provides effective support. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and your electronic records are detailed and of high quality.

The designated safeguarding lead makes prompt referrals to appropriate agencies, such as children's services, when required. The school's record of required checks on members of staff contains all the necessary information and complies with government guidance. There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school.

Your staff have a strong understanding of safeguarding processes because they have undertaken thorough training. They know their pupils very well and are alert to changes in their attitudes. They make sure they record any behaviour they feel is unusual.

Pupils feel safe in school because adults teach them about issues such as staying safe on the internet. You have reduced rates of absence and persistent absence compared to figures for 2017. You have introduced a range of strategies to achieve this improvement.

These include providing pupils with rewards for high attendance and working more closely with the local authority's attendance team to communicate with parents of more reluctant attenders. You accept, however, that the rate of absence is still above the national average and that you need to persevere with your strategies to reduce absence further. Inspection findings ? At the start of the day, we agreed a number of key lines of enquiry, on which I based the inspection.

I have already written about how effectively you have addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. I have also reported on the effectiveness of safeguarding and the extent to which you have reduced rates of pupils' absence. ? Another key line of enquiry concerned the progress of current pupils who are disadvantaged.

Evidence from pupils' work and from the school's own assessment information demonstrates that, across most year groups, current pupils make progress that is improving towards that of other pupils nationally. You provide a broad range of activities to help pupils make strong progress. These include deploying extra support staff to work with pupils and sessions to improve their speech and language skills.

Progress is particularly strong in Year 2 and Year 6. For example, in mathematics in Year 2, pupils tackle exercises that stretch their reasoning skills, as they work out different combinations of three numbers to add to a given total. In writing in Year 6, lower-ability pupils make strong progress towards including more sophisticated structures, such as: 'Not long ago, word had been spread all over the village.'

However, you recognise that progress is less strong for some disadvantaged pupils in lower key stage 2. ? My next focus was on the effectiveness of the teaching of phonics in Year 1. There is clear evidence that current pupils make strong progress, showing that teaching is effective.

In writing, for example, pupils' books showed that the majority use their knowledge of phonics to support their writing with increasing skill. For example, pupils progress from writing short sentences, such as 'florence (Florence) wos (was) a nrs (nurse),' to more complex sentences with better spelling, like 'I could see a tortoise flapping his flippers.' The school's own assessment information indicates that pupils currently in Year 1 are making better progress than last year, with about two thirds already assessed to have reached the most recent national threshold score.

• The subject leader for phonics strongly contributes to securing effective teaching in this area. You give her leadership time to support the teaching of phonics in Year 1 every day by, for example, jointly teaching with staff or observing their work. She then provides extra training sessions for staff each week, known as 'master classes'.

She bases the content of this training on areas for development she has observed during the week. ? My next key line of enquiry was about the progress that children make in the early years. A combination of children's work and assessment information shows that children make strong progress from starting points that are below those typical for their age and stage of development.

For example, they make rapid progress from writing barely decipherable letters to constructing sentences with recognisable words, such as 'Jack went up the beenstorck (beanstalk).' The early years leader ensures that the environment contributes effectively to children's learning and she supports staff well with weekly coaching sessions to develop their teaching skills. Staff mainly provide suitably challenging tasks for the most able children.

However, you acknowledge that teachers occasionally miss opportunities to encourage children to think more deeply by, for instance, enabling then to explore numbers and solve problems for themselves when they are working in a less formal way. ? Finally, leaders understand their statutory responsibilities well. The school website is now compliant with government requirements.

Governors know the school well, provide effective support and challenge you and your senior leaders. They have a secure overview of safeguarding in the school and are well trained. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they strengthen progress in English and in mathematics for the most able pupils and for those who are disadvantaged in lower key stage 2 ? they continue their work to reduce pupils' rates of absence and persistent absence ? they maximise opportunities for the most able children in the early years to deepen their learning ? they devise more precise criteria by which to measure the effectiveness of actions in their plans for improvement, which focus firmly on pupils' achievement.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Manchester. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Mark Quinn Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection With you, I carried out short visits to the early years and all year groups in key stage 1 and key stage 2.

I scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school's self-evaluation summary, action plans for school improvement, minutes of meetings of the governing body and records connected with the safeguarding of children. I held discussions with you, other members of staff, governors and pupils. I had a discussion with the school improvement adviser working on behalf of the local authority.

I analysed pupils' work and the school's own assessment information. I evaluated 4 responses received through Parent View, Ofsted's online survey. I also evaluated 44 responses to the staff survey and 73 responses to the pupil survey.