Brierley Forest Primary and Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils' behaviour is often poor.

Incidents of disruption and aggression are too common. The behaviour of some pupils during lessons is disrupting learning. Pupils are potentially unsafe.

Adults are sometimes left to deal with pupils' challenging behaviour without support from senior leaders. Some pupils and staff do not feel safe in school. Leaders do not link pupils' misbehaviour with safeguarding records or incidents.

Therefore, they are not identifying or addressing well enough incidents of pupils' poor behaviour.

Staff do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve. Different subjects are not planned well enough.

Pupils,... including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are not progressing as well as they should. Pupils' learning is often disjointed within individual subjects and across the curriculum. This is limiting the amount of knowledge pupils acquire by the time they leave the school.

Some pupils are being prepared well for aspects of life in modern Britain. They know how to be tolerant, active and eat healthily. Pupils learn about different faiths and cultures.

There are some opportunities for pupils to develop their talents and interests.

Adults have created a well-resourced environment in the early years, which helps children to be engaged in their learning. Children are encouraged to develop their independence during their learning activities.

Relationships between adults and children are positive. Children are well cared for in the early years.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Subject leaders have recently introduced new curriculum plans; however, these do not detail exactly what pupils need to know.

Staff training in how to implement the curriculum has been ineffective. Staff do not help pupils to build their knowledge within curriculum subjects well enough. Pupils cannot apply what they do know in a meaningful way across different subjects.

Pupils are not progressing through the curriculum as well as they should.

Senior leaders have not checked that the planned curriculum is being delivered as intended. They have not ensured lessons are taught in a logical order.

Adults do not always present information clearly to pupils, which means that they can become confused. This means that sometimes pupils learn a series of disconnected facts. In some subjects, such as art, leaders do not ensure that pupils study the whole art curriculum because insufficient time is allocated to the subject.

Leaders have not put in place a clear approach to assessing what pupils know across all curriculum areas. It is unclear how teachers know what pupils, including disad-vantaged pupils and those pupils with SEND, have learned and what they need to learn next. Some adults make checks on how well pupils are doing and help those who have not grasped what has been taught.

However, this is inconsistent between lessons and classes. This means that in some subjects, such as mathematics, areas of learning need to be repeated frequently. This is limiting the amount of knowledge that pupils amass during their time at the school.

Pupils do not remember key knowledge well enough.

Leaders are introducing a new phonics and early reading programme. The current system is ineffective because staff have not been trained well enough.

This means that pupils are unable to build their knowledge of sounds in a systematic way. Pu-pils' reading books do not match the sounds that they are learning. The support in reading for those pupils who need it the most is poor.

This means that they are fall-ing behind the standards expected for their age.

Leaders provide some opportunities for pupils to be active citizens in their commu-nity. Pupils are involved in community projects.

Pupils have opportunities to learn about and experience views and beliefs that may be different to their own. They have an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships. Outside agencies are used effectively to support some pupils with their emotional and well-being needs.

Some pupils, particularly those who are disadvantaged, have poor rates of attend-ance. Leaders' actions to address this issue are not successful. Too many pupils are persistently absent, resulting in them having gaps in their knowledge.

Adults in the early years make regular checks to ensure that the children are well cared for and are safe. Staff take time to understand children's needs. They provide appropriate support to children and their parents, where needed.

The early years leader is developing curriculum plans. These identify the knowledge and skills that the children need to learn and know. Communication and language activities are typically designed and used appropriately to improve children's spoken language and to develop a wider vocabulary.

However, adults are refining these further to help children who require support the most.

Leaders have tried to support staff with their workload and well-being. However, some staff said that sometimes requests from leaders results in additional work in a short space of time.

This is not helpful in reducing the workload of staff.

The school has received significant support from the local authority. The governing body has received some appropriate training.

However, the governing body is not drawing on what they have learned to hold leaders fully to account for their actions. For example, they do not challenge leaders about pupils' poor behaviour, low rates of attendance and the schools safeguarding procedures.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

Leaders have ensured staff receive regular safeguarding training. Staff are alert to spotting the signs of potential abuse and neglect. Nevertheless, staff are unclear about the procedures to follow should they be concerned about the behaviour of an adult.

Leaders have failed to understand the link between the poor behaviour of some pupils and the implications this has for pupils' safety. Leaders are unaware of some incidents of poor behaviour. Leaders do not examine records to look for trends or patterns to help them prevent incidents of further misbehaviour.

Leaders have not ensured that procedures are in place to check on the safety of pupils who are absent. These pupils are potentially at risk.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not ensured that the behaviour of all pupils is consistently good.

There are too many serious behavioural incidents. Some pupils and staff feel unsafe and learning is disrupted. Leaders should ensure that a consistent behaviour system is introduced, so that all pupils behave well and that learning is not impeded.

• The governing body has not ensured that their systems enable them to review and challenge leaders' actions. The governing body and leaders do not use all the information available to them about the school's safeguarding procedures to help them connect events or concerns. This limits their ability to identify, support and purposefully plan work to keep pupils safe.

Governors and leaders should ensure that they have sufficient oversight of all the information available to them about safeguarding. This will enable them to make rigorous checks on the effectiveness of their strategies to keep pupils safe. ? Leaders are not rigorous in checking pupils' attendance, particularly for the most disadvantaged.

These pupils are missing too much of the school's curriculum and this is leading to gaps emerging in their knowledge and skills. Leaders should identify the pupils at risk of developing poor patterns of attendance at an earlier stage. Leaders should work closely with parents to overcome barriers to pupils' poor attendance.

• The current approach for the teaching of phonics and early reading does not help pupils to learn to read well enough. Too many pupils are falling behind the standard expected for their age. Leaders should implement the new phonics programme with urgency.

Leaders should ensure that all staff receive training, so that they can deliver the teaching of phonics and early reading consistently well. Leaders should ensure that the teaching of early reading and phonics supports all pupils in becoming confident, accurate and fluent readers. Most curriculum leaders are new to their roles.

They have not yet received appropriate training. As a result, some curriculum leaders do not have sufficient knowledge of how to evaluate the quality of their curriculum subjects. Senior leaders should build curriculum leaders' knowledge and understanding of subject leadership and curriculum development.

They should support curriculum leaders in making checks, so that all pupils, including those with SEND, are provided with a well sequenced and suitably planned curriculum. ? Leaders have not ensured that all curriculum subject plans, including those in the early years, help teachers to know which knowledge and skills are the most important and need to be revisited regularly. Pupils, including those with SEND, do not remember these concepts nor have a deep enough understanding of them.

Leaders should identify clearly the most important knowledge and skills that they want all pupils to gain. ? Leaders have not put in place a system for teachers to accurately assess what pupils know and understand in all subjects. This has an impact on the ability of teachers to determine the next learning steps for pupils.

Leaders should design and implement a consistent approach to checking on what pupils have learned and can recall. This will ensure that pupils can learn more in each subject and across the curriculum, making them better prepared for the next stage of their education.

Leaders and those responsible for governance may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection.