Broadfield Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Broadfield Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 14 November 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 June 2014.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Together with the staff and governors, you have created an exciting and vibrant learning environment.

Pupils arrive at school promptly each morning where they are warmly greeted at the classroom doors by their teachers. Pupils who attend ...the school originate from over 18 different countries, and 20 different languages are spoken in their homes. You have embraced this and created a harmonious and safe multi-cultural learning environment where all pupils and their families feel welcomed and valued.

A prominent display in the entrance hall, in the form of a large, heart-shaped jigsaw, captures the uniqueness of the school well. It states that the many faiths and cultures in the school are all pieces of the same puzzle. Your evaluation of the school's effectiveness is sharp.

You have a precise view of the school's many strengths and areas for further development. You recognise that attendance must improve and that more pupils are capable of achieving the very highest standards in writing by the end of key stage 2. Pupils continue to do well at this school.

The proportion of children leaving Reception Year with a good level of development continues to improve each year. By the end of Year 1, pupils typically do better in the phonics screening check than other pupils nationally. By the end of Year 6, many pupils achieve the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

Pupils said that they are very happy at this school. Their behaviour around school and in lessons is exemplary. They said that pupils are kind to one another and bullying and name-calling does not happen.

The older pupils with whom I spoke talked about the many opportunities that they have to take on extra responsibilities. For example, pupils can put themselves forward to be elected onto the school council. They can choose to become a health champion or a librarian.

Pupils were very keen to share their views on the many cultures represented in the school. They said that they respect the different cultures in the school through their 'Broadfield values'. They spoke to me with confidence about differences and diversity.

For example, they told me about visits they have had in the past to different places of worship. They have a strong understanding of respect for different faiths and equality. Pupils enjoy the varied range of extra-curricular activities on offer.

These include boxing, dodgeball and gymnastics. Parents and carers with whom I spoke and those who responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online questionnaire, were very pleased with the school. They said that you and the staff were always approachable.

Parents told me that the behaviour of the pupils was positive and that they know their children are safe while in your care. Governors have a strong understanding of the school's strengths. They speak positively about the impact that the introduction of two-year-old children to early years has brought to overall outcomes in early years.

Governors are knowledgeable about safeguarding and have ensured that all procedures to safeguard children are secure. For example, they check the single central record regularly. Governors monitor the quality of the spending of the pupil premium funding, ensuring well that disadvantaged pupils continue to make good progress.

At the previous inspection, the inspectors asked school leaders to ensure that pupils made better progress in writing. Since then, the attainment of pupils leaving key stage 2 has continued to increase. You continue to work with several partner schools to monitor the quality of writing and check on the accuracy of teachers' assessments across the schools.

You have reorganised the systems in school for how you teach writing. For example, you now plan all topics with a stronger focus on reading. From looking at examples of writing in pupils' books, talking with pupils about their writing, and observing teaching, learning and assessment, I could see that writing has a high priority across the school.

From early years through to Year 6, pupils write widely and often across the curriculum. For example, in Year 1, pupils write about space rockets. This writing is taught alongside model making and designing to give it a focused purpose.

In Year 3, pupils are challenged in their writing to explore creation myths linked to the Navajo. As the pupils move through the school, they edit and improve their own writing further, with increasing levels of independence. By the time pupils are in Year 6, established writing routines are firmly in place.

From examining pupils' unvalidated performance information for 2018 and the school's own assessment information for all year groups, I could see that the proportion of pupils achieving the very highest standards in writing is lower than the proportion of pupils who attain the highest standards in reading and mathematics. At the previous inspection, the inspectors also asked leaders to make improvements to the school development plan and develop the roles of middle leaders. You have created a succinct school development plan that clearly sets out relevant priorities to make further improvements to the school.

The roles of middle leaders have continued to develop. Middle leaders have a very thorough understanding of standards in their subjects across the school. They regularly engage in learning walks and make checks on the quality of work in pupils' books.

During this inspection, I met with the science leader and the leader for personal, social, health and cultural (PSHC) education. They are proactive in raising the profile of their subjects further. For example, the leader for science has forged strong links with the regional science centre in Oldham.

Pupils receive specialist teaching and have access to resources normally found in high schools. Along with this, the leader for science has provided a series of training sessions for staff to further develop their skills to teach scientific enquiry. The leader for PSHC education has worked alongside parents to make sure that they have a better understanding of how pupils are taught about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues as part of their sex and relationships education.

This work forms an integral part of the current school development plan. Safeguarding is effective. As the designated leader for safeguarding, you have ensured that all procedures in school to safeguard children are strong and fit for purpose.

The school's single central record shows that all checks on the suitability of staff to work with children have been completed thoroughly. All staff have received safeguarding basic awareness training, as well as 'Prevent' duty training, to enable them to spot potential signs of radicalisation. Members of staff with whom I spoke were able to clearly articulate the systems for recording any concerns of the pupils.

Several members of the senior leadership team and governors have received specific training in safer recruitment. In recognition of the vast diversity of the school's catchment area, you have also received enhanced training to better help you identify honour-based violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. You work with a wide range of partner agencies to safeguard children.

These include children's social care, school healthcare and the domestic abuse adviser. You follow up all concerns rigorously, ensuring that pupils and their families receive timely and proportionate help. Inspection findings ? During this inspection, I focused on three lines of enquiry.

The first of these related to pupils' attendance, which has remained below the national average for several years. From exploring this in depth with you and the school attendance lead, I was able to establish that you have a proactive approach to increasing school attendance. You make first-response phone calls when pupils are absent.

You promote attendance in weekly assemblies and pupils have the opportunity to earn rewards for good attendance. From examining pupils' attendance information in relation to persistent absentees, I saw that you have identified a significant number of families who continue to take their children away from school for extended periods of time to return to their home countries to visit family. These extended holidays accounted for 75% of unauthorised absences in the previous academic year.

You and the attendance team engage tirelessly with these parents. You have gone as far as to extend holidays to accommodate a longer two-week break in May and June. You meet with parents on their return from holiday to hold a reintegration meeting where you explain what the impact has been on their children's learning.

You have forged closer links with the local high school to specifically target families where their children attend both schools. Information for the current year shows that the whole-school attendance figure is above the 2017/18 national average. However, despite your efforts, the whole-school attendance figure for the previous four years has been lower than the national average.

• The early years is an exciting and vibrant learning environment. You have been successful in overseeing a marked improvement, over four consecutive years, in the proportion of children who achieve a good level of development at the end of Reception Year. Since the previous inspection, you have extended the range of the early years to accommodate two-year-old children.

Your rationale for this has been to get children and their families into school from an earlier age, so that by the time they pass through Nursery they are ready to enter Reception Year as established learners. You have used this to engage well with parents to help them with speaking English as part of your 'raising early achievement in literacy' project. Children whom I observed in early years were very focused on their activities.

Children told me about the best way to care for their teeth, as part of their learning about the work of a dentist. Across early years, the children have many opportunities to develop their mathematical and writing skills. Adults provide timely and proportionate support to steer children towards learning activities.

Well-established learning routines are embedded across early years. ? The final area I looked at related to how well reading is promoted and taught across the school. Unvalidated outcomes for pupils leaving key stage 2 rose significantly in 2018 compared with previous years and I wanted to find out how this was achieved and whether this improvement was likely to be sustained.

You have made changes to the way in which reading is taught across the school. The older pupils are taught to read through the use of class novels. You have introduced weekly 'drop everything and read' sessions across the school.

Pupils have access to a wide range of high-quality texts in their classrooms and in the school library. In the summer term of 2018, you sought pupils' views to gauge how best to engage them to become better readers. Alongside this, you provided teachers with further training to enable them to teach inference with greater confidence.

In the classes we visited, pupils with whom I spoke read their work to me and discussed their reading habits. Pupils who read to me formally, read well. The older pupils discussed some of their favourite authors.

The books pupils were reading provided strong challenge to develop their reading further. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they continue to: ? develop pupils' writing so that a greater proportion achieve the very highest standards by the end of key stage 2 ? promote better attendance and reduce high rates of persistent absence. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Oldham.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely John Donald Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I held meetings with you, the deputy headteacher and the assistant headteacher. I met with the attendance leader and two members of the middle leadership team.

I met with four members of the governing board, including the chair of the governing board. I also met with a representative from the local authority. I spoke with parents before school.

I considered the 12 responses to Parent View and the three free-text responses. I evaluated the 41 responses to the staff survey. I scrutinised school documentation, including the school's self-evaluation, the school development plan and the school's single central safeguarding record.

Together we visited classes from each year group. I spoke with pupils informally in the classes I visited and during the lunchbreak. I heard a group of pupils read from each key stage.