Hollingwood Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Hollingwood Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 6 March 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 March 2014. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Since you joined the school as the headteacher in September 2015, you have fostered positive relationships with parents and carers, who spoke highly of your leadership of the school. You have established an effective leadership team through... relevant professional development. Other staff have also benefited from training.

Staff are enthusiastic and highly committed. They go the extra mile to ensure that pupils are happy and achieving well. The school's plans for improvement identify effectively the areas for further development.

Pupils are highly motivated learners. They know what they need to do to improve their work because teachers take time to talk with them about their learning. Classrooms are stimulating and highly engaging places to learn.

Teachers provide displays which support pupils' learning effectively. In classrooms and around the school, pupils' work is celebrated and presented to a high standard. Pupils spoke highly of the staff.

One pupil said, 'the best thing about our school is that it is a bright and a kind place to be, where everyone gets along'. Parents and carers spoke highly of your leadership and the care shown by staff. One parent said that her children were always keen to go to school.

Parents are pleased with the range of opportunities on offer at the school. In particular, they enjoy the range of community events. The 'Mother's Day Morning' was well attended and an opportunity for parents to share in their children's learning.

The governing body provides effective support to the school. Governors are enthusiastic and highly motivated to ensure that the school continues to improve. They are well trained and receive professional development in their role.

They make regular visits to the school to check progress in tackling its priorities. They have a thorough understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The governing body has a detailed action plan in place that links well to the school's development plan.

Since the last inspection, you have ensured that staff have higher expectations of what pupils can achieve in lessons and over time. You and the staff team have introduced 'choice and challenge', where pupils have opportunities to challenge themselves in English and mathematics lessons. Pupils told me that they enjoy making these challenges.

Staff have worked effectively on developing the school's culture of learning, ensuring that pupils have a 'can do' attitude. One pupil said, 'Never say you can't do it but instead say you can't do it yet!' Such an attitude encourages pupils to have a positive outlook on learning. You carefully track pupils' achievement through regular discussions with teachers.

When pupils need to catch up, you provide additional support swiftly. You have introduced a new phonics programme to develop pupils' skills and improve their writing. You have provided comprehensive training and the English leader checks provision closely.

The programme, however, is not being taught consistently and accurately enough. In 2017, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the phonics screening check in Year 1 was below the national average. You have sought further support from a senior leader in education to help staff to improve pupils' phonics skills.

Assessment information shows that the majority of pupils are now making good progress. Where pupils require further support, you have ensured that staff are in place to meet their needs. Since the last inspection, you have ensured that subject leaders check pupils' learning regularly and contribute to improving the quality of teaching.

For example, subject leaders conduct learning walks to check on pupils' learning during class teaching. Leaders look at pupils' learning in their workbooks and also check assessment information closely. Subject leaders, however, are not yet skilled enough to use the full range of evidence available to them to assess the quality of teaching accurately.

During our tour of the school, we noted from their books that some pupils in key stage 1 were tackling tasks that did not challenge them sufficiently. Teachers had not designed tasks that ensured that the most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, made the progress of which they are capable in writing and mathematics. Safeguarding is effective.

You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You are diligent and tenacious in your approach to safeguarding. You are well supported by the children and family support worker, who meets with vulnerable pupils and their families regularly.

You support each other well to manage complex cases. You use your breadth of knowledge well to engage a range of external support services to meet pupils' needs. You are insistent that pupils receive the right care and support.

The school's systems and procedures are robust. There is a positive culture of safeguarding, where all staff know their roles and responsibilities. Staff and governors are well trained.

Your records show that you respond to any concerns swiftly and record outcomes carefully. Pupils feel safe and receive regular reminders about keeping safe online. They know how the school keeps them safe.

They enjoy visits from, for example, the police and fire service, that support the work of the school. Themed weeks help pupils to learn about road safety and anti-bullying. Pupils value the role of the 'friendship fixer' should they feel lonely or face friendship issues.

Inspection findings ? You have recently introduced a new programme to support more consistent teaching of phonics throughout key stages 1 and 2. This is already showing positive results, with a large majority of pupils making swift progress. Our joint visits to phonics lessons showed adults using a range of resources to help pupils learn their sounds proficiently.

Where phonics is delivered effectively, pupils say their sounds accurately. Some staff, however, do not deliver the programme with sufficient fluency and accuracy. ? During the inspection, we looked at progress made by disadvantaged pupils in reading, writing and mathematics in key stage 1.

We looked in pupils' workbooks and found that the most able disadvantaged pupils did not have tasks that challenged them sufficiently. As a result, these pupils are not making the progress of which they are capable. ? Assessment results at the end of key stage 2 in 2017 for disadvantaged pupils were positive, showing significant progress in mathematics compared with that in English.

Pupils, and particularly disadvantaged pupils, are well supported in their learning. We noted from their books that they have a range of opportunities to practise their writing skills. Teachers use the curriculum well to engage pupils in exciting writing opportunities.

For example, pupils in Years 3 and 4 were writing about the story of Romulus and Remus. Books also showed that disadvantaged pupils are making good progress. When pupils require further help to catch up, adults provide extra support.

Leaders keep a close watch on the achievement of pupils in these additional groups. ? Over time you have developed staff confidence, knowledge and skills through regular coaching. As a skilful leader, you know that such opportunities will need adapting to ensure that the team's expertise continues to grow.

Teachers have enjoyed sharing their expertise, ideas and knowledge with each other. ? Discussions with subject leaders highlighted the need to develop their skills in using the information they gain from their monitoring activities effectively. At present, leaders do not have a comprehensive view of the progress of different groups of pupils.

You are further developing the school's assessment system to ensure that it provides teachers and leaders with relevant information about pupils' progress. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? adults develop further their knowledge and skills in teaching phonics, so that pupils learn to use and apply their phonics skills accurately ? teachers consistently adapt learning tasks so that the most able pupils, particularly those who are disadvantaged, make faster progress in writing and mathematics in key stage 1 ? subject leaders develop their skills further in leading and checking improvements in their subjects. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Derbyshire.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Emma Nuttall Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you and with two governors, including the chair of the governing body. I spoke with parents before school and with a group of pupils about their school experience.

Jointly with you, I visited all classes and we sampled pupils' books. In addition, I checked the school's safeguarding arrangements and records, including the school's record of recruitment checks on staff. I evaluated the school's documentation about pupils' achievement, planning for improvement and attendance.

I met with the subject leaders for English. I took account of the 92 responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey, and the 72 responses from parents to Ofsted's free-text service. There were 11 responses to Ofsted's online survey for staff and 94 responses from pupils for me to consider.