Kingswood Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Kingswood Primary Academy

Following my visit to the school on 20 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 February 2015.

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 appointment as principal in September 2017, you have led the school with clarity, determination and care.

There have been a number of staff changes since summer 2017. You have recruited carefully to add to the subject exper...tise within the school. Together with the deputy principal, you have led by example and quickly united this new team.

Greenwood Academies Trust (GAT) sets rigorous procedures to work within. You work in close partnership with the GAT senior education adviser. Effective two-way communication means school leaders and the trust have an accurate picture of the school.

This is used well to implement timely actions for improvement. The trust provides effective training and numerous opportunities for moderation and sharing of good practice with other schools. There is a joint endeavour to achieve the best possible outcomes for pupils.

You ensure that all leaders in the school are clear on their roles and responsibilities. Effective guidance is ensuring that all leaders, including those who are recently appointed, contribute well to the capacity to move the school forward. At the time of the previous inspection, leaders were asked to improve teaching, especially of mathematics.

You have provided staff with effective resources and training that ensure that teachers plan consistently for age-related expectations. In line with the school's policy, staff use practical materials well to improve pupils' understanding. Also, teachers now regularly plan opportunities for pupils to apply their learning to a wider range of problems.

However, not all teachers are equally skilled at adapting teaching to move pupils' learning rapidly forward. Leaders were also asked to improve the presentation of pupils' work. Evidence in pupils' books shows that you make sure teachers have consistently high expectations.

Pupils show pride in sharing and improving their work. In Nursery and Reception, revised strategies to develop children's fine motor skills are ensuring that they make a confident start to handwriting skills. Pupils enter the school with skills that are well below those typically expected.

In 2017, the school successfully accelerated progress for many pupils and by the end of key stage 2 they had attainment above national averages in English and mathematics. Although attainment dipped in 2018 the school continues to secure progress within national averages. It is a high priority on the school's development plan to secure more rapid progress to ensure that more pupils consistently attain at least in line with national expectations.

Pupils' good behaviour and attitudes have been maintained and indeed built upon. Pupils are proud of their school. They feel safe and well supported by all adults because you have ensured that everyone understands your high expectations.

Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations including road safety and using the internet. Pupils relish taking on responsibilities around the school such as being pupil councillors, play buddies, IT assistants and house captains. Leaders' chosen approach to the curriculum is based on a thorough understanding of the needs of the school's community.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is given a high priority to encourage pupils to be independent and productive citizens. This includes raising pupils' aspirations and giving them insights into the world of work. The school provides pupils with a wide range of experiences.

For example, pupils told me about exciting challenges on a recent residential trip. They also told me that talking to authors has enthused them to write. Parents I spoke to, and the vast majority of parents who responded to a recent school questionnaire, agreed that their children are happy, safe and taught well.

They value the approachability of staff and care that ensures that children quickly settle when they join the school. Parents and carers appreciate the provision of the breakfast club. Pupils enjoy time with their friends and a calm start to the day.

You ensure that pupils and parents are reminded of the importance of attendance. High attendance is celebrated and rewarded. The attendance officer rigorously follows up absences as well as providing families with support when needed.

As a consequence, you consistently sustain rates of attendance in line with national averages and persistent absence below national averages. Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

You and your staff keep this important aspect of the school's work continually at the forefront. There is a tangible sense of care and an unwavering commitment to ensuring that all pupils feel valued. GAT provides an effective framework that underpins leaders' responsibilities.

Close partnership has secured a high level of compliance which is kept under rigorous and regular review. You make sure that appropriate vetting checks take place before an adult starts working at the school and that staff receive up-to-date training in keeping children safe. Staff are clear about how to report a concern about a child's welfare, should one arise.

The school provides tailored support to a number of families. The inclusion team effectively builds trust with families with whom they work. Your detailed record-keeping supports effective work with external agencies.

You and your team are tenacious in following up requests for support to ensure that pupils and their families get the help they need. Inspection findings ? You ensure that improving teaching is continually everyone's top priority. Leaders have established professional trust with teachers so that frequent monitoring and feedback are welcomed and quickly acted upon.

All staff have a good understanding of clear policies and expectations. This has ensured a high level of consistency across classes. There are consistent class routines, classrooms are bright and welcoming, and displays are used as useful prompts to pupils' learning.

Teachers establish good relationships with pupils which promote pupils' enthusiasm and confidence to tackle learning challenges. ? Leaders take effective action where teaching falls short of the school's high standards. Through effective trust provision, you quickly put training and support in place.

You know where there is strong practice and use this well to support others. Therefore, despite staff changes, good teaching has been sustained over time. ? With a relatively new team in place, leaders have had a clear focus on securing consistent planning for progress across the school for English and mathematics.

Leaders regularly meet with teachers to check pupils' learning. This is ensuring that you know which pupils need to make more progress. However, teachers are not consistently as skilled at using this information to make precise adjustments to secure more rapid progress.

• Since the experienced special educational needs coordinator joined the school, at the beginning of 2018, there have been significant improvements to promote earlier accurate identification of pupils' needs. She is now working with teachers across the school to make sure this information is used consistently well so that gaps in pupils' learning are reduced quickly. ? Leaders have identified that pupils need a wider range of vocabulary to deepen understanding and attain higher standards.

Leaders have adopted a 'novel-based' approach, to introduce pupils to a wide range of quality texts. This is having a positive impact on the word choices within pupils' writing. Also, teachers consistently check and develop pupils' understanding of words as they read.

For example, pupils in Year 4 were reading about how sound travels and using the dictionary to check the definition of 'molecule'. ? Leaders are ensuring that pupils are enthused by interesting topics. Pupils told me they have enjoyed studying topics such as the Neolithic period and life cycles.

The trust is working with its schools to more carefully map out knowledge and concepts for other subjects such as science, geography and history. These aspects are not as well thought through as English and mathematics. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the improved identification of pupils' learning needs is used consistently well by all teachers to move learning rapidly forward ? the knowledge and concepts that you want pupils to learn in other areas of the curriculum are mapped out as clearly as for English and mathematics to further accelerate the progress pupils make.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Northamptonshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Mandy Wilding Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you and the deputy principal and shared my lines of enquiry.

I also met staff with leadership responsibilities for English, mathematics, early years, and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. I met with the school's inclusion team. I met with representatives of GAT.

I spoke with pupils informally in class and held a more formal meeting with pupils from Years 5 and 6. We jointly visited all classes to observe pupils learning, speak with them, and look at their books. We examined a range of pupils' books from across the school.

I reviewed a range of documentation, including leaders' evaluation of the school's current performance, academy reports, internal information about pupils' progress, and school policies, including those for safeguarding. I examined the school's website and checked on the publication of specified information. I spoke to parents at the beginning of the school day.

There were only four replies to the online questionnaire, Parent View, so these were not available to consider. However, I also considered the responses of 104 parents to the school's own survey of parental views undertaken in October 2018. There were six responses to Ofsted's online staff survey and 22 responses to Ofsted's online pupils' survey.

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