Old Hall Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Old Hall Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to be part of Old Hall Primary School. They benefit from positive and caring relationships with staff. Pupils feel that their school is a happy and safe place to be.

They know that there is someone who they can talk to if they have a concern or a worry.

Pupils rise to the high expectations that the school has for their academic achievement. They are engaged and interested in their learning.

They achieve well.

Typically, pupils behave well. When they do not behave as they should, staff act calmly and confidently to help them to regulate their own ...behaviour.

Pupils learn how to look after their own mental health. Staff encourage them to treat each other with kindness and to celebrate one another's achievements, for example through rewards such as the class award statue that pupils proudly display on their desks each week if they win.

Pupils make the most of opportunities to develop their social and moral skills beyond the curriculum.

For example, they recently joined parents, carers and staff to complete a charity running challenge. They were proud to have raised funds for a local community centre that gives families access to important services.

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

The school is ambitious for all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Over time, it has ensured that the curriculum remains broad, balanced and enriched so that it meets pupils' needs and interests and prepares them well for their next steps in education.

The school has recently provided teachers with helpful training for individual subjects and with support to enhance their curriculum thinking. This is allowing the school to review and refine the content and order of subject curriculums further.

As a result, in many subjects, the important knowledge that pupils should acquire and remember is clearly set out in a logical way. Pupils build securely on what they already know and make links between subjects. However, in a minority of subjects, the school has not fully completed this work.

Teachers are sometimes unclear about the precise content that pupils should learn. This prevents pupils from developing a deep understanding of subject-specific concepts and, as a result, they do not achieve as well as they could.

Teachers deliver the curriculum well.

They give clear explanations and are skilled at identifying and addressing misconceptions that pupils may have during lessons. The school has recently introduced more rigorous checks on pupils' learning over time. In some subjects, teachers use the information they gather from these checks well to shape future learning.

However, in other subjects they do not use assessment information effectively to address gaps in pupils' knowledge. In these subjects, pupils do not build well enough on prior learning.

The school successfully uses a phonics programme to help pupils to learn to read.

It has recently invested in further training and resources to expand staff expertise across the school. This is helping to ensure that staff teach the programme with confidence and consistency. Pupils read books that match the sounds that they learn each week.

Staff swiftly give them extra support if they need it. As a result, most pupils learn to read fluently.

The school is adept at identifying and supporting pupils' additional needs.

It works well with external agencies to secure effective help for pupils with SEND. It provides staff with useful information about pupils' needs so that teachers can adapt the implementation of the curriculum when needed. This helps to give pupils with SEND access to the same ambitious curriculum as their peers and helps them achieve well.

The school environment is calm and purposeful. In lessons, pupils generally learn without distraction from others. The school has clear strategies in place to deal effectively with any incidents of misbehaviour.

Pupils relish the many opportunities that the school provides for them to develop themselves beyond the academic curriculum. For example, they develop their confidence by taking on leadership responsibilities in their roles as sports ambassadors, eco- representatives and playground buddies. They enjoy a wide range of extra-curricular activities, such as indoor athletics, gardening and dance.

During a recent period of transition and change, the school, supported by the governing body, has increased its level of engagement and collaboration with staff. Staff feel that this has had a positive impact on their workload and well-being. The school supports them well in fulfilling their roles and developing themselves professionally.

It engages parents well, for example in its charity work with the local community and in its guidance for parents on helping their children to read.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the school is still refining and developing the curriculum.

Teachers are not clear about the precise knowledge that pupils need to learn and the order in which they should learn it. Consequently, some pupils do not develop sufficient depth of subject-specific knowledge and understanding. The school should ensure that it completes its curriculum review.

It should provide further subject-specific support and training for teachers so that they are clear about the essential knowledge that pupils must have and remember in all curriculum areas. ? In some subjects, the use of teachers' checks on pupils' learning is underdeveloped. The school does not identify and address misconceptions and gaps in pupils' knowledge as well as it could.

This hinders the learning of some pupils. The school should ensure that teachers consistently use checks on pupils' knowledge and understanding to adapt future teaching so that pupils can build securely on their prior learning and achieve well.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in October 2014.

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