Outwood Primary Academy Greenhill

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have not put the necessary arrangements in place to safeguard pupils. Pupils, generally, say that they feel safe, but leaders have not planned a curriculum to ensure pupils are aware of the risks they may face and how to manage them.

Leaders have not clearly set out what they want pupils to learn in many subjects.

Teachers do not know how the curriculum builds on what pupils have learned in the past. This leads to gaps in pupils' understanding. Pupils do not remember important knowledge.

Teachers give pupils extra work and extra sessions to try and fill these gaps. Pupils have a shallow understanding in many subjects when they leave Year 6.

L...eaders' plans for what children will learn in the early years are not effective.

Staff select activities that they think will be fun, without thinking how these will develop children's skills and knowledge. Too much of what children do in the early years does not benefit them when they start Year 1.

Pupils conduct themselves well when moving through school.

They settle down to get on with their work quickly and sensibly. Pupils say that bullying is rare. When it does happen, leaders deal with it.

Pupils enjoy a wide range of trips and activities, such as going to the pantomime or talking to local authors. However, pupils do not know enough about life in modern Britain. Pupils told inspectors that they want to learn about the diversity in their community but are not taught about it.

For example, pupils are unclear about family structures that are different to their own.

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

Leaders have been too complacent. They have had the attitude of 'everything is fine here' in many aspects of the school's work.

This attitude has undermined the safeguarding arrangements in the school. It has also led to leaders' over-generous view of the quality of education. Leaders have relied on positive Year 6 test results in English and mathematics, without checking on what pupils know and can do more widely.

Pupils' understanding in many subjects is limited and often incorrect.

Leaders have not trained staff adequately on how to teach their subjects well. Leaders have relied on staff to give each other informal support and guidance.

Teachers plan work for pupils around broad themes without enough focus on subject knowledge. Often, this work has little bearing on what has been taught in the past, so pupils do not build on their prior learning.

Subject leaders often plan the curriculum with the sole purpose of exciting pupils, rather than thinking about the important knowledge that pupils need to learn.

Pupils remember some facts in each subject but do not build up a deep knowledge in it.For example, in history pupils are taught about the great fire of London. They carry out role plays and have discussions about it.

Pupils know the date that it happened but are not sure what impact the fire had on London or what changed as a result of it.

Leaders have not thought carefully enough about the early years curriculum. Leaders' ambitions for children to develop spoken language are not realised.

Leaders have not trained staff to encourage children to express their thoughts and feelings. Adults do not use questions or prompts sufficiently to help children learn new words. Children in the early years have little to say to each other or to write about.

Leaders have planned a suitably sequenced phonics curriculum. Teachers are clear on what sounds to teach and when. Teachers link these sounds to the letter formation that pupils are taught.

Pupils form letters accurately from a young age. However, leaders have not trained staff to teach phonics effectively. Some staff are not helping pupils as well as they could.

Leaders have matched the books that pupils read to the sounds that they are learning. However, they have not done the same for the tricky words, like 'some' and 'said', that pupils need to be able to read first time. Some staff try to get pupils to sound these words out, even though these words cannot be decoded in this way Pupils struggle to read books when this happens.

Pupils who need help are not getting effective support and are falling further behind.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) experience a variable quality of education. Often, teachers use their initiative and experience to give pupils with SEND suitable help.

However, this support is not consistent because leaders have not ensured that support plans for pupils with SEND are precise enough. Additional support sessions for pupils with SEND can, sometimes, limit their experience of the wider curriculum.

Staff appreciate some of the recent initiatives to reduce their workload, like the verbal feedback policy.

This has reduced the time that they spend on marking. However, staff know that they need more professional development. Some staff feel that they are asked to do tasks that they are not quite sure how to complete successfully.

Pupils show respect for one another and their teachers. They develop interests in culture, including, drama and literature. However, there are inconsistencies in the curriculum for pupils' wider personal development.

Leaders have not considered this aspect of the curriculum with enough care. The new relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum is vague. Pupils' knowledge of life in modern Britain is limited.

Governors have made attempts to check on the quality of education. They ask questions of leaders and visit the school to talk to subject leaders about the curriculum. However, senior leaders in school do not give them accurate or thorough evaluations.

For example, leaders report that 'behaviour is excellent' but do not inform governors about how many incidents of bullying or racist language there have been. Governors do not have an accurate picture of the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

Leaders do not have a single central record in the school. This is the record that all schools must keep by law that shows that leaders have checked that all the adults in the school are suitable to work with children. There is no record that leaders carried out these checks when staff were appointed.

Inspectors ensured that all statutory checks were carried out during the inspection.

Leaders do not keep comprehensive records for pupils who are vulnerable to harm. There is a relaxed attitude to record keeping.

Leaders assume that they don't need to keep thorough records as they know the community well.

Leaders have not trained staff to identify signs that suggest pupils that may be at risk of harm. Staff have not heard of important recent updates to the statutory guidance document 'Keeping Children Safe in Education'.

Staff do not know how to protect pupils from extremism or radicalisation. They do not know what peer-on-peer abuse is. They are not aware of what to look out for in the event that a pupil is showing or suffering from harmful behaviour.

All of this adds to a culture of complacency in the school.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Suitable checks and records of checks have not been maintained for adults who work with children. Staff who are responsible for undertaking this work do not have an up-to-date knowledge of what is required because they have not had suitable training.

Leaders should urgently create a single central record that is fit for purpose. Leaders should ensure staff have the training they need to undertake relevant checks and keep appropriate records. Governors should check that this record is being kept and updated in line with the statutory guidance 'Keeping Children Safe in Education'.

• Leaders have not trained staff in critical aspects of safeguarding. Staff do not know what to look out for if pupils are being radicalised or if they might be the victim of harmful sexual behaviour. Staff are not alert to the risks to pupils in the local community or the signs that they need to be vigilant of.

Leaders and governors should assure themselves that all staff know how to identify, respond to and record any safeguarding concerns. ? The curriculum in the early years does not identify the knowledge that leaders expect children to learn. Staff in the early years do not have high enough expectations of what children can achieve across all areas of learning.

Children experience a narrow curriculum and are not well prepared for Year 1. Leaders should design an early years curriculum that is progressive over time and links coherently with what children need to know when they enter Year 1. ? Leaders have not designed a curriculum that enables pupils to build knowledge sequentially.

Too often, pupils learn superficial facts rather than important concepts. Staff do not know where what they are teaching fits in with what has been taught before and what is coming next. Leaders need to clearly define the important knowledge that should be taught in each subject.

Leaders should train staff to ensure that what they teach builds on what pupils have learned before. ? Leaders have not matched the books that pupils read carefully enough to the common exception words that pupils know. Pupils often struggle to read books because they have not been taught or are not confident in reading these words.

Pupils at the early stages of reading are being held back by this. Leaders should ensure that the phonics curriculum matches the books that pupils read. Leaders should ensure staff know how to teach pupils to read common exception words.