Southroyd Primary and Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Southroyd Primary and Nursery School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils leave the school with the skills and knowledge they need to help them succeed.

Parents and carers, staff, governors and pupils are proud of their school. Leaders have been successful in creating a strong community spirit.

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the work of the school.

In particular, they value the strong community ethos. Parents like attending the range of community events. These include the world book trail, crumble-making, fairs and treasure hunts.

Close links with the children's centre help pupils in making a good start t...o their education.

Teachers work hard to make learning exciting and fun. Lessons are interesting.

Pupils show a real love of learning. They work hard to meet the high expectations of their teachers. Pupils respond well to the demands of the curriculum.

They relish learning new vocabulary.

Pupils take part in a variety of after-school clubs. Leaders' strong focus on physical education ensures that all pupils learn to swim.

The strong partnership with a school in India provides pupils with opportunities to learn about other cultures.Pupils say bullying does not happen at Southroyd. Pupils are kind to each other and supportive.

If any pupil is unkind, adults sort things out quickly. Pupils behave well.

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

Leaders and governors put the welfare of pupils at the centre of everything they do.

They make changes to incorporate the wishes of pupils. Pupils are happy, confident and enthusiastic learners. They know that adults listen to their ideas.

Staff are positive about working at the school. They praise pupils for their conduct and enthusiasm. Teachers appreciate the recent reduction in their workload.

Leaders listen to what staff have to say and make changes to support them.For example, staff meetings now finish on time.Strong systems ensure that pupils attend school regularly.

Leaders continue to support pupils with low attendance rates. A high proportion of these pupils are disadvantaged. Attendance is a concern for some pupils who are finding it difficult to catch up with their learning.

Parental engagement in early years is strong. Parents value the way in which adults support their children when they start Nursery. They feel confident to leave their children, knowing they are safe and happy.

One parent said, 'Staff in the Nursery made the transition really easy. They were brilliant in making sure my child felt at ease and settled at every drop-off.'

The early years classrooms are safe and welcoming.

Children are happy and well cared for. Children become familiar with a range stories and rhymes. Adults model language well.

Reading areas invite children to come and look at books. Provision for two-year-olds is appropriate. Adults work alongside children to develop their language skills.

Children respond well and show high levels of concentration.

In the Reception class, children enjoy learning about phonics. They are beginning to practise their reading skills.

Teachers follow the phonics planning. However, the plan does not allow children to learn enough sounds each week. This is slowing down their learning.

Some pupils leave the Reception class without a secure grasp of early phonics skills. This leaves the Year 1 teachers with too much catch-up work to do.

Leaders prioritise reading across school.

Pupils display positive attitudes to books. Parents take part in reading events across school. Books match pupils' reading ability.

Pupils can choose from a range of high-quality fiction. Pupils talk about the wide range of books they have read.

The curriculum is well planned.

Curriculum leadership is well developed. Leaders have spent time reviewing and checking that all subjects are covered in full. The curriculum equips pupils with the knowledge and skills they need.

Leaders talk to pupils to find out what they remember. Pupils can remember lots of information about various topics. They enjoy sharing their knowledge with others.

Teachers refer to previous learning during lessons. They remind pupils about what they have already learned. In science, pupils like learning scientific vocabulary.

They use it in their writing and discussions. For example, younger key stage 2 pupils talked about how muscles contract and relax. Older pupils played games using electrical symbols to help them remember them.

Pupils love learning about mathematics. They enjoy the challenge of two- and three-step problems. Teachers find ways to help pupils remember key facts.

Pupils display positive attitudes to learning. They enjoy their lessons. Teachers make mathematics fun.

Pupils speak about how they like to challenge themselves. Teachers regularly re-visit work to keep skills fresh. Work is rarely too easy or too difficult.

This motivates pupils to work hard.Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported. Leaders have ensured that the staff team consists of a range of specialists.

For example, support for pupils with autism spectrum disorder is effective. Pupils receive specialist support for behaviour and to help their understanding. The speech and language therapist ensures that staff receive regular training.

Pupils make good progress across the curriculum. Teachers implement the curriculum well to meet pupils' needs.

Parents praise the work of the school.

Relationships are well established, and parents feel involved in their children's education.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Governors ensure that the school fulfils its safeguarding responsibilities.

They ensure that correct procedures are followed for recruitment and selection. All staff are checked to make sure they are suitable to work with children before they begin working at the school.

Leaders ensure that pupils receive appropriate support for their welfare.

Leaders work closely with a range of professionals to keep pupils safe. Leaders regularly review the information they collect to check that pupils are safe. They record and follow up any incidents of poor behaviour.

The learning mentor works throughout the school holidays. She visits families to make sure that support is consistently provided, even when the school is closed.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

While the school's phonics results are close to the national average, too few children are leaving early years with the phonics knowledge they need in order to become fluent readers in Year 1.

This is resulting in Year 1 teachers spending time re-visiting sounds that pupils should already have learned. This is slowing down pupils' curriculum progression in reading. Leaders need to review their phonics programme in early years so that a higher proportion of pupils enter key stage 1 with a secure foundation to support their progress in reading.

. Although the school is working hard to improve attendance, a significant number of pupils are persistently absent. The majority of these pupils are disadvantaged.

Poor attendance is having a negative effect on the attainment of some pupils. Leaders need to continue to work with all families to secure regular attendance.

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 a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in July 2015.