INSPECTION REPORT Loscoe Church of England (Controlled) Primary School Heanor LEA area : Derbyshire Unique Reference Number : 112828 Headteacher : Mr R Passey Reporting inspector : Mr M Newell 10638 Dates of inspection : 1st – 4th November 1999 Under OFSTED contract number: 707182 Inspection carried out under Section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 © Crown Copyright 1999 This report may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that all extracts quoted are reproduced verbatim without adaptation and on condition that the source and date thereof are stated. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education (Schools) Act 1992 and the Education Act 1993, the school must provide a copy of this report and/or its summary free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL Type of school: Infant and Junior Type of control : Voluntary Controlled Age range of pupils: 4 – 11 years Gender of pupils: Mixed School address: Denby Lane Loscoe Heanor Derbyshire DE75 7RW Telephone number: 01773 713396 Fax number: N/A Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 3 Appropriate authority: Governing Body Name of Chair of Governors: Mr R Cuttell Date of previous inspection: March 1996 Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 4 INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities Mr M Newell English Attainment and Progress (Registered Inspector) Design and Technology Attitudes, Behaviour and Personal Development Information Technology Teaching Geography Leadership and Management Physical Education The Efficiency of the School Religious Education Mr B Harrington Equal Opportunities (Lay Inspector) Attendance Support, Guidance and Pupils’ Welfare Partnership with Parents and the Community Staffing, Accommodation and Learning Resources Ms S Russam Areas of Learning for Children Special Educational Needs Under Five The Curriculum and Mathematics Assessment Science Spiritual. Moral, Social, and Cultural Development History Art Music The inspection contractor was: Lynrose Marketing Ltd. Bungalow Farmhouse Six Mile Bottom Newmarket Suffolk Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 5 CB8 0TU 01638 570375 Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be raised with the inspection contractor. Complaints which are not satisfactorily resolved by the contractor should be raised with OFSTED by writing to: The Registrar The Office for Standards in Education Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 6 REPORT CONTENTS Paragraph MAIN FINDINGS What the school does well Where the school has weaknesses How the school has improved since the last inspection Standards in subjects Quality of teaching Other aspects of the school The parents' views of the school KEY ISSUES FOR ACTION INTRODUCTION Characteristics of the school 1 Key indicators PART A: ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL Educational standards achieved by pupils at the school Attainment and progress 4 Attitudes, behaviour and personal development 17 Attendance 24 Quality of education provided Teaching 26 The curriculum and assessment 35 Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 45 Support, guidance and pupils' welfare 51 Partnership with parents and the community 58 The management and efficiency of the school Leadership and management 64 Staffing, accommodation and learning resources 72 The efficiency of the school 76 PART B: CURRICULUM AREAS AND SUBJECTS Areas of learning for children under five 84 English, mathematics and science 99 Other subjects or courses 135 PART C: INSPECTION DATA Summary of inspection evidence 194 Data and indicators 195 Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 7 MAIN FINDINGS What the school does well _.Standards in religious education exceed the expectations of the local agreed syllabus by the time pupils leave school; _.The present quality of teaching at Key Stage 2 is good and is having a positive impact on raising standards; _.Pupils’ attitudes to work are good. They show good levels of concentration; _.Pupils are well behaved and work well in pairs and small groups; _.Attendance is very good and pupils clearly enjoy coming to school; _.The provision the school makes for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good overall; _.The school provides good levels of support and guidance for pupils. Where the school has weaknesses I.Presently some elements of mathematics and overall attainment in science and information technology are not at a high enough level; II.The provision for children under the age of five is not consistently planned around the key areas of learning and does not provide enough opportunities for structured play; III.There is insufficient monitoring and evaluating of teaching, learning and of test data, to allow the school to effectively set targets for improvement and help raise standards; IV.Not all governors are actively involved in setting the priorities of the school, monitoring progress towards them or in evaluating the cost effectiveness of major spending decisions. The strengths of the school outweigh its weaknesses. To raise standards further and improve the quality of provision, the areas identified as weaknesses will form the basis of the governors’ action plan, which will be sent to all parents or guardians of pupils at the school. How the school has improved since the last inspection The school has made satisfactory progress since the last inspection. Many of the major deficiencies in accommodation have been addressed and apart from the small size of the hall, which restricts pupils’ development in physical education, the standard of accommodation does not hamper the quality of education the school provides. Standards have improved in history. The unsatisfactory teaching identified at Key Stage 2 is no longer an issue. In fact, the quality of teaching at Key Stage 2 is now a strength of the school. Behaviour of pupils at Key Stage 2 is now, on the whole, of a good standard. Schemes of work are in place for all subjects but some have only recently been implemented and so there is a need to ensure that schemes are rigorously followed so that prior attainment is built upon and developed. All available resources are now easily accessible to staff and pupils. The school is appropriately placed to continue the process of development and improvement. Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 8 _ Standards in subjects The table shows the standards achieved by eleven-year-olds in 1999 based on the National Curriculum tests: _Performance in Compared with Compared with Key all schools similar schools well above A above average average below average D well below average E very low E* English C C Mathematics C D Science E E* Loscoe Church of England Primary School - 9 The results of the table above show the school to be performing at an average level in English and mathematics and well below average in science, when compared to all schools. In mathematics and science the school is not doing well when compared to similar schools. Inspection findings show attainment in English to be at an average level. Pupils’ number skills are secure and at an average level but other elements of the subject are not at this level. Attainment in science has improved but is still below average. This is mainly as result of a lack of a high quality scheme of work to guide teaching. The effective introduction of the National Numeracy Strategy is already having an impact on the raising of standards of mathematics. Inspection findings also indicate that on the basis of the attainment of the current Year 4 and 5 pupils, higher standards will be achieved in all three subjects. The 1998 test results for seven-year-olds show pupils’ attainment in reading and mathematics to be in line with national averages and average in comparison to similar schools. Attainment in writing was very high in comparison to national averages and the performance of similar schools. The 1999 test results show attainment to be above the national average in reading and writing but well below average in mathematics. Inspection findings show that pupils’ attainment is at an average level in reading and writing. Pupils’ number skills are at an average level but attainment in other aspects of mathematics is below average. Attainment in science is below average. As at Key Stage 2, the effective implementation of the National Numeracy Strategy is already having a most beneficial impact on standards. The fluctuating levels of attainment at both key stages can be partially explained by the natural differing ability levels of different groups of pupils. In addition, however, the school has only recently introduced a scheme of work in mathematics based on the National Numeracy Strategy. This is having a positive impact because it clearly outlines opportunities for pupils to develop their mental arithmetic strategies and to learn through problem solving. This, together with the quality of teaching particularly at Key Stage 2, indicates that standards are set to rise further. By the time pupils leave school at the age of eleven, standards in information technology are below average. Pupils have not acquired the full range of skills across all aspects of the information technology curriculum. By the age of eleven, pupils exceed the expectations of the local agreed syllabus for religious education.