INSPECTION REPORT ANCHORSHOLME PRIMARY SCHOOL Thornton Cleveleys, Blackpool LEA area: Blackpool Unique reference number: 119249 Headteacher: Mr Michael Bryan Reporting inspector: Mr Tim Boyce 20932 Dates of inspection: May 27th - 29th 2002 Inspection number: 243315 Short inspection carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 © Crown copyright 2002 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 School Inspections Act 1996, 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: Primary School category: Community Age range of pupils: 4-11 years Gender of pupils: Mixed School address: Anchorsholme Primary School Eastpines Drive Thornton Cleveleys Blackpool Lancashire Postcode: FY5 3RX Telephone number: 01253 855215 Fax number: 01253 863927 Appropriate authority: The Governing Body Name of chair of governors: Mr Michael Morton Date of previous inspection: June 30th 1997 Anchorsholme Primary School - 3 INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM Team members 20932 Tim Boyce Registered inspector 19365 Gordon Stockley Lay inspector 25352 Geraldine Taujanskas Team inspector 22704 Garry Williams Team inspector The inspection contractor was: Evenlode Associates Ltd 6 Abbey Close Alcester Warwickshire B49 5QW Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be raised with the inspection contractor. Complaints that are not satisfactorily resolved by the contractor should be raised with OFSTED by writing to: The Complaints Manager Inspection Quality Division The Office for Standards in Education Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE Anchorsholme Primary School - 4 REPORT CONTENTS Page PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 6 - 10 Information about the school How good the school is What the school does well What could be improved How the school has improved since its last inspection Standards Pupils’ attitudes and values Teaching and learning Other aspects of the school How well the school is led and managed Parents’ and carers’ views of the school PART B: COMMENTARY WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL 11 - 15 WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED 15 WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER? 15 PART C: SCHOOL DATA AND INDICATORS 16 - 19 Anchorsholme Primary School - 5 PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL Anchorsholme Primary School is a much larger than average school, providing full time education for 574 pupils, aged from 4 to 11 years. The school is very popular and is oversubscribed. Whilst some pupils travel from further afield, the majority of pupils come from the predominantly private housing close to the school. A lower than average number of pupils is eligible for free school meals. The social and economic circumstances of the majority of parents are above average. Almost all pupils have a white United Kingdom heritage and only nine pupils come from other ethnic groups. Six of these pupils have English as an additional language, but none of them are at an early stage of English language acquisition. Approximately thirteen per cent of the pupils have special educational needs. This is a lower proportion than the national average. The majority of these pupils have minor learning difficulties, but a small number have more serious needs, including two pupils with physical disabilities, one with hearing impairment, three with speech and communication difficulties and nine with emotional and behavioral difficulties. One pupil has a statement of special educational needs. Assessments administered by the school, and inspection evidence, show that attainment on entry to the reception classes is above the local and national average and that the school has a higher than average proportion of average pupils. HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS This is an excellent school, with many significant strengths, that serves the local community and the pupils exceedingly well, and is consistently seeking new and exciting ways to improve its provision and further raise standards. The head teacher and the leadership team provide the school with excellent leadership and management, and they are very well supported in this by senior managers, co-ordinators and the governing body. The quality of teaching is very good overall, and often excellent and the curriculum, which is greatly enhanced by excellent links with the local community and numerous partner institutions and agencies, is broad, balanced, rich and relevant. With these excellent factors combining together, pupils make very good progress and achieve very high academic and personal standards. When all these very positive factors are weighed against broadly average costs, the school provides excellent value for money. What the school does well · Pupils attain very high standards in almost all subjects of the National Curriculum. · Pupils, who are developing as mature, independent and imaginative citizens, exhibit excellent behaviour and forge excellent relationships with staff and their classmates. · Excellent leadership and management have created an environment based on success, in which pupils and staff thrive. · Very good, and often excellent, teaching enables all pupils to achieve their full potential and do their very best. · A broad, balanced, relevant and stimulating curriculum, greatly enhanced by very effective links with the local community and numerous partner institutions, provides many exciting opportunities for pupils and staff to develop. What could be improved · There are no significant areas for improvement. The areas for improvement will form the basis of the governors’ action plan. HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION There has been very good improvement since the school was last inspected in July 1997. All of the Key Issues identified in the previous inspection report have been fully resolved. The school has continued to support the development of its monitoring and evaluation procedures, which are now excellent, with co- ordinators and link co-ordinators playing a full and active part in the management of their areas of responsibility. Pupils are now given many very good opportunities to develop their drafting and redrafting skills in various extended writing contexts and good quality reading areas have now been developed in the reception classes. Anchorsholme Primary School - 6 There have been many other significant improvements in the school’s overall provision. Academic standards have improved in English, mathematics and science and most pupils now attain well above average standards by the end of Year 2 and very high standards by the end of Year 6. This is a much better situation than that previously reported, when standards were judged to be above average. There have been some amazing improvements in the quality of the provision for information and communication technology (ICT), including the creation of a superbly equipped computer suite. As a result, standards in ICT, whilst still above expectations at the end of Year 2, are now well above by the end of Year 6. Pupils are now achieving very high standards in most other subjects. Standards of personal development have also improved, with behaviour, attitudes to work and pupils’ personal and social development all moving up from very good to excellent. The curriculum, which was previously judged to be good is now excellent and, in addition to being broad, balanced, and relevant, is greatly enhanced by excellent links with the community and with numerous partner institutions. This is having a very positive impact on pupils’ learning. The leadership and management of the school, which were previously graded very good, are now considered to be excellent, with the strong, enlightened leadership of the head teacher and the leadership team resulting in consistent, coherent and imaginative management which is enabling this already excellent school to improve still further. Given the complete lack of complacency and the burning desire for continued success that exists in the school, the potential for further improvement is very good. STANDARDS The table shows the standards achieved by pupils at the end of Year 6 based on average point scores in National Curriculum tests compared with Performance in: all schools similar schools Key 1999 2000 2001 2001 very high A* well above average A English A C A* A* above average B average C Mathematics A B A* A* below average D well below average E Science A A A* A* very low E* The results of National Curriculum assessments administered in 2001 indicated that, when compared with all pupils nationally, and with pupils in similar schools, (those with between eight per cent and twenty per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals), standards were very high in English, mathematics and science. This means that the standards attained placed the school in the top five per cent of schools nationally. Standards in all three subjects were consistently well above average in 1998 and 1999, but standards in English and mathematics dipped in 2000 because the cohort had a higher than average proportion of pupils with special educational needs. Inspection evidence indicates that the standards achieved by the current Year 6 group are very high in English, mathematics and science. Pupils are making rapid progress in ICT and the majority of pupils in Year 6 are attaining well above average standards. Standards in other National Curriculum subjects are generally very high, with particular strengths being identified in the teaching of history and design and technology (DT). Standards in religious education (RE) exceed the expectations of the locally agreed syllabus. Children learn very effectively in the Foundation Stage and almost all achieve the required standards by the time they finish their Reception year, with a significant proportion of children exceeding them.