Broadbent Fold Primary School and Nursery
Tennyson Avenue
Dukinfield
Cheshire
SK165DP

Phone:0161 3039411
Head Teacher: Mrs Victoria Walker

218 pupils, Mixed

ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out by three additional inspectors. The inspectors visited 13 lessons, and held meetings with governors, staff and groups of pupils. They observed the school's work, and looked at assessment data and the systems for tracking pupils' progress, school policies, the development plan, questionnaires returned from pupils and staff and 115 questionnaires from parents and carers.

The inspection team reviewed many aspects of the school's work. It looked in detail at the following:

• how well pupils achieve and the progress they make
• the quality of teaching and learning across the school
• the effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation.

Information about the school

This is a slightly smaller than average school in which the proportion of pupils entitled to free school meals is below average. Nearly all pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including those with a statement of special educational needs, is below average. The school holds the Activemark award. There have been several staffing changes since the last inspection including the appointment of a deputy headteacher who has been unavoidably absent for some time.

Main findings

The school offers a satisfactory and improving quality of education. It has many significant strengths. The school fosters a 'family atmosphere' in which relationships are exceptionally strong. This leads to pupils feeling extremely safe in school and to high levels of enjoyment resulting in outstanding attendance levels. The school also fosters and enjoys excellent relationships with parents and carers almost all of whom are supportive of the school's work. Many praise how well it cares for their children. 'I am glad I chose this school for my children. They love going to school and I am pleased that they spend each day in such a caring environment where they are flourishing,' is typical of their comments. At the heart of the school is outstanding provision for pupils' care, guidance and support which helps them develop into confident and mature young people. Pupils' behaviour is good in lessons and around school. They are polite and welcoming. Pupils work and play in a harmonious environment where everyone is valued equally.

Pupils make satisfactory progress in their learning to attain broadly average standards by the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 in response to teaching which is satisfactory overall. Standards are showing signs of improvement as the school's improved systems to check on pupils' progress and a concentration on improving pupils' numeracy skills start to take effect. Much remains to be done, however, to improve the quality of teaching and its impact on pupils' progress. While teachers plan their lessons well, too much teaching lacks pace and the questions teachers pose are frequently too easy to encourage pupils routinely to think deeply around problems. Classroom teaching assistants are very effective when working with groups of pupils but too often they are not used actively enough and become bystanders. Systems and procedures to check pupils' progress towards targets are improving. However, teachers are not routinely using the information to match activities closely enough to the needs and abilities of different groups and sometimes pupils wait for others to catch up. Leaders and managers monitor the teaching and learning regularly but accept the need to add more rigour to their procedures.

The leadership team understands the school's strengths and the areas where it needs to improve. It is rigorously tackling the school's weaker areas, such as the assessment of pupils' progress, and this is resulting in rising achievement, especially in mathematics. This demonstrates the school's good capacity to improve further.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Raise the quality of teaching and the rate of pupils' learning in Key Stages 1 and 2 by:

• adding extra pace and vitality to teaching
• making sure that teaching assistants are used effectively at all times to support teaching and learning
• making sure that teachers set tasks which match closely the needs and abilities of different groups of pupils
• making sure that teachers routinely ask challenging questions to encourage pupils to think more deeply about their answers
• monitoring the quality of teaching and learning more rigorously.

• About 40% of the schools whose overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory may receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection.

Children get off to a good start in the Early Years Foundation Stage, where teaching is good. During Key Stages 1 and 2 pupils' personal development continues to flourish while their academic progress and achievement slow because teaching is satisfactory. From broadly average starting points, attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 is also broadly average, although for the last two years standards have been improving, especially in mathematics. Positive relationships and pupils' resulting good behaviour mean that pupils have good attitudes to learning. In some lessons pupils' willingness to learn and to work hard enable them to make satisfactory progress even when teaching does not fully engage their interest. When given the chance, pupils enjoy working independently. They work most successfully in pairs, where they are keen to bounce ideas off each other. All groups of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make satisfactory progress.

Pupils' happy, welcoming faces show their enjoyment and how outstandingly secure they feel in the school's nurturing and caring environment. Their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is good. They show good understanding of right and wrong and good levels of respect and tolerance for others. They enjoy taking on responsibilities by becoming play leaders, for example. Pupils are very active in raising money for charities and are rightly proud of their achievements in this area. Rising levels of attainment and the school's success in fostering good levels of confidence and positive attitudes to learning mean that most pupils are set fair to take advantage of the next stages of their schooling when they leave.

These are the grades for pupils' outcomes

¹ The grades for attainment and attendance are: 1 is high; 2 is above average; 3 is broadly average; and 4 is low

How effective is the provision?

Satisfactory teaching overall in Key Stages 1 and 2 acts as a brake on most pupils making better than satisfactory progress. However, improvements to the effectiveness of assessment procedures and making the curriculum more relevant to pupils are starting to have a positive impact on raising attainment and achievement. Pupils enjoy the opportunities that they have to do topic work, which gives them the chance to pursue their own ideas and encourages their skills as independent learners. Pupils are very enthusiastic about the range of enrichment activities the school provides. Participation rates are high. Sports feature heavily in the extra-curricular provision and there is an impressive and popular school choir. The enrichment opportunities add significantly to pupils' enjoyment and adoption of healthy lifestyles.

Caring for its pupils is at the heart of the school's provision. Pupils say that the adults working with them are always approachable and help pupils to sort out any problems. Good arrangements for transition ensure that children settle quickly into the Early Years Foundation Stage. Older pupils feel confident about their move to secondary school because good links have been forged with local high schools.

These are the grades for the quality of provision

How effective are leadership and management?

Leaders and managers provide the school with a strong focus on improvement. Despite the many changes in staffing in recent years, good teamwork is evident in the pursuit of raising attainment and achievement. The fact that standards are rising illustrates that the quest for improvement is firmly embedded into the fabric of the school. Leaders and managers at all levels are strongly committed to equality and tackling discrimination. All groups of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make satisfactory progress as a result. Safeguarding procedures are comprehensive. Statutory requirements are met. Attention to health and safety, including risk assessments, is meticulous. The school's promotion of community cohesion is satisfactory. While a harmonious school community is evident and the pupils are active in the local community, opportunities for pupils to explore foreign cultures and global questions are at an early stage of development.

Leaders have worked hard and successfully to reach out to parents and carers. For example, after consultation with parents and carers, arrangements for reporting on pupils' progress and achievements are now exemplary and are playing their role as part of the school's armoury in driving up standards. Governors know the school well. They are supportive of its work. Governors accept the need to ask more regular questions about the effectiveness of the school to hold it more rigorously to account.

These are the grades for leadership and management

Early Years Foundation Stage

Children get off to a good start to school in the Early Years Foundation Stage. From starting points which are broadly in line with those expected, children make good progress and achieve well to attain standards which are generally above age-related expectations by the time they enter Key Stage 1. Children work and play in a stimulating and well-equipped environment, especially inside. Leaders are planning to bring the outside provision and facilities up to an equally high standard. Children make good progress because teaching is good. It provides them with a range of appropriate learning opportunities with a good balance between teacher-initiated and child-chosen activities. Good leadership and management ensure that safeguarding children has a high priority and that necessary procedures are in place. The Early Years Foundation Stage leaders communicate high expectations. Procedures for tracking children's progress are effective in enabling their individual needs to be identified and planned for. Links with outside agencies are firmly established so that support for children's special educational needs and/or disabilities is quickly arranged.

These are the grades for the Early Years Foundation Stage

Views of parents and carers

An overwhelming majority of parents and carers expressed positive support for the school and what it does for their children. Parents' and carers' support for nearly all aspects of the school's work was very high, especially for the way the school keeps pupils safe, how much their children enjoy school and how happy they are with their children's experience at school. Inspectors agree that these aspects of school life are among the school's strengths.

Ofsted invited all the registered parents and carers of pupils registered at Broadbent Fold Primary School and Nursery to complete a questionnaire about their views of the school.

In the questionnaire, parents and carers were asked to record how strongly they agreed with 13 statements about the school.

The inspection team received 115 completed questionnaires by the end of the on-site inspection. In total, there are 211 pupils registered at the school.

The table above summarises the responses that parents and carers made to each statement. The percentages indicate the proportion of parents and carers giving that response out of the total number of completed questionnaires. Where one or more parents and carers chose not to answer a particular question, the percentages will not add up to 100%.

Overall effectiveness of schools inspected between September 2007 and July 2008

23 October 2009

Dear Pupils

Inspection of Broadbent Fold Primary School and Nursery, Dukinfield, SK16 5DP

Thank you for your warm welcome to the inspectors when we visited your school recently. It was good to talk to many of you. What you told us was very helpful in enabling us to judge the different aspects of your school.

Overall, your school provides you with a satisfactory and improving quality of education. However, many aspects of your school are good and some are even better than that. It really is good to see your outstanding attendance levels – well done! You also told us how completely safe you feel in school because the adults working with you take good care of you. Your parents and carers also value the school highly and this shows what outstanding relationships the school has formed with them. One or two of you described the school as a 'happy family' and that is exactly what we found during our visit.

The progress you make is satisfactory overall. Your attitudes to learning are very positive and you work hard – again, well done! However, I am asking the school to make sure that the teaching you receive is improved so that it helps you make faster and better progress. In order to do this the following things need to happen.

• Teaching needs to be made more lively.
• Teachers need to make sure that classroom assistants are used effectively all the time.
• The questions teachers ask you need to challenge you more in your thinking and reasoning.
• Teachers need to make sure that what they ask you to do in lessons is closely matched to how easy or difficult you find learning.
• Senior leaders need to check the quality of teaching and learning more carefully.

I am confident that you will work with your teachers to make sure that your school carries on improving in the coming years.

I wish you the very best for the future.

Yours sincerely

Mr Stephen Wall

Lead Inspector