All Saints CoE Primary: Preston school is placed in special measures

All Saints CE Primary School in Hesketh with Becconsall was reinspected on March 7-8 and has now been moved into special measures.

The school’s behaviour and attitudes and personal development were classed as ‘Requires improvement’, whilst its quality of education, leadership and management, and early years provision were rated ‘Inadquate’.

In its last full report, in 2013, All Saints was a ‘Good’ school, following two ‘Satisfactory’ ratings in 2006 and 2010 respectively.

What did Ofsted say was particularly good about All Saints?

Inspectors wrote: “Most pupils are happy and settled at school. They enjoy respectful relationships with the adults who care for them well.”

The school was praised for its personal development programme and its extra-curricular opportunities. For example, pupils carry out charitable work at the local supermarket, take part in events with local churches, benefit from the links that leaders have established with a school in Kenya, and Year 6 enjoy a residential visit to Wales to take part in outdoor activities.

The report also noted: “Many pupils attend school regularly. They typically behave well. This makes a positive contribution to the generally calm and respectful environment in the school. Recently, leaders and staff have made improvements to the school routines and the systems for managing behaviour. This has led to an improvement in the conduct of most pupils.”

In addition, the arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with inspectors adding “despite the recent staff changes, leaders have prioritised the safety of pupils.”

What does All Saints need to improve on?

This section begins: "Leaders and governors do not demonstrate the capacity required to improve the quality of education for pupils. They have presided over considerable weaknesses for a length of time. Issues with staffing and weaknesses in subject leadership mean that there are too few people with the time or expertise to bring about change. As a matter of urgency, governors must stabilise the school’s leadership team and ensure that everyone has the knowledge that they need to bring about swift improvement.”

The report continues to say, as subject leaders have not had enough training to ensure that their curriculum is effective, they are unable to provide the guidance that staff need to build pupils’ knowledge, whilst the overall curriculum “lacks ambition for pupils” and “is not well designed”, with teachers not knowing what should be taught and when.

Inspectors added: “The early years curriculum is weak. It does not enable children to build their knowledge across all areas of learning. This means that they are ill-equipped to make a successful start when they enter key stage 1.

“Pupils have large gaps in their phonic knowledge. Staff do not deliver the phonics programme effectively. In addition, the books that pupils read do not match the sounds that they are learning.

“The needs of pupils with SEND are not identified early or accurately enough. Furthermore, teachers lack the expertise to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. These pupils do not achieve as well as they should over time.”

Finally, inspectors noted “leaders have not established consistently high expectations of pupils’ behaviour” so in lessons, some pupils engage in low-level disruption that, at times, goes unchallenged by staff, hindering the learning of others.

What does All Saints say about their latest report?

Rachael Ainsworth, the Associate Headteacher appointed in April, said: “We are incredibly disappointed with the outcome of the inspection, but we found the report to be fair and accurate throughout.

“We have already implemented vital changes and will strive to ensure this continues so that all areas that require improvement are addressed.

"There is now a stabilised Leadership Team in place with two experienced senior leaders with a solid track record in school improvement. The team is experienced in designing curriculums that are cohesive, suitably aspirational and well-ordered to enable pupils to build up a secure body of knowledge over time.

"Continuous Professional Development has been organised to ensure staff have the expertise they need to deliver the phonics programme so that pupils become confident and fluent readers.

"Subject leaders and teachers have been provided with guidance to ensure English and Maths are prioritised within the curriculum.

"We are working closely with Lancashire County Council’s Monitoring and Intervention team who are providing staff with additional guidance and training where required.

"Our new Leadership team has raised their expectations of pupils’ behaviour in school and pupils have responded well to this.

"While improvements have already been made, we know there is a great deal of work to be done to meet the standards that our pupils deserve. I’d like to reassure parents that we will do everything we can to address any issues and give our pupils the best possible education.

"I’d also like to thank our governing body and staff members for their ongoing support and commitment to improvement.”