pdf School inspection report - Ofsted

69. The school has an adequate supply of dual-language fiction books but rather less
non-fiction. Most are in Urdu and English or Bangla and English. There are no books
written only in the pupils’ mother tongues. This is because the quality of the few such
books, which are available, is not high.
70. Care is taken in the purchase of resources. For example, books are examined to
ensure they provide positive images of black people and cultures. Play equipment,
such as dressing-up clothes or dolls, for use in the early years classes, is chosen
carefully to reflect both the pupils’ background and the majority culture of the United
Kingdom.
71. The school uses additional funding very well to provide additional support for pupils
with special educational needs. The special needs co-ordinator deploys support staff
very well. They provide imaginative and appropriately challenging work for their
pupils and know them well. They have a thorough knowledge of their individual
education plans and provide effective support to help pupils achieve their targets.
72. The co-ordinator provides good support for teachers in devising individual educational
plans. However, teachers are not always fully involved in the later stages of this
process and this aspect of provision could be better.
73. Senior teachers are involved in a comprehensive programme of monitoring teaching.
This is effective in developing the curriculum and ensuring continuity in English and
mathematics across age groups and key stages. It is less effective in developing
teachers’ performance as it is not sufficiently focused on developing teaching skills,
other than incidentally acting as a trigger to provide in-service education.
74. The school has close links through the headteacher with Manchester University and
provides valuable initial teacher training facilities for postgraduate certificate of
education students. New staff are very carefully inducted into the school through an
excellent mentoring system which ensures they settle into the school very quickly.
75. A new school is being built on a site near the present school. The current building,
although in poor condition, is well used and looked after so that pupils’ education is
not affected. The teachers have made great efforts to make the building as attractive
as possible and use the considerable space available to advantage. The move to a
new school in the next academic year will answer all the criticisms made of
accommodation in the last report. The level and quality of resources are good, the
improvement since the last inspection of information and communication technology
resources is particularly noticeable, as is the development and planning of the library
which is indexed and has a good range of fiction and non-fiction books. Literacy and
numeracy are well served and the requirements of all initiatives are well served by the
priorities in the school development plan.
Greenhill Community School - 24