As reflected in our school values, growth and continual improvement are integral to who we are at Chapel Street. We use a wide range of monitoring and evaluation activities (within school and through external professionals) to check the impact of our work and inform our next steps. This forms part of our school improvement cycle:
Please click on the links below to see detailed information about our unique school improvement model, long-term strategy and development priorities.
We are also proud to share with you some of the feedback we have received in recent external audits and reports, with more at the end of this page. External quality assurance consistently shows that leaders in school know well what our priorities are and what we need to do to improve further. We always act swiftly on any recommendations for further development made, to provide the best we can for all Chapel Street children.
We also actively participate in collaborative local and national clusters and networks to strengthen our improvement and are proud to provide school-to-school support, there is more information about this below.
The following quotes have been taken from a range of external audits and reviews of school over the past two years. You can see more detail from these reviews in the section at the end of this webpage.
Pupils are keen to talk about their learning, and share their work, which they do confidently. They understand their strengths and what they need to keep working on to make progress.
Children enjoy reading and can talk confidently about books and reading, both in terms of within classes and for pleasure. They can discuss a wide range of different types of texts and authors.
Activating prior learning and vocabulary is key to the school’s approach and staff are well versed in this.
Pupils with SEND made accelerated progress to close the attainment gap.
Governors challenge and support the school’s leaders to deliver a good curriculum.
Pupils are expected to play a really active role in their learning.
Positive relationships and high expectations for pupils with SEND is an important feature of the school’s good practice. This is most notable in the culture and ethos of the school.
Relationships between pupils and staff were warm, empathetic, and positive, with pupils clearly feeling safe and secure.
There is a culture of ‘inclusion’ promoted through the approaches and language used by teachers and staff throughout the school.
Parents are well-informed, communication between home and school is transparent and parents strongly indicated, through the parent panel, that that they feel well supported.
Safeguarding continues to be a high priority for the senior leadership team, and they have a good understanding of their strengths and areas for development.
Relationships are seen as the foundation of safeguarding children, and leaders promote a strong culture of safeguarding across the school.
Staff feel well supported by the safeguarding team and say they go above and beyond for the children and families they work with.
effective procedures are in place to monitor and improve attendance.
The school clearly makes every effort to be as inclusive as possible and offers all children access to their broad curriculum.
Staff are aware of the importance of attendance, and their roles in challenging and supporting parents appropriately at each level.
The school’s approach to the Covid crisis has been exemplary and a parent stated: ‘I appreciate the support during the pandemic with tasks sent home and help about how to teach at home.’
The school sees itself as an important community resource and a strength of the school is the development since June 2022 of a Community Strategy.
As part of our commitment to school improvement we actively work with external professionals, the local authority, governors and other schools to seek feedback, quality assure our work, evaluate our impact and collaboratively problem solve. We are also incredibly proud to provide support for other schools as part of their school improvement journeys.
Click on the headings below to see some of the ways our leaders support other schools to grow.
Has provided support for other schools with their monitoring and evaluation, development planning, leadership team development, safeguarding and improving outcomes;
Leads and contributes to a range of training, workshops and articles on different areas of leadership, school improvement and a Relational Approach nationally including for organisations such as:
Is a Senior Leader for Education (SLE) for Inclusion, SEND and Behaviour;
Sits on the Manchester School’s Alliance Safeguarding Strategy Group;
Leads and contributes to a range of training, workshops and articles on different areas of school improvement; particularly Inclusion, SEND, Safeguarding, Behaviour and a Relational Approach, including for organisations such as:
Our Inclusion Assistant Headteacher and SENCO, Kate Ortoft:
Has completed Local Authority SEND Reviewer training in order to work with colleagues in other schools to offer peer reviews;
Visits other schools to support their SENCOs and Inclusion Leads;
Hosts regular visits for other schools and professionals to see our Inclusive approach at Chapel Street including:
Adaptations and a Relational Approach within mainstream classrooms;
Small specialist provision for pupils with a high level of need.
Our Safeguarding and Welfare Manager, Suzanne Powell:
Is a school representative on one of the twelve Greater Manchester MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences) teams.
Our School Business Manager, Mohammed Ahmed:
Leads School Business Professional networks;
Chairs networks for Headteachers;
Provides support to other schools in relation to all areas of Business Management, including finance, health & safety, building & premises and ICT, community cohesion, parental engagement and pupil personal development (particularly RE, inclusion and diversity);
Leads and runs community and charity organisations including the Yuvanis Foundation.
Is COO at IAPS Consultancy providing bespoke support, advice and development to schools all over the country with school improvement, safeguarding, strategy and leadership;
Provides consultancy services to schools nationally;
Quotes and Feedback from External Audits and Reports
The school environment is calm, friendly and inspiring.
Pupils’ behaviour is good, with the vast majority of pupils keen to engage in their learning.
All children take pride in their work.
There is a culture of trying our best, and children were keen to have a go.
Children have constant access to a wide selection of well chosen, representative texts, at all points in the school day, from assemblies to lunch times.
The school library is incredibly well resourced, up to date and is a hub for a love of reading and learning for the school.
Reading for pleasure is a main focus for the school and is evident in every corner.
Just Read is supporting pupils to access and understand more challenging texts than they would be able to access independently.
Pupils have many chances to hear fluent models of reading. Some teachers are excellent models for reading aloud, with expression.
Children are given opportunities to talk about books and their reading every day.
Interventions are run by well trained staff and well matched to most children’s needs, with the vast majority of children making progress within each session.
Vocabulary acquisition and understanding is actively targeted by all staff during class sessions and during interventions.
Children enjoy writing, particularly the texts chosen for the units.
Basic skills focuses are well chosen across the whole school, and match the key content pupils need to embed before writing.
Children are able to make links between their prior and present learning. They are beginning to do this with their reading too.
Children make good progress and develop knowledge and skills over the different areas of learning. Vulnerable pupils make clear progress.
Classrooms are well presented, highly supportive and promote reading across the curriculum.
School information and SEND profiles indicate pupils with SEND make clear progress across the key stages.
The school’s curriculum has been suitably enhanced to support good achievement.
Governors see provision for themselves, including teaching for pupils with SEND, writing lessons and assessment for the different groups the school serves. Governors stringently hold the senior leaders to account and fulfil their statutory obligations through visits to school, meeting with leaders and attendance at meetings. Challenge is evident regarding outcomes for pupils.
The team have recently been working with One Education on a personalized text-led English programme which was introduced after Easter this year. At the heart of this were the issue of audience and purpose to ensure that pupils really understood the reading to writing relationship. RAFT is used effectively.
Planning is being adapted to meet the needs of the pupils.
As part of the writing cycle, pupils have capture content lesson, capture language lesson and a ‘choose and refuse’ session which is part of the planning lesson. Modelling is an intrinsic part of this structure.
The school introduced a ‘no written marking policy’ a few years ago and the teachers feel like they are now much more focused within the lessons, so pupils have immediate feedback for their writing.
The school already has a very established reading spine that underpins their reading/writing curriculum.
The school has an effective writing journey, with high quality texts and film clips at its heart, that allows children to plan, draft and edit their work. GPS lessons have supported this. Some opportunity is given for children to orally rehearse their work and this feeds into their writing. It is clear that the teachers have adapted their teaching to meet the needs of their pupils.
The teachers were well prepared for the moderation. They were able to talk animatedly and knowledgeably about all their pupils. They had completed their assessments with thought and were able to draw on evidence to support their judgements. They knew their pupils, as writers, extremely well.
The judgments were very secure, and the teachers talked knowledgeably and eloquently about their children and the standards that they had achieved.
The new long-term plan is being followed by all year groups and consistency is developing with a shared language around English now becoming more apparent.
All year groups are following the medium-term planning documents and using them to structure their teaching of Writing.
In Year 3, teachers have adapted the medium-term planning well to suit the needs of their cohort.
Children’s work in books is now much more consistent, with the school’s approach to writing much clearer than previously. There is no ‘evidence for evidence’s sake.’
Assessment is accurate and most staff are confident about their judgements and children’s next steps.
Children’s writing is improving. There were particularly strong examples of writing seen in Year 1 and in Lower Key Stage 2 but there is an improvement across the school, particularly in terms of children’s coherence.
The school has a comprehensive Health and Safety Policy and safety management system that is supported by safety Consultants Stallard Kane and The School Bus systems.
It was evident that the SLT and business manager within the school are proactive in ensuring that matters of health and safety are adequately reviewed and training provided.
It is noted that the school has a good focus on staff Wellbeing and Stress.
Senior leaders take a pupil-centred approach when identifying needs and planning provision, staff know the pupils well enough to do this.
The pupils spoken to were enthusiastic about school and extremely articulate in the information they provided. Some were able to discuss their favourite lessons, positive relationships, individual support and activities. Specifically, they were able to identify well established strategies across the school to enable children to communicate how they are feeling and what things will help them. They were also able to talk about different interventions that supported them to make progress in their learning.
Positive relationships underpin practice. Children feel safe, secure and valued.
Personalisation is a key feature of provision, with bespoke plans to support engagement and progress in the WOODLAND (EYFS/KS1) and RAINFOREST (KS2) provisions.
The Woodland provision provides an extremely high-quality learning environment for the children within the setting. The room is extremely well designed and organised so that it is a flexible space for purposeful learning. The outdoor area is also resourced with the needs of the children very carefully considered.
Children have access to resources that will meet their sensory and physical needs and help them to regulate e.g. a swing set and a Whizzy Dizzy spinning seat.
High quality teaching was also observed through the use of Attention Autism to develop children’s engagement and concentration. Children were seen to anticipate, respond and communicate delight when resources were shared. A total communication approach was expertly used by all staff with use of signing, symbols and clear verbal language.
Interventions are regularly evaluated. Adjustment to the provision is then made accordingly.
Outside agency support is engaged appropriately and utilised effectively.
Interventions and support resources are coordinated and deployed effectively and strategically.
Teaching assistants and support staff receive regular and high-quality Continued Professional Development and Learning. This is linked to the school development plan and wider aims regarding pupil achievement and outcomes.
The school has developed a holistic approach to SEND and provision is responsive to the needs, development, and wellbeing of all pupils.
The school has a high degree of expertise in SEND; it is aware of its strengths and areas for developing further. The school is outward facing and engages critically with developments in practice.
This review follows on from the previous visit two years ago and evidence was shared to demonstrate how recommendations have been acted on. Safeguarding continues to be a high priority for the senior leadership team, and they have a good understanding of their strengths and areas for development.
All staff complete annual safeguarding training. Directed online modules are also completed by all staff and include domestic abuse, online safety, prevent duty and child-on-child abuse. In addition, staff have received training on low-level concerns and weekly 7-minute briefings help to embed learning about key issues. Separate arrangements are made for any staff unable to attend and effective systems are in place to ensure that training records are maintained. New staff complete a safeguarding induction and are issued key policies and a copy of Keeping children safe in education.
The school are in a challenging context and describe families who are facing complex issues. There is a high prevalence of domestic abuse, the school have taken a highly proactive response and all staff spoken to in the review demonstrated in-depth understanding of the complexity of abusive relationships. They were able to share powerful examples of support offered to families, including effective safety planning and code words that parents can use to discreetly alert staff they need help. The DDSL is also the education representative at MARAC. Additional support offered to children and families includes access to a school counsellor and signposting to other services. The school know their children and families well and work hard to build effective relationships and offer support in partnership with other agencies.
Staff were able to share examples of how children were being supported and described a holistic approach. Information is shared well and helps staff to understand the needs of children and offer support. Staff describe good relationships with children and know them well. They feel confident in the safeguarding procedures and know how to report concerns.
The safeguarding team recognise the links between poor attendance and safeguarding. Attendance is well below the national average and is a high priority for the school and effective procedures are in place to monitor and improve attendance. The school offer breakfast clubs, undertake first day calling and home visits and work with families to understand and address barriers to education. There is a relational approach to behaviour and staff have a good understanding of trauma and attachment.
The school have procured effective filtering and monitoring software, and children are taught about online safety. Children have individual log ins and there are effective systems in place to track users of devices that are shared across the school.
The school clearly makes every effort to be as inclusive as possible and offers all children access to their broad curriculum.
Chapel Street Primary School manages and improves the physical environment of the school buildings and grounds to meet the needs of a range of disabled students currently on roll and prospective students.
Some of the ways in which Chapel Street Primary School provide a highly inclusive curriculum and learning environment are:
Ensuring staff have opportunities for relevant continued professional development relating to SEND;
Teachers planning with differentiated and personalised learning opportunities that allow access and success but ensure challenge;
Providing visual timetables, task cards and various alternative ways of recording;
Responding to outside agency advice and providing specialised resources where required;
Responding to the views of children with SEND and their parents/carers through Parents’ Evenings, and Pupil Passport documentation;
Focused teaching opportunities within a smaller group or one-to-one basis
Nurture Group provision led by the SENCO to provide tailor made small group intervention and teaching of core subjects
The school endeavours to work closely with parents through the stages of the child’s school life, including parents in the school community.
The identification of SEN is built into the overall approach to monitoring the progress and development of all pupils through the school’s Policy on Teaching and Learning.
Teachers understand that it is extremely important that they identify pupils who experience difficulties accessing learning and general school life opportunities early. This is achieved through continual use of classroom observations and assessments of all pupils.
Staff are aware of the importance of attendance, and their roles in challenging and supporting parents appropriately at each level.
The attendance policy is clear and is supported by the attendance page on the school website, which outlines clear expectations to parents.
The attendance team engage with families positively, whilst offering appropriate challenge as well.
There are clearly defined roles and responsibilities with regards to attendance, and all staff are aware that “attendance is everyone’s responsibility”. Cleaners and Lunchtime Organisers are also aware of the need to celebrate children who are in school.
The school’s Chair of Governors is the link governor for safeguarding and attendance. They have a good understanding of attendance and the current barriers the school is facing, and will offer appropriate challenge to senior leaders when discussing data.
The school has fully committed to the process of the Award and used it to celebrate much existing effective practice, to build on staffs existing understanding, knowledge and skills and to identify areas for further development.
The school works in partnership with all staff and external agencies to promote inclusion as a core principal.
The SENCO provided a clear presentation with a comprehensive and thorough summary of the school’s journey to achieve the SENDIA.
The evidence provided in the e-portfolio, for all the KPIs, was also very clear and substantial.
Discussions with the Inclusion manager, SENCO, staff, parents, SEND link governor and pupils provided substantial evidence of the positive impact of the schools focus on providing an inclusive, supportive and effective approach to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.
The Link Governor offers effective support and challenge to the effective SENCO.
The school is very welcoming and parents described the school as ‘amazing’ and ‘fantastic.’
A wide variety of methods of communication are used and these include meetings, texts, letters, visual displays, newsletters, use of the school gateway and social media such as Facebook and twitter.
Staff described how they placed videos on class dojo to support learning and parents stated ‘teachers provide individual techniques to help’ and ‘class dojo really keeps us informed.’
Gaining the perspective of parents to inform policy and practice is a key feature of the school.
Evaluation reports demonstrate parents value the opportunity to learn more about how they can support their child’s learning.
The school’s approach to the Covid crisis has been exemplary and a parent stated: ‘I appreciate the support during the pandemic with tasks sent home and help about how to teach at home.’ The school maintained close relationships with all pupils, particularly the vulnerable, with good liaison between the school and other services. Regular phone calls were made to families and the school remained open for a large number of children.
The school sees itself as an important community resource and a strength of the school is the development since June 2022 of a Community Strategy.
The school organises community events each term, celebration days, super learning days, a gardening club and well-being activities such as yoga and Bollywood exercises to encourage the active participation of parents. The community worker also supports vulnerable parents as well as running a range of parent courses.
To support parents own learning the school works in partnership with Adult Education to offer on line as well as school-based courses.
Positive trusting relationships have been established between staff and parents and feedback demonstrates that parents are very appreciative of the quality of education and support their child receives.
