Setting

Mrs Joanne Quigley Headteacher Wollescote Primary School Drummond Road Lye Stourbridge DY9 8YA

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Wollescote Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 8 February 2011 with James McNeillie HMI, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Wollescote Primary School

The inspection was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in March 2010. The full list of the areas for improvement which were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached and the main judgements are set out below.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Wollescote Primary School

Progress since being subject to special measures – inadequate

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Wollescote Primary School

Progress since previous monitoring inspection – satisfactory

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Wollescote Primary School

Newly Qualified Teachers should not be appointed.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Wollescote Primary School

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be posted on the Ofsted website. I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Dudley.

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Her Majesty’s Inspector

Serco Inspections Cedar House 21 William Street Edgbaston Birmingham B15 1LH OFSTED T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk SERCO Direct T 0121 683 3888

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place in March 2010

 Ensure that the quality of teaching is good or better and eliminate all inadequate teaching so that all pupils make good or better progress throughout both key stages, but particularly in Key Stage 2, by: - ensuring learning activities are precisely matched to the learning needs of individual pupils through regular assessment within lessons so that planning is adjusted to challenge all learners - raising teachers' expectations of the accelerated progress pupils can make - providing clear guidance to pupils, through careful marking and target setting, so that they know how to improve their work - ensuring that new strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning are consistently implemented particularly in developing pupils' independent skills and active involvement in learning - maximising learning opportunities by engaging pupils in their learning through a more creative curriculum that ensures progression for pupils to develop

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place in March 2010

their basic skills within relevant contexts - raise attendance to average to eliminate gaps in pupils' learning.

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place in March 2010

 Strengthen the quality of leadership and management by: - developing the roles of leaders at all levels, particularly the roles of senior and middle managers, to increase the capacity of the school to improve - raising expectations by ensuring tracking and target-setting systems are used effectively and contain accurate information about what pupils know and can do - sharpening the school's improvement planning so that there are precise targets by which progress can be measured - establishing a professional development plan for all staff and building on the good practice of in-house coaching - developing the governing body's role in challenging and holding the school to account so that the school's performance improves.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, middle leaders, a group of pupils, three governors who are members of the School Improvement Committee and a representative from the local authority.

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Context

A new headteacher took up post on 1 January 2011. She had spent five days supporting the school in the autumn term. At the time of the visit, two teachers were absent, two on maternity leave and four teachers were short-term temporary staff. Two teachers had resigned since the previous visit. An advanced skills teacher has been seconded by the local authority to teach in Year 2 and to take on the role of Key Stage 1 phase leader. She took up her post on 1 January 2011.

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Pupils’ achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

The school has improved the way that it assesses pupils’ attainment and the progress they are making. The assessment data now being collated is based on both teacher assessment and national published tests and has been checked by local authority advisers. Using the more reliable data, the school has identified that there are significant differences in pupils’ attainment and the progress they make between year groups and across classes of the same year group. For example, only 35% of pupils in Year 5 are on course to achieve average or better attainment in mathematics by the end of Year 6 compared to 65% in Year 6. Generally, assessment data highlights slow progress in mathematics for most pupils and slow progress for pupils in Years 2, 3 and 5 in mathematics, reading and writing. The school has not analysed data in terms of groups, for example boys and girls, but the fact that data is more reliable puts them in a good position to do so.

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

Pupils behaved well in lessons and around the school. They were welcoming to inspectors and keen to share their work. Teachers’ classroom management was generally effective and any examples of low level disruption or off-task chatter were usually dealt with swiftly.

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

Attendance is improving gradually but remains low. The profile of attendance in school and with parents has increased. Class attendance is celebrated and displayed throughout the school and shared with parents on a weekly basis. The impact of this can be seen in one Year 5 class, where weekly attendance increased to 100%.

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The effectiveness of provision

The quality of teaching observed during this visit broadly matched that of the previous visit. Teaching was judged to be good in only four lessons. Some teaching was barely satisfactory. The findings of this visit compared to the previous visit highlight the inconsistent quality of teaching over time. For example, there was some inadequate teaching observed in Key Stage 1 when at the time of the last visit teaching in Key Stage 1 was judged to be satisfactory. The judgements of senior leaders concur with this picture of inconsistency in the quality of teaching and they are right in identifying this issue as a key barrier to the school’s improvement.

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The effectiveness of provision

Despite some small improvements in the quality of teaching, senior leaders agree that there is yet to be a shift from satisfactory to securely good teaching. In many lessons there continues to be a lack of challenge and missed opportunities by teachers to check regularly pupils’ understanding. For example, in a Key Stage 1 lesson, pupils were asked to complete a timeline of major events in the 17th century but were not successful in doing so because they could not place dates in the correct order. In this lesson, the teacher did not pick up quickly enough the fact that pupils were floundering and so teaching did not adapt to ensure the pupils achieved. In another lesson, in Key Stage 2, the teacher did not give pupils enough time to work independently on the task they had been given. In an attempt to move the lesson on quickly, the teacher kept interrupting pupils to tell them what to do or to go onto the

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The effectiveness of provision

next task without realising that they needed more time to complete the task they were on.

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The effectiveness of provision

In most lessons, teachers did not make the most of working with a specific group. Too often, when teachers focused their attention on a group of pupils, they merely kept pupils working. They did not engage in reflective dialogue which would have allowed them better to support and challenge pupils with their learning. Pupils are not developing as independent learners because teachers still talk for too long in lessons. Planning for some group activities is not securely focused on what learning is to take place. Where teaching is strongest, teachers adapt their planning when they recognise that pupils have not consolidated their learning. For example, in a Key Stage 1 mathematics lesson, the teacher explained to the pupils that they would not be moving on to playing number bingo because they were not yet secure in understanding ‘10 more’ or ‘10 less’. Skilfully, the teacher adapted her lesson so that

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The effectiveness of provision

pupils were given time to consolidate their learning. There are emerging strengths in the quality of marking and these are linked closely to the quality of teaching. The school’s introduction of its marking policy of ‘two stars and a wish’ is being used widely and there are examples of pupils engaging in a dialogue about their work. However, these good examples are not evident across all year groups.

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The effectiveness of provision

School leaders have now planned to develop the curriculum beyond the core subjects, incorporating more creativity and progression. As this is at its very early stage, there has been no impact on pupils’ achievement or enjoyment. Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:  Ensure the quality of teaching is good or better and eliminate all inadequate teaching so that all pupils make good or better progress throughout both key stages, but particularly in Key Stage 2 – inadequate.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The new headteacher has made an excellent start and has very quickly built up an effective working partnership with the deputy headteacher. Staff, the governing body and the local authority all express confidence in the headteacher and appreciate what has been done in a short period of time.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Since the previous visit, school improvement planning has been transformed. The school now has an astute raising attainment improvement plan that gives an overview of targets which in turn informs a fortnightly improvement plan. The fortnightly improvement plan is very specific in terms of identifying clear objectives, how teaching and learning will be supported, staff meetings and who and when work will be monitored. At the end of the two weeks, work is evaluated and a new short-term improvement plan drawn up. This approach is ensuring that improvement work is both rigorous and adaptable.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

In January 2011, the deputy headteacher produced a very useful teaching support plan which outlines the work that is being done to support teachers in improving their teaching. The plan accurately identifies both the varying levels of support needed for different teachers and the areas where improvement is needed. This overview allows senior leaders better to manage the support given to teachers by ensuring that support, training and monitoring are well coordinated.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Phase leaders continue to develop their role and feel well supported and led by the headteacher and deputy headteacher. Since January, they have been responsible for producing a phase action plan which has given more focus to their monitoring of lessons and scrutiny of pupils’ work. They have been given more time out of the classroom to monitor and evaluate the work in their phase which is increasing their effectiveness. The phase leaders are more acutely aware of the need to show the impact of their work and their understanding of this demonstrates their better understanding of the role. The monitoring and evaluation work they are doing informs the fortnightly plans and so makes a positive contribution to the cycle of improvement work. However, as at the time of the last visit the impact of phase leaders’ work is not yet evident in improvements to the quality of teaching.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The governing body has become much more robust and rigorous in monitoring the work of the school and holding it to account mainly through the school improvement committee. Governors can now confidently talk about the quality of teaching and know that the assessment data collated is highlighting areas of significant concern. The governing body is well informed, regularly receiving up-to-date assessment data and copies of the fortnightly improvement plan and evaluations.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

At the time of the previous visit, the school was asked, as a matter of urgency, to ensure that the performance management cycle is complete. This work has been done and has made more explicit how well teachers are expected to perform.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

 Strengthen the quality of leadership and management – good.

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External support

The local authority played a pivotal role in appointing the new headteacher. They have also facilitated the appointment of the advanced skills teacher to Year 2. In December 2010 and January 2011, the local authority monitored the quality of teaching and learning. Helpful reports outlined both the strengths and weaknesses in provision and showed that, in January, the proportion of satisfactory or better teaching remained similar to that found in December 2010. As a result, the local authority judged the school to have made limited progress in increasing the proportion of good teaching. In January 2011, the local authority judged 42% of lessons to be good, which was a much higher proportion than seen during this visit.

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