Setting

Ms S Rhodes Headteacher St Paul with St Luke C of E Primary School Leopold Street Bow London E3 4LA

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Primary School

Following my visit with David Hatchett, Additional Inspector, to your school on 23 and 24 March 2011, 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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Primary School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in November 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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Primary School

Progress since being subject to special measures – satisfactory.

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Primary School

The school appointed a Newly Qualified Teacher prior to the inspection in November 2010. Until such time as it is judged to be making consistently good progress, the school should not appoint any additional Newly Qualified Teachers.

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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, the Diocesan Board and the Director of Children’s Services for Tower Hamlets.

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Her Majesty’s Inspector

Tribal Education 1–4 Portland Square Bristol BS2 8RR T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0845 123 6001 Direct F 0845 123 6002 Direct email :rebecca.jackson@tribalgroup.com

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place in November 2010

 Improve leadership and management by: - setting more challenging targets that require pupils to make at least satisfactory progress - improve staff deployment to enable the best teachers to make a more direct impact on learning - improve monitoring activity to ensure that points are identified and followed up promptly - improve the effectiveness of the governing body’s monitoring of the school’s work - meeting the requirements for community cohesion in order to support pupils’ contribution to the community and their social and cultural development.

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place in November 2010

 Improve teaching so that pupils’ progress is consistently good throughout the school, especially in writing, by: - ensuring that all teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are sufficiently ambitious - ensuring that lessons engage and challenge all pupils and meet pupils’ differing needs and abilities - improve the quality and consistency of marking to have a better impact on pupils’ learning and showing pupils how to make improvement.

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place in November 2010

 Improve attendance so that it is average by the end of July 2011.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, groups of pupils, the chair of the governing body, a representative from the local authority and senior staff.

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Context

Since the previous inspection, the school has deployed the deputy headteacher and an assistant headteacher as class teachers in Years 4 and 6 in addition to their leadership roles.

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

The standards of pupils’ work varies from class to class. Recent improvements in the quality of teaching and learning in Years 4 and 6 are having a clear impact on increasing the rates of progress made by pupils in these classes. However, these improvements are recent and have not been sustained over a sufficiently long enough period of time to compensate for previous low levels of attainment, especially for more able pupils.

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

Across the school, current levels of progress are variable but are satisfactory overall. Pupils are beginning to improve their writing skills as a result of the school’s strong focus on this area and the support of local authority consultants. Pupils are provided with weekly opportunities to extend their writing and these are helping pupils to apply their skills across the curriculum. Presentation in pupils’ books is variable and there were examples of poorly presented work and variations in the quality of handwriting.

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

Children in the Reception class benefit from activities in small groups to develop their early reading skills. Some key members of Early Years Foundation Stage staff provide focused activities in writing and mathematics and these help children to develop their early writing and mathematical skills. However, the large numbers of children in the combined Nursery and Reception class make it difficult to ensure high quality learning opportunities are provided for all. Children enjoy the outdoor areas and develop their social and physical skills well but opportunities are missed to engage all learners through purposeful activities. Judgement Progress since the previous section 5 inspection on the areas for improvement:  Improve teaching so that pupils’ progress is consistently good throughout the school, especially in writing – satisfactory.

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

Overall, pupils’ behaviour observed in lessons is consistently good and they show positive attitudes to learning. In the best lessons, pupils’ behaviour promotes learning well. Pupils report mostly feeling safe in school, although a number report that they feel that occasionally the school does not act upon reports of poor behaviour in the playgrounds and at the end of the school day. Pupils’ attendance is low. Older pupils reported that their attendance was adversely affected by a restricted curriculum limited to revision, English and mathematics.

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

Pupils make a positive contribution to the school’s spiritual ethos through their enthusiastic singing. Pupils clearly enjoyed singing harmonies and kept in time singing two parts of a song led confidently by a class teacher. Pupils have a sound understanding of how to stay healthy. Pupils report that the school’s work in encouraging healthy lifestyles has a positive impact on their food and drink choices outside of school. Pupils’ understanding of other cultures is limited and the school does not make full use of the range of cultures and faiths within its own community to further develop pupils’ understanding.

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The effectiveness of provision

With appropriate local authority support, teaching and learning across the school have improved and are satisfactory overall, although some of these improvements remain fragile. There were examples of consistently good teaching in Years 4 and 6. Inconsistencies in teaching, however, result in pupils making patchy progress, particularly in Years 2 and 3. Teachers were increasingly confident in the use of modelling examples of their own and pupils’ work to develop pupils’ writing skills. Interactive whiteboards and classroom displays are used consistently well to support pupils’ learning. In the better lessons, teaching assistants were clear about learning intentions and, consequently, were able to provide more detailed assessments of pupils’ progress.

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The effectiveness of provision

Relationships across the school are good because behaviour management strategies are applied appropriately so that pupils are quick to respond to warnings from class teachers. The regular support of external consultants has resulted in improvements in the frequency and quality of planning, although learning intentions and success criteria are vague in far too many lessons and do not consistently meet the needs of more able pupils. Pupils are now provided with regular feedback and receive confirmation that teachers value their work. Across the school, marking is more consistent in evaluating pupils’ work against the learning intentions. Where these are specific and clearly communicated, they provide teachers with helpful assessments to plan subsequent lessons. Judgement Progress since the previous inspection on the areas for improvement:  Improve teaching so that pupils’ progress is consistently good throughout

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The effectiveness of provision

the school, especially in writing – satisfactory.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

With support from the local authority, leaders and managers have developed a more thorough monitoring of the performance of the school. Regular monitoring of teaching and learning has been used to more accurately identify weaknesses and ensure that these are followed up to improve performance. Monitoring by external consultants provides teachers with a clear indication of the areas to develop and is linked to the provision of support for individual teachers. Leaders and managers have acted to drive improvement; senior members of staff have been well deployed to provide consistently good teaching and learning in Years 4 and 6. Teachers are clear about required improvements and have received individual support.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The school’s improvement plans provide a comprehensive range of actions aimed at the key priorities. However, they do not make consistent use of the school’s pupil tracking data to set quantifiable success criteria. This hampers evaluation of the relative effectiveness of individual actions. External support from the local authority has helped to support improvements in monitoring. However, this support has left subject leaders in key areas of English and mathematics unsure of their roles. Consequently, subject leaders’ contribution to setting action plans aimed at key priorities and their monitoring of these actions is limited.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Progress in improving attendance across the school is inadequate because attendance remains low. The introduction of a range of initiatives, suitably differentiated to improve attendance rates of individual pupils, has been too recent to result in improvements.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Governors have been responsible for drawing up an action plan to increase their numbers and to provide greater levels of challenge and support to the school. They are developing a clearer understanding of the information available to them. However, full governing body meetings are too infrequent to ensure that governors are fully up to date with the rapid pace of change.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Progress since the previous inspection on the areas for improvement:  Improve leadership and management – satisfactory.  Improve attendance so that it is average by the end of July 2011 – inadequate.

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External support

The local authority’s statement of action is satisfactory and reflects a clear understanding of the issues facing the school. It has been amended to provide further information on the persons responsible for leading specific actions. It includes additional information on the resources that it provides which are reviewed termly. The statement of action does not currently provide an overview of how resources will be tailored to meet the needs of the school over the next two years. Local authority consultants have provided support to individual teachers to improve their planning and develop their subject knowledge. However, there has been less support for staff in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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External support

The local authority has established a core group which has a clear brief to monitor and evaluate the progress of the school. This is fully informed by a range of monitoring activities which have provided an independent view of the quality of the school’s work in improving the quality of teaching and learning.

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Priorities for further improvement

 Ensure that planning and assessments provide clear learning intentions that match the needs of pupils of all abilities.  Increase the levels of local authority support for the Early Years Foundation Stage.  Ensure that all parties work closely so that gains made by leaders and managers in addressing key priorities are sustainable.

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