Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr S Biggs Headteacher Hatherden Church of England Primary School Hatherden Andover SP11 0HT

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education (PE)

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of the staff and pupils, during my visit on 26 May 2011 to look at work in PE.

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education (PE)

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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education (PE)

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: interviews with you and pupils; scrutiny of relevant documentation; and observation of three lessons.

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education (PE)

The overall effectiveness of PE is good with some outstanding features.

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Achievement in PE

 Pupils achieve well because of the quality of teaching. They gain new skills at a good rate, especially in a broad range of games-based activities and dance. Most pupils are able to work independently and cooperatively in small groups to improve their skills and most persevere to improve the quality of their performance.  Pupils have good understanding of how to lead a healthy active lifestyle. Their good physical fitness enables them to work hard for sustained periods of time. Pupils make appropriate changes to improve their own work although their ability to observe, evaluate and make suggested improvements for others’ work is less well developed.  Older pupils demonstrate leadership through young leaders’ roles or by taking different roles in lessons. However, few pupils have opportunities to develop their skills to coach and improve each other’s work or to officiate. All pupils have good opportunities to feed back on provision and their

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Achievement in PE

suggestions have resulted in changes to the curriculum. They demonstrate high levels of enjoyment and enthusiasm for the subject and display positive attitudes in lessons and extra-curricular activities.

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Quality of teaching in PE

The quality of teaching in PE is good overall with some that is outstanding.

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Quality of teaching in PE

 Teachers and the external coach have high expectations and good subject knowledge. They use these attributes well to observe and intervene with good-quality feedback that enables pupils to understand how to improve their work and leads to good progress. In one outstanding lesson, the teacher gave very specific small steps to individual pupils so that they were able to make exceptional progress based on their own need and preferred way of learning.  Relationships between staff and pupils are outstanding and pupils respond very positively to adults’ comments. Teachers and teaching assistants are skilled at using questioning to check pupils’ understanding and thinking about how to complete tasks. At times, this could be extended further to inject even more challenge, especially for higher attaining pupils. Good adaptations are made to tasks to ensure that lower ability pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities are included fully in

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Quality of teaching in PE

lessons.  A good range of resources is used to match pupils’ needs, including giving the youngest pupils independent choices of equipment to support their development and control of bat and ball skills. The use of information and communication technology is emerging as a stimulus for dance and to record pupils’ experiences in PE. Opportunities are missed to use captured images for immediate observation and feedback with pupils on how to improve their work further. The pace of lessons is good, although it occasionally drops when there is too much teacher input and pupils are inactive for too long.  Assessment has been recently introduced and gives a broad overview of pupils’ achievement in the different activities. It misses the opportunity to assess pupils’ attainment in the four strands of the National Curriculum. You have already identified the need to use assessment information more robustly when planning future work so that it more closely matches the

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Quality of teaching in PE

needs of pupils, especially in the level of challenge for those with higher abilities.

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Quality of the curriculum in PE

The quality of the curriculum in PE is good with outstanding features.

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Quality of the curriculum in PE

 The planned curriculum offers a breadth of experiences that includes all activities in the National Curriculum programme of study. However, units of work are yet to be embedded fully following the whole-school review of the curriculum. Good links are created between subjects and pupils were particularly excited about choreographing dances that used their knowledge about the class theme of the rainforest.  Time allocated to the subject is excellent and reflects its profile across the school. All pupils participate in a minimum of two hours PE and school sport each week with additional short-burst sessions of activate and/or huff and puff each day. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 also have good opportunities to swim and to attain the expected standard. At least half the pupils participate in extra-curricular activities, although the school does not monitor this to provide a secure view of regular participants or to

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Quality of the curriculum in PE

target more reluctant pupils.  A good programme of extra-curricular and enrichment activities is available for all age groups. Pupils in Key Stage 2 have good opportunities to participate in outdoor and adventurous activities through residential trips and all pupils benefit from working in teams during the problem- solving activities and tournaments on challenge days. Effective links with the school sports partnership have extended further opportunities for pupils of all ages to participate in dance festivals and sports tournaments.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in PE

The effectiveness of leadership and management in PE is good.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in PE

 As the temporary subject leader, you provide good support for the development of PE. You have good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the subject and through the new assessment procedures have a more secure view of pupils’ achievement. Priorities for improvement are translated into an effective action plan although this does not focus enough on the impact of teaching and the curriculum on pupils’ learning. Monitoring and evaluation of PE are part of a rolling programme across the school.  PE has a high profile in and around the school. This is reflected in pupils being physically active every day, the broad range of activities and resources and playground equipment that provides a stimulating learning environment. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about the celebration assemblies where their individual and team successes are recognised. Good links have been created with local sports clubs to ensure that pupils have a clear

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in PE

pathway to participate in sport outside school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 ensuring that evaluations of teaching and the curriculum focus on the impact on pupils’ learning  embedding the new PE curriculum across the school to:  secure progression in skill development  ensure consistently high expectations. I hope that these observations are useful as you continue to develop PE in the school. As I explained previously, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection. Except in the case of academies, a copy of this letter is also being sent to your local authority.

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