Fleecefield Primary School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 26–27 January 2012 Inspection number 376652 Fleecefield Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 101990 Local authority Enfield Inspection number 376652 Inspection dates 26–27 January 2012 Lead inspector Clive Dunn

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 480 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Elpida Theophanus Headteacher Antoinette Goldwater Date of previous school inspection 9 June 2009 School address Brettenham Road London N18 2ES Telephone number 020 8807 7899 Fax number 020 8807 1998 Email address office@fleecefield.enfield.sch.uk achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

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after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Inspectors spent a total of nearly 11 hours evaluating teaching and learning first-hand, observing the work of 15 teachers. This included observing 19 lessons for 25 minutes or longer, as well as shorter observations of lessons and individual or small-group additional intervention sessions. Discussions were held with pupils, parents and carers, staff and representatives of the governing body. Inspectors took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at a range of the school’s records and policy documents, teachers’ planning, pupils’ work, and 259 questionnaires returned by parents and carers.

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Information about the school

Fleecefield is larger than most primary schools. It serves an ethnically diverse pupil population and the large majority speak English as an additional language. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is much larger than average. The proportion known to be eligible for free school meals is also well above average. The school meets the current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations for attainment and progress. The headteacher took up the substantive post at the beginning of the current academic year following a year as acting headteacher starting in September 2010. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Key findings

 This is a satisfactory school. It makes effective provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This contributes well to pupils’ good feelings of safety, enjoyment and positive behaviour.  Children make an extremely positive start in Nursery and achieve well by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. In the rest of the school, although rates of progress are improving, inconsistencies mean that pupils’ progress and achievement are satisfactory overall. Different groups in the school make at least the progress expected of them and is in line with their peers.  The high priority the school places on developing pupils’ spoken language makes an important contribution to helping pupils quickly build from their very low starting points, particularly in language and literacy skills. This is also beginning to impact on pupils’ accelerating progress in writing in Key Stage 1.

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Key findings

 Much teaching in the school is good, though it does not always meet the needs of different groups well enough to have secured consistently good achievement and raise the quality of teaching above satisfactory.  The new headteacher has secured a renewed focus, drive and determination to improve pupils’ achievement. Well supported by the governing body and other leaders in the school, the impact of this is already evident. In 2011, end-of-Key Stage 2 results were the school’s best ever, rising to just above average for the first time.  With an increased ambition and rigour, leaders at different levels recognise that there is still more to do to secure consistently good performance. Although the school tracks the performance of every individual carefully, it does not analyse the performance of different groups well enough to promote more rapid improvement.

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Key findings

Schools whose overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory may receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Secure at least consistently good achievement in reading, writing and mathematics across Key Stages 1 and 2 by:  raising attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 so that the gap with national averages reduces by the end of the current year and that by Summer 2013, school results are at least in line  increasing the numbers of pupils who reach the higher National Curriculum levels by the end of Key Stage 1  securing at least good progress consistently across Key Stage 2.  Improve the quality of teaching and learning in Key Stages 1 and 2 so that by the end of 2012 it is consistently at least good and supports the school’s drive to raise achievement by:  improving the quality of daily phonics sessions (letters and sounds) to quicken the pace at which pupils develop the skills required to read and spell independently, including listening carefully to the different sounds within a word  ensuring different groups of pupils in the class are challenged

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

appropriately to develop skills quickly at their own level  shortening the length of time spent in whole-class lesson introductions  helping pupils to understand precisely how to improve their writing, including through good-quality marking and the use of individual next steps targets.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management at all levels to accelerate the rate of improvement by:  making better use of data about the progress of individual pupils to analyse and evaluate the performance of different groups in the school and pinpoint areas for improvement  increasing the rigour of leaders’ evaluation of teaching and learning by ensuring lesson observations focus closely on the learning of different groups in the class.

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Achievement of pupils

Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage sustain attention well in short adult-led sessions, demonstrating good levels of curiosity and interest. Increasingly purposeful and industrious in the classroom and the outside area, they quickly develop independence when choosing activities. Though their achievement is good overall, they make exceptional progress in their personal, social, emotional and creative development.

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Achievement of pupils

Almost all parents and carers feel their children are making good progress. While this Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Achievement of pupils

is sometimes the case, pupils’ progress is inconsistent across the school. Attainment in 2011 was broadly average but over time has generally been below average reflecting satisfactory achievement, including for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. Attainment in reading at the end of Key Stage 2 is better than writing and is broadly average. The current Year 6 pupils are not on track to match the levels attained by the previous cohort, having begun from lower starting points. Pupils respond positively to opportunities to discuss their work or tackle tasks collaboratively, remaining on task and working productively. As one pupil put it, ‘It’s fun to work with your partner, you learn more.’ Boys and girls alike, show they are keen to succeed.

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Achievement of pupils

Attainment by the end of Year 2, including in reading, remains below average. However, the quality of learning for current Key Stage 1 pupils is improving and much is now good. Pupils in Year 1 sustain engagement in longer, independent writing tasks. Some pupils use phonic knowledge to build words, though pupils are not always sure how to use this to read unfamiliar words. Though still below the expected level, work in Year 2 books reflects satisfactory and accelerating rates of progress, with more sustained writing, better punctuation and improved sentence structure. However, very few more able pupils attain the higher levels in reading, writing or mathematics before they enter Year 3.

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Achievement of pupils

In Key Stage 2, the quality of work in pupils’ books reflects variations between classes. In some, work shows pride, careful presentation and good progress, but in others, books do not reflect the same quality nor demonstrate a steady pace of learning. Progress is broadly consistent for different groups. For some, such as those known to be eligible for free school meals or who speak English as an additional language, the school successfully closes the gap with national expectations. Similarly, in the most recent end-of-Key Stage 2 results, Black African pupils, who represented the largest ethnic group in the cohort, reached higher levels of attainment than both this group, and all pupils, nationally. Targeted additional interventions for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs sometimes significantly accelerates their progress in a particular area, such as reading. Key Stage 1 pupils with particular

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Achievement of pupils

behaviour and/or personal, social and emotional difficulties are included in a nurture group that effectively breaks down barriers they may have to learning and enables them to engage and develop.

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Quality of teaching

A stimulating environment combined with good quality teaching contributes well to good achievement in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Adults interact well with children, making careful observations and precise assessments of children’s capabilities and using these very well to target their next steps.

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Quality of teaching

Most parents and carers say their children are taught well. Some teaching in the rest of the school is good, but not enough to secure consistently good achievement. Lessons usually proceed at a good pace, while allowing time for reflection; an example of how teachers effectively promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Quality of teaching

cultural development. In line with the curriculum focus on speaking skills, many lessons include good opportunities for discussion or collaboration. For example, a clear, purposeful task in Year 5 created constructive, focused discussions as pupils worked together to improve a text. However, teachers sometimes include too much in whole-class teaching at the beginning of lessons, which delays opportunities for pupils to work independently. Though usually adapted for different groups, tasks do not always match pupils’ different needs closely enough to promote quicker progress. Teaching assistants are well prepared and deployed, support targeted pupils effectively and have a positive impact on learning.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers routinely share with the children what they are supposed to be learning and how to be successful, though this can focus too much on completing the task and not on the skills they are developing or the intended learning. Pupils are not always clear about the individual steps they need to take to improve their writing. The pace of phonics teaching is occasionally too pedestrian to focus pupils’ attention well enough. Pupils do not always listen sufficiently carefully to identify precisely the different sounds that make up words.

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Quality of teaching

Good verbal feedback from teachers helps improve pupils’ spoken language, including developing sentence structure and use of vocabulary. A typical example of this was seen in a Year 2 lesson, where improved sentence structures were evident in pupils’ writing. The quality of marking is variable. Though sometimes thorough, it tends to focus too much on individual spelling and punctuation corrections, rather than showing pupils what they can do in the future to improve their work.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Most parents, carers and pupils report that behaviour is good and inspectors agree. Though behaviour was the largest area of disagreement in the results of the parents’ and carers’ questionnaire, this still amounted to very few parents and carers expressing concerns. Pupils respond positively to the school’s effective behaviour strategies and conduct themselves well in lessons, assemblies, the corridors and break times. They understand the importance of the school’s rules and know exactly the consequences of not following them. In pupils’ eyes they are all ‘treated fairly and the same’. Pupils respond well to adults’ clear expectations and are respectful of each other in lessons, which consequently usually flow uninterrupted. Scrutiny of behavioural records and discussions show that behaviour over time is good.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils feel safe and secure at school. Attendance is above average and the school is rightly proud that no pupils are persistently absent. Staff are meticulous in their record-keeping of bullying and other incidents. Rigorous and regular monitoring of these records, including analysing for any patterns, enables leaders to ensure that their action is effective. Pupils report that when bullying occurs, the school responds quickly and effectively. They have a good understanding of different types of bullying, including cyber-bullying, and of how to keep themselves safe when using new technologies. Racist incidents are infrequent and have reduced over recent years. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Leadership and management

Leaders, including the governing body, share an accurate view of the school’s performance and are realistic about what still needs to be improved. They know that historically pupils have not always achieved well enough. Resulting action has already had an impact. Staff continue to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively, securing good behaviour and attitudes and eradicating persistent absence. Well-targeted professional development has secured an increasing consistency of good teaching at Key Stage 1 in particular, establishing a trend of sustained improvement in writing and eradicating previously inadequate progress. Decisive action to tackle historic underachievement significantly accelerated the progress of the previous Year 6 cohort, securing the school’s highest ever results. There is a secure, significantly upward trend since the previous inspection in the

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Leadership and management

proportion of children reaching a good stage of development by the end of Reception Year. All of this demonstrates that the school has the capacity to improve further.

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Leadership and management

Staff and leaders at different levels are committed to the renewed drive to raise standards. Through thorough tracking of the progress of individuals, the school actively seeks to break down potential barriers and promote equal opportunities. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated. However, leaders recognise that they do not use the data about pupils’ progress to analyse the performance of different groups well enough to close gaps more rapidly. Similarly, though leaders regularly monitor the quality of teaching, set targets to improve performance and follow these through, evaluations do not always focus rigorously on the learning of different groups.

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Leadership and management

In a cohesive and ethnically diverse community, assemblies and the curriculum provide pupils with positive learning experiences about their own and each other ’s cultures and heritage. The curriculum is currently under review to ensure it meets the needs of pupils as well as preparing them well for the future. Existing adaptations to the school’s broad and balanced curriculum are successful in meeting particular individual needs. For example, the nurture group’s success in breaking down early barriers to engagement and achievement has a lasting impact for pupils as they move through school.

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Leadership and management

The school’s engagement with parents and carers is very strong, reflected in the very positive views of the significantly higher-than-average proportion of parents and carers that returned an inspection questionnaire; well over half of those registered. Safeguarding procedures meet statutory requirements.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 46 46 8 0 Primary schools 8 47 40 5 Secondary schools 14 38 40 8 Special schools 28 48 20 4 Pupil referral units 15 50 29 5 All schools 11 46 38 6

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously. The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk). The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstanding schools. Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance: the regular attendance of pupils at school and in lessons, taking into account the school’s efforts to encourage good attendance.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour: how well pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils’ punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school’s overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils’ attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety: how safe pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils’ freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Fleecefield Primary School, Enfield, N18 2ES

Thank you very much for the warm, friendly welcome you gave us when we visited your school recently. We really enjoyed meeting you and finding out all about how you are getting on. Thank you also to those of you who spoke to us, read your books to us, or answered our questionnaire. You told us you enjoy school and feel safe when you are there. We can see that is true by your good behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection of Fleecefield Primary School, Enfield, N18 2ES

We have judged your school to be satisfactory, which means it does some things well but there are also important things it needs to do better. Children in Nursery and Reception Year do very well. In the rest of the school, you make the progress that is expected of you. Some teaching and learning are good, but not enough to make sure you achieve well all the time.

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Inspection of Fleecefield Primary School, Enfield, N18 2ES

Those who are responsible for running your school are keen to improve it for you and have suitable plans to achieve this. The things they have done so far have started to make a difference already. To help them, we have asked them to do a number of important things.  Make sure you achieve well all of the time by helping those of you in Key Stage 1 to develop better skills before you start Key Stage 2 and then build on this by making sure you progress at a good rate.  Make sure teaching is always at least good, so that lessons are never too easy or too hard for all of you, you spend less time at the start of lessons as a whole class, and teachers help you understand exactly how to improve your writing, including by making marking better.  Make better use of information the school has about how well each of you is doing to make sure things improve at a quicker rate.

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Inspection of Fleecefield Primary School, Enfield, N18 2ES

You can all help by continuing your good behaviour, coming to school as often as you can, and always trying your hardest, particularly when set tasks to do in lessons.

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Inspection of Fleecefield Primary School, Enfield, N18 2ES

Clive Dunn Lead inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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