Colegrave Primary School

Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 6–7 February 2012 Inspection number 376762 Colegrave Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 102752 Local authority Newham Inspection number 376762 Inspection dates 6–7 February 2012 Lead inspector John Horwood

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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 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 545 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Lisa Spencer Headteacher Christine Alexander Date of previous school inspection 26–27 November 2008 School address Henniker Road Stratford London E15 1JY Telephone number 020 8534 0243 Fax number 020 8519 9485 Email address info@colegrave.newham.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 used a number of strategies to observe learning. These included lesson observations ranging from 10 to 45 minutes. A total of 10 hours was spent observing teaching, which included visiting 22 lessons taught by 22 teachers. Meetings were held with staff, members of the governing body and groups of pupils. Informal discussions also took place with parents, carers and pupils. Inspectors took account of the responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at documents including the school improvement plan, minutes of meetings, the school’s information on pupils’ progress and samples of pupils’ work. The responses to 241 questionnaires from parents and carers, 20 responses from staff and 94 responses from pupils were examined and analysed.

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Information about the school

Colegrave Primary School is a larger-than-average-sized primary school serving a culturally diverse community close to the 2012 Olympic Park. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is much higher than that found nationally, as is the proportion who speak English as an additional language. The largest groups are from Bengali and White Eastern European backgrounds. A high number of pupils join or leave the school part way through their primary education, partly because of a high number of refugee children. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is much higher than that found nationally. The proportions of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are higher than in most schools, as is the proportion who have a statement of special educational needs. The school has an additional resource provision for 14 pupils with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). The school servers a Travellers’ Site

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Information about the school

The school has gained the Investors in People award and the London 2012 Get Set Network (Living the Olympics and Paralympics Values) award. It meets the current floor standard.

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Key findings

 This is a good school. Outstanding leadership has ensured that the curriculum is rich and engaging. This both raises pupils’ self-esteem and motivates them to work hard and to learn.  Attainment has been steadily rising throughout the school as a result of accelerated progress. There are no significant or consistent differences between the levels of achievement of any groups of pupils.  Consistently good and improving teaching is accelerating pupils’ progress and the difference between the attainment of groups of pupils is reducing. Together with excellent partnership arrangements, it has a strong impact on pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  The provision for PMLD pupils is good and their progress is accelerating.  Pupils enjoy school and attendance is above average. There are good relationships between adults and pupils.  The safety of pupils is a high priority and safeguarding requirements are met.

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Key findings

Pupils say they feel safe and their parents and carers confirm this view.  The behaviour of the vast majority of pupils is good. As a result of first-class behaviour management, behaviour at the end of Key Stage 2 is excellent. Pupils and their parents and carers confirm that any incidents are dealt with well.  Leaders have united parents and carers, staff and pupils through improved communications and involvement.  The school provides excellent support for all pupils whose circumstances make them potentially vulnerable. Staff work with families of these pupils, which helps ensure continuity of care.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise attainment by:  monitoring pupils’ progress more consistently during lessons and, when necessary, quickly adapting activities to provide further challenge  involving pupils more in monitoring their own learning and discussing how to improve their work.

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Achievement of pupils

Children enter Reception with skill levels well below those expected for their age. Many are at the very early stage of speaking English. They make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage but are still below average when they move to Year 1 because of weaknesses in communication, language and literacy. In the current Reception classes, progress is accelerating as a result of excellent provision to develop early speaking and reading skills, including letters and sounds (phonics). Children are helped to learn by good teaching and a wide range of resources both indoors and outdoors. Within Key Stages 1 and 2, pupils continue to make good progress. Attainment levels are continuing to rise and over a three-year period have been broadly average at the end of Year 6. There are no significant differences between attainment in English and mathematics. Reading skills are broadly average throughout the school, although somewhat better at the end of Key Stage 2

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Achievement of pupils

compared to the end of Key Stage 1. Pupils who join the school part way through their education make good progress but their attainment is lower because many of the new arrivals are a long way behind in their learning. Pupils from Travellers’ community make good progress whilst in school. Younger pupils enjoy their phonics lessons, during which they acquire good skills and knowledge to support their reading and comprehension. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make good progress from their individual starting points. The PMLD pupils make at least good progress from their low starting points and this is accelerating quickly. Throughout the school, the progress seen in lessons is consistently good, and this is confirmed by the work seen in books. The vast majority of parents and carers say their children are making good progress and developing good academic skills.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils say they enjoy school, and the curriculum offers excellent opportunities for them to join in the activities and succeed with their learning. In a Year 5 mathematics lesson the subject of fractions was made to be enjoyable and exciting by physical activities and the way pupils were involved in acting out the calculations. A Year 4 science lesson gave pupils good opportunities to carry out investigations while a Year 3 history lesson was brought to life by simulating an archaeological ‘dig’. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are supported well in tasks matched to their abilities by caring and able teaching assistants.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching is consistently good and an increasing proportion is outstanding. Teachers have good relationships with pupils and provide a varied range of activities. They capture pupils’ imagination and stimulate a positive response, as was seen in a Year 6 lesson where they were provided with real-life experiences through writing to the local newspaper about their fund raising for the charity Water Aid. There are very effective intervention strategies to help those who are not making enough progress and to support disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. The progress tracking system is well established in the school and teachers have good skills in using assessment data and planning activities which build on previous learning. This is not always followed through during the lesson by adapting the activities if pupils find them too easy or difficult. Teaching assistants are well trained

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Quality of teaching

to support pupils’ needs and provide good support both in the classroom and during small-group work. Teachers mark pupils’ work regularly and provide constructive comments to help pupils improve their work. Within the classroom pupils are not always given the opportunities to assess their own work.

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Quality of teaching

The planned curriculum supports both academic and personal skills well. Teachers use topic work to extend and develop pupils’ basic skills across the curriculum. Learning about different faiths and cultures helps to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as well as giving them a wider understanding of the arts. The partnership with a Barnsley school has been particularly effective at supporting pupils’ personal skills and understanding. The two schools have worked together exceptionally well on projects linked to the Olympic Games, which have provided exciting opportunities for pupils from both schools. In the Early Years Foundation Stage children have good opportunities to choose the activities to work on. Teachers are good role models and have high expectations of pupils’ academic and social development. The vast majority of pupils and their parents and carers who completed questionnaires say teaching is good.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The behaviour seen during the inspection was consistently at least good and occasionally better. Teachers manage behaviour very well, mainly by keeping pupils actively engaged in their learning. Parents and carers, as well as pupils and staff, are very clear that this is the normal situation in the school. The questionnaire responses about behaviour and bullying were positive. There were a very few written comments about behaviour but these followed no particular trend and several parents and carers commented that they were not aware of any type of bullying in the school. The behaviour policy is consistently applied across the school and pupils know the boundaries. Rewards and sanctions are very effective. The school has effective procedures to prevent and deal with any incidents of bullying. The school is a very harmonious community and there have been no exclusions for poor behaviour or other misdemeanours during the past two years. Pupils say they feel safe in

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

school because they know that adults will sort out any problems that arise. Inspection findings support the prevailing view that behaviour and safety are typically good. Attendance at school is above average as a result of improvements seen during recent years. The vast majority of pupils arrive punctually at school.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher provides outstanding leadership and has distributed responsibilities across a wide leadership team to ensure effectiveness and continuity of provision. The motivation and leadership skills of leaders at all levels are exceptionally well developed. Leaders set extremely high expectations of staff and pupils to support their vision of excellent outcomes for children and their future. A parent and carer wrote that ‘the school is getting better and better since the headteacher arrived’. The governing body has a well-planned programme of visits to the school which helps it to offer excellent support and challenge. The good relationships throughout the school mean that every pupil is known by adults and their needs are addressed on an individual basis, ensuring they all have equal opportunities to succeed. There is no evidence of discrimination of any kind. An excellent programme for monitoring

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Leadership and management

and improving teaching and learning has led to an increase in the proportion of outstanding teaching. Regular rigorous progress meetings ensure that effective support is quickly put in place for those pupils who are not making enough progress. The achievement of groups of pupils is also monitored closely so that any differences are identified early and rectified.

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Leadership and management

Self-evaluation is accurate. The areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection have been successfully addressed. Pupils now have ample opportunities to learn through investigations in science and the school curriculum provides exceptional opportunities for all pupils, including the most able, to have a rich range of experiences. Well-planned links to the outside world, coupled with some memorable first-hand experiences, engage pupils and motivate them to learn. Leaders have been extremely proactive in developing these opportunities for pupils. They have successfully promoted the school, which will now be represented by pupils at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. They have developed outstanding links with a school in Barnsley, the MPs for Barnsley and Newham visited the school, and famous athletes have visited the school and talked to the children. These, together with other partnerships both nationally and internationally, have had

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Leadership and management

a major impact on the self-esteem of pupils, on their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and above all on their confidence and willingness to learn. Actions taken by leaders have ensured that good behaviour is the normal situation within the school. The school has an exceptional capacity for sustained improvement.

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Leadership and management

Safeguarding procedures fully meet statutory requirements. Those pupils whose circumstances make them potentially vulnerable are given exceptional support, and this support is extended to their families. For example, a partnership with a major department store offers work experience placements to unemployed parents. As part of the support for pupils a well-organised breakfast club is provided. The provision for PMLD pupils is very well managed.

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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 Colegrave Primary School, London E15 1JY

Thank you for making us so welcome when we visited your school. We enjoyed talking with you and looking at the work you do and we hope you enjoy being involved with the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games. Your school provides you with a good education.

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Inspection of Colegrave Primary School, London E15 1JY

There are things we admired about your school, and these are a few of them.  You all get on very well together, enjoy coming to school and you feel safe.  Your behaviour is good and you tell us that any type of bullying is very rare and dealt with quickly and well.  You all make good progress in lessons as a result of good teaching.  You have an excellent range of interesting learning activities and great opportunities to develop your personal skills through the Olympic Games projects and your link with the Barnsley school.  The headteacher and other leaders do an excellent job and are determined to improve the school still further.

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Inspection of Colegrave Primary School, London E15 1JY

For the school to become even better, we have asked your headteacher to:  ensure teachers consistently monitor your progress during lessons so that they can quickly adapt the activities you are given to provide further challenge  give you more opportunities to assess your own progress in lessons and to discuss how to improve your work.

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Inspection of Colegrave Primary School, London E15 1JY

All of you can help the school to move forward by continuing to work hard. We wish you every success in the future.

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Inspection of Colegrave Primary School, London E15 1JY

John Horwood 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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