Valley Road School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 23–24 February 2012 Inspection number 380579 Valley Road School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 123041 Local authority Oxfordshire Inspection number 380579 Inspection dates 23–24 February 2012 Lead inspector Barbara Atcheson

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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 Foundation Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 236 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Steve Haq Headteacher Tim Coulson Date of previous school inspection 26 June 2007 School address Valley Road Henley-on-Thames RG9 1RR Telephone number 01491 573784 Fax number 01491 637776 Email address Office.2512@valley-road.oxon.sch.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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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 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

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspectors observed teaching and learning in intervention sessions for individuals and small groups and 18 lessons, taught by nine teachers. They also held meetings with members of the governing body, staff, and groups of pupils. 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 school policies, including those relating to safeguarding and equality, minutes of governing body meetings, and planning documents. They scrutinised pupils’ work and evaluated questionnaires returned from 127 parents and carers, as well as others returned by staff and pupils.

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Information about the school

The school is of average size. Most pupils are of White British heritage. There are very few disabled pupils or pupils who have special educational needs. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. Children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage by joining either the school’s Nursery or Reception Year class depending on their age. The school has eight places for children from a local special school in its Nursery. Both the present headteacher and deputy headteacher were appointed since the previous inspection. The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress. There is a private extended day- care facility on the site, which is inspected separately. 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 good school. It is a warm, welcoming, cohesive community, where pupils, staff, and leaders share a passion for improvement and strive to help each other to do even better. They want to be an outstanding school. Senior leaders know that the reason it is not outstanding currently is that more work has to be done to increase the proportion of outstanding teaching and accelerate the progress of more able pupils.  Pupils achieve well and reach levels of attainment that are significantly above average by the end of Year 6.  Teaching is good and some is outstanding. Relationships are good and teachers motivate pupils. They use their own good subject knowledge well, but inconsistencies in the use of assessment exist and not all teachers have high- enough expectations of how well the more-able pupils can achieve and this can have a limiting effect on those pupils’ progress. Skilled teaching assistants make

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Key findings

a valuable contribution to pupils’ learning.  Pupils’ considerate, respectful, and courteous behaviour makes a positive contribution to the safe, happy and friendly school ethos. As a result, the special school Nursery children, who add a rich dimension to the school, integrate seamlessly.  Senior leaders work well as a team. They manage the performance of the school well and lead and manage teaching effectively. Well-focused professional development has led to improving pupils’ achievement in mathematics. Senior managers communicate high aspirations consistently. Although the school has developed effective procedures to monitor and evaluate the performance of pupils and staff, these have yet to be implemented fully.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the proportion of outstanding teaching by ensuring that:  all teachers’ expectations of what pupils can do are raised so that more-able pupils are suitably challenged  all teachers use assessment accurately on a day-to-day basis to plan 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?

effectively for the full range of pupils’ abilities  all senior leaders monitor the assessment and planning rigorously and provide feedback to teachers and points for action.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils, including disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, make good progress. Attainment at the end of Year 6 has been significantly above average for the past four years. The pupils achieve well because usually teachers support pupils effectively in lessons and use their subject knowledge well to develop pupils’ learning. However, on the rare occasions when expectations are not sufficiently high, especially for the more-able pupils, progress slows.

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Achievement of pupils

Small learning groups, often using practical activities and taken by skilled teaching assistants, make sure that any learning gap between the lowest 20% of pupils and the rest is closed quickly. This was seen clearly in a small group of Year 2 pupils who were working on halving and doubling numbers. They divided 20 toy animals randomly between two halves of a circle. They soon realised that half of 20 was ten, as a result of good questioning by the teaching assistant. By the end of the session, their understanding of halving and doubling numbers up to 20 was secure.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils say they are learning as much as they can. An overwhelming majority of parents and carers, correctly, recognise that their children are making good progress. They welcome the all-round education that the school promotes. One parent, voicing the views of many, said ‘My oldest boy is not only challenged academically, but has also had a wide range of experiences which will equip him for life outside the classroom.’ Boys and girls achieve very similar results in all subjects. Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make similar progress to their peers because of the consistent approach of all staff.

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Achievement of pupils

Good teaching of reading, writing and mathematical skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage gives children a secure foundation upon which they can build. Exciting, enjoyable experiences give them time to practise and consolidate what they have learned. An early emphasis on speaking and listening and a good understanding of letter sounds mean that, by the time they are six, pupils read confidently. By the end of Year 2, attainment in reading is above average. Pupils read fluently, referring back to the text to answer questions and making informed choices about their reading. Year 6 pupils read confidently at levels above those expected. They can express and justify their reading and author preferences and explain the key features, using detailed explanation with appropriate terminology, of how language is used.

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Quality of teaching

Evidence from the inspection supports the views of the overwhelming majority of pupils and parents and carers, that teaching is good. The way that teachers’ plan 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

work enthuses pupils so that they want to learn and interact in a positive way. Pupils enjoy ‘curriculum weeks’, when work is planned on a theme across key stages and older pupils work alongside younger pupils. They also enjoy the practical aspects of learning, found, for example, in mathematical investigations. Children in the Reception class were totally engaged in an exciting ‘Tiger Hunt’ in the outdoor area. They learned the correct words quickly to describe where they found clues, ‘under the box’, or ‘on top of the sand tray’.

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Quality of teaching

Effective teaching strategies, together with appropriately targeted support, match most pupils’ needs so that they learn well in all aspects of the curriculum. Assessment is usually used well to plan meaningful tasks, which are matched well to pupils’ different abilities. Even so, on rare occasions, work provided for the more-able pupils is not sufficiently challenging. Teachers’ good use of questioning deepens pupils’ understanding and helps to develop a range of skills in communication, reading, writing, and mathematics. Where teachers keep a constant check on pupils’ learning through the lesson, the pace of progress accelerates.

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Quality of teaching

All adults are good role models. Pupils develop good social and moral skills through copying the examples of adults and in the way in which they are taught to respect one another and work together. Well-planned opportunities for reflection help pupils to make connections between aspects of their learning and explore feelings and emotions. This was seen clearly when Year 6 pupils listened to a piece of music in a literacy lesson, as they visualised scenarios that would engage the reader. The fast pace of learning typifies lessons where the teaching is outstanding. In a Year 5 mathematics lesson, pupils rose to the challenge as they used mental calculations to help them round Olympic diving times to the nearest tenth of a second. Quick, mini- plenary sessions and spot checks on pupils’ learning kept them on their toes, highly engaged and highly enthusiastic. Well-deployed teaching assistants make a valuable

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Quality of teaching

contribution to pupils’ learning. They know the pupils well and are skilful in gauging the correct level of support pupils requiring extra help need in order to make similar good progress to all other pupils.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils and parents and carers agree that behaviour is good and the school is a safe place to be. Pupils who have been at the school from the Early Years Foundation Stage through to Year 6 are adamant that the school has always been happy and safe and that pupils want to learn and help each other. Pupils who are new to the school say it is very friendly and that they settled in quickly because they felt welcomed. Pupils say that there are a few lessons when pupils can lose concentration. Although pupils’ attention wavered on a very few occasions when work was too easy or the pace of learning dropped, behaviour in and around school over the course of the inspection was never less than good.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Attendance is above average because pupils enjoy school, have a positive attitude to learning, and lose no time in settling down to work. Older pupils enjoy helping younger ones and bonds have grown through curriculum weeks when they all work together. 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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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Children in the Nursery work happily with children from the special school and an ethos of mutual respect has been nurtured successfully throughout the school. Assemblies have ensured that pupils have a good awareness of different types of bullying and know what to do if ever they come across it. They say they feel safe because there is very little bullying of any kind in the school, including the physical, cyber, and emotional types. They know that there will always be someone who will listen to them and take swift, effective action should they ever be the subject of bullying.

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Leadership and management

Leaders and managers at all levels, including the governing body, share the headteacher’s focus on continual improvement. As a result of managing the school’s performance well, pupils have continually made good progress and the school has maintained significantly high levels of attainment in Year 6 for the last four years. Both recommendations from the last inspection report have been met. Self-evaluation is good. The school is quick to tackle areas of weakness. Attainment in mathematics rose to significantly above average, following initiatives that the school implemented successfully. All of this confirms the school’s good capacity for sustained improvement.

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Leadership and management

Although teaching is good, monitoring and evaluation have not yet eliminated the inconsistencies that prevent it from becoming outstanding. Teachers say that the impact of professional development has been positive. Special educational needs training has greatly improved the quality of teaching. Middle leaders have been empowered by the leadership training that they have received and this in turn played an integral part in boosting attainment in mathematics in 2011 through the successful implementation of a whole-school calculation policy.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is good and promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development well. It is based on a two-year rolling programme so that all areas are covered and none repeated. It ensures that all pupils understand the difference between right and wrong and the importance of respecting the views of others. Themed curriculum weeks provide unique opportunities for social interaction across the school as pupils work with different year groups. Events such as Black History Month and visits to different places of worship promote pupils’ cultural awareness successfully.

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Leadership and management

The high level of support given to the special school Nursery children within the school, which allows them to access all that is on offer within the school, demonstrates that the promotion of equality of opportunity is at the heart of all the school’s work. There is no evidence of discrimination. Staff are trained in the Equality Act 2010 and school policies ensure that they know and understand how to prevent and tackle all types of bullying and harassment. The governing body plays an important strategic role in this and is involved thoroughly in the whole work of the school. It also makes sure that the school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils 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 Valley Road School, Henley-on-Thames RG9 1RR

Thank you for being so friendly when we came to your school. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting your lessons and talking to you. You were very helpful and polite. Your school gives you a good standard of education and, because there are a lot of things your school does well, you all make good progress.

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Inspection of Valley Road School, Henley-on-Thames RG9 1RR

Thank you for filling in the questionnaire. We know from that and from what you told us that you enjoy school and that you feel very safe. We were impressed with your good behaviour and enjoyed seeing some of your interesting lessons. We were pleased to see that you understand how important it is to come to school regularly. We could see that you get on with each other well and help the school to run smoothly.

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Inspection of Valley Road School, Henley-on-Thames RG9 1RR

Your headteacher and other staff know that there is still work to be done to make the school even better. We have asked the school to make sure that all teachers expect only your very best work and give those of you who find work easy the right level of work to help you improve. We have asked senior leaders to check that all this is happening and talk to teachers about how they can improve their work. We hope that you will all continue to enjoy coming to school and try your hardest to do your very best all the time so that you are even more successful in the future.

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Inspection of Valley Road School, Henley-on-Thames RG9 1RR

Barbara Atcheson Lead inspector (on behalf of the inspection team) 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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