Myland Community Primary School

Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 21–22 May 2012 Inspection number 378911 Myland Community Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 114708 Local authority Essex Inspection number 378911 Inspection dates 21–22 May 2012 Lead inspector Selwyn Ward

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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 321 Appropriate authority Essex Chair Heather Payne Headteacher David Young Date of previous school inspection 13 September 2007 School address Mill Road Colchester CO4 5LD Telephone number 01206 852109 Fax number 01206 855086 Email address admin@myland.essex.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 after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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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. The inspectors visited 27 lessons taught by 20 teachers, with a particular focus on the progress boys and girls make in their reading, writing and mathematics. Inspectors listened to pupils read, and spoke with parents and carers, groups of pupils, staff, and members of the governing body. Inspectors took account of the responses to the online Parent View survey in planning the inspection, and observed the school’s work. They looked at pupils’ books, school development planning, school self-evaluation, leaders’ monitoring of teaching and the questionnaire responses of 150 pupils, 46 staff and 215 parents and carers.

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Information about the school

This school is larger than the average primary school. Most pupils are White British, with around 20% coming from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. There are no pupils at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is much lower than in most schools. The school meets the government floor standards which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress. Myland has ActiveMark and International Schools awards. 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

 Myland provides a satisfactory education for its pupils. The school is popular with parents and carers, not least because it turns out confident and enthusiastic youngsters who are well-equipped with the skills needed to succeed when they move on to secondary school. The school is not yet good because pupils often make only satisfactory progress in lessons and because its informal management arrangements are not as efficient as they could be. Schools whose overall effectiveness is satisfactory may receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection.

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Key findings

 Achievement is satisfactory. Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 has mostly been above average and pupils make satisfactory progress over their time at the school. Assessments have varied in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, but leaders believe that these have not always given a wholly accurate picture of pupils’ performance.

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Key findings

 Pupils behave well and are eager to learn. Teachers succeed in motivating pupils because they make learning fun. A notable success of the school is the good curriculum that provides pupils with exciting opportunities to learn, especially through topics that bring different subjects together. Pupils’ thoughtful responses to learning and to each other, and their interest in the wider world, show that their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well.

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Key findings

 Lessons often move at a brisk pace, with lively question-and-answer sessions and varied activities that keep pupils engaged. Teaching is satisfactory rather than good because teachers do not routinely match work to pupils’ different capabilities. There are examples of good marking that helps pupils to improve their work, but this is not a uniform feature of marking throughout the school.

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Key findings

 Leadership and management are satisfactory. Leaders have been effective in maintaining a consistently positive climate for learning, where every child feels 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

valued. They have tackled areas of past underperformance, for example in improving pupils’ writing, but they have relied on management systems that are too informal with, for example, relatively few written records to track their observations of teaching.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 By the start of the summer term 2013, accelerate pupils’ progress in lessons by:  making full use of assessment information always to set work that builds on what pupils have learnt  always giving pupils work that is matched to their different capabilities and which challenges and extends them  consistently giving all pupils clear guidance through marking that shows them what they need to do to improve their work  maintaining appropriate rigour in correcting spelling and punctuation errors when marking pupils’ work  routinely giving pupils time in every class to read and respond to the comments teachers write when they mark their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop more formal and systematic management arrangements by the start of the spring term 2013 by ensuring that:  written records of all leaders’ lesson observations are maintained and are sharply focused on pupils’ learning and rates of progress  staff work together within the school, and with staff in neighbouring schools, to ensure that assessments in each year group are accurate and reliable  all staff with subject leadership roles have a clear understanding of progress tracking and are fully equipped to monitor provision and outcomes in their subjects  the school development plan sets out specific action to achieve the school’s priorities and incorporates measurable targets against which the governing body can gauge the school’s success.

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Achievement of pupils

Children join the Reception Year with skills and capabilities that are at least in line and often above those expected for their age. They make steady progress. Children currently in the Reception Year have been assessed as above average, although assessments have been lower in previous years. They have also been lower in Key Stage 1 than might be expected in relation to pupils’ starting points. Leaders have identified that assessments have not always been wholly accurate because teachers have sometimes under-assessed children in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. Previously unreliable assessments, however, make it difficult for the school to accurately track pupils’ progress. Nevertheless, pupils’ current work in 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

lessons and in their books confirms a picture of satisfactory progress. This is the case for boys and girls, those pupils learning English as an additional language, and disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.

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Achievement of pupils

Attainment in the Year 6 national tests has mostly been around a term ahead of the national average. It was average last year, and tracking data shows it to be average so far this year, and in both cases this represents satisfactory progress for pupils over the course of Key Stage 2. Attainment has traditionally been higher in mathematics than in English at this school. In response to this, leaders introduced an initiative to increase opportunities for writing in different subjects and to promote reading through a new scheme that emphasises letters and the sounds they make. This has been successful. Writing is much improved, and pupils’ reading at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 shows growing competence, with much that is of an above average standard.

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Achievement of pupils

The overwhelming majority of parents and carers express positive views about their children’s progress. Progress is satisfactory rather than good, however, because work in lessons is not always matched closely enough to the wide range of abilities in each class.

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Quality of teaching

Almost all pupils, parents and carers say the teaching is good. It is certainly the case that there are many good features of teaching across the school, but teaching is satisfactory overall because progress and learning for all pupils in lessons are more often satisfactory than good.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers know the pupils well and relationships throughout the school are good. Teachers are successful in making learning interesting and fun. They are especially adept at finding imaginative cross-curricular links between different subjects that help to bring learning to life. For example, pupils in Years 3 and 4, learning in science and personal and social education about the five food groups, were challenged to apply what they had learnt to facts about infant mortality in Tudor England. They drew on their knowledge of food groups, and on what they had learnt as part of their topic work on the Tudors, to hypothesise convincingly why it might be that infant mortality was actually higher among children in wealthy households than among common folk. Despite many strengths, learning in lessons is often only satisfactory because pupils of widely different abilities are given similar work to do. This means

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Quality of teaching

expectations of the most able pupils are not always high enough. Though teachers have a good understanding of what pupils already know, this is not always reflected in their planning. This meant that in the Years 3 and 4 science lessons, for example, there was relatively little new learning for those pupils who already knew about the different food groups. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are generally given appropriate support in lessons, supplemented by intervention group teaching to accelerate their progress. Although these pupils’ progress is satisfactory overall, there are examples of the small group and one-to-one teaching resulting in much more rapid progress for specific individuals, as seen, for example in 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

Pupils greatly enjoy the opportunities teachers provide for them to learn about different ways of life. They write with empathy. In a lesson discussing appropriate choices of gift for a child in India, pupils readily reflected on what Indian children were likely to need rather than applying their own personal desires and preferences.

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Quality of teaching

Marking is helping to drive improvement in pupils’ work in English, where much of it identifies what pupils need to do to improve. It is less effective in other subjects, such as science and some topic work, where teachers give much less guidance on how to do better. There is variation too in the rigour with which spelling and punctuation errors are corrected. Teachers frequently pose pupils questions when they mark their work but, too often, these go unanswered because time is not routinely earmarked for pupils to read and respond to teachers’ comments.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. Pupils, parents and carers confirm that this is the norm and was not just the case during the short time of the inspection. They confirm that bullying incidents are rare, and pupils show a good awareness of the different kinds of bullying to be on the lookout for. An assembly led by the headteacher highlighted for pupils the hazards of cyber-bullying when using the internet or texting on mobile phones. Pupils also demonstrated their keen awareness of risks and of how to keep safe, for example when cycling or crossing roads. Parents and carers agree that the school keeps their children safe.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils are mostly attentive in lessons, just occasionally becoming fidgety when expected to listen passively to over-long introductions. They are enthusiastic learners. Many hands go up in question-and-answer sessions, and pupils of all abilities work with concentration. Pupils settle to individual tasks without fuss and, when working together in pairs or small groups, pupils collaborate effectively, always keen to help each other.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Attendance has been consistently above average since the last inspection, and it has improved further this year.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher, leadership team, governing body and staff take a justifiable pride in the school’s success in promoting pupils’ confidence and personal development. There has been less success in maintaining the record of consistently above average attainment and progress that was described in the last inspection report. This is because the school has depended on informal systems for monitoring performance and teaching. Limited recording of lesson observations, for example, has made it more difficult for leaders to follow up, including with training, points for improvement identified when lessons have been observed. Lesson observations have sometimes focused more on the features of teaching and the engagement of pupils rather than 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

on their learning and progress. Not all staff with leadership roles have a comprehensive view of the provision, performance and progress in the subjects for which they are responsible.

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Leadership and management

The governing body is supportive and has ensured that arrangements for pupils’ safeguarding fully meet regulatory requirements. Though it agrees a costed annual school development plan, it does not ensure that the plan always sets out specific actions to achieve the school’s priorities. The lack of measurable success criteria in the school development plan limits its use by the governing body as a tool for setting targets or gauging the effectiveness of initiatives.

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Leadership and management

Although some inspection grades are not as high as in the last inspection report, the success of recent initiatives to raise attainment in reading and writing show the school’s capacity for improvement. Equal opportunities are promoted effectively and there is no discrimination. Though there are differences in the attainment of boys and girls in some year groups, this varies from year to year and there is no evidence that either gender generally outperforms the other. The curriculum is good, contributing very strongly to pupils’ enthusiasm for learning and their strong spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Art is of a high standard, and pupils savour the opportunity they have to learn Spanish. That this has broadened pupils’ horizons was vividly demonstrated when a lower-attaining child in Year 4 keenly spotted the similarity that an adjectival sentence had with the word order commonly used when

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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 54 42 2 2 Primary schools 14 49 32 6 Secondary schools 20 39 34 7 Special schools 33 45 20 3 Pupil referral units 9 55 28 8 All schools 16 47 31 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 to 31 December 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

Floor standards: the national minimum expectation of attainment and progression measures.

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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 Myland Community Primary School, Colchester, CO4 5LD

Hola. Thank you for being so friendly and helpful when we visited your school. I would particularly like to thank those of you who filled in questionnaires and who spoke to inspectors about your work.

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Inspection of Myland Community Primary School, Colchester, CO4 5LD

Myland provides you with a satisfactory education. You mostly make the progress expected of you over your time at the school. As a result, your attainment is usually above average by the time you leave at the end of Year 6. In the past, performance in mathematics has been stronger than English. That is still the case to some extent, but the gap is narrowing as your writing improves. You can help to accelerate that improvement by taking extra care to check your spelling and punctuation.

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Inspection of Myland Community Primary School, Colchester, CO4 5LD

We were pleased to see good behaviour throughout the school. Your positive attitudes are not only helping you to learn but are also contributing to your good personal development. You especially appreciate the opportunities you have to learn Spanish. As several of you told us, you enjoy school, not least because teachers make lessons interesting and fun. However, they do not always ensure that you all make as much progress in lessons as you could. This is the case in those lessons where you all do the same, regardless of what you have previously learnt. This is an aspect we have asked the school to improve. We have also asked the school to ensure that all marking gives you clear guidance on what you need to do to do better. Again, you can help to improve by always reading the comments teachers write when they mark your work, and doing your very best to follow their advice.

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Inspection of Myland Community Primary School, Colchester, CO4 5LD

Leaders at your school know how well you are all doing, but their systems for managing improvements are quite informal. We have suggested some ways of tightening procedures for monitoring lessons and keeping track of school improvements.

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Inspection of Myland Community Primary School, Colchester, CO4 5LD

Thank you again for helping us on this inspection, and our very best wishes to all of you for the future, both at this school and, for those of you in your last term here, for your new start next year at your secondary schools. Saludos.

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Inspection of Myland Community Primary School, Colchester, CO4 5LD

Selwyn Ward 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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