Mowden Infant School

Mowden Infants' School Inspection report

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Age group 5–7 Inspection date(s) 27–28 June 2012 Inspection number 404555 Unique Reference Number 138175 Local authority Darlington Inspection number 404555 Inspection dates 27–28 June 2012 Lead inspector Barbara Hudson

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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 Maintained Age range of pupils 5–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 180 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair E McAllister Headteacher B Watkinson Date of previous school inspection 2 December 2008 School address Bushel Hill Drive Darlington DL3 9QG Telephone number 01325 380820 Fax number 01325 357548 Email address adminjun@mowdenfederation.darlington.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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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

Barbara Hudson Kathleen Mullen Additional inspector Additional inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Inspectors visited 14 lessons or parts of lessons. Seven teachers were observed and one teaching assistant and approximately eight hours were spent in direct observation of teaching and learning. Meetings were held with groups of pupils, members of the governing body and school staff. The inspectors observed the school’s work in and out of the classrooms and looked at documentation relating to pupils’ achievement, safeguarding, school improvement planning and the governing body. Inspectors analysed parents’ and carers’ responses expressed in the 68 questionnaires returned and the responses in questionnaires completed by staff and pupils.

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Information about the school

This is an average-sized infant school. The infant school has been in a hard federation with the junior school on the same site since March 2010, and shares the same headteacher and two deputy headteachers, one based in the infants and the other in the juniors. The two federated schools have been part of an academy trust since June 2012. The Ofsted inspection teams for both schools collaborated on the inspection and the production of the reports.

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Information about the school

Almost all pupils are of White British heritage. A few pupils are from minority-ethnic backgrounds and almost all od this group speak English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well below average. The proportion of those supported by school action plus or with a statement for special educational needs is very low. The school has achieved numerous national awards including Healthy School status, Activemark and Eco-school Green Flag Award. 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 not yet outstanding because pupils’ progress is not consistent in all subjects. Parents, carers, pupils and staff are very positive about the school. The recent federation of the infant and junior schools has had a very positive impact on school development.

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Key Findings

 Progress is good and often outstanding in reading and writing so that pupils, by the end of Key Stage 1, are keen readers and write exceptionally well. However progress in mathematics, although good and sometimes outstanding, slows in Year 1. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage make good progress in all areas of learning. However, in the adult-led activities a few children do not receive the attention they require because teaching groups are too big.

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Key Findings

 Teaching is good overall. However, it varies from outstanding to satisfactory and this affects the rate of progress pupils make. When teaching is outstanding, activities capture pupils’ imagination and they are given very clear instructions about what they are to learn and how they will achieve it. This is not evident in lessons that are satisfactory. In some lessons in mathematics in Year 1, activities are not always well matched to pupils’ level of ability.

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Key Findings

 The excellent relationships between staff and pupils ensure pupils are eager to learn and feel very safe and secure. They fully understand and meet the very high expectations the school has for behaviour. Pupils’ attitudes to work are excellent.

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Key Findings

 The skilful bringing together of the infant and junior school staff into the Federation of Mowden Schools has resulted in good systems for the management of performance and the leadership of teaching. The rigour with which performance is evaluated is ensuring that the school is improving at a good rate.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure pupils’ progress is consistently good or better across the school by: - ensuring that work is always well matched to pupils’ abilities and that every lesson has a clear focus for learning, particularly in mathematics in Year 1 - reducing the size of the groups in adult-directed activities in the Early Years Foundation Stage, so that each child’s needs can be focused upon more effectively - building on the best practice in the school and the federation to raise the quality of teaching further.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils are very motivated to learn because they know what they do well, where they need to improve and strive to achieve their challenging targets. This is due to the recent successful introduction of a pupil mentoring system by the federation. The good teaching and interesting curriculum ensure pupils are enthusiastic learners as they eagerly master new knowledge and skills. This was very evident in an outstanding Year 2 literacy lesson where pupils were required to help ‘policeman Henderson bear’ to find the punctuation ‘stolen’ from sentences.

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Achievement of pupils

All parents and carers who completed the questionnaires are very pleased with the progress their children make in the federation. As one parent or carer wrote on a questionnaire, ‘Every child is seen as a child first, whose strengths and passions are built on, and areas of weakness are developed.’

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Achievement of pupils

Children start in the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills and knowledge that are above average. Careful monitoring of children’s abilities and interests enables staff to provide a good range of appropriate activities both indoors and outdoors which promotes good learning. Children make good progress and leave the Early Years Foundation Stage with attainment well above average. In Key Stage 1 pupils make good progress to attain significantly better than the national average. Most pupils attain Level 2a and some attain Level 3. In some lessons progress is outstanding, as in Year 2 when pupils are given a high level of challenge and activities captivate their attention. Attainment in reading at the end of Year 2 is significantly above average. Pupils read with fluency, good expression and have good comprehension skills. In mathematics progress is sometimes slower in Year 1 because work is not always matched to pupils’ level of ability.

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Achievement of pupils

Staff are well organised to ensure disabled pupils and those with special educational needs and the very few who are learning English as an additional language make good progress. This is because their ability is carefully analysed and a good range of bespoke interventions are put in place and carefully monitored and evaluated.

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Quality of teaching

Parents, carers and pupils highly value the good teaching provided by staff. Overall teaching is good; however, it varies from outstanding to satisfactory. When teaching is outstanding lessons are broken down into small segments and pupils are given very clear instructions about what they are to learn and how they will achieve this goal. This was very evident in a science lesson where pupils were asked to work through an experiment to find out which substances, when mixed with water, would result in a process that is reversible or irreversible. The frequent reminders to, ‘think like a scientist’ to solve their problem helped pupils make outstanding gains in their knowledge and skills. In the Early Years Foundation Stage teaching is good because all staff are very good at asking pertinent questions to help children think and move their learning on. This is particularly evident when the children choose their activities and the groups are small. In the adult-led activities, the bigger groups

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Quality of teaching

reduce the amount of focused questioning and support for individual children. In satisfactory lessons, particularly in mathematics in Year 1, lessons often lack a clear focus on what pupils are to learn and what they need to do to achieve it, and, as a consequence, pupils make satisfactory progress rather than good or better.

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Quality of teaching

The presentation of pupils’ work is good and pupils are proud of what they produce. Teachers' marking of pupils’ work is regular and often helpful. It is most helpful in pupils’ writing books when teachers provide prompts for improvements, which pupils respond to by improving their work.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching provides disabled pupils and those with special educational needs with excellent levels of care and support which bolsters their confidence and allows them to learn effectively. Their work is tailored to their needs and staff work very well with parents and carers so that they can support their children at home. Parents and carers of these pupils are full of praise for the care and support their children receive in school.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Staff have very high expectations for pupils’ behaviour. Pupils’ response is exceedingly positive, resulting in excellent behaviour in lessons and around school. Their excellent behaviour is reflected in their excellent attitudes, which enable them to apply themselves to the work they have been given to do. In discussions with pupils, they say behaviour is always as good as this. The pupils’, parents’ and carers’ questionnaires and the very few entries in the school’s logs for behaviour, bullying and racist incidents, confirm that what was observed during the inspection is the norm. The very successful use of the mentoring system introduced by the federation has had a very positive impact on those pupils’ whose behaviour can be more challenging than most, because it has provided everyone with a consistent framework to talk to pupils and to their parents and carers. Pupils show that they enjoy coming to school because their attendance is above average and they are very rarely

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

late. As one child said, ‘I love coming to school. I wouldn’t miss one day for the world.’

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

All staff are vigilant about keeping pupils safe. Pupils say bullying is very rare and they know about different types. If bullying does occur it is very quickly sorted out because they know that they have to tell an adult. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe beyond school, such as being safe on the roads and by ensuring that an adult knows where they are at all times.

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Leadership and management

The talented senior leadership team of the federation has, in a short space of time, very successfully brought together the staff from both schools into one cohesive group. The whole federation of staff and the governing body are ambitious and determined to continually make the school a better place for the pupils. Pupils, parents and carers also see that the federation has created much closer links between the two schools and this has had a very positive impact on the time when children transfer from the infant school to the juniors. The successful introduction of middle leaders within each school has strengthened the leadership team so that new ideas can be shared, discussed and better implemented.

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Leadership and management

Staff value highly the new opportunities that the federation has given them. An excellent example of this is the way in which the school’s teaching and learning policy has been reviewed and is used for rigorous performance management and appropriate professional development. The recently introduced assessment system is ensuring that each pupil’s progress is carefully monitored. The rigorous analysis of the assessment data is ensuring that when a pupil falls behind, interventions are put in place and, if necessary, leaders can work with staff to ensure the problem is rectified so that pupils have equality of opportunity.

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Leadership and management

The sharing of good practice within the federation is the norm. A good example of this is the way in which both schools have revised the curriculum providing a good thematic, skills- based approach to planning, adapted from the infant school’s approach. The school is aware of the need to share the best practice in teaching, learning and the curriculum even more widely across the federation in order to improve the quality from good to outstanding. The federation, although a recent development, is having a very positive impact on the outcomes for the pupils and staff, showing good and accelerating capacity to improve.

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Leadership and management

All staff and the governing body have an accurate picture of the school’s strengths and where it needs to improve. An example of this being that steps have already been taken to improve the rate of pupils’ progress in mathematics in Year 1, although these have yet to have an impact. The highly effective governing body rigorously holds the school to account. Its members bring a wide range of expertise and experience to the service of the school and community. They are vigilant and prudent about ensuring good value for money and are very aware of the economies, both financial and in respect of time that the federation has given them. The governing body ensures that policies are understood and implemented effectively by all staff, including those for safeguarding and tackling discrimination. Members of the staff and the governing body make extremely positive partnerships with parents and carers, who, in turn, are high in their praise of how well their children are taught and cared

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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.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

The data in the table above are for the period 1 September to 31 December 2 011 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 ).

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

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.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

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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to share with their children. It describes Ofsted's main

findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

Thank you very much for the friendly welcome you gave the inspection team when we visited your school recently. We enjoyed talking with you and appreciated the open way in which you answered our questions. I am sure you will be delighted to know that we judge your school to be a good school. This means that the school has lots of good things, some that are outstanding and some that need improving.

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

Some of the good and outstanding things about your school are:

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

 the excellent way in which you apply yourself to the work you do in lessons and your outstanding behaviour  the good teaching that ensures you make good progress in your lessons  the way in which the staff of the infant and junior school are working so well together to make the whole school a better place for all.

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

Even in good schools there are still things that can be improved. We have asked your headteacher to work with staff to look at ways in which:

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

 pupils in Year 1 can improve their progress in mathematics  the size of the teaching groups in the Early Years Foundation Stage can be reduced so that all children can get the attention they need  the excellent teaching in both schools can be used to increase the number of outstanding lessons in your school.

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

You can help the school become even better by continuing to work as hard as you do now in your lessons.

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Inspection of Mowden Infants' School, Darlington, DL3 9QG

Barbara Hudson 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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