Morningside Primary School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 30 Apri – 1 May 2012 Inspection number 395579 Morningside Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 100232 Local authority Hackney Inspection number 395579 Inspection dates 30 April – 1 May 2012 Lead inspector Kathryn Taylor

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

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Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 458 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Toyin Ajidele Headteacher Jean Millham Date of previous school inspection 1–2 July 2009 School address Chatham Place Hackney London E9 6LL Telephone number 020 89855382 Fax number 020 89856881 Email address admin@morningside.hackney.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 thi nk 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

Clementina Ogunsanwo Additional inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days’ notice. Inspectors visited 24 lessons taught by 17 teachers, as well as observing pupils working in small groups, hearing children read and looking at their work. The inspectors held meetings with senior leaders, staff, members of the governing body and two representatives of the local authority. They took account of the responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) when planning the inspection. Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at documentation including information about pupils’ progress, school policies, procedures and safety information. They reviewed the questionnaire responses from staff, pupils and 34 parents and carers.

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Information about the school

Morningside is larger than the average-sized primary school and educates pupils from a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is much higher than average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is above average. The majority of these pupils have speech, language and communication difficulties, behavioural, social and emotional difficulties, or specific learning difficulties.

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Information about the school

Children enter Nursery at the age of three and attend on a part-time basis before transferring to Reception in the September following their fourth birthday. The school has a children’s centre on site. This is subject to a separate inspection and was not inspected at this time. The school provides a breakfast club and an after-school club that are managed by the governing body. The school meets the government’s current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress at the end of Key Stage 2.

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Information about the school

The headteacher was absent from school at the time of the inspection. An interim headteacher is in place. 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

 In accordance with section 13(3) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement.

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Key findings

 Achievement is inadequate. Throughout the school attainment in English is too low and pupils do not make the progress they should in reading and writing. Attainment in mathematics at the end of Key Stage 2 has been low in two of the last three years. The school is working to improve the standards that pupils in Year 6 reach by the time they leave. However, not enough is being done to improve the progress of pupils in other year groups so that they do not have to catch up in Year 6.

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Key findings

 Teaching is inadequate. There are specific weaknesses in the teaching of reading and writing. Teachers do not always check pupils’ progress closely enough and do not match work to what pupils need to learn next. However, the teaching in the Nursery is good.

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Key findings

 The poor behaviour of a minority of pupils sometimes disrupts lessons. In addition, supervision in the playground is not always effective. Consequently, some pupils say they do not always feel safe in school or are free from bullying. Behaviour and safety are therefore inadequate. Nevertheless, most pupils enjoy school and are keen to learn.

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Key findings

 Extra clubs and other enrichment activities are some of the school’s strengths. These make a positive contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The breakfast club and after-school club support working families well and provide good care for pupils.

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Key findings

 Leadership, including governance, is inadequate. School leaders have not 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

tackled the decline in the school’s performance since the previous inspection. They have not been rigorous enough in monitoring the behaviour, learning and progress of individuals and groups of pupils in order to address underachievement and ensure all pupils feel safe. They have not done enough to improve teaching and the curriculum to enable all pupils to achieve as well as they should.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise attainment in reading, writing and mathematics so it is at least in line with national averages at the end of each key stage, by ensuring that:  underperfoming pupils throughout the school are given the support and interventions they need to help them catch up  teachers give clear feedback from assessments during lessons and through marking so that pupils understand exactly what to do to improve their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching overall, and especially in English, by:  ensuring that lesson content is interesting and staff are not wholly reliant on published schemes of work  developing the expertise of staff in the teaching of reading and writing  raising teachers’ expectations of pupils’ presentation of work and the quality of any writing done in lessons  ensuring that assessment information is used to plan work that is well matched to pupils’ ages and abilities  ensuring teachers maintain good records of pupils’ progress, including their progress in reading.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve behaviour and safety by:  developing the skills of staff in managing pupils’ behaviour  ensuring that all staff are vigilant in following up any concerns that pupils have about bullying  securing children’s safety in the playground.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen the capacity of leadership and management at all levels, including governance, by:  distributing more widely leadership responsibilities and accountability for improving teaching and pupils’ progress  ensuring that staff are deployed effectively to maximise their impact on pupils’ learning  rigorously, regularly and incisively monitoring and evaluating the impact of teaching and the curriculum on pupils’ day-to-day learning and progress  ensuring improvement plans focus on the most important areas and include precise deadlines and succinct criteria for measuring success. 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

Achievement is inadequate: a significant number of pupils underachieve in English and pupils do not make the progress they should. There are few interventions in place to help narrow the gaps in attainment between different groups and to support underperforming pupils in catching up. Learning support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs has too little impact and their progress is inadequate. The school’s current assessment information shows that attainment in reading and writing remains low, except in Year 6 where, as a result of a number of interventions and smaller teaching groups pupils are catching up.

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Achievement of pupils

Children enter the Nursery with skills well below those typical for their age. They make good progress in the Nursery and last year made good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage, reaching broadly average standards by the end of Reception. However, their communication, early reading and writing skills remained below average. Pupils do not make enough progress in English through the rest of the school. At the end of Year 2, attainment in mathematics is average but in reading and writing it is significantly lower than average. Attainment in English and mathematics at the end of Year 6 has been significantly below the national average in two out of the last three years.

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Achievement of pupils

Inspectors observed that progress in English lessons was sometimes poor. Pupils lacked interest and did not concentrate because set work did not engage them or build on what they could already do. Pupils are keen to learn to read. However, due to weaknesses in the teaching of phonics, progress in reading is too variable and some pupils do not have the skills they need to match sounds to letters. Some pupils rely too heavily on ‘saying’ letter sounds, rather than drawing upon their understanding of the text. Inspectors found that some less able pupils struggled to comprehend the text they had been given.

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Achievement of pupils

The vast majority of pupils are happy to come to school, enjoy each other’s company and want to learn. They make good progress when the work interests them. This was clearly evident in the Nursery when children worked with their friends on activities they had chosen, learning well as they played music and danced, visited the ‘garden centre’ or watered plants.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching is inadequate, although lessons seen across the school ranged from inadequate to good. Almost all of the inadequate lessons were in English where pupils of similar abilities from different classes and age groups were taught together. Typically in these lessons teachers found it difficult to settle pupils and gain their 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

attention. The purpose of lessons sometimes lacked clarity and the content failed to sustain some pupils’ interest. Teachers did not always manage the ensuing poor behaviour of a minority of pupils effectively.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers do not adapt commercially produced lesson plans sufficiently in response to pupils’ different ages, interests, abilities and learning needs. There is also some lack of clarity among staff about exactly how reading should be taught and who is responsible for listening to pupils read, monitoring and recording their progress. When inspectors asked some staff for sight of reading records for their classes they were unable to provide them. The books that some pupils of average ability and some more able pupils were reading were too easy.

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Quality of teaching

The variable quality of writing in pupils’ English books shows that teachers’ expectations, including how they present their work, are not always high enough. On one day each week pupils stay in their own classes to write at length. The quality of work in these books indicates that teaching is more effective is these lessons.

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Quality of teaching

Most teachers provide good opportunities to develop pupils’ speaking skills and vocabulary. The recent focus on giving pupils prompts for learning and time to check the accuracy of their work is a positive one. However, teachers do not always give pupils enough feedback. Marking is inconsistent and does not provide enough guidance to help pupils improve their work.

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Quality of teaching

Examples of good teaching were seen, largely in mathematics lessons or in Year 6 classes and in the Nursery. Typically, what made teaching in these lessons better was that teachers took account of the needs of pupils of different abilities. They also used methods, including questioning, to assess pupils’ progress throughout the lesson, make them think and move their learning forward.

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Quality of teaching

In lessons where groups of pupils with special educational needs were taught by an experienced teacher who had good expertise, they made good progress. Teaching was engaging and learning was broken down into small steps. In whole-class lessons these pupils’ learning, as for other groups, is very variable. Sometimes they are well supported by additional adults and teachers, while at other times support is ineffective or unavailable.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The behaviour and safety of pupils are inadequate due to weaknesses in the school’s management of behaviour. When teaching fails to engage some pupils, or when strategies for managing behaviour are not robust enough, some pupils disrupt lessons and prevent others learning. In lessons where teaching is good, pupils often work hard and cooperate with one another. In the playground, relationships are often good and pupils play harmoniously together. However, inspectors noted that staff were not always sufficiently vigilant about monitoring behaviour in the playground. 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

Pupils learn about road and internet safety. They understand what constitutes unsafe situations and bullying. In discussion with inspectors, and in their responses to the questionnaire, some pupils reported that they do not always feel safe in school or free from bullying. They say that when they report incidents, staff do not always take these seriously. Senior leaders confirmed that similar concerns were highlighted in the last two surveys of pupils’ views undertaken by the school.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Attendance is average. It has improved well since the last inspection and continues to improve further. Punctuality in the morning is still an issue for some pupils. Lessons do not always start on time in the afternoons because lunchtimes are too short to enable all pupils to finish eating their lunches.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Only a small proportion of parents and carers returned questionnaires. Inspection findings are not as positive as parents’ and carers’ views on behaviour, though a small number did express concerns about behaviour and bullying.

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Leadership and management

Leaders have not ensured that pupils feel safe in school and they have not responded appropriately to pupils’ concerns about bullying. They have not had sufficient impact in raising achievement and are not demonstrating sufficient capacity to improve. The draft improvement plan contains too many priorities and lacks precise deadlines, and the ways of measuring success are not well linked to a measurable impact on improving achievement. This means it is hard for leaders and governors to judge effectively the progress the school is making.

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Leadership and management

Evaluation of the school’s work is not regular or rigorous enough to ensure that leaders have an accurate view of the school’s performance and pupils’ achievements. While leaders and the school’s internal assessment information suggest that pupils throughout the school are currently making accelerated progress, or are projected to do so by the end of this term, this is not reflected in lessons or in the work in pupils’ books. Underachievement in English, including for some pupils with special educational needs, is not being tackled quickly enough. The school is therefore not promoting equal opportunities effectively.

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Leadership and management

Statutory performance management arrangements, undertaken by the headteacher and deputy headteacher, are securely in place. Other leaders do not have a role in observing lessons. This means they have a limited picture of strengths and weaknesses in provision within subjects or phases. Phase leaders have recently been held to account for improving teaching and writing support plans for their colleagues. Their ability to do this successfully is limited by the fact that they have not observed their colleagues teaching nor worked alongside them in class. Weaknesses in staff’s expertise in the teaching of reading and writing have not been addressed through effective professional development.

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Leadership and management

Although the school is well staffed with teaching assistants and additional teachers, their deployment is weak. Dividing classes into smaller groups for English lessons 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

means that there is a lack of additional support in class for more vulnerable pupils, including disabled pupils and those with behavioural difficulties. Some of the most experienced teachers are also senior leaders who spend little time teaching.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is inadequate due to weaknesses in provision for reading and insufficient interventions to help pupils catch up in year groups other than Year 6. Nevertheless, the curriculum has some strong features; for example, the breadth and the contribution of music, as well as visits and visitors, have a positive impact on pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Topic work provides opportunities for pupils to develop and apply basic skills in other subjects and the Year 6 curriculum provides ample opportunities for independent work and research.

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Leadership and management

The governing body is committed to helping the school to improve. Governors recognise that they have not held school leaders sufficiently to account for making improvements, though recently they have taken a more decisive stance. They have ensured that statutory child protection checks on staff are carried out.

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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 Morningside Primary School, London E9 6LL

Thank you for the warm welcome you gave to us when we visited your school. We enjoyed reading your questionnaires, talking to you, looking at your work and seeing your lessons. We recognise that Morningside does some things well but there are some important weaknesses. Your school needs help to make things improve. We have therefore judged that it needs ‘special measures’. This means that inspectors will visit regularly to see how well the school is doing.

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Inspection of Morningside Primary School, London E9 6LL

We noticed that you get on well together and want to learn. You enjoy breakfast and after-school clubs and after-school activities and trips. Your attendance has improved well. We saw that most of you behave well in lessons and around the school. We also noticed that sometimes lessons are disturbed when a few pupils do not behave well enough. You also told us that bullying occurs and some of you do not feel safe when this happens. While some of the teaching is good, some teaching does not help you to make the progress of which you are capable, particularly in reading and writing.

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Inspection of Morningside Primary School, London E9 6LL

The main things we have asked governors and senior leaders to do are:

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Inspection of Morningside Primary School, London E9 6LL

 improve standards in English, making sure you know how to make your work better and giving some of you extra support to catch up quickly  help you to learn better by making lessons interesting and making sure work is not too hard or too easy  make sure that some pupils’ behaviour improves quickly so that lessons are not disrupted and that any bullying is stopped so everyone feels safe  plan clearly how the school can improve; then keep a close check on how well it is all working and how well you are doing.

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Inspection of Morningside Primary School, London E9 6LL

All of you can play your part in helping the school to improve by behaving well, coming to school on time and keeping your work as neat as you can.

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Inspection of Morningside Primary School, London E9 6LL

Kathryn Taylor 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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