Eyres Monsell Primary School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 26–27 June 2012 Inspection number 393489 Eyres Monsell Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 120069 Local authority Leicester Inspection number 393489 Inspection dates 26–27 June 2012 Lead inspector Anthony O'Malley HMI

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This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 which gives Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills (HMCI) the authority to cause any school to be inspected. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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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 183 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Julie Dale Headteacher Sally Morrison Date of previous school inspection 14 February 2011 School address Simmins Crescent Leicester LE2 9AH Telephone number 0116 2773855 Fax number 0116 2788761 Email address admin@eyresmonsell.leicester.sch.uk achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

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after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

Anthony O'Malley Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with one days’ notice. Nine lessons were observed, taught by seven teachers. A number of shorter visits were made to classrooms to gather evidence on particular aspects of pupils’ learning. The inspector held meetings with staff, pupils and eight representatives of the governing body. The inspector observed the school’s work, and looked at a variety of documentation, particularly that related to pupils’ progress and well-being. Samples of pupils’ work were scrutinised and a number of pupils heard reading. The inspector analysed the responses to questionnaires that were returned by 28 parents and carers.

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Information about the school

This is a smaller than average-sized primary school. The large majority of children are White British. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is three times the national average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is well-above average. The school meets the current government floor standards, which set minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Information about the school

At its last inspection in February 2011, the school was judged to require special measures because of inadequate achievement, poor behaviour, low attendance and inadequate monitoring and evaluation of the school’s performance by leaders and managers. 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 (4) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures. Eyres Monsell is a satisfactory school. Senior leaders, a committed team of staff and the governing body have taken effective action since the previous inspection to improve outcomes for pupils. The school is not yet good because the quality of teaching is variable and so pupils make satisfactory progress. Pupils in Years 4 and 5 are not achieving as well as other pupils because of weak provision in the past. Schools whose overall effectiveness is judged 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. Pupils make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage and satisfactory progress in Key Stages 1 and 2. Although attainment is below average, particularly in Years 4 and 5, it is improving securely.

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Key findings

 Teaching is satisfactory. Over half of the teaching observed during the inspection was good. However, there are also weaknesses in practice. In a minority of lessons, the activities set did not match closely with the needs of all pupils and the resources chosen to support learning did not help develop pupils’ understanding.

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Key findings

 Pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to learning are satisfactory. During the inspection, both were good. However, discussions with pupils and analysis of school records highlighted that, occasionally, learning and play are disrupted by unruly behaviour. Pupils feel safe at school. The school works effectively to secure the safety and well-being of pupils facing challenging circumstances.

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Key findings

 Leadership and management are satisfactory. Through strong performance management procedures, leaders monitor the quality of teaching and the progress of pupils. This has helped to improve the progress of pupils in Key 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

Stages 1 and 2 from inadequate to satisfactory. The curriculum adequately prepares pupils for the next stage of their lives but only satisfactorily promotes their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The governing body is effective and makes a strong contribution to school improvement.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise achievement, particularly for pupils in Years 4 and 5, by:  ensuring teachers plan and deliver activities that match the learning needs of all groups in the class  ensuring that resources used in lessons always help pupils improve their understanding of the concepts being taught.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils more successfully by:  providing more opportunities for pupils to experience first hand the values and traditions of other cultures  ensuring that, through careful planning and imaginative activities, learning in all areas of the curriculum provides memorable and inspiring experiences.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils’ achievement has improved and is now satisfactory. Parents and carers judge that achievement is better than this. Lesson observations, pupils’ work and data show that rates of progress are accelerating, especially in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Year 5/6, where there is consistently good teaching.

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Achievement of pupils

When children start school, their skills and experiences are well below the expected levels. Provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage, both indoors and in the imaginatively resourced outdoor area, allows them to develop successfully a range of skills. For example, children worked well together practising for a range of ‘Olympic’ events, using a ‘concrete mixer’ to build a brick wall and looking after the class guinea pig. These activities provided good opportunities for speaking and listening, and physical and creative development. The children in the Early Years Foundation Stage make good progress in reading. By the time they start Year 1, the children’s skills, in all areas of learning, are improving rapidly and are now close to the levels expected for their age.

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Achievement of pupils

Attainment in reading, writing and mathematics throughout the rest of the school is below average. However, more pupils are now attaining the skills expected for their age, including in Years 4 and 5, where attainment is low. This is because the school sets ambitious targets for pupils’ progress, tracks closely how they are progressing throughout the school year and acts appropriately to support pupils at risk of 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

underachievement. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs benefit from the expertise of the special educational needs coordinator, who ensures that staff understand pupils’ individual needs and provides effective training for staff. This support ensures that these pupils make the same progress as others. However, occasionally, the tasks set for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are too challenging for them to complete without constant adult support. Pupils with a statement of special educational needs make satisfactory progress towards their individual targets. This is because the school has strong links with outside partners, such as the learning and autism team, which helps the pupils integrate successfully into the life of the school.

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Quality of teaching

There are some common strengths in the most effective teaching. In the best lessons, teachers plan for four different levels of abilities in English and mathematics lessons and explain clearly what pupils of different abilities are expected to learn by the end of the lesson. They make learning fun by giving pupils opportunities to be active learners, sometimes working away from their desks and collaborating with others to secure the learning objectives. Most staff use questioning successfully to challenge pupils’ understanding, and they employ a range of strategies to assess progress in lessons. For example, in a mathematics lesson, the teacher skilfully drew learning together at key moments of the lesson by encouraging pupils to describe both their achievements and the difficulties they were encountering. This approach encouraged pupils to give feedback, share their ideas and develop the vital attribute

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Quality of teaching

of perseverance when trying to solve problems. Throughout the school, teachers’ marking helps pupils understand how well they are doing and how they can improve.

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Quality of teaching

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, there is an effective balance between adult-led activities and those children can choose for themselves. Adults ensure that opportunities to improve language skills are promoted, regardless of the activity the children engage in. The effective teaching of the sounds letters make, and regular opportunities for children to read with an adult, are promoting good achievement.

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Quality of teaching

The large majority of parents and carers who responded to the inspection questionnaire judged teaching to be good. Pupils too spoke positively about their lessons. Inspection findings show that teaching is satisfactory. The weakest learning occurred when the concepts being taught were too difficult for a significant number of pupils. In these lessons, only the most-able pupils were able to follow the lesson introduction and work successfully at the task set. Occasionally, the resources provided by teachers did not promote good progress. For example, pupils with special educational needs struggled to manipulate counters to work out subtraction problems. Similarly, in a lesson investigating shape and space, pupils had insufficient opportunities to investigate cubes, cuboids and other shapes before being asked to match nets to shapes.

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Quality of teaching

Throughout the school, there are positive relationships between adults and pupils. This includes the support staff who work regularly with disabled pupils and those 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

with special educational needs. These pupils enjoy the occasions when they work in small groups and in one-to-one sessions with adults. The sessions focus on targets identified in the pupils’ individual education plans and enable them to make the same progress as other pupils.

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Quality of teaching

The colourful and interesting displays around the school demonstrate that the curriculum includes experiences that raise the pupils’ awareness of the world’s major faiths, their own cultural heritage and cultures across the world. However, the pupils are only able to give limited accounts of what they have gained from these activities because the teaching of subjects such history, geography, personal, social and health education, and religious education, is weaker than in English and mathematics.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The school has very successfully improved attendance since the previous inspection. At that time, attendance was well below the national average for primary schools. Attendance this school year is above the national average. There are currently no pupils who are persistently absent.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Most pupils are responding well to the school’s new behaviour policy. They are keen to talk about when they have received house points for good work and helpful behaviour. They enjoy the weekly assemblies where the whole school celebrates the success of pupils and the winning house. Behaviour and attitudes to learning in lessons are always at least satisfactory. At the time of the previous inspection, high numbers of pupils were being excluded or regularly missing playtimes because of their behaviour. This is no longer the case. However, pupils commented that a small number of boys in their classes do occasionally disturb lessons and can be a nuisance on the playground. Pupils say they feel safe at school and that, while there are instances of prejudicial name-calling and of bullying, these are rare and are dealt with effectively. The large majority of parents and carers who shared their views were positive about behaviour in the school. The school has an exceptionally high

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

proportion of children whose circumstances make them vulnerable. The school’s actions to protect these children are prompt and carefully recorded.

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Leadership and management

The pace of change since the previous inspection reflects the determination shown by the headteacher to secure improvement. She has taken decisive action to tackle weaknesses in provision. Staff share her high expectations for the pupils and are committed to raising achievement. The headteacher is well supported by members of the senior leadership team. The successful development of their monitoring and evaluation skills enables them to conduct accurate self-evaluation without the aid of external support. Inadequate provision has been eliminated and teachers and teaching assistants have responded positively to training and opportunities to work together to improve their practice. Performance management is also helping to raise outcomes. All teachers have targets linked to the progress over school year of pupils in their class. At termly meetings, teachers are held to account for the progress of Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate

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Leadership and management

Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Leadership and management

pupils and strategies agreed to accelerate the progress of those at risk of underachievement. The improving progress made by pupils throughout the school demonstrates the school’s capacity to improve further.

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Leadership and management

The school curriculum promotes the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development satisfactorily. Pupils enjoy the opportunities to work collaboratively and benefit from the promotion of a clear moral code through all aspects of school life. However, there are few opportunities for pupils to experience, at first hand, the values and traditions of other cultures. Consequently, pupils struggle to articulate their awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity in the United Kingdom and the wider world. Similarly, while pupils participate in an appropriate number of educational visits and their learning includes presentations from a wide range of organisations, they have difficulty recalling these experiences. This is because the preparation and follow-up to these events are not sufficiently imaginative or memorable.

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Leadership and management

The governing body is effective in holding the senior leadership team to account for the achievement of pupils. It has a considerable range of expertise and experience and a clear understanding its role and responsibilities. Minutes of its meetings show that it asks informed questions about data and contributes strongly to the school’s accurate evaluation of its performance. In addition, individual governors conduct visits regularly to the school to gather evidence on the implementation of the school improvement plan.

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Leadership and management

The school’s safeguarding policies and procedures, and arrangements for child protection, meet requirements. The actions it takes to ensure the well-being of pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable, are strong features of its satisfactory promotion of equality of opportunity and readiness to tackle discrimination.

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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 Eyres Monsell Primary School, Leicester, LE2 9AH

Thank you all very much for the help you gave me when I inspected your school recently. As you know, I have been visiting your school since June 2011. You have always been polite and helpful during my visits. You have always been happy to share your views on the school with me. You told me that your lessons are more interesting and that most pupils now behave well. Your comments have helped me come to the judgement that your school has improved so much that it no longer requires special measures.

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Inspection of Eyres Monsell Primary School, Leicester, LE2 9AH

This is what I have said about your school in the report. Eyres Monsell is a satisfactory school. Your achievement is satisfactory although the standards you reach in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6 are below average. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage make good progress. The teaching you receive is satisfactory overall but there are plenty of good lessons. The way your school is led and managed is satisfactory. Your behaviour in lessons and on the playground is satisfactory.

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Inspection of Eyres Monsell Primary School, Leicester, LE2 9AH

To help you achieve well, I have asked your teachers to make sure that work in lessons is not too easy or too hard for you, and to use teaching aids that will help you learn successfully. I have also asked the school to improve the curriculum so that you have more experiences that are memorable and inspiring and better opportunities to learn about the many different cultures in the United Kingdom and the wider world.

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Inspection of Eyres Monsell Primary School, Leicester, LE2 9AH

All of you can help the school improve by continuing to attend regularly and by trying your best to behave well.

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Inspection of Eyres Monsell Primary School, Leicester, LE2 9AH

I will miss visiting your school and will take away many fond memories.

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Inspection of Eyres Monsell Primary School, Leicester, LE2 9AH

Anthony O’Malley Her Majesty's 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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