Cavendish Junior SchoolOfsted inspection, 11 Oct 2012

Cavendish Junior School Edmund Street, Newbold Moor, Chesterfield, S41 8TD

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Pupils’ progress is monitored well and potential underachievement tackled rapidly, so pupils achieve well and attainment is above average by the end of Year 6.  Leaders have introduced changes that have improved teaching and enhanced pupils’ enjoyment of learning through a highly stimulating range of subjects and activities.  Staff set high expectations and pupils respond positively to these. Pupils behave well and feel safe.  Teaching is good. Teachers motivate pupils well and help them to develop their ability to work independently.  Pupils benefit greatly from the extensive use of a range of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance their learning.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Pupils in Years 3 and 4 do not make rapid progress in their reading and writing because activities and methods are not linked well enough to their previous experiences in infant school.  Some lessons do not include enough opportunities for pupils to receive the specialist and personalised support that they need.  Adults who work with teachers in lessons have not all had enough training in the specific and specialist support required by disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.  Recent changes to the governing body have led to them having less involvement in setting targets to help the school to improve further.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed six lessons, one of which was a joint observation with the headteacher. In addition, other direct observations of pupils’ learning were undertaken. This included making other short visits to lessons, hearing pupils from Years 3 and 6 read, and attending two whole- school assemblies.  Discussions were held with pupils from the school parliament group and many informal opportunities were taken to talk with pupils.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, Chair of the Governing Body, one other governor, the two class teachers and a professional adviser for Derbyshire schools to discuss the school’s planning and monitoring documentation, and the data relating to pupils’ current progress.  The inspector took account of the 12 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View), and spoke individually with several parents during the course of the inspection.

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Inspection team

Cathy Morgan, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Cavendish Junior School is smaller than the average primary school.  The number of pupils attending the school has fluctuated in recent years, but is now similar to that found at the time of the previous inspection.  The majority of pupils are taught in mixed-age classes.  The large majority of pupils are from a White British heritage. No pupils are at an early stage of learning to speak English as an additional language.  An above average proportion of the pupils are eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for children in local authority care and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action is above average, and the proportion who are supported at school action plus or have a statement of special educational needs is lower than average.  The school was federated with a nursery and infant school but this partnership has recently been

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Information about this school

dissolved.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the rate of progress made in reading and writing by pupils in Years 3 and 4 by:  strengthening the collaboration with the infant school to better utilise resources and methods which are familiar to these pupils, particularly for the teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make)  encouraging parents and carers to be more actively engaged in monitoring their children’s progress in reading at home.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the specialist support provided for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs by:  ensuring that teachers use data to plan lessons that are tailored to meet these pupils’ specific learning needs  training teaching assistants to better equip them to provide specialist support for these pupils in lessons.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by:  strengthening the robustness of the performance management processes to ensure that all support staff understand their roles, responsibilities and accountability  enhancing the transition for pupils into Year 3 by replicating aspects of the less formal provision they have experienced in their infant school  ensuring that the governing body is more actively involved in identifying improvement targets and holding leaders and managers to account for their achievement.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils’ attainment and rates of progress have improved strongly since the last inspection, when they were broadly average. Since then, attainment in English and mathematics has continued to be above average.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils’ attainment in reading is above average in Year 6 because this has been a key focus for the school. Older pupils understand an extensive range of vocabulary and they use it confidently when inferring meaning and making predictions from text.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils’ reading and writing skills are slower to develop in Years 3 and 4 but their attainment accelerates sharply in Years 5 and 6. Year 3 pupils do not extend well enough their knowledge and skills of phonics (the sounds that letters make) and this holds back improvements in their reading, writing and accurate spelling.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 When reading aloud, younger pupils occasionally lose fluency and understanding because they are unable to read words that are unfamiliar.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Younger pupils enjoy reading and they say that they do so at home. The lack of formal arrangements to record this, however, prevents parents and carers from being more actively engaged in monitoring their children’s progress in reading.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium funding make good progress. This funding is used effectively to provide a range of support, including additional adult time in lessons to accelerate pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs typically make similar progress to their peers in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6. However, the lack of specialist support for these pupils in Years 3 and 4 slows their rate of progress. Teaching assistants provide adequate support in lessons but few have received training to enable them to provide highly personalised and/or specialist intervention.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The older pupils make fast progress in most lessons because they concentrate well and work hard. In a lively and practical mathematics lesson, for example, pupils quickly grasped that they could swap numbers around and still get the same answer when they added or multiplied them and were able to use complex terminology to describe their results.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers are enthusiastic and skilled in managing mixed-age classes. They motivate pupils’ interest in and enjoyment of learning. Typically, lessons are well planned, and activities are engaging and enable pupils to learn in creative and imaginative ways.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers and teaching assistants demonstrate consistently high expectations of work and behaviour. Pupils respond maturely and responsibly to the clear instructions and requirements set by teachers, which ensure that the large majority of lessons are productive and purposeful.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils benefit greatly from well-designed resources and ‘working displays’ to stimulate and assist them in their extended writing and numeracy tasks. Teachers make extensive and effective use of a range of ICT to enhance pupils’ learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Where teaching is good or outstanding, pupils are able to utilise their considerable capacity to work independently and make rapid progress. Teachers accelerate pupils’ learning and rates of progress by providing challenging activities, particularly for the more able. In one such lesson, Year 6 pupils of all abilities made rapid progress in their understanding of the use of adverbs. The teachers’ excellent subject expertise, sensitive deployment of the teaching assistant, use of the ‘lollipop lottery’ for questioning, and constant, inspiring feedback to pupils, combined to enable them all to produce high-quality descriptive sentences which they enjoyed sharing with one another.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The common approach to assessing pupils’ progress is used well to make accurate judgements about the quality of pupils’ work. Teachers use this effectively to plan future learning activities and target support. However, this does not always include specialist intervention strategies for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, particularly in Years 3 and 4, and this slows the rate of progress of these pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils in Year 3 often find it difficult to concentrate fully due to the more formal organisation of their lessons compared to their infant school. Collaboration with the infant school does not yet ensure that teachers in Year 3 make use of resources and methods that the pupils are already familiar with, particularly in literacy.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils’ attitudes to learning are good. They respond well to their teachers, and other adults, both in and outside of the classroom. They thoroughly enjoy attending ‘Cavendish College’ every Friday, where they are given the opportunity to choose from a stimulating range of subjects, activities and visits which helps to extend their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils were invariably polite and interested when talking with the inspector. They show good levels of respect for each other. They value the numerous opportunities they have to adopt positions of responsibility in school. They are mature and professional when formally applying for vacancies in these positions and this prepares them well for their future wellbeing.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Many pupils are members of the highly effective school parliament group which enables them to work together to secure the safety of all members of the school. Pupils are encouraged to nominate and organise their own competitions, such as the recent anti-bullying poetry competition, which attracted a number of high-quality entries.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 A few pupils find it difficult to manage their own behaviour consistently well throughout a school day, but the behaviour management skills of staff ensure any disruption to learning is minimal. Such pupils appreciate the pastoral and specialist support they receive.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Discussions with pupils show they have a secure understanding of what constitutes bullying and, while admitting to occasional instances of unkind name-calling, they say that these are quickly resolved by staff.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils understand well how to keep themselves and each other safe. The records of the few incidents of pupils’ misbehaviour demonstrate effective liaison between the school, families and specialist agencies.  The school, parents and carers have worked extremely hard together to promote the importance of punctuality and improve attendance. Pupils genuinely enjoy coming to school and their attendance is now around the national average.

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The leadership and management are good

 Effective leadership and management underpin the improvements made to successfully tackle those areas identified at the time of the previous inspection and there is clear evidence of the positive impact of leadership and management on the quality of teaching, learning and achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 The range of subjects and activities provided is successfully designed to provide extensive and exciting opportunities for pupils to enhance their experiences both inside and outside of the classroom. Pupils participate in and enjoy the wide range of extra-curricular and ‘Cavendish College’ activities which enable them to develop skills in art, ICT, food technology, gardening, music, textiles and themed projects.

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The leadership and management are good

 Provision is carefully evaluated to enable school leaders to determine the impact on pupils, particularly those whose circumstances mean they may be vulnerable. There is clear evidence to demonstrate an improvement in pupils’ self-esteem, social skills confidence and academic progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 Records and analysis of performance management and training are well established for the teachers but not so for support staff. Roles, responsibilities and lines of accountability for teaching assistants are not clearly understood and, consequently, their training needs are not so accurately identified.

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The leadership and management are good

 Effective intervention by the local authority has ensured that the headteacher and the class teachers have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. Arrangements for staff to collaborate with their partner school to share best practice are already proving to be effective.

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The leadership and management are good

 Whilst there are arrangements for the smooth transition of pupils from the local infant school at the end of Year 2, there is a need to minimise the negative impact on a significant proportion of pupils who find it difficult to integrate quickly into the more formal classroom environment in Year 3. There are missed opportunities to share resources across the two schools.

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The leadership and management are good

 All statutory requirements relating to safeguarding are met.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  has been through considerable change since the de-federation of the school, which has led to some instability in the make-up of the governing body  is not currently rigorous enough in holding the school to account.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 112659 Local authority Derbyshire Inspection number 405416

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Junior School category Community Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 77 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Dave Wilders Headteacher Sue Addison Date of previous school inspection 10 November 2010 Telephone number 01246 450691 Fax number 01246 451655 Email address info@cavendish.derbyshire.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', 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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School details

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 and as part of the inspection.

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School details

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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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

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School details

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

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