St Mary's RC Voluntary Aided Primary School

St Mary's RC Voluntary Aided Primary School Lockington Road, London SW8 4BE

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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 achieve well at this school because they work hard and receive very good support to help them learn. The school’s test results improved markedly in the last year.  Reading is valued and enjoyed by all pupils in this school.  Teaching and learning are consistently good. Teachers are enthusiastic and have good, caring relationships with the pupils. They model respectful behaviour and create a happy and positive environment for learning.  Pupils of all abilities enjoy their lessons and are engaged in their learning because tasks are creative and set to the right level of challenge.  Pupils are well behaved, friendly, have positive attitudes to each other and are cooperative in their lessons. They feel safe because behaviour is good at playtimes and in lessons.  The school is managed by a strong leadership team which has worked successfully to raise achievement by improving the quality of

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

teaching and learning.  Members of the governing body have been well trained to take on specific roles. They receive regular and thorough reports on the progress of pupils.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 The proportion of outstanding teaching is not yet high enough, particularly in the Early Years Foundation Stage, to ensure that all pupils make rapid progress.  The governing body is not yet fully involved in gathering its own information about the school so that it can provide challenge as well as support.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 15 lessons, of which eight were joint observations with senior leaders. In addition, the inspectors made other shorter visits to lessons and to learning areas.  Meetings were held with a groups of pupils, members of the governing body, a representative from the local authority, senior and middle managers, and teaching staff.  Inspectors took account of the eight responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View), spoke to parents and carers as they attended a school assembly and considered a parental survey conducted by the school earlier in the year.  The information from 19 staff questionnaires was taken into consideration.  Inspectors looked at pupils’ books and at a number of documents, including the school’s own data and monitoring of how well pupils progress, planning documentation and records of behaviour, attendance, punctuality, as well as documents relating to safeguarding.

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Inspection team

Mandy Snook, Lead inspector Additional inspector Gavin Jones Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than average-sized primary school with a diverse community and ethnic mix. The proportion of pupils for whom English is an additional language is almost four times the national average.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is higher than average.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action, school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  A high proportion of pupils join and leave the school throughout the year.  The school works in collaboration with a similar primary school in the area with which it shares an executive headteacher. An associate headteacher manages the school on a daily basis.  At the time of inspection, the school had four new teachers. Both the executive headteacher and associate headteacher have been in post for 18 months. The associate headteacher had previously been the deputy headteacher of the school.

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Information about this school

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

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the proportion of outstanding teaching by ensuring that: – in the Early Years Foundation Stage, links between play activities and areas for learning are strengthened, and that children play a more active role in learning – there is a greater consistency in teachers’ questioning skills so that more pupils are challenged in their thinking.  Ensuring that the governing body makes use of its training to sharpen its focus and impact on the school by: – being more involved in the monitoring of teaching and learning – collecting and collating its own information and evidence in order to verify the school’s judgements.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Achievement in Key Stage 1 has been consistently good over three years and is on an upward trend in Key Stage 2. The good tracking and planning put in place by the leadership team has helped to bring about strong recent improvements to pupils’ achievement.  The higher than average number of pupils who benefit from pupil premium funding do well at this school, achieving as well as other pupils in the school and nationally. This is as a result of the funding being spent on employing specialist literacy and numeracy teachers, which contributed to outstanding achievement for Year 6 pupils last year.  Current Year 6 pupils are on track to make or exceed the challenging targets set for them. This group has made good progress from their starting points, which for some were very low, and pupils are now being supported by interventions and strategies that proved to be very effective in boosting the achievement of last year’s Year 6 pupils.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Observation of lessons showed good progress being made in the learning and application of key skills as well as in other learning areas. Pupils are benefiting from learning Italian and enjoy the skilful teaching of art and music. They are very well prepared to move on to the next stage of their education.  A team of volunteers comes to the school daily to read with the pupils, which has had a very positive impact on the quality and enjoyment of reading. Pupils have developed good skills to work out the meaning of words and to predict what they think might happen in stories.  Pupils also go on many trips that enable them to learn about history, environment and appreciate the arts and culture of their community.  Pupils, parents and carers feel that good progress and learning are taking place in the school and that this has been more evident in the last year. Teaching staff and senior leaders know that

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The achievement of pupils is good

they are challenging their pupils with increasingly difficult work, to which the pupils respond well.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs receive very good-quality and caring support and achieve well as a result. The use of smaller groups, especially in Key Stage 2, has been effective in promoting targeted and effective learning.  Vulnerable pupils make good progress. They and their families are well cared for and are provided with regular counselling and support.  Good-quality teaching for those pupils who speak English as an additional language enables them to make good progress.  In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children’s progress has been variable over the last three years. There have been recent improvements due to the additional and specialist support shared in the collaboration, but links between play and learning are not yet fully developed and children do not always take an active role in their learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 In the best lessons, teachers encourage pupils to use resources and skills to solve problems with confidence. Pupils made good progress in a mathematics lesson where they responded well to the challenge of being asked to sort various two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. The most-able pupils, supported by the specialist mathematics mentor, had a particularly difficult problem to solve, with which they persevered until they agreed on a solution.  In most lessons, good questioning is used by teachers to encourage pupils to use their imaginations. It is also used well in assessing pupils’ prior knowledge and allowing them to share their understanding. In a few lessons, questioning is not used well to challenge pupils in their thinking.  Teachers’ good subject knowledge is instrumental in enabling pupils to make good progress.  Marking and assessment are very effective in guiding pupils to make progress and to improve

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The quality of teaching is good

their work. Pupils are confident in marking their own work as well as each other’s.  Teachers frequently plan together with their colleagues in the partner school. Planning is imaginative and detailed, and makes good use of their shared expertise and resources.  Children enjoy the activities planned for them in the Early Years Foundation Stage, but these activities do not always link closely enough to key areas of learning.  Most teachers have high expectations of the pupils and plan their lessons with insight and flexibility. They design tasks that are suitably demanding and enjoyable. Pupils in a Year 3 mathematics lesson said that they enjoyed learning new mathematical words because ‘it makes us feel clever!’

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils’ desire to gain knowledge establishes a good learning ethos in this school. The Early Years Foundation Stage provides a good start in developing children’s positive behaviour as they learn how to treat each other with respect and to feel for the needs of others.  Lessons are seldom disrupted by poor behaviour, and the pupils are able to manage their own behaviour and make good choices to enable learning to continue. They are chatty and friendly, and keen to show off their work, of which they are very proud.  There have been no incidents of bullying or disrespectful behaviour recorded over the past year and there is evidence that behaviour has improved markedly over the last three years. Pupils have a secure awareness of the different forms of bullying but are confident in the school’s ability to deal with any incidents should they occur.  Pupils expressed a pride in the behaviour in their school and said that they all get on well, a

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

typical comment being, ‘We look after each other at school.’ Parents and carers, staff and members of the governing body all supported the positive views of the pupils, and parents and carers were eager to express how good the behaviour is at all times.  The multicultural profile of the school enables pupils to have a respect and appreciation for each other’s cultural identities within the school’s Christian community.  Attendance rates meet the national average and punctuality to lessons is good.

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The leadership and management are good

 The staff are a newly, cohesive team that work very well together, inspired by the visionary leadership team. Both the executive headteacher and associate headteacher pursue excellence and have made significant changes over the last year, in order to achieve the school’s goals. They work hard to ensure all pupils are treated equally and that there is no discrimination.  Pupils’ progress has accelerated dramatically since the last inspection and there is little difference in the achievement of different groups. Leaders and managers are knowledgeable about data and ensure that information is shared and used by all teaching staff to inform good planning and to secure achievement.  Professional development of each member of staff is thorough and is recognised by the longer- serving staff as raising their skills. Staff are appreciative of the many training opportunities that are afforded. Appointments and progression along the salary scale are based on how well

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The leadership and management are good

teachers ensure pupils make progress.  The curriculum is exciting and is continuously being reviewed to include even more enrichment. It provides pupils with a wide range of learning opportunities and the pupils have enjoyed visits from Sir Michael Wilshaw and the Prime Minister in the past year. The school’s good provision for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is reflected in the maturity and sensitivity of the pupils. Assemblies are particularly uplifting and provide good opportunities to promote the values and targets of the school.  Literacy is incorporated into every aspect of the curriculum and is woven into the fabric of planning and lessons.  Leaders have a thorough and accurate awareness of the school’s strengths and areas for development. This is reflected in focused development plans. Leaders are aware of the need to continue to build on recent successful developments to further strengthen achievement and the

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The leadership and management are good

quality of teaching.  The local authority provides light touch support, which is designed by the school, and it is very pleased with the good progress the school has made since the previous inspection.  Safeguarding procedures meet statutory requirements.  The governance of the school: – supports the school and is beginning to have a more accurate view of its strengths and weaknesses as reported to them by the leadership team and local authority – monitors the progress of the school and the development of the site but is not yet fully involved in gathering evidence on the school’s work so that the governing body is able to provide challenge as well as support – manages finances efficiently – has undergone good training, which now needs to be implemented and put into practice within the context of the school.

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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 101048 Local authority Wandsworth Inspection number 404748

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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 Primary School category Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 178 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Fr. Christpher Heaps Headteacher Jared Brading (Executive) Nicola Byrne (Associate) Date of previous school inspection 6 December 2010 Telephone number 020 7622 5460 Fax number 020 7622 4922 Email address admin@st-marys-pri.wandsworth.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

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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School details

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

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