Boughton Leigh Junior School

Boughton Leigh Junior School Wetherell Way, Brownsover, Rugby, CV21 1LT

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Overall effectiveness

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

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Teaching in lessons is not consistently good enough across the school to support good progress in pupils’ learning.  In particular, lesson activities are sometimes too easy to make sure that pupils of middle and low ability do well in their learning.  Pupils do not learn mathematical skills as well as they should.  Teachers mark pupils’ work regularly, but their comments do not give enough detail to show pupils exactly what they need to do in order to improve their work.  Although pupils feel safe in school, a few do not always consider others enough when moving around the school or in the playground, and there are some instances of irresponsible behaviour.  Leaders do not check the quality of teaching or pupils’ progress in different subjects thoroughly enough, particularly in mathematics, to make sure that they keep on improving.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils made good progress in English in 2012 and most pupils left Year 6 with good skills in reading, writing and communication.  In the better lessons, teachers encourage pupils to work together and to ask each other questions, to share ideas about what they are learning.  The school has succeeded in improving pupils’ attendance, which is now above average.  Governors are enthusiastic. They support the senior leaders well, and their regular visits to the school are carefully planned so they know if it is improving enough.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 16 lessons, of which three were jointly observed with the headteacher or the deputy headteacher. In addition, inspectors made a number of other short visits to lessons.  Inspectors looked at a range of documents, including information about pupils’ progress, attendance and behaviour, and safeguarding policies and procedures.  A range of pupils’ work was looked at carefully, and inspectors held many discussions with pupils, both formally and informally.  Discussions were held with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, four governors including the Chair of the Governing Body, and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 34 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) and 11 questionnaires returned by staff.

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Inspection team

Clare Saunders, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Alan Brewerton Additional Inspector Gwendoline Onyon Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a larger-than-average junior school, where most pupils are of White British Heritage.  The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is lower than the national average.  The proportions of pupils who are disabled or have special educational needs who are supported through school action, school action plus or a statement of special educational needs are higher than the national averages.  The school meets the current government 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?

 Improve teaching by making sure that:  learning activities build on the knowledge and understanding and extend the skills of all ability groups, so that all pupils learn well in all years  teachers tell pupils exactly what they need to do in order to improve their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve achievement for all pupils in mathematics by:  improving pupils’ skills and knowledge by setting problems that reflect real-life situations.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leaders and managers by making sure that:  staff consistently encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own behaviour  thorough checks on the quality of teaching lead to targets for each teacher’s performance that are linked closely to pupils’ achievement  subject leaders use information on pupils’ performance to initiate actions that will bring about sustained improvements in their areas of responsibility.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils enter the school with skills in literacy and numeracy that are at the levels expected for their age. By the time they leave the school, however, pupils do not learn as well in mathematics as they do in English, and as a result they do not all achieve the results they are capable of in mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The rate at which pupils are learning skills in reading, writing and communication has increased over the last three years as the school has concentrated on developing pupils’ writing skills (through the use of their programme ‘The Big Write’) and their reading skills. Most pupils demonstrate literacy skills that are at least at the level expected for their age, and often above.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ understanding of mathematics is not as thorough as it should be, especially when having to work out the answers to numeracy questions quickly. In many mathematics lessons, the learning tasks are not written to reflect real-life situations and do not take enough account of what pupils have learned before. Consequently pupils lose interest quickly and do not learn mathematical skills as quickly as they could.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Year 6 results in mathematics over the last three years have been variable. From September 2012, the school has introduced a series of lessons called ‘Big Maths’ which happen once a fortnight to encourage pupils to work together to develop strategies to solve mathematical problems. Pupils really enjoy this new style of lesson, which provides more opportunities for individuals to learn more quickly.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In most lessons, more-able pupils do better than other ability groups. This is because the tasks set build on their previous skills and understanding. For other pupils, work is often too easy and reflects teachers’ low expectations.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs learn at different rates throughout the school. They often do well when teaching assistants help and guide them in small groups, but the tasks set for them in lessons do not always match their ability levels across different year groups.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The progress made by pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium funding is improving each year, but is also inconsistent across the school. They learn faster in Years 5 and 6, where the additional help and support planned for them is most effective in improving their achievement, than in Years 3 and 4.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils are enthusiastic about reading throughout the school, although the books that boys choose do not always challenge or extend their reading skills. Good teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make) helps pupils in Years 3 and 4 to quickly develop their skills, so they can use a range of strategies to read unfamiliar words. The school has recently purchased a range of reading materials to support weaker readers.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching varies too much in quality to support good progress. Some is good, but too often teaching requires improvement because teachers do not make sure that learning tasks extend the understanding of pupils of middle and low abilities. Also, teaching has not been consistently effective in enabling all pupils to make the progress they are capable of in mathematics by the time they leave the school.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Tasks are often too easy, reflecting teachers’ limited expectations of what pupils can achieve. For example, in a Year 6 literacy lesson all pupils were working on how to make a list of instructions clearer, but most pupils completed this task easily as it asked them to repeat skills they already had, rather than developing new learning and understanding.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils are not always clear enough about how to improve their work, and so reach the next National Curriculum level in their literacy or numeracy. Although they are aware of working at, for example, Level 4, written comments and verbal feedback from their teachers do not explain the exact areas they should focus on to move the quality of their work closer to Level 5.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Where good teaching was observed, teachers skilfully questioned groups of pupils, allowing time for them to reflect on their answers and to ask questions and challenge each other’s answers. For example, in a Year 5 mathematics lesson, pupils were asked to explain how they changed fractions into decimal places, and had time to think about their answers in order to fully justify their thinking to others in the class.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Where pupils were interested in learning tasks, they worked well in small groups and on their own, often helping each other and marking each other’s work. These skills for learning were well established in the best lessons seen. However, the guidance pupils were given to help mark each other’s work was too simplistic for many pupils, and did not always challenge them to think deeply about their work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils feel safe in school, but their behaviour requires improvement. There are some instances of irresponsible behaviour around the school, in the corridors between lessons and in the playground. For example, pupils thoughtlessly running in the playground sometimes result in others being knocked over, and pupils have to be reminded to walk in the corridor by adults in the school rather than taking responsibility for their own actions.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school has worked hard to reduce the number of pupils excluded for a fixed time for behaviour-related incidents, although the number of exclusions in 2012 was still above the national average for primary schools.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 When learning tasks interest and engage pupils in lessons, they usually show positive attitudes to their learning. For example, in a Year 3 mathematics lesson, pupils eagerly shared ideas to tackle a problem with each other.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school has used various strategies to encourage pupils to attend school regularly. This has been very successful over the last year, and attendance is now above average.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school has used part of the pupil premium funding to appoint a learning mentor, whose role in encouraging links and communication between parents and school has had a marked impact on improving behaviour and attendance for eligible pupils.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils say that bullying, including prejudice-based bullying, is rare and is dealt with effectively by the school when it does happen. Pupils are familiar with how to keep themselves safe when using the internet.  Pupils say there is some silly behaviour in the school at times, and these views are supported by the views of parents through the online inspection questionnaire.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The senior leaders have an accurate awareness of the school’s strengths and areas to improve, and this has led to some marked improvements since the last inspection, for example in attendance and in achievement in English. However, the way they check teachers’ performance and provide training and coaching to improve it is not yet thorough enough to make sure that teaching is consistently good across the school, or to promote good achievement in mathematics.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school has developed an appropriate system for tracking pupils’ progress in mathematics and English in each year group, but has focused too much on English and did not use the resulting information well enough to identify the reasons for the declining performance in mathematics in 2012.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Subject leaders have taken responsibility for literacy and numeracy across all year groups from the beginning of this term. They have many ideas to improve the achievement of all ability groups, but these have not yet had an impact on key skills across the school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The way different subjects are taught makes a positive contribution to pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. The school is developing this to provide opportunities for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and those pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium funding, to learn well throughout the school, but as yet these pupils do not make consistent progress in all year groups. In this respect, the promotion of equal opportunities for all pupils requires improvement.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority has provided appropriate support, and has successfully arranged for an external consultant to develop the systems for tracking pupils’ progress throughout the school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  The governors are enthusiastic and committed to the continuing improvements in the school. They visit regularly and each visit has a clear focus, for example evaluating pupils’ performance, so they have a good awareness of how well the pupils and teachers are performing against national expectations. They are continually developing their knowledge and skills in holding the school to account, for example in how money such as pupil premium funding is allocated to give the most impact. Their awareness of what is being done to reward good teaching and tackle underperformance is limited by the quality of the school systems for dealing with these issues, which currently require improvement.

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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 125598 Local authority Warwickshire Inspection number 406319

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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 325 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Tim Dedman Headteacher Carl Thornton Date of previous school inspection 12 October 2010 Telephone number 01788 577914 Fax number 01788 571922 Email address admin2590@we-learn.com 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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