Setting

Carl Thornton Headteacher Boughton Leigh Junior School Wetherell Way Brownsover Rugby CV21 1LT

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Education act 2005 to Boughton Leigh Junior School

Following my visit to your school on 14 December 2012, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report on the findings of my visit. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Education act 2005 to Boughton Leigh Junior School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in October 2012. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, the subject leader for mathematics, the behaviour leader, members of the Governing Body and a representative of the local authority. The school action plan was evaluated. A range of documentation was reviewed; including the school’s monitoring procedures. Senior leaders accompanied HMI on a tour of the school. A sample of pupils’ work was seen as evidence of teachers’ marking.

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Context

Since the inspection, a member of the senior team has started to lead the school’s work on behaviour. Opportunities for the deputy headteacher to work with different classes have been increased. The Governing Body has created a sub-committee that is focused on the issues that require improvement.

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Main findings

Serco Inspections Cedar House 21 William Street Edgbaston Birmingham B15 1LH T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0121 683 3291 Direct email :tim.ogbourn@serco.com The school has developed a ‘rapid action plan’ to address the priorities identified at the October inspection. The actions are appropriate and the intended outcomes are suitably challenging. This has had an immediate impact on the strong sense of purpose shared by staff and governors. However, the use of lesson observations and milestones for checking progress are areas to strengthen in the school’s action plan to ensure that the pace of improvement is sustained. Although included, the school’s plans to ensure that pupils’ behaviour is consistently good are not as clear as other priorities, and the use of pupils’ views is at an early stage. Nevertheless, the fall in exclusions and cooperative ethos in lessons visited during the tour of the school

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Main findings

indicate that work to help pupils apply ‘key habits’ is starting to prove effective.

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Main findings

In response to the mathematics strand of the action plan teachers are taking action to raise attainment in the subject. This includes: adapting teaching approaches that have proven effective in literacy; increasing the use of ‘big maths’; using practical maths challenges to start the day; using display to promote enquiry and enjoyment of maths; focusing a staff training day on teaching and learning in mathematics.

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Main findings

Governors are increasingly involved in evaluating the work of the school; recent visits to classrooms have concentrated on pupils’ understanding of their progress and how to improve their work. This complemented the informal monitoring of teaching and learning that senior staff frequently undertake through lesson ‘drop- ins’. Scrutiny of a sample of pupils’ work to show how recent marking in mathematics has improved, indicate that actions are starting to take effect.

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Main findings

Senior leaders and governors have begun to take effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection. Following the visit to the school, HMI recommend that further action is taken to:

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Main findings

 make more explicit in the action plan the aspects of behaviour that require improvement and the planned actions, involving the pupils where appropriate  add clarity to the action plan by stating the impact expected at specific times, to help governors evaluate the effectiveness of different actions taken  show how formal lesson observations are used alongside ‘drop-ins’ and work scrutiny to ensure that judgements about teaching take full account of pupils’ progress and achievement.

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Main findings

Ofsted will continue to monitor the school until its next section 5 inspection.

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External support

The school has drawn on support from the local authority to devise a ‘rapid action plan’ and to review and focus the work of the Governing Body. An external mathematics consultant is advising the school, which is beginning to have an impact. Links with other schools have been strengthened through work with the infants school, a local leader in education, and the ‘Rugby Cluster’ which includes a teaching school, to help accelerate and embed the school’s improvement. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Warwickshire.

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