Langland Community School

Langland Community School Langland Road, Milton Keynes, MK6 4HA

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Inadequate 4 Achievement of pupils Inadequate 4 Quality of teaching Inadequate 4 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Inadequate 4

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires special measures.  Standards are below average when pupils leave at the end of Year 6. Despite some improvements last year, pupils’ achievement is inadequate. Pupils do not make enough progress in Years 1 to 6.  Teaching is not good enough to ensure pupils make at least expected progress. Teachers often spend too long introducing lessons and the time for pupils to work on their own is limited.  Teachers do not focus enough on what pupils will learn when planning lessons. Work set is often either too easy or too hard.  Leaders and managers have not focused enough on improving teaching since the previous inspection. Progress on the areas for improvement has been limited.  Provision in the ‘nurture group’ is inadequate. These pupils are not supported well enough in school.  Governors have not done enough to hold senior staff to account for the quality of education in the school.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Behaviour and safety require improvement. The behaviour policy is not consistently followed by all staff. There are occasional incidents of poor behaviour, especially at break and lunchtimes.

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The school has the following strengths

 Attendance has improved and is now similar to other primary schools.  Pupils feel safe in school.  Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are supported well in their learning and make good progress.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection team observed 22 lessons or part lessons.  Five observations were carried out jointly with members of the senior leadership team. The inspection team also observed senior leaders feeding back to teachers on the quality of learning and pupils’ progress in their lessons.  Inspectors listened to pupils read, talked to them about their learning and scrutinised their work.  Meetings were held with the Chair of the Governing Body, a local authority representative and staff.  The returns from 30 staff questionnaires were analysed. There were no responses to the online Parent View survey. Inspectors spoke to parents and carers who attended a ‘family learning workshop’ and to others as they brought their children to school.  The inspection team observed the school’s work and scrutinised documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, the development plan, minutes of meetings of the governing body,

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Information about this inspection

records of pupils’ progress and behaviour, and safeguarding documents.

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Inspection team

Susan Williams, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Keith Tysoe Additional Inspector Juliet Ward Additional Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Information about this school

 Langland Community School is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The majority of pupils are White British. There is a small minority of Black African pupils; other pupils come from a wide range of backgrounds.  An above average proportion of pupils is known to be eligible for the pupil premium, the additional government funding for looked after children, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those whose parents or carers are in the armed forces. These pupils receive small-group tuition if they are at risk of falling behind and not achieving well. This includes sessions to develop social skills and confidence, such as pupils attending an outdoor education centre and a local secondary school. Some pupils also have support with reading, writing and mathematics.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below average. The proportion of pupils supported through school

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Information about this school

action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  There is a ‘nurture group’ on site. This is specialist provision for the school’s own pupils and others in the local authority that need support for their social and emotional development. It was set up to reduce exclusions at Key Stage 1 across the local authority.  The school does not use any other alternative provision for its pupils.  The school did not meet the government’s floor standard in 2011, which sets the national minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in English and mathematics.  The headteacher was on maternity leave last year and the deputy headteacher was the acting headteacher.  The school receives support from a local leader in education.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching so that it is at least good and leads to much better achievement for all pupils by ensuring that:  teachers focus specifically on what pupils are going to learn when planning lessons  work is matched to the ability of pupils so all are challenged in lessons and they do not find work too easy or too hard  introductions by teachers take less time and pupils spend more time on activities so that time in lessons is used well  teachers give clear feedback to pupils about how to improve their work  best practice in teaching is shared more widely in the school.  Raise expectations of behaviour around the school site by:  ensuring the behaviour policy is followed consistently  establishing clear routines for the end of break and lunchtime  analysing incidents of poor behaviour and checking that actions carried out are effective so they do not recur  reducing exclusions so they are in line with national levels.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that leaders and managers are more focused on raising standards and ensuring pupils, including those in the nurture group, make rapid progress by:  checking that development plans are sharply focused and have clear actions for improvement  making sure that observations of lessons are judged accurately, that next steps are identified for teachers and that these are monitored to ensure improvement occurs.  Increase governors’ knowledge and understanding about their role so they are able to hold senior staff to account more robustly to ensure improvement is rapid and sustained.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Pupils do not make enough progress in all year groups in the school. Pupils’ attainment in English and mathematics at the end of Key Stage 2 has been below average for the last three years, although there was some improvement in 2012. Likewise, at Key Stage 1, while there has been recent improvement, particularly in reading and mathematics, attainment has been below average for the last three years.  The school provides additional support in lessons and in small-group sessions for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. Progress varies for these pupils across different year groups and subjects. With the exception of Year 6, these pupils make less progress than other pupils in the school. The support is not effective and the gap is not narrowing between these pupils and others nationally.  The pupils who attend the ‘nurture group’ do not make good enough progress. The provision is

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

not supporting them sufficiently in improving their achievement, which is inadequate.  Pupils eligible for support from the pupil premium are not doing well enough. The support is not accelerating their progress and their achievement is inadequate.  White British pupils do not make good progress. Black African pupils make better progress but they still do not make good progress in all subjects and year groups. The school is not doing enough to promote equality of opportunity for pupils’ learning as many groups of pupils do less well than in other schools.  Children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage with levels of skills and knowledge well below those expected for their age. Positive routines for learning, high expectations from adults and the range of well-planned activities, particularly in Reception, support their learning well. When children leave Reception, they reach the expected levels in some areas of learning, although

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

overall, they are still below those expected for their age. This shows good progress from their very low starting points.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 There is too much teaching that is ineffective and does not support pupils in making rapid progress. Teachers are not always clear about what they want pupils to learn in lessons. In some lessons, they share ‘success criteria’ with the pupils, but these are often confusing for pupils as it is not clear what successful learning in the lesson will look like.  In some lessons, teachers spend too long introducing the lesson, so limiting the amount of time for pupils to take part in activities by themselves or in groups. Teachers do not always make sure that the work is at the right level for pupils to ensure that they all make good progress; sometimes it is too hard and sometimes it is too easy.  Not all teachers check regularly on whether all pupils are making good progress. Feedback about how pupils should improve their work is often limited and some pupils do not focus on their learning when working independently in groups. Marking is regular but it does not always

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

explain what they need to do next to help them to make progress.  Where there is good teaching, pupils make better progress. For example, in a Year 2 mathematics lesson, the teacher enthused pupils by linking mathematics with a phone call from a science agency requesting help from the pupils with calculations. Pupils were involved in different activities matched well to their level of ability. Pupils were enthusiastic about their learning and made good progress. However, such good practice is not shared across the school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Behaviour and safety require improvement because there are occasionally incidents of poor behaviour, particularly at break and lunchtimes. Incidents are logged and actions are taken but the school does not always follow these up to make sure that they work and that these incidents do not happen again. This has led to exclusions being higher than in other primary schools.  Not all staff follow the behaviour policy consistently enough. This is because the expectations of how staff and pupils should behave at the end of break and lunchtime are not clear. Pupils take a long time to get back into lessons wasting valuable learning time.  Pupils say there are incidents of poor behaviour and bullying but they are confident that the school deals with them well. Pupils understand about different types of bullying such as cyber, verbal and physical bullying. They say they feel safe in school. They are aware of keeping

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

themselves safe in areas such as road safety and on the internet. Parents and carers are positive about behaviour in school and confident that they can talk to staff about any problems.  Pupils’ behaviour is better in lessons than at break times. Lessons are not usually disrupted by poor behaviour. The ‘behaviour wheel’ is used by some teachers to promote good behaviour in lessons and this works well but this is not used consistently by all staff. When teachers have high expectations of pupils and activities are interesting they learn well. When teachers talk for too long or do not check on pupils regularly enough in lessons, pupils lose concentration which means they do not learn as much as they could.  Attendance has improved and is broadly average.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The school development plan has a large number of targets but is not clear about the precise steps leaders and managers need to take to improve teaching and pupils’ achievement. School improvement since the previous inspection has been too slow.  Senior leaders have not improved teaching. Judgements on the quality of teaching are sometimes too generous so that senior leaders believe that teaching is better than it is. Feedback following observations of teaching do not give teachers clear enough steps on how to improve and the actions suggested are not followed up to make sure they make a difference.  Historically, teachers were rewarded even when pupils did not make good progress. The headteacher has ensured that more rigorous performance management procedures are in place and this information is now taken into account when making decisions on teachers’ pay.  The ‘nurture group’ does not support pupils well enough. This provision does not fully meet the

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The leadership and management are inadequate

pupils’ needs and give them opportunities to extend their learning or catch up with others.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development is developed appropriately in lessons, assemblies and in a range of extra-curricular activities in which pupils can take part, for example drama, arts and crafts and football.  Safeguarding meets statutory requirements. The school works well with a range of agencies to support pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable.  The local authority has supported the school with advisers and consultants. Because of the concerns the local authority had about pupils’ achievement, the school was subject to regular scrutiny and monitoring, with half-termly ‘targeted intervention board’ meetings. The local authority also arranged for a local leader in education to support the school.  The governance of the school  The governing body has not challenged senior staff enough or ensured significant

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The leadership and management are inadequate

improvements in teaching and pupils’ achievement. Governors realise this and last year they introduced committees so they can challenge senior leaders more thoroughly. They received training on governance and achievement information from the local authority, including on how to compare their own school with all schools nationally. Governors are aware achievement is not good enough and that pupils are not doing as well as in other schools. They receive regular updates on how pupils are progressing, including those eligible for the pupil premium. They have not been involved in decisions regarding this funding but recognise the importance of it and have asked the finance committee to follow this up in more detail. They are not aware of where the strongest teaching is in school and are not involved in confirming pay recommendations for teachers.

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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 110354 Local authority Milton Keynes Inspection number 401116

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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 Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 359 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Dave Moulson Headteacher Kate Stuart Date of previous school inspection 13–14 July 2010 Telephone number 01908 670712 Fax number 01908 608488 Email address langlandc@milton-keynes.gov.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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