Setting

CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 1231231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566939 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: pnuttie@cfbt.com

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30 January 2013 A Thornton Headteacher Wallsend Jubilee Primary School Mullen Road High Farm Wallsend Tyne and Wear NE28 9HA

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Education act 2005 to Wallsend Jubilee Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 30 January 2013 with Tom Grieveson Senior HMI, 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 Wallsend Jubilee Primary School

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

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Evidence

The inspectors held meetings with the headteacher and acting headteacher, senior leaders, four members of the governing body steering committee and two representatives from the local authority. During the visit, the inspector evaluated the school’s improvement plans and looked at data on pupils’ progress and monitoring data on teaching and learning.

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Context

Since the inspection, the deputy headteacher has been promoted to acting headteacher to lead the school during a period of absence by the headteacher due to personal circumstances and a senior leader is on maternity leave. [Type text]

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Main findings

Senior leaders, including governors acted swiftly to secure the stability of the leadership of the school. They have drawn up an action plan in conjunction with the local authority, which identifies actions for improvement in teaching and learning and in improving pupils’ achievement in writing. The plan does not yet clearly identify the need to raise teachers’ expectations of what pupils in this school can achieve; nor does it sufficiently identify small- steps and milestones for improvement directly linked to improvements in pupils’ progress, which will help senior leaders and the governing body to monitor the school’s progress.

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Main findings

The governing body has formed a new committee to monitor the school and hold senior leaders to account for pupils’ outcomes. The committee is working closely with local authority officers and has carried out an audit of governors’ skills and areas for development. They have also increased the number of governing body and committee meetings held to one every half term to enable them to focus more clearly on the pace of improvements.

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Main findings

Senior leaders’ systems to monitor the quality of teaching across the school, especially the teaching of writing skills, needs to be more sharply focused on how much progress different pupil groups are making in lessons. They also need to act swiftly to upgrade teachers’ subject knowledge of how to teach writing skills more systematically across the school.

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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 she visits the school again and that further action is taken to:

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Main findings

 ensure, as a matter of urgency, that senior leaders identify the weaknesses in teacher’s subject knowledge of how to teach the skills of writing and then provide focused professional development so they are able to develop pupils’ writing skills systematically across the school so that progress improves  revise the school’s action plan to include specific, measurable milestones, which are directly linked to improvements in pupils’ progress so that the governing body can measure the impact of the schools’ work  ensure that senior leaders’ monitoring has a sharper focus on the impact of teaching on pupils’ learning and progress through lesson observations and work scrutiny.

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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 local authority has been decisive in securing the continuity of leadership in the school during this period of change. The action plan they have produced offers the school a range of support and intervention to improve teaching and learning and good support for senior leaders through a partnership with a local outstanding school. The local authority has also [Type text] strengthened the governing body through a bespoke training programme and linked the Chair of the Governing Body with a Chair from another school to help her identify the best way to challenge and hold senior leaders to account.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for North Tyneside.

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