Setting

Mr Mark Mitchell Headteacher Langley Primary School St Bernard's Road Olton Solihull B92 7DJ

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Education act 2005 to Langley Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 4 March 2013, 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 Langley 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

During the visit meetings were held with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, representatives of the governing body, a representative of the local authority and a group of pupils. The school improvement plan was evaluated. A range of documentation was reviewed including minutes from governing body meetings and subject leaders’ individual action plans.

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Context

There have been no significant changes since the recent inspection which judged the school to require improvement.

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Main findings

School leaders and staff have reflected carefully on the findings of the previous report. In response, they have worked together to amend the school improvement Serco Inspections Colmore Plaza 20 Colmore Circus Queensway Birmingham B4 6AT T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T :0121 679 9158 Direct email : rachel.dayan@serco.com plan which helped the school to be removed from special measures. The revised improvement plan includes appropriate actions that relate directly to raising achievement and improving the quality of teaching. The links between these actions and areas for improvement highlighted in the previous report are clear. For example, the plan indicates how the school will ensure that attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 improves and how subject leaders will provide more opportunities for pupils to practise writing skills across the curriculum. The plan generally includes

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Main findings

measurable success criteria against which the impact of the school’s work can be measured. However, there are not precise targets for improvement linked to increasing the amount of good and outstanding teaching and securing better outcomes for more-able pupils.

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Main findings

Training and coaching are helping middle leaders improve their leadership skills. All middle leaders have individual action plans which specify what they will do to improve pupil outcomes in their area of responsibility. Subject leaders have performance targets linked to pupil achievement in areas for which they are responsible. The school has systems in place for checking regularly the work of teachers and discussing with them the progress pupils are making.

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Main findings

The governing body is benefiting from training that enables it to hold school leaders to account for the school’s performance. For example, two governors have received training on how to evaluate the quality of teaching and learning by looking at pupils’ work. Governors have undertaken focused visits into school since the last inspection. Their findings are recorded and shared with the full governing body. The school’s leaders provide governors with a great deal of information about the school’s performance. However, there is some confusion about the school’s effectiveness because different ways of measuring progress lead to conflicting evaluations of how well pupils are achieving.

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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 inspection. Following the visit to the school, HMI recommend that further action is taken to:

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Main findings

 ensure the school improvement plan identifies measurable success criteria for improving teaching and the outcomes of more-able pupils  ensure that the governing body consider RAISEonline and Data Dashboard as the primary sources of information when evaluating pupils’ achievement in comparison to pupils nationally.

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Main findings

Ofsted will continue to monitor the school until its next section 5 inspection. HMI recommends that a further monitoring visit takes place alongside school leaders to review the quality of teaching and learning across the school.

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External support

The local authority has worked closely with the school since it went into special measures in May 2011. It has confidence in the capacity of the school’s leaders and continues to provide appropriate levels of support and guidance to staff and governors. A local authority officer maintains a close overview of the school to ensure that it continues to improve and that it tackles quickly the key issues from the recent inspection in order to secure the necessary improvements in pupil achievement. Close partnerships with other local schools are helping to build the skills of middle leaders and ensure that teacher assessments of pupils’ work are accurate.

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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 Solihull.

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