Setting

Sarah Noden Lambourne Primary School Hoe Lane Abridge Romford RM4 1AU

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Education act 2005 to Lambourne Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 15 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 Lambourne 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 other school leaders, members of the Governing Body and a representative of the local authority. Checks were made on the school’s systems for monitoring the performance of pupils and staff. The school improvement plan was evaluated, taking into account amendments made following the last inspection. A brief tour of the school was made, accompanied by the headteacher.

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Context

Since the inspection in November 2012, there have been no changes in the context of the school. 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 9162 Direct email : siobhan.garrattley@serco.com

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Main findings

The school has amended its improvement plan to take into account the areas for improvement identified at the recent inspection. Some of the issues had already been identified through the school’s own self-evaluation, but additional initiatives have also been developed. These include plans to raise expectations for more-able pupils, to give pupils a better understanding of what they are expected to learn, and to increase the emphasis in mathematics on conceptual understanding and the use of mathematics in problem-solving. The school is making good progress in making the improvements it previously planned.

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Main findings

The school has a clear programme for monitoring the quality of teaching and learning. This includes regular checks of the work in pupils’ books, formal lesson observations, and shorter, unannounced drop-in visits to lessons by the headteacher. The lesson observation records include a general overview of how the lesson was organised and a short evaluation of how well the lesson was adapted to meet the needs of different groups. Brief comments are included on the work seen in pupils’ books and the contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The headteacher reviews the lesson observation records to identify individual and collective areas for improvement. However, the records do not include enough detail on important matters, such the impact on pupils’ learning, how well the teacher monitors pupils as they are working, or on subject-specific issues, such as the choice of teaching approach. As such, they do not take fully into account the

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Main findings

expectations of the national teaching standards.

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Main findings

Teachers regularly update their assessments of how well pupils are doing in reading, writing and mathematics. The records are collated to provide overviews for each year group that are reported to governors. The records are also analysed to make sure that there are no unacceptable variations between different groups of pupils.

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Main findings

The governing body has organised itself very effectively to provide challenge to senior leaders and to meet its statutory duties. It has well established monitoring procedures. Governors’ visits are well planned, and focus on key questions that have been considered in advance. Their visits complement the monitoring by senior staff and allow the governors to ask informed questions about a range of issues.

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Main findings

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection. Following the visit to the school, I recommend that further action is taken to sharpen the improvement plan by:  devising further whole-school training to ensure that all staff check regularly on pupils while they are working independently in mathematics, so that lessons can be adapted to deal with any misconceptions or common errors  making it clear who is leading each aspect of the improvement plan  ensuring that the action plan attaches specific numerical targets to relevant improvement points and incorporates term-by-term targets for pupils’ attainment and progress in each year-group.

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Main findings

Ofsted will continue to monitor the school until its next section 5 inspection. The school has agreed to provide regular updates on pupils’ progress.

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External support

The school is being supported appropriately by local authority advisers. A consultant has provided training on meeting the needs of more-able pupils in Key Stage 1. A similar session is scheduled to support teachers in Key Stage 2. The school is drawing on its local consortium of schools for advice and for opportunities to observe good practice. Two teachers are due to start the ‘improving teacher’ programme run by an outstanding Essex primary school.

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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 Essex.

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