Shelton Junior School

Shelton Junior School Carlton Avenue, Shelton Lock, Derby, DE24 9EJ

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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.  Pupils are not making sufficient progress in English or mathematics over time. Weaknesses in their writing and mathematical skills are holding back their achievement.  Teachers plan and provide work that is sometimes too hard or too easy. Assessment information is not used effectively to properly match work to pupils’ capabilities.  Teachers do not always provide pupils with good guidance and resources to enable them to complete tasks quickly and successfully.  Teachers do not always make the best use of questions to check pupils’ understanding and extend their knowledge.  Teachers’ marking does not consistently help pupils to improve their work.  Support from the local authority has not had enough impact on improving the quality of education that pupils receive.  Whole-school action plans do not provide staff with sufficient guidance. They have had little

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

impact on improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement.  Assessment information is not shared effectively enough to ensure that subject leaders contribute well to developing their subjects.  While some useful actions have been taken recently to check on teaching and pupils’ progress, leaders, including governors, have not yet acquired a detailed view of the school’s performance. Governors are not robust enough in holding leaders to account for the school’s outcomes. Leaders and governors have not demonstrated the capacity to bring about sustained improvement. The school is not improving quickly enough.

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The school has the following strengths

 Welfare arrangements are effective. Pupils feel safe in school. The breakfast club provides a secure and caring place for pupils.  Pupils generally behave well in their classrooms. They are polite, have good manners and take a keen interest in school matters.  Attendance has risen over the last three years and is average.  Parents and carers agree that children are well looked after at school.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in 18 lessons taught by 12 teachers and/or teaching assistants. Four of these lessons were observed together with the headteacher or deputy headteacher.  Samples of pupils’ work in English and mathematics were analysed from all year groups. An inspector listened to Year 6 pupils reading.  Meetings and discussions were held with school staff, a group of pupils, members of the governing body and a senior school improvement officer from the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 23 responses to the online parent questionnaire (Parent View), parents’ responses to the school’s own recent survey and 10 questionnaires completed by staff.  Inspectors looked at a range of evidence including: the work in pupils’ books; monitoring records; the school’s own data on pupils’ progress; minutes of governing body meetings; and policies, procedures and records relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection team

David Herd, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Derek Aitken Additional Inspector Isobel Randall 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

 Shelton is larger than the average-sized junior school.  Most pupils are White British. A small proportion of pupils come from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is above average. This is extra government funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families and those that are looked after.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below average, as is the proportion of these pupils supported through school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs.  The school meets the government’s current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching so that it is good or better, and accelerate pupils’ progress by making sure that all teachers:  make good use of assessment information in order to set work at the right level of difficulty for all pupils  provide pupils with good guidance and resources so that they can complete tasks more quickly and successfully  question pupils well to check their understanding and to help them to extend their knowledge of new ideas  improve their marking and give pupils more opportunities and responsibility for improving their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ achievement in writing and mathematics by making sure that:  English lessons for younger pupils give an appropriate emphasis to the development of their basic skills in grammar and how sentences are constructed and punctuated  teachers check that pupils are more accurate when adding and subtracting to solve problems in mathematics  teachers expect pupils to write in detail and at length in a range of subjects.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management to good or better and increase its impact on teaching and pupils’ achievement by:  improving the quality of whole-school action plans to guide staff’s work  ensuring that leaders rigorously evaluate the impact initiatives are having on the outcomes for pupils  sharing information on pupils’ progress more effectively with subject leaders so that they can make a more purposeful contribution to developing their subjects  improving the capacity of governors to hold school leaders firmly to account.  An external review of governance should be undertaken to assess how this aspect of leadership may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Pupils’ attainment when they join Year 3 is average in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2011 and 2012, the Year 6 test results were below average. Their average point scores show that pupils were more than six months behind where they should have been. Few pupils attain the higher Level 5. Pupils’ achievement in writing and mathematics is not good enough.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Year 6 pupils enjoy their choice of reading books and read regularly. Most less-able pupils read accurately and fluently. However, pupils find it difficult to apply what they have learned in writing and mathematics in other contexts. For example, younger pupils sometimes find it hard to read information given to them, while others find it difficult to organise information before they start writing. In mathematics, pupils often have difficulty using and applying their mathematical skills to solve problems.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Currently, there are some small signs of improvement in pupils’ achievement in mathematics but these are not yet sustained across the school. The quality of teaching is not good enough to make sure that pupils make the progress they should over their time at the school. Work is sometimes too hard or too easy, with the result that pupils do not make adequate progress in lessons.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Most pupils known to be eligible for free school meals underachieve in line with their classmates and similar pupils nationally. The attainment of these pupils is well below that of all pupils nationally. The school uses pupil premium funding to provide support to pupils to improve their basic skills, for example, through one-to-one tuition with an adult. However, this work has not yet had the desired impact of closing the gap in attainment between pupils who get this extra support and their classmates.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 While some disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make expected progress, most pupils with specific learning difficulties do not make enough progress in lessons where teaching is weaker. Their needs are not always distinguished clearly enough from those of less-able pupils when extra support is planned. Consequently, many pupils with special educational needs do not make the progress of which they are capable.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teaching is inadequate overall because the quality is far too variable and there is not enough that is good to ensure that pupils make the progress that they should over time and in lessons.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Some teachers set work for different groups of pupils at the wrong level of difficulty. When it is too hard, pupils make too many mistakes and do not know what to do next. Sometimes pupils are given tasks without enough guidance on how to complete them successfully. When the work is too easy, pupils spend too long on tasks which they have already mastered. When work is not properly matched to pupils’ capabilities, individuals and groups do not achieve as well as they should. On a few occasions, in lessons that do not challenge pupils sufficiently, they lose focus and concentration.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers do not always aim high enough and demand that more-able pupils do their best. For example, in a Year 6 mathematics lesson, there was lack of challenge in the work the pupils were given and they were not given the opportunity to devise their own problem-solving questions. Many pupils do not use nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs correctly when writing. Teachers do not encourage pupils to write in detail or at length often enough.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers do not always question pupils effectively to find out how well they are learning at different points in lessons. They do not step in quickly enough to clear up misunderstandings, make pupils think hard and give them good opportunities to deepen their knowledge, skills and understanding. Literacy and numeracy skills are not taught well enough to ensure that pupils have the necessary basic skills to succeed and cope with the next stage of their education.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are sometimes supported well in the classroom. More typically, teaching assistants do not make enough use of visual resources to help these pupils make good gains in their learning.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers’ marking varies in quality. Teachers nearly always mark pupils’ work conscientiously, tell them what they have done well and encourage them to try hard. Sometimes teachers’ comments provide pupils with useful feedback on how to improve their work, but this good practice is not well enough established across the school. Teachers do not consistently provide pupils with enough examples to follow; there is little evidence of pupils regularly responding to their teachers’ advice in their next pieces of work.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 When teaching is good, teachers have high expectations and give clear models for pupils to follow. For example, in a Year 6 literacy lesson, pupils were able to talk in detail about the features of a poem written by William Shakespeare because the teacher gave them interesting prompts to think about syllables, rhythm and rhyme.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ behaviour in lessons is not always good. There are occasions when the attention of a few pupils wanders and they do not listen attentively to the teacher. Some pupils need reminders from adults to help them concentrate on their work. Pupils know and accept the system for promoting good behaviour and the rewards and sanctions that go with it. In most cases, pupils get on well with each other. They are friendly, polite and have good manners.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Bullying incidents are rare but the school’s records show that there has been a small number of racist incidents this year. Pupils reported that there has been some over-boisterous play at break times. Pupils say that any incidents are dealt with promptly by adults and that they feel safe and secure in school. They know who they can go to if they need help. They know how to stay safe when at play and when using the internet.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Most pupils show interest and enjoyment in their work but when tasks are too easy or too hard, their attitudes to learning deteriorate are less positive.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils enjoy the responsibilities that they have in school, for example, being a school council member. In a class council, pupils showed a clear interest in their school by contributing a range of thoughtful ideas for improving resources and facilities. They listened carefully to different points of view and were able to develop respectful relationships while having their views suitably taken into account.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school has worked well with external agencies to improve the attendance, behaviour and social development of those pupils whose circumstances make them potentially vulnerable. This has had a positive impact on these pupils’ personal development.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The popular breakfast club, expertly led by the learning mentor, contributes usefully to pupils’ well-being and improves attendance. It provides pupils with a settled, enjoyable start to the day and reminds them of the kind of behaviour the school expects of them. It also works well in helping these pupils feel good about themselves and their achievements.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The responses to surveys confirm that nearly all parents are satisfied that their children are safe in school and that they are looked after well.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ attendance is average and has improved steadily in recent years.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders are mostly aware of key priorities but long-term plans to raise pupils’ achievement and improve teaching are not focused clearly enough on what is needed to help staff take swift action to improve pupils’ attainment and rates of progress. Leaders have not tackled the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection quickly enough.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders have recently put in place more robust measures to check the quality of teaching, learning and pupils’ progress. These developments are at an early stage and have not yet had enough impact on raising standards and accelerating pupils’ progress rapidly.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Systems for establishing pupils’ levels of attainment when they join the school, and for tracking their progress afterwards, are not firmly fixed in the school’s work. Consequently, leaders are not able to gain a clear picture of pupils’ achievement or demonstrate that they are making sufficient progress. Subject leaders do not always have the necessary performance information at their fingertips so that they can plan the improvements that are most needed in their subjects.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Recently, checks on the quality of teaching, for example through lesson observations, have become more frequent. In these observations, leaders have concentrated too much on what the teacher is doing rather than on how well pupils are learning. Leaders have not yet acquired a balanced overview, from all of the available sources of evidence, to enable them to make a sharp assessment of the performance of individual staff. Teachers have been supported in improving their practice but, in too many cases, this has not had sufficient impact on how well pupils are doing.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Newly qualified teachers should not be appointed.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Pupil premium funding has not been used well enough to bring about better outcomes for the pupils it is intended to support. Some measures, such as one-to-one tuition, have had a positive impact, particularly on individuals’ personal development, but the use of the pupil premium expenditure is not checked thoroughly enough to make sure it is making a difference, particularly academically.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The subjects and activities taught foster pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development adequately. However, they do not ensure that pupils make the academic progress of which they are capable. This means that equal opportunities are inadequately promoted. This said, discrimination in any form is not tolerated.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Safeguarding procedures are rigorous, training is up to date and all statutory requirements are met.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The local authority has helped the school to understand what needs to be improved. It has not been successful in supporting the school to bring about rapid improvements to the quality of leadership, teaching and pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The governance of the school:  Governance is inadequate. The governing body is not sufficiently robust in holding leaders to account for the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement. Weaknesses, including those identified at the last inspection, have not been tackled quickly enough. This is because long- term planning lacks focus and governors have too little influence on decision making. While governors are aware of the good pastoral support provided, they do not have a clear idea of how well pupils are performing compared to other pupils nationally. Governors have been over-reliant on reports from the headteacher to inform their views of the school’s effectiveness. Consequently, they have not challenged other school leaders robustly enough regarding how well pupils are doing. Governors have recently taken a small step to improving their first-hand knowledge of teaching and learning by allocating a named governor to each

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The leadership and management are inadequate

class, and a few visits have taken place. Performance management is not rigorous enough. Governors do not demonstrate a clear understanding of the quality of teaching and actions taken to reward good teachers and tackle underperformance.

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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 112983 Local authority Derby City Inspection number 405445

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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 Junior School category Foundation Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 276 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Suzanne Stainer Headteacher Steve Jones Date of previous school inspection 4 July 2011 Telephone number 01332 701212 Fax number 01332 701212 Email address admin@sheltonj.derby.sch.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

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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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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