Setting

Mrs P Wilson Headteacher Maidenhill School Kings Road Stonehouse GL10 2HA

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Education Act 2005 to Maidenhill School

Following my visit to your school on 20 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 Maidenhill School

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

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Evidence

During the visit, I held meetings were held with the headteacher, the senior leadership team, subject leaders for English, mathematics and science. I also met representatives of the Governing Body and the local authority. I evaluated the school’s improvement plans and action plans. In addition, I discussed the systems for monitoring and improving the quality of teaching, the progress that students make in English and mathematics, performance management systems and curriculum development.

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Context

Since the last inspection, the school has introduced a computer programme that all staff can access, in order to track the achievements of individuals and different groups of students more effectively. Tribal 1-4 Portland Square Bristol BS2 8RR T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0117 3115319 Direct F 0117 3150430 Email :matthew.parker@tribalgroup.com

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Main findings

Senior leaders and the Governing Body have responded positively to the judgements of the December 2012 inspection. They are determined to improve the school’s performance to good. The school has implemented a lot of different actions. It has been collecting data in order to demonstrate the improvements these actions are making. The new tracker system enables all staff to check on how well students are performing in relation to their starting points. Professional training, work with other schools, closer monitoring by senior leaders are all helping to ensure that teaching and learning are improving. This progress needs to be sustained to swiftly increase the proportion of consistently good or better teaching. Several initiatives that are new to the school are already working and need to be rapidly applied across the school. For example, the systems to ensure that students’ respond to teachers’ marking and that time is made available for them to do this in lessons.

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Main findings

Performance management procedures have been enhanced and strengthened. The Governing Body’s recent training has raised awareness of how to make good use of data to hold teachers to account for students’ progress. The school’s action and improvement plans are also more closely aligned to student progress.

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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, I recommended that further action is taken to:

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Main findings

 ensure that all staff are held accountable for accelerating students’ progress and that each student is producing work that is appropriate to their literacy and numeracy levels.  liaise more tightly with the feeder primary schools so that best practice in literacy and numeracy development is shared and built upon  ensure that all subject and area leaders have access to, and use, specialist leadership network groups to enhance their subject expertise and keep up-to- date with the latest developments in their subjects  ensure that when whole school policies are re-defined this is done quickly and implemented consistently by all staff  review and evaluate the impact of the actions taken to accelerate students’ progress.

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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 provided additional funding. They have also provided external support for the whole school, which includes individual staff and governor training. The local authority provides ‘Subject Leader Network Groups’ for English, mathematics and science that help leaders to share expertise and enhance their practice. Most other department leaders do not have similar support. The school is taking action to address this inconsistency.

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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 Gloucestershire.

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