Setting

Mr Andrew Marriott Stanhope Primary and Nursery School Keyworth Road Gedling Nottingham NG4 4JD

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Education Act 2005 to Stanhope Primary and Nursery School,

Following my visit to your school on 8 May 2013, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report on my findings. 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 Stanhope Primary and Nursery School,

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection on 22 – 23 January 2013. 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 senior leaders, the Vice-Chair of the Governing Body, a representative of the local authority and the national leader of education who is supporting the school. The school improvement plan and the governing body action plans were evaluated. A tour of the school was undertaken and a discussion held with a small group of pupils. A sample of marking, teachers’ performance management documents and current students’ progress data were also scrutinised.

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Context

There have been no significant changes in the school’s context since the inspection. 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 :01216 799162 Direct email : siobhan.garrattley@serco.com

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Main findings

On the day of this visit, the school appeared to be a well-ordered and happy learning community. Pupils were very well behaved, particularly at lunchtime. Although the pupils spoken to agreed there were one or two children whose behaviour could be challenging, they were confident that this was well dealt with and that good behaviour was normal. In classes visited, most pupils were busily engaged in interesting work or sharing learning with partners or the whole class.

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Main findings

Leaders at all levels in the school are fully aware of the areas in the school’s work that need to improve. They are ambitious, well-motivated and focus rightly on making sure that pupils at all levels, in every class, make good progress throughout the year. Leaders are still working on better systems for checking on the quality and consistency of teaching and learning and for using the information gained to promote the professional development of teaching and support staff. The systems used to monitor the progress of pupils are effective and are now being used to inform management decisions about intervention, support and staffing for next year. The governing body has taken a range of actions to improve its effectiveness. Governors are growing in both capability and confidence as their new committee structure and roles become more established.

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Main findings

The teachers’ marking of books is consistent, and provides both praise for good work (in green pen) and constructive ideas for improvement (in blue). Pupils are sometimes encouraged to ‘respond in red’, but there is scope to use this more widely and frequently to encourage a written dialogue between pupils and their teachers.

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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 recommends that further action is taken to:

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Main findings

 Consolidate improvements to the governing body and ensure that all governors become practised in monitoring and evaluation activities  Improve the links between leaders’ monitoring activity, the professional development of staff and their performance management, to ensure a higher degree of consistency and quickly help to spread the school’s good practice to all.

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Main findings

 Assisting governors in a review of the effectiveness and impact of their new approaches towards the end of the autumn term 2013.  Participating in a leadership development activity around improving the consistency of monitoring and performance management on Monday 1 July 2013.

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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 had identified the school as needing a higher level of support some time prior to the inspection in January 2013. Additional education advisor time was made available and support from a national leader of education arranged and funded. The school has made good use of this support both for the headteacher and for senior and middle leaders. It has also been able to make good use of the local authority’s data analysis and consultant time.

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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 Nottinghamshire County Council.

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