Loddon Junior School

Loddon Junior School Kitten's Lane, Loddon, Norwich, NR14 6JX

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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This is a school that requires improvement. . It is not good because

 In 2012, as the result of progress that was too slow over time, Year 6 pupils left the school with below average standards.  Younger pupils do not make consistently good progress in English and mathematics.  Teaching is not good enough in a small minority of classes. In these cases the work is sometimes too easy for some pupils or too complicated for others.  On occasion, teachers talk for too long, so pupils do not have enough opportunity to practise what they are learning or to develop skills that will help them solve problems for themselves.  Sometimes, teachers do not have high enough expectations of what more-able pupils can achieve.

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The school has the following strengths

 In some classes teaching is good or outstanding.  Pupils’ progress has improved over the last year, especially in writing, and many are now making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Standards of pupils currently in Year 6 are now similar to other pupils nationally.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are well supported and make good progress.  The leaders and managers of the school clearly understand what the school needs to do to improve. Changes have already been made which have improved the quality of teaching and increased pupils’ progress.  Behaviour in and around school is good. Pupils are considerate and show respect for adults and for each other.  The pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is particularly good.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 22 lessons or parts of lessons, eight of which were seen together with the headteacher or deputy headteacher.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, staff, two groups of pupils, the Chair of the Governing Body and other governors, and a representative of the local authority. Informal discussions were held with parents and carers.  The inspectors took account of 20 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View), school questionnaires, individual communications from parents and 18 completed staff questionnaires .  The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at: information from the school’s checks on its performance; its analysis and tracking of pupils’ progress; school improvement plans; leaders’ records of classroom observations; safeguarding arrangements; and records of governing body meetings.  They also looked at pupils’ work, listened to pupils read and checked information on pupils’

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Inspection team

Susan Hughes, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Sa'ad Khaldi Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school and caters for pupils from age seven to 11 years old.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium, which is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, those in local authority care or those with a parent in the armed services, is below average. There are currently no pupils in local authority care or with parents in the armed services in the school.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below average, as is the proportion who speak English as an additional language.  The proportions of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action, at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs are above average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations

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Information about this school

for attainment and progress.  The headteacher took up post in January 2012. Prior to this there had been a number of executive and interim headteachers for some years.  The Chair of the Governing Body started in the role in September 2012.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise standards in English and mathematics by ensuring that all teaching is good or better through:  all work being well matched to pupils’ abilities  teachers consistently communicating high expectations of what pupils can achieve, especially for those who are more-able  pupils being shown how to learn independently and being given plenty of opportunities to practise and develop their skills.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management by ensuring that governors’ visits to school are tightly focused on school improvement priorities and they are routinely reported to the rest of the governing body.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Achievement requires improvement because not enough pupils make good progress. Pupils in Year 6 in 2012 did not make the expected progress during their time in Key Stage 2, underachievement being associated with weaker teaching and disruption. Their attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 was below average despite their accelerated progress in Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Progress this year is much better. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 and in some Year 3 and 4 classes are making good progress, especially in writing and mathematics. This means that standards are improving and Year 6 pupils are currently working at the level expected for pupils of their age. However, this is not consistent across all the Year 3 and 4 classes and some pupils are still working at a level lower than that expected for their age, taking into account their starting points.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Reading skills across the school are typically stronger than those in mathematics and writing. Most pupils show enthusiasm for reading and use phonics (the sounds that letters make) well to read unfamiliar words. For example, a Year 5 pupil reading ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ was inspired by the series of books and persevered in tackling some complex words so that he could enjoy the story.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress. This is because their needs are quickly identified and they are well supported both in the classroom and through specifically planned activities.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Most pupils who are known to be eligible for the pupil premium make similar progress to other groups of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics and attain equally well. They are currently making particularly good progress with all subjects in Year 5 and with writing and mathematics in Year 6. The funding is used effectively to enable them to be taught and supported in small groups when needed and to have individual help at times.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching requires improvement because it is not consistently good across the school. Sometimes work is not well matched to the abilities of pupils and may be too easy or too complicated for them. This is especially the case when the whole class is involved in a similar piece of work which is difficult for some pupils to understand but too easy for others.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Sometimes teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve. This is seen where the work set fails to extend pupils, especially the more-able. Occasionally, too, the pace is too slow because the teacher talks for too long and directs every step of the lesson. This limits opportunities for pupils to develop independent learning skills as they are too reliant on the teacher to tell them what to do.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 When teachers have high expectations, pupils readily rise to the challenge. In a Year 6 English lesson, for example, the appropriately brief introduction by the teacher was followed by ‘team leaders’ taking the responsibility for ensuring that everyone in the class was productively involved in the activity. Pupils agreed that the leaders led their groups well and the teacher’s high expectations of both behaviour and the standard of work were ably met by the class.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Marking in most books is good. Most teachers give pupils clear guidance on how they can improve their work, and pupils respond well. Pupils use the teachers’ comments alongside their personal targets to give them a good understanding of what level they are working at and how they can improve.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are well supported. Well-briefed adults working alongside the class teacher ensure that the support they provide for small groups or individual pupils closely follows the teachers’ planning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils behave well in and around school. They are polite and courteous to adults and respectful to each other. The school has high expectations of good behaviour and pupils respond well to the positive role models that adults in the school provide.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils talk enthusiastically about the way teachers help them learn. They usually try hard with their work and there was no disruption to learning seen during the inspection. Pupils say this is typical of normal classroom behaviour.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils say they feel safe and are taught how to stay safe in different situations. They have a clear understanding of different forms of bullying such as physical, emotional and cyber-bullying. They say bullying does not happen often. If they have any concerns there is a range of adults they can go to. They speak highly of the pastoral support worker who is always available for advice and to listen to any troubles.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils take their roles and responsibilities seriously. Trained play leaders keep an eye on anyone who may be lonely at playtimes while peer support mentors are trained to help solve any minor disagreements. Pupils say these systems work well and save their having to seek teachers’ help unnecessarily.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance is above average and the school works hard to maintain this. Parents respond well the school’s high expectations of good attendance and there is support for families whose circumstances may make affect their children’s attendance or punctuality.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is well led by the headteacher. He quickly identified the causes of recent underachievement and, with the leadership team, has made changes which have improved the quality of teaching, accelerated pupils’ progress, raised standards and improved behaviour. This shows a very secure capacity to achieve good teaching and learning throughout the school.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils’ progress is checked regularly and accurately. Senior leaders now have a good understanding of the performance of pupils in different subjects and have identified areas where further improvement is needed, providing appropriate support and guidance for colleagues.

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The leadership and management are good

 Through staff training and termly meetings with the headteacher, teachers now fully appreciate how the school’s progress and attainment data should be used to inform their lesson planning. Their performance is judged against how much progress their pupils make and how well they fulfil their different roles in the school. Targets for teachers are used to measure whether promotion up the pay scale is justified by the results achieved.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils are enthusiastic about their learning because of the interesting subjects they are taught. Where teaching is strong, pupils are able to develop literacy, communication and numeracy skills in a range of different subjects. For example, during the inspection Year 5 pupils were using blogs to develop their language and information technology skills. Pupils also talked enthusiastically about PE, drama and music lessons.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is a strength of the school. Pupils are encouraged to discuss every-day dilemmas as well as wider issues. For example, pupils in Year 4 enthusiastically entered into role play with their teacher who was posing as a property developer. They investigated the dilemma of making a profit by selling a beautiful island against conserving its beauty. Very mature discussions were well managed by the teacher.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is an important part of the local community. Elderly residents are regularly invited to join the pupils for lunch. This gives older pupils the opportunity to develop their social skills through talking to and entertaining their visitors. Music and drama play an important part in pupils’ learning. Years 3 and 4 pupils recently visited Tate Modern and Tate Britain art galleries and the school has a thriving choir and orchestra.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school promotes equality of opportunity and tackles discrimination through ensuring that all pupils are listened to. No group of pupils makes less progress than others, and all pupils are fully involved in class activities regardless of ability or need.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority has supported the school well. Different types of support, from providing interim leadership to working with key staff, have been timely and appropriate. The authority recognises that the school has now moved to a position of greater stability and strength.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The Chair of the Governing Body ably leads her colleagues by example. She meets regularly with the headteacher to ensure that governing body meetings are tightly focused on the improvement needs of the school. While being supportive, she asks challenging questions to ascertain how well the school is doing. Governing body minutes show that other members of the governing body are now following her lead and becoming more adept at holding the senior leaders to account for school improvement. They understanding how well the pupil premium money supports pupils in providing academic support through small group or one-to-one working, and also by giving financial assistance for school trips when needed. Governors check on the quality of teaching through reports from the headteacher and the progress data for different groups of pupils. They have identified a need to have a more formal programme of

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The leadership and management are good

visits to school and have plans in place to more rigorously check reports in meetings against what they see in the school.

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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 121192 Local authority Norfolk Inspection number 411849

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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 Select School category Select Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 191 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Heather Tew Headteacher Mr Mark Devereux Date of previous school inspection 23 March 2010 Telephone number 01508 520392 Fax number 01508 928059 Email address head@loddonjr.norfolk.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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