Newport Church of England Aided Primary School

Newport CofE Aided Primary School Hazel Close, Carisbrooke Meadows, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5GD

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 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’ achievement is inadequate in English and mathematics because teaching has been weak for too long. Attainment and progress have declined since the previous inspection.  The pace of lessons is slow and pupils learn too little. Teachers spend too long telling pupils what they need to do. This limits the amount of time pupils have to do their work.  Teachers do not expect enough of the pupils. The tasks planned for pupils are often too easy for them.  Pupils are not encouraged to think for themselves how well they have made progress towards their targets, or how to improve their work.  Until recently, teachers and leaders have not kept track of how well pupils are doing, or spotted pupils who were falling behind.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are not supported effectively and their needs are not being met.  The order in which pupils will learn new skills

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and knowledge has not been planned carefully. Leadership of subjects has been weak, or has not been in place.  Senior leaders have not provided enough support for teachers to improve their teaching.  In the past, governors accepted too readily the overly-optimistic views of the senior leaders about the performance of pupils, without challenging them for evidence of this.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils are polite and well behaved. They enjoy school and do what they are asked.  Senior leaders are tackling inadequate teaching and have begun to hold teachers accountable for the progress of the pupils in their class.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 25 lessons taught by 14 teachers, as well as sessions led by teaching assistants. The headteacher and deputy headteacher took part in some observations with inspectors.  During the inspection, inspectors held meetings with senior leaders, teachers who lead aspects of the school’s work, groups of pupils and with governors. The lead inspector had a telephone discussion with a consultant provided by the local authority who is supporting the school. Inspectors also spoke to pupils and with parents informally.  Inspectors reviewed the work pupils were doing during their lessons, as well as the work they have done in their books over time. They discussed with pupils how well they are learning and what they need to do next. Inspectors listened to pupils read, and spoke to them about their reading.  Inspectors looked at the school’s documents for keeping pupils safe, those that track how well

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Information about this inspection

pupils are doing, records about which pupils need additional support, minutes of meetings, and a wide range of policies. They considered parents’ views as expressed through the 61 responses to the on-line survey for Ofsted, Parent View, as well as correspondence received.  At the time of the inspection, temporary staff were employed for six out of 14 teaching posts.

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Inspection team

Andrew Saunders, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Velia Hartland Additional Inspector Vanessa Tomlinson 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. The school should not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Information about this school

 This is a larger-than-average primary school, with two classes in each year group. Recently, the school has expanded to include pupils up to Year 6, previously having had pupils up to Year 4 only.  The headteacher has been in post since April 2012. A new deputy headteacher was appointed in September 2012. There have been a number of other changes in staff and roles of responsibility have changed, some very recently.  Most pupils are White British.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is below average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action is below average, as is the proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium (additional funding available for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, children looked after by

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Information about this school

the local authority or pupils from service families) is below average.  There is a privately run pre-school on the same site as the school; this setting also provides before-school and after-school care for pupils. This is subject to separate inspection arrangements. The latest report can be found on the Ofsted website.  The school meets the government’s floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations of attainment and progress in English and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure no teaching is inadequate and increase the proportion of good or better teaching, by:  making sure teachers have the chance to observe good teaching and providing support during lessons so that they know what good teaching looks like and can share this practice with one another  making sure teachers increase the pace of lessons and expect pupils to complete their work with more urgency  making sure teachers use the information they have about the progress of pupils, particularly the more able, to give them work which is more challenging and more closely builds on what they already know and can do  giving pupils more opportunities to practise and develop their numeracy and literacy skills in a range of situations and across different subjects.  Increase pupils’ progress and raise their attainment in English and mathematics, by:  making sure staff have higher expectations of what pupils can do in every lesson

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 giving pupils more opportunity to respond to the comments in their books from teachers’ marking  frequently involving pupils in assessing the progress they are making towards their targets.  Urgently increase the effectiveness of senior leaders in bringing about improvements in teaching by:  making sure that there is an appropriate leadership structure in place across the school and that leaders identify issues and introduce solutions  giving teachers precise feedback about what they need to do to improve, and showing them how to do so  providing a clear, well-structured framework for the development of pupils’ skills and knowledge, right across the school, around which teachers can plan their work.  Improve the support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and accelerate their progress rapidly, by:  further developing the systems to identify which pupils need support, and when they may

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

have overcome their difficulties  helping leaders to monitor the effectiveness of the support provided for these pupils and rapidly making changes where support is not making enough difference.  Make sure that governors gather more first-hand evidence to check the views of senior leaders and use this to challenge the school, by:  undertaking training to understand the data about the school in greater detail and how these compare with schools nationally  developing the systems for the performance management of the headteacher and senior leaders, to support them and hold them accountable for bringing about rapid improvements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Over time, pupils have not made enough progress from their starting points, which are broadly as expected for their ages. As a result, at the end of Year 6 in 2012, standards were below the national average. Current Year 6 pupils have also not made enough progress.  Work in books and observations during the inspection confirm that too many pupils across the school are making slow progress in English and mathematics. Their achievement is inadequate.  Too many pupils in Year 1 did not do well enough in the reading check last year. This is because the school’s approach to teaching phonics (the linking of letters and sounds) has not been reviewed or improved effectively. Phonics has not, until recently, been used well to help older pupils develop their skills in reading. This limits the progress they make and has a negative impact on their writing.  The achievement of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is inadequate. Until

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

recently, nobody checked to see how well these pupils were doing and whether they were catching up with other pupils. The ineffective support they receive has not been tackled. Consequently, they reach standards that are well below those of similar pupils elsewhere. They are losing ground in relation to other pupils in the school.  Targets that help pupils understand what they should be aiming to learn next have been introduced recently. However, the expectations of some teachers are too low, particularly of older pupils. Pupils get too few opportunities or encouragement to reflect on how well they have made progress towards their targets, or to decide when they have met them.  Pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, supported through the pupil premium funding, reach higher standards than others in the school. However, the school’s leaders do not know what additional support may have led to this success.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Too much teaching is inadequate. The pace of many lessons is too slow and pupils lack a sense of urgency about getting more work done. Teachers spend too much time explaining to pupils things they already know or understand, or doing examples on the board with one pupil at a time, whilst other pupils listen passively.  Too often the work pupils are given to do is too easy for some or too hard for others. Teachers have not used the information they have about their pupils to identify which pupils need more challenge, or more support.  There is some good teaching. In the best lessons, teachers plan work that is at the right level of difficulty for pupils, and they check how well pupils have understood as the lessons proceed. They adapt their explanations and change the tasks to help pupils make good progress. Unfortunately, this is still too rare and such good practice has not been shared.  A new approach to marking pupils’ work in books has been agreed with teachers, and most now

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

use this. In some classes, pupils get occasional opportunities to think about the teachers’ written comments, but too often pupils do not respond to the comments and do not learn from their mistakes.  The introduction of a scheme to support the development of pupils’ skills when working with numbers has helped to improve the teaching of mathematics. However, pupils lack confidence in applying their mathematical skills across a range of different situations.  There is some support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, particularly in developing their reading. However, this support is very limited in its impact and has not been carefully evaluated or reviewed. Teaching assistants do not always know how to best help these pupils make rapid progress and overcome the difficulties they face, or to encourage them to work on their own.  Teaching in the Early Years Foundation Stage has improved. Children enjoy using the resources

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

and are developing greater independence in deciding what they are interested in learning. They develop their skills in speaking and listening because of the probing questions adults ask them.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils like their school, are keen to do the work they are given, and attend regularly. They readily cooperate with one another and the teachers. However, the style of teaching over time means that pupils depend too much on the teachers to tell them what they need to do, and they have not been given the chance to think and make decisions for themselves.  Most parents who responded to the survey agreed that their children were happy at school and felt safe. A few parents did not agree that behaviour is well managed in the school. The inspection team found that while pupils’ attitudes to learning require improvement, most remain well behaved and need only gentle reminders about what is expected. They have good manners and are polite to adults and others in the school.  Pupils say that they feel safe at school and that bullying is very rare. They feel that any incidents are dealt with when they talk to an adult about it. However, they do say that some pupils

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

occasionally use words that are unkind. This is not always dealt with, or taken seriously, by some staff.  Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, for example when cycling. Training about how to stay safe when using the internet is planned for the near future.  Pupils respond thoughtfully when given opportunities to reflect on spiritual or moral issues. For example, Year 5 pupils voiced very balanced views when considering issues around the rainforests. However, they do not get enough chance in lessons to develop such ideas more deeply.  Pupils develop good skills in art and music because of regular lessons and their enthusiasm for these subjects.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 For too long the school has held an optimistic view about the performance of pupils and little was done to check the accuracy of teachers’ assessments of how well pupils were doing. Consequently, the slippage since the previous inspection was not identified early enough and actions were not taken to reverse the decline.  Since her appointment, the headteacher has brought a more realistic, and accurate view and areas of the school’s performance that are inadequate are recognised. Although she has identified weaknesses in teaching, actions to bring about improvements have not been successful and teaching remains too variable.  Senior leaders have not provided enough opportunities for teachers to see what the best teaching looks like. Records of checks on the quality of teaching show that feedback to teachers does not tell them precisely enough what they need to do to improve and does not support them

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The leadership and management are inadequate

in doing so.  Senior leaders and governors have made sure that the statutory requirements for keeping pupils safe are met. Adults have been trained to understand their responsibilities in this regard.  Other requirements have not all been met. This includes the requirement to provide teaching assistants with a system for managing their performance, providing effective support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and carrying out checks on the impact of the additional government funding on pupils’ achievement. There is no clear framework for the progressive development of pupils’ skills and knowledge through the school to help teachers plan effective lessons.  Leadership across the school is not well developed. Many of the teachers who lead aspects, such as particular subjects, are new to the role, or are not sure what they are supposed to do or how they can help to improve teaching and learning.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Senior leaders have introduced a system to collect and analyse information about how well some different groups of pupils are doing, but it has not yet been used effectively to bring about rapid improvements. The school does not do enough to promote equal opportunities for all pupils.  The local authority has only recently provided external support to help senior leaders to come to an accurate view of the school’s performance. They have helped to check the teachers’ views about the standard of work pupils have done, and have worked with senior leaders to clarify views about the quality of teaching.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The governance of the school:  Substantial changes in the membership and structure of the governing body have helped to address some of the previous weaknesses. However, these are recent. Over time, governors have too readily accepted the optimistic view of senior leaders without challenging it. They have not kept up to date with the way data are used to track the progress of pupils, or how the performance of this school compares to other schools. They have also failed to keep track of how the pupil premium funding is spent, until recently. They have accepted the headteacher’s more accurate judgement of the quality of teaching, but they have failed to make sure that senior leaders bring about the most important changes quickly enough. They have not held leaders to account for this. As a result, weaknesses in teaching persist and pupils are not as ready for the next stage of learning as they should be. Governors and senior

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The leadership and management are inadequate

leaders have not made sure that the quality of teachers’ performance is reflected in the level of their pay. Together with senior leaders, governors have made sure that the arrangements to keep pupils safe are in place, and that staff are updated about their responsibilities.

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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 118200 Local authority Isle of Wight Inspection number 413460

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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 Primary School category Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 373 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Andrew Rolf Headteacher Elizabeth Crayton Date of previous school inspection 30 September–1 October 2009 Telephone number 01983 522826 Fax number 01983 528016 Email address newportce@lineone.net 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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