Manor Infant and Nursery School

Manor Infant School Inverness Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 5QR

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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 Inadequate 4 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.  Leaders, managers and governors have not brought about improvement since the previous inspection.  Standards are too low because of too much weak teaching. Teachers have not been helped to improve their practice and so pupils do not do as well as they should.  Pupils make poor progress in Year 1 because the work they are given in linking letters and sounds (phonics), writing and mathematics does not match their abilities.  Senior leaders have not ensured that longer- term plans for the teaching of phonics, writing and mathematics promote pupils’ progress adequately. This prevents teachers from building securely on pupils’ earlier learning.  There is too much inappropriate behaviour in lessons and around the school. A few pupils are very disruptive and their behaviour is not being effectively managed.  The school does not have good enough procedures to ensure all pupils attend school

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

regularly. Consequently, pupils’ attendance is low.  Senior leaders do not provide a clear strategic direction for the school’s work, and leadership at other levels is underdeveloped.  Governors do not hold the school to account for pupils’ underachievement because they do not know enough about the progress pupils make.

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The school has the following strengths

 Children in Reception make good progress in their personal development, speaking and mathematical development because teaching is effective in these areas.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 17 lessons, of which seven were joint observations with the executive headteacher, and heard a sample of pupils read from Years 1 and 2.  Inspectors had discussions with pupils, looked at a range of their work and examined the school’s data on pupils’ attainment and progress.  Meetings were held with the Chair of the Governing Body and other governors, senior leaders, teachers and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors considered the 19 responses on the online Parent View survey.  Inspectors considered responses to the 16 questionnaires returned by staff.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including plans for improvement, safeguarding arrangements, records relating to behaviour and attendance, and records of school leaders’ observations of teaching.

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Inspection team

Eileen Chadwick, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Ken Bryan 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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Full report

Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.

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Information about this school

 Manor Infant School is an average-sized primary school.  The majority of pupils are White British. A greater proportion than in most schools is from a minority ethnic background. Few pupils are at an early stage of learning to speak English.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported through school action is average. The proportion supported through school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives funding through the pupil premium (additional funding provided for looked after children, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children of service families) is well above average. Currently, there are no children from service families on roll.  The school received survey inspections by one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors on 6 October 2011 and on 21 March 2012 as part of a national programme for inspecting transition from the Early

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Information about this school

Years Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1.  The susbstantive headteacher retired in April 2013. Since then, an executive headteacher has led the school for two days each week. The deputy headteacher manages the school when the executive headteacher is working at her other school.  The local authority has arranged for the executive headteacher to work in the school for three days a week after half term and will provide additional experienced senior leadership for the rest of the week. A full-time substantive headteacher has been appointed for September 2013.  One of the Year 1 classes has been taught by several supply teachers after its teacher left in February 2013. In Year 1, most class teachers have either joined the school or changed year groups this year.  There is a separately managed pre-school on the school’s site which was not inspected at this time. The inspection report can be found on the Ofsted website.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching and learning so that it is consistently good by:  ensuring there is no inadequate teaching in Year 1 as a matter of urgency and ensuring good or better teaching for all pupils  improving the way undesirable behaviour is managed, and the teaching of classroom routines in Year 1  improving teachers’ and teaching assistants’ subject knowledge, so that they have high expectations of what pupils can achieve and ensure they always match learning tasks to the needs of all pupils  improving the teaching of reading and phonics in Reception and Key Stage 1 and giving the least-able pupils opportunities to read every day.  Accelerate pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in order to ensure more pupils reach at least the levels expected for their age at the end of Reception and Year 2 by:  improving pupils’ understanding of sounds and letters and their ability to use their skills when

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

reading and writing  teaching pupils to form their letters correctly and teaching lower-attaining pupils how to write in sentences  providing consistent challenge for more able pupils in mathematics in Key Stage 1  increasing purposeful play activities in reading and writing in Reception and ensuring children are always sufficiently challenged.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ behaviour and attendance by:  taking a consistent and well considered stance to tackling incidents of poor behaviour  enlisting the help of specialist agencies to draw up personal behaviour improvement plans for pupils in most need and ensuring staff are trained to implement them  ensuring teachers are fully trained to implement the behaviour policy and that senior leaders closely monitor its impact  implementing clear and effective procedures, including working closely with families, to raise attendance rapidly.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management at all levels and the school’s capacity to improve by:  revising management structures and systems so that roles and responsibilities are clear  ensuring that leaders and managers at all levels are held to account for the impact of their work in helping the school to improve  rigorously checking the impact that teaching and subject planning have on pupils’ progress, and taking quick and effective action to improve teaching and pupils’ progress where needed  developing whole-school planning for the teaching of phonics, writing and mathematics which promotes good progression of pupils’ basic skills  improving the skills of the governing body in holding the school’s leaders fully to account for pupils’ achievements, including linking teachers’ pay to their performance.

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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

 Pupils’ learning and progress are poor in Year 1. This includes pupils who are eligible for support through the pupil premium, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who speak English as an additional language. Pupils’ progress is better in Reception and Year 2 but taken overall, pupils’ achievement is inadequate.  The standards attained by pupils at the end of Year 2 have been significantly below the national averages for many years, especially in writing and mathematics. In 2012, standards in reading were broadly average for girls but low for boys.  Most children start Reception with skills and experiences at lower levels than expected for their age. They leave Reception with broadly average attainment in speaking, listening, mathematics, and in their physical, personal and creative development. However, their attainment remains low

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

in reading, because the teaching of phonics and writing is not good enough.  As a result of weak teaching, pupils’ attainment declines further in Year 1 in literacy and mathematics. Pupils’ reading, writing and phonics skills are weak because they are not taught how to pronounce letter sounds correctly or to use their phonic knowledge routinely when reading and writing.  Pupils become confused in literacy and numeracy lessons because teachers do not systematically teach the next steps. There is too much repetition of earlier learning for more able pupils and work is frequently too hard for others. Pupils are not taught to form their letters correctly.  The low standards in Year 1 mean this cohort has a lot to catch up with in Year 2. Pupils’ attainment in the current Year 2 is showing improvement compared with previous years and is broadly average but, in mathematics, too few are reaching the higher levels. Lower-attaining

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

pupils are not doing well enough in reading and writing.  In both Years 1 and 2, lower-attaining pupils are not heard reading regularly enough in school. They are not given enough opportunities to practise new sounds before tackling their reading books, and this restricts their confidence. In Year 2, average- and higher-attaining pupils often write confidently for different purposes. Lower-attaining pupils do not make enough progress in spelling, forming letters and writing in sentences. In mathematics, lesson observations and scrutiny of work show that more able pupils are not challenged well enough in Year 2.  In Reception, children learn well in mathematics because activities are stimulating and well matched to their needs. However, there are not enough challenging reading and writing activities for children to choose when they play and learn independently. During whole-class teaching sessions, phonics tasks are sometimes too hard for lower-attaining children.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 End of Year 2 national assessments in 2012 showed that there was little difference in the attainment of pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium and their peers in writing and mathematics. Both groups attained similarly low standards. In reading, pupils supported by the pupil premium were about four months behind their peers.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 The overall quality of teaching is inadequate because of much weak teaching over time and current shortcomings in Year 1. Teachers do not build progressively on pupils’ basic skills. Too often, the work they set is either too hard or too easy.  There is some good teaching in Reception and in Year 2 but this is not typical.  Most teachers responsible for Year 1 classes have taught different age ranges or are new to the school this year. They have received little training for teaching this age group. The lack of structured schemes of work for phonics, writing and mathematics limits teachers’ ability to provide work that is matched appropriately to pupils’ needs.  In Year 1, teachers’ management of pupils’ behaviour is inadequate. Their classroom routines, such as changing over from group work to whole-class time, are slow and waste time. Too often, teachers fail to take the differing abilities of pupils into account and all pupils are given

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

the same work.  In Reception and Year 2, staff usually manage pupils’ behaviour well. In these year groups, classrooms are often well organised and purposeful. However, this sometimes slips and a few boys become too noisy.  In Year 1, teachers’ subject knowledge of phonics is weak. Teachers do not give pupils enough opportunities to say the letter sounds, to blend sounds, to read new words or to break up words into sounds when writing. Pupils are not always provided with checklists to help them to write new words. The school does not group pupils according to what the already know and can do for phonics in Year 1; teachers struggle to meet pupils’ wide range of needs.  In Year 2, pupils are taught in ability sets for phonics, literacy and numeracy. This helps teachers to match work more closely to pupils’ needs. Inspectors observed good teaching in several literacy lessons in Year 2. For example, pupils made good progress in a guided reading session

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

because of the way in which key reading skills were taught to different groups.  In Reception, staff are quick to seize opportunities to develop children’s communication, numeracy and personal skills. A stimulating array of indoor and outdoor activities supports their creative development. However, teachers do not spend enough time on the direct teaching of reading during literacy lessons.  The support provided by teaching assistants is inadequate. Teaching assistants do not always have the necessary knowledge to help pupils to develop their phonic skills or to deal with bad behaviour. They are not managed well enough by teachers in Year 1, as observed when lower- attaining pupils copied assistants’ writing instead of learning to write simple sentences for themselves.  Some of the pupil premium funds are used to provide extra teaching assistants but the use of this funding is not having the impact it should.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are inadequate

 Behaviour is inadequate because of incidents of bad behaviour from individuals or low-level disruption, especially in Year 1. The few pupils with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties are not given the specialist help they need. They do not have support plans for improving their behaviour and staff have not been adequately trained to be able help effectively.  In Year 2, pupils often work successfully in small groups and take some responsibility for their own learning, as when they investigated three-dimensional shapes. Children in Reception get off to a good start in their personal development. They come to enjoy school and most behave well. However, pupils say there are a few disruptive incidents in all year groups.  Pupils behave well in assemblies but boys’ behaviour in the playground is sometimes too boisterous. Pupils do not always move around the school in an orderly way. A considerable

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are inadequate

number of staff expressed concern about pupils’ behaviour.  Pupils say they feel safe. Most parents, carers and staff agree with this view. Pupils say bullying in the form of name calling occurs occasionally. Pupils did not report any other types of bullying.  Over time, attendance has been low. The small improvements made last year have not been maintained. Too many pupils have lost learning time because of the lack of effective procedures to promote good attendance.  There is no systematic analysis of the attendance of different groups of pupils. Nobody is taking responsibility for finding out why attendance is poor or following up on issues, including liaising with pupils’ families. Punctuality has improved because of the recent steps taken by the school.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 School leaders have not been effective in dealing with shortcomings and bringing about the necessary improvements since the last inspection and the Ofsted survey inspections. Pupils’ achievement and the quality of teaching have deteriorated.  Since her very recent arrival, the executive headteacher has accurately identified the school’s strengths and weaknesses. These include the need to raise expectations of pupils’ achievement, to improve teaching and pupils’ behaviour. She is developing a new behaviour policy with clear sanctions and rewards but this is at an early stage. Staff are not yet fully trained to use consistent approaches to managing pupils’ behaviour.  The executive headteacher has not had the time or support to bring about rapidly the necessary improvements. Leadership at all other levels is underdeveloped and inadequate.  The monitoring, evaluation and development of teaching are weak. The checking of the quality

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The leadership and management are inadequate

of lessons does not identify strengths and weaknesses in teaching or pupils’ progress across the school in different subjects. Some initiatives such as the teaching of phonics have not been fully monitored across the whole school. Subject leaders do not check and support teaching because there are no systems to make this happen.  Although teachers are keen, their performance has not been managed well and there has been insufficient support for improving their teaching and little professional training. Teachers’ salary progression has not always been linked closely to the quality of their teaching. Through the analysis of pupils’ assessments, the school knows that a number of pupils are not progressing as well as they should but limited corrective action has taken place.  The roles and responsibilities of the deputy headteacher and other leaders are unclear and they are not held to account for pupils’ underachievement. The leadership and management of Year 1

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The leadership and management are inadequate

and support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, pupils in receipt of pupil premium and those who speak English as an additional language are inadequate. There are no systems for monitoring and evaluating the impact of teaching on the learning of these groups of pupils. As a result leaders, managers and governors have not promoted equality of opportunity effectively enough for all pupils.  There are some useful links between subjects and this helps to bring enjoyment and relevance to pupils’ learning. However, there is not a suitable structure for the progressive development of pupils’ basic skills. In addition, what pupils are taught does not make an effective contribution to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Support from the local authority has not yet had enough impact on improving teaching across the whole school. The recently appointed school improvement officer has an accurate view of

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The leadership and management are inadequate

the school’s effectiveness. The executive headteacher values the more robust support she is now being given. The local authority has recommended a full review of the governing body’s work and this has recently started.  The governance of the school:  Governance is inadequate. Governors have insufficient understanding of pupils’ achievement and the quality of teaching. They do not ensure that teachers’ pay is linked to their performance. Governors recognise they have given too much credence to the views of senior leaders about how well the school is performing without checking information for themselves. They now understand the urgent need to make rapid improvements in pupils’ achievement, the quality of teaching and the way behaviour is managed. They know they have not had enough training on evaluating pupils’ attainment and progress or in how to challenge senior leaders. They do not have a clear picture of how pupil premium money is spent or the impact

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The leadership and management are inadequate

it has on accelerating pupils’ progress. The governing body ensures that safeguarding procedures and practices meet requirements.

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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 116226 Local authority Portsmouth Inspection number 401577

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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 Infant School category Community Age range of pupils 4–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 247 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Father Bob White Executive Headteacher Lyndsey Cook Date of previous school inspection 17 November 2009 Telephone number 02392 820548 Fax number 02392 756579 Email address office@manor-inf.portsmouth.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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