Jotmans Hall Primary School

Jotmans Hall Primary School High Road, Benfleet, SS7 5RG

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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This is a good school

 The standards reached by pupils in both English and mathematics is above the national average. Pupils make good progress and achieve well in all subjects.  Teaching throughout the school is consistently good, and some is outstanding. Other adults make a substantial contribution to pupils’ learning in lessons.  Pupils enjoy school and feel safe because the adults look after them so well. Behaviour is good in lessons and around the school. Pupils work very well in lessons and want to do well.  School leaders and managers have a good understanding of the strengths of the school and what needs to be improved further. They have brought about improvements in the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement.  The governors know the school well. This helps them to continually question the school’s performance while providing the right support.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 There is not enough outstanding teaching. Teachers do not always have high enough expectations of what pupils can do, and their marking does not always tell pupils how to improve their work.  When leaders observe teaching, they do not always make steps for improvement clear enough so that they can be followed up in later checks on teachers’ work.  The school does not do all that it could to encourage parents to send their children to school regularly, as attendance remains below average.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 18 lessons, of which two were seen with the headteacher. In addition, inspectors listened to pupils read.  Inspectors took account of the 46 responses to the online (Parent View) questionnaire.  Meetings were held with a group of pupils, the Chair of the Governing Body and school leaders.  Inspectors looked at many documents including: the school’s own information on pupils’ current and recent progress; planning of work in different subjects; leaders’ monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning; and records relating to behaviour, attendance and the safeguarding of pupils.

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Inspection team

Steve Nelson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Angela Podmore Additional Inspector Christine Harvey Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a larger-than-average primary school. The school converted to academy status in August 2011. When its predecessor school, of the same name, was last inspected by Ofsted in February 2011, it was judged to be satisfactory.  The very large majority of pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is well below average. Only a few pupils speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs who are supported at school action is below average. The proportion who are supported at school action plus, or with a statement of special educational needs, is above average.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium (additional government funding to assist certain groups, which in this school applies to pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those in the care of the local authority) is well above average.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the amount of outstanding teaching so that pupils make more rapid and sustained progress by:  raising teachers’ expectations of pupils’ progress over time  making sure that teachers’ marking shows pupils how to improve their work  ensuring that leaders give teachers clear feedback on how to improve their teaching and check improvement against this feedback in follow-up observations.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve attendance to at least average levels by working more closely with families in order to reduce the number of absences.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children start school with knowledge and skills below those expected for their age. A majority of children have less well-developed communication and language skills. Children of all abilities make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage and are well prepared for Year 1.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils make good progress and by the end of Year 2, their achievement is broadly average in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils continue to achieve well as they progress through Years 3 to Year 6. Progress is strongest in Year 6, and in 2012 pupils achieved above average test results.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils write at length in different subjects, such as history and science, and they develop their writing skills well. They are confident speakers and are good at listening, because they regularly discuss their ideas together in lessons. Pupils are skilled in numeracy, have good knowledge of number facts and enjoy solving practical mathematical problems.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are supported and taught well. Their individual needs are identified early, and extra help is given quickly. As a result, these pupils make rapid progress that is in line with other pupils in the school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils make good progress in phonics (the sounds that letters make) and Year 1 pupils performed above the national average in the 2012 phonics check. Pupils enjoy reading for learning and pleasure. Older pupils are enthusiastic about their favourite books and authors.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Those pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium make good progress and reach above average standards. In the 2012 test results, Year 6 pupils known to be eligible for free school meals were half a term behind their classmates in English and three terms behind them in mathematics, but this still represented good progress from their starting points.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils from minority ethnic groups, including those who speak English as an additional language, achieve well. This is because the school provides effective support that enables them to catch up with other pupils and in some cases reach higher standards.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Good, and sometimes outstanding, teaching ensures pupils achieve well over time, including those who need extra help. There is a positive climate for learning in lessons and excellent relationships between adults and pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers have sound subject knowledge and this is shown in their confident teaching and the way teachers stimulate pupils’ imaginations. They use questioning effectively to challenge pupils to think through questions and explain their answers in detail.

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The quality of teaching is good

 In the most successful lessons, pupils are given opportunities to find things out for themselves and develop independent learning skills. In a Year 6 mathematics lesson, pupils were encouraged to work independently using maps to plot their own routes to local places of interest.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make at least good progress because teachers and other adults break learning down into small, achievable steps. They give pupils clear explanations and make good use of resources to make learning practical and interesting.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers across the school do not always have very high expectations of how much pupils could learn in lessons, and although progress is mainly good, it is not as rapid as seen in the best lessons. In general, marking is regular and accurate. Where marking is less effective, pupils are not always clear about what they have to do to improve and reach the next level.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The skilled team of support staff makes a significant contribution to pupils’ learning. For example, in a Year 2 lesson adults made sure that pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable made rapid progress and kept up with the pace of the lesson by helping them gather information about their favourite ice cream to create a pictogram.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Children in Reception benefit greatly from plenty of opportunities for speaking and listening and hands-on play in different areas of learning. In a literacy lesson, children made excellent progress sounding out ‘picnic words’ and were able to quickly move on to writing out sentences independently.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Behaviour in lessons and around the school is good. Pupils are courteous, respectful and friendly. Relationships among pupils and between pupils and adults are good. Parents, carers and staff all have very positive views on pupils’ behaviour.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe such as when cycling and know about the dangers of water. They are aware of how to stay safe when using the internet and the different forms bullying can take. Pupils say that occasional incidents of name calling are dealt with quickly by the school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school is effective in dealing with pupils with behavioural difficulties. Although there have been a few fixed-term exclusions, the school manages challenging behaviour well. Through the school’s support and guidance, the behaviour of these pupils has improved markedly.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils are proud of their school and carry out responsibilities eagerly and sensibly, such as running the school tuck shop and acting as playground buddies. Pupils from different backgrounds enjoy each other’s company and play happily together and there is no sign of discrimination.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance is below average. Despite the school’s efforts to promote good attendance, a few families take their children for holidays during term time, and some families are not fully supporting the school’s drive to raise attendance.

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The leadership and management are good

 Strong leadership from the headteacher has been the key factor to pupils making good progress and achieving above average test results. She has ensured that her belief in the potential of every pupil to succeed is a shared vision for all the staff.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leadership in English, mathematics, special educational needs and the Early Years Foundation Stage is good. Leaders and managers have made sure that the work planned for pupils, the quality of teaching and the monitoring of pupils’ progress are constantly improving.

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The leadership and management are good

 There is a continual drive to improve teaching by checking carefully on each teacher’s performance. However, during observations of teaching, leaders do not always give teachers clear steps on how to improve their skills. Teachers are, otherwise, held to account for their work, and performance management is used to reward only good or better teaching.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has good procedures for checking the progress and attainment of all individuals and groups of pupils to help them perform as well as they can, and have an equal opportunity to succeed. A detailed school improvement plan outlines the correct areas to improve, and what needs to be done to achieve this.

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The leadership and management are good

 The subjects taught are well planned and enable pupils to use their literacy and numeracy skills when studying interesting and exciting topics such as Ancient Greece, the First World War and the Second World War. The wide range of visits and educational visits to nearby places of interest and the before- and after-school clubs help to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well.

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The leadership and management are good

 Nearly all parents who completed responses to the online survey (Parent View) indicated that the care for their children is good or better, that they make good progress and the school is managed well.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has made effective use of the academy’s school improvement partner to help strengthen teaching and raise pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  Governors are a committed team. They possess a wide range of expertise and skills, and these are used effectively to benefit the school. Governors have a good understanding of the school’s performance and the community it serves. They have a clear overview of pupils’ attainment and progress, and how these compare with other schools nationally. Governors carefully monitor the school’s finances, including the extra pupil premium funding, and understand how it is helping pupils to achieve better. They assess their own training needs to get the best balance of skills to serve the school. Governors know about the quality of teaching, understand the requirements relating to the management of staff performance and ensure that pay and promotion are linked to the achievement of pupils. They ensure that all safeguarding procedures 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 137247 Local authority NA Inspection number 406664

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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 Academy converter School category Non-maintained Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 273 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Paul Hodges Headteacher Nicki Kadwill Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01268 755456 Fax number 01268 755456 Email address admin@jotmanshall.essex.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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