Setting

Mr M Johnson Headteacher Stoke Park Junior School Underwood Road Bishopstoke Eastleigh Hampshire SO50 6GR

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School

Following my visit to your school on 18 June 2013, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the findings of my visit. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in April 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Evidence

During the visit, I met with you and other senior and subject leaders, members of the governing body, and representatives of the local authority to discuss the actions taken since the last inspection. The school’s action plan was evaluated.

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Context

There have been no significant staffing changes, or other changes to the context in which the school is working, since the previous inspection visit. Tribal 1-4 Portland Square Bristol BS2 8RR T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0117 311 5359 Direct F 0117 315 0430 Email : christina.bannerman@tribalgroup.com

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Main findings

Soon after your appointment in January 2013 you recognised that the school was providing a quality of education that was by no means good, and you set about bringing about changes to improve provision. This was recognised in the previous inspection report. Since then, you have continued to demonstrate an ambitious and far-reaching vision for how the school will improve quickly and securely, and you have concentrated appropriately on improving the quality of teaching and the effectiveness of leadership and management throughout the school.

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Main findings

 English and mathematics are no longer taught in ability groups; instead, children remain in their class groups for these subjects. This has required teachers to re-examine their approaches to organising learning effectively, and ensuring that good progress is made by all pupils. Some potentially very effective and exciting new approaches to planning and delivering learning activities are beginning to emerge as a result.  When staff judge the quality of lessons they now focus primarily on the teacher’s impact on pupils’ learning, rather than on what the teacher is doing. This has usefully required staff to refresh their approach to the use of data about pupils’ achievement.  You are in the process of re-defining the organisation of classrooms in the school and are piloting the use of display spaces, room lay-out and computers more flexibly around the needs of children. I briefly observed one Year 6

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Main findings

group working in mathematics; some were using the white boards around the room to capture their small group discussions and thoughts about the problem, some were working at tables in groups and others were working with the teacher who was using a tablet computer and interactive white-board to present material and steer the discussion. These changes are also stimulating staff to try new approaches and to have pupils working more independently and imaginatively.  Governors are now making sure that they can offer the school appropriate levels of challenge and support. They are improving their grasp of the various ways of analysing achievement, reorganising their work so as to have separate groups exercising oversight of different aspects of the school action plan, working more closely with the local authority and other consultants, and obtaining more first-hand evidence of the quality of the school’s work.

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Main findings

 A marking policy is now in place which is enacted consistently across the school. This has the potential to give pupils clearer messages about how well they are doing, and why, and how they can improve further.  Provision for students who are disabled or have special educational needs is being completely reorganised. It is good that each child’s needs are being reassessed, out-of-class support is being re-structured, and teaching assistants are to be assigned to year groups to enable better links with teachers and to give them a better knowledge of schemes of work and how they are delivered. These changes have the capacity to re-energise this aspect of the school’s work and drive up rates of progress.  You are aware of the gaps in achievement between children eligible for free school meals and their peers, and have plans to use make better use of the pupil premium funding to speed up the progress made by these pupils.

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Main findings

 Given the degree of change and challenge you have introduced in the school, you are conscious of the importance of maintaining some aspects of stability and good communications, and of all staff, governors, parents and pupils understanding their roles in all of these changes. Good staff training has been planned, and some has taken place already. This includes training in the use of assessment, including using questioning techniques more productively, and in ways of offering more challenge to all groups of pupils.  Monitoring and evaluation systems have been improved dramatically; subject leaders now feel much more strongly accountable for outcomes rather than the quality of processes, but not all of them are playing a full part in delivering them yet.  Given the extent and pace of change, you have put in place strategies to support staff through a greater emphasis of the work of year teams, and through the governor with responsibility for well-being.

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Main findings

Your action plan describes all of these innovations in detail and all of the improvement points from the previous inspection report are covered appropriately. The plan also provides clear statements of the expected outcomes of these new approaches so that everyone understands their role in delivering what is expected of them. It serves to set out your vision, and it translates it effectively into a number of appropriate actions, and describes how the stated outcomes are to be achieved and their impact judged. My initial concerns about the detail and length of this document were addressed to some extent when governors described it as being exactly what was needed at this point. The key priorities still need to come across more clearly, however. You have plans to involve staff more in aspects of its design and implementation soon.

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Main findings

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection. The school should take further action to:

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Main findings

 ensure that the key messages in the very detailed action plan are conveyed clearly and frequently to staff, parents and pupils and that the overarching vision is not lost in the detail of its implementation  maintain high levels of monitoring and evaluation of all aspects of the implementation of the plan, and give staff opportunities to celebrate successes in their responses to the new ways of working, and to signal the need for more support when it is needed  maintain high levels of whole staff training, and individual coaching in response to particular needs, and ensure that, at an appropriate point, subject and year leaders will be able to diagnose these training needs and respond rapidly and effectively as a natural part of their role  closely monitor the progress of pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium and use the funding to make sure that the achievement gap between them and their peers closes.

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Main findings

Ofsted may carry out further visits and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection.

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External support

Since the previous inspection support from the local authority has been better. There are allocated days to support leadership and management, and to develop the teaching of mathematics and English in the school, and the local authority has a sharper role in assisting the school to evaluate the impact of all of the changes you are introducing. The impact of this external support should be gauged regularly, and provision reorganised to match changing needs as appropriate.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Hampshire.

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