Setting

Mr D Brown Headteacher St Chad's Patchway Church of England Primary School Cranham Drive Patchway Bristol BS34 6AQ

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School

Following my visit to your school on 2 July, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report on 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, a number of staff with responsibilities, the Chair of the Governing Body with another governor and a representative of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. The school improvement action plan was evaluated. The outcomes of the school’s and the local authority’s monitoring activities were taken into account as was the external review of the governing body. You and I did a tour of the school together where we talked to pupils about their work. I looked at teachers’ marking in English and mathematics books.

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Context

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 5323 Direct email :suzy.smith@tribalgroup.com Since the last full inspection the deputy headteacher has been absent due to health reasons. During this time a replacement for his class teaching role has been employed, but not for his leadership and management roles. As a consequence, you have been completing his tasks and also the leadership role of the special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) for the last term.

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Main findings

You have been working extremely hard to keep the school moving in the right direction. In spite of your many management responsibilities you have been able to make the strategic decisions and initiate new policies and practice that have already resulted in demonstrable improvements. A clear indication of this is the improvements made to pupils’ attendance rates and the proposed ‘zero tolerance’ for holidays in term time, for next year.

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Main findings

You have rightly instigated higher expectations of staff and pupils that are ‘non- negotiable’. For example, the new marking policy and the higher expectations for the quantity and quality of work completed by pupils has greatly improved the amount of diagnostic feedback recorded in pupils’ books. It has also increased the response rate from pupils back to teachers; creating a real learning dialogue. Likewise, the new handwriting policy has raised the expectations and quality of writing produced by all pupils. The impact has been an increased pride in the presentation of work throughout the school. Also, the movement to a single numeracy book now used by Reception children means is intended to smooth the transition into Year 1. The plan is that staff will be able to see more clearly what the children have learned and importantly, identify any gaps in their learning. Through the application of these

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Main findings

‘non-negotiables’ it is clear that pupils’ work is improving throughout the school. However, the impact of these improvements will not be evident in this year’s test results and there is a distinct possibility that the school results may be below the floor targets this year. Nevertheless, the progress that has been made shows that the school is taking the action needed to bring about improvement and that there is the capacity for further improvement. However, as you have acknowledged, there can be no slackening of pace in improving the progress that pupils make throughout the school; indeed it must rapidly speed up. We agreed that the best way to do this was to implement more consistency practices across the school. To do this the school plans to implement more ‘non-negotiable’ policies and practice this term. These will include how pupils’ books will be set out and how classrooms are organised.

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Main findings

It is not clear at this moment if those staff that are currently on long-term sick leave will be able to perform their full role in the autumn term. During the visit, we discussed various scenarios to consider the available options to try and ensure that you work load is not excessive again next term. We also agreed, with the local authority, that you will get support for one day per week from a headteacher who has an outstanding track record to help sustain the momentum for change. This will be in addition to the support that you are currently getting from the local authority primary advisor, which we agreed was supportive and challenging the school effectively.

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Main findings

Your school action plan has a clear focus on the areas for improvement identified in the recent section 5 inspection. The school’s coordinators along with the governing body need to ensure that their action plans link into it. We discussed that any plans need to have quantifiable milestones, especially for those actions that will be on- going, and to ensure that all leaders and the governing body are held fully to account for their areas of responsibility.

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Main findings

The result of the external review of the governing body shows that there is a need for considerable external support to get them speedily in a position to provide good governance. The local authority has provided some training on data that the governors told me was helpful and informative. However, it is imperative that all of its members have a clear and comprehensive understanding of school data, with monitoring and evaluation undertaken every ‘short term’. In particular, each of the governing body committees must be able to judge progress being made in their areas of responsibility. This will be determined by the impact of each action on pupils’ outcomes. The governing body is in the process of reorganising its structure and ways of operation. These need to be completed and established before the end of July, in readiness for September 2013. To help them accomplish these tasks, and to support them over the coming year, we agreed that the governing body would

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Main findings

get regular external support from experts in the relevant field of governance with proven track records in similar schools.

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Main findings

Senior leaders, working with the governing body and the local authority, 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

The school should take further action to:

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Main findings

 ensure that there are termly measurable milestones for each action point in the school’s action and improvement plan so that: - all leaders, managers and the governing body are held firmly to account for their area(s) of responsibility - that the document is used to regularly measure the achievement of pupils and the progress that the school is making towards providing a good quality of education  all leaders conduct regular meetings to monitor progress being achieved to improve the quality of teaching and learning so as to ensure that teachers provide information about pupils’ progress and are held to account for their performance.  complete the implementation of ‘non-negotiable’ policies and practices, this term

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Main findings

Ofsted will continue to monitor the school until its next section 5 inspection. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for South Gloucestershire.

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