Setting

Mrs Lynne Kapovic Stanway Fiveways Primary School Winstree Road Stanway Colchester CO3 0QG

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 9 September 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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Primary School

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

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Evidence

During my visit, I held meetings with you, other leaders, the Chair and a member of the Governing Body and a representative of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. I evaluated your school action plan. We considered the school’s most recent information on pupil performance. We made short visits to all classes and I gave feedback to the whole staff.

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Main findings

Your action plan is clear and linked well to the main priorities for improvement from the Section 5 inspection. It contains some precise targets, but you agreed that the plan could be usefully reformatted with even sharper targets and success criteria in some areas. This would tie into your main development area for the school which is to have greater accountability at all levels. You have already begun to introduce increasingly effective processes in this regard. For example, pupil progress meetings which use information on the progress of individual pupils to identify those falling Serco Inspections Colmore Plaza 20 Colmore Circus Queensway Birmingham B4 6AT T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0121 6799169 Direct email :mathew.mitchell@serco.com

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

behind and to challenge their teachers. Leaders at all levels are becoming more involved in checking how well pupils are doing and helping teachers to get better. In the light of the visit it was agreed that some planned activities could be accelerated and timescales brought forward, for instance in mathematics.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

Governors have been fully involved in writing the action plan and are increasingly holding the school to account. As a recently appointed headteacher, you were already bringing about improvements before the inspection and this was acknowledged in the report. There now needs to be a greater sense of urgency from all staff to make up the lost ground when some classes were making very little progress. You are re-thinking the nature of the extra provision for pupils entitled to the pupil premium, as so far, support has not been effective enough to close the gap between their achievement and that of other pupils. We agreed that the main issue slowing the school’s progress to becoming good is that teachers do not expect enough from their pupils. This results in dull and uninspiring lessons where pupils do not progress quickly enough. There is too little teaching that is good or better.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection. Following the visit to the school, I recommend that further action is taken to:

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

 increase the sense of urgency regarding timescales in the action plan  identify and learn from practice in schools with outstanding teaching.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

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

The local authority gives effective and appropriate support. It has supported improvements in English and mathematics provision and the use of information to monitor pupil performance. It is arranging further training to support better teaching, leadership and governance and it is planning a stock take day. You have registered, along with with the local authority representative, to attend an Ofsted requiring improvement seminar and I will ensure you are alerted to other relevant Ofsted support.

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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 Essex.

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