Copenhagen Primary SchoolOfsted inspection, 18 Sept 2013

Copenhagen Primary School Treaty Street, London, N1 0WF

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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.  Attainment is too low. It is below average in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Key Stage 2.  In 2013 the attainment of pupils when they left the school had declined further in English and mathematics.  Too much teaching is weak teaching and not enough is good.  Lessons are not planned to match the needs of the majority of pupils. As a result, some struggle and others find the work too easy.  All groups of pupils, including disabled pupils, those with special educational needs and those known to be eligible for the pupil premium funding, make inadequate progress.  In too many lessons pupils lose interest as a result and the standard of their behaviour deteriorates.  Pupils’ lack of engagement in lessons means that the opportunities for learning are reduced.  There are too many incidents of bullying in school and the number of exclusions from

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

school is too high.  Pupils do not know how to improve their work in English or mathematics.  Unauthorised absence is too high. Attendance is consistently below the national average.  Leaders do not use information about the school’s performance to set targets for rapid improvement in pupil achievement or teaching.  Overtime, standards in Key Stage 2 have declined. The school has not demonstrated the capacity to bring about improvements and it is too early to see evidence of the impact of new leaders.

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The school has the following strengths

 Governors, with support from the local authority, are now using appropriate systems to tackle underperformance of school staff.  Pupils, staff and governors comment positively upon the start to the school year with the new headteacher.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 15 lessons, six were joint observations with the headteacher or consultant deputy headteacher.  During these observations, inspectors assessed pupils’ work, spoke to pupils about their learning, looked at teachers’ planning and considered the role of additional adults in lessons.  Inspectors held discussions with senior leaders, teachers responsible for particular subjects, representatives from the local authority and members of the governing body.  School documents and records were scrutinised, including information about pupil progress, pupils’ behaviour and attendance, school improvement planning, the school’s evidence on how well it is doing and minutes of governing body meetings.  Inspectors listened to pupils read and spoke to some about their experiences in school. Playtimes and lunch breaks were observed when inspectors talked informally with pupils.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors took account of 20 questionnaires returned by staff. There were too few responses to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View from which inspectors could draw any conclusions.

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Inspection team

Ann Debono, HMI Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Peter Thrussell 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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Information about this school

 This is an average-sized primary school.  The majority of pupils are from different ethnic groups and the number who speak English as an additional language is higher than average.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium (the additional funding in this school is for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals) is higher than the national average.  The proportion of disabled pupils or those with special needs supported through school action, school action plus or with a statement of special needs is higher than the national average.  The school does not meet the government’s current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress.  A new headteacher has recently been appointed. A part-time consultant deputy headteacher has been seconded to the school.  There were changes in staffing during the last academic year; at the time of the inspection there

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Information about this school

wereseven new teachers, including two newly qualified teachers and new headteacher and a consultant deputy headteacher.  The school runs a breakfast club and after-school extended activities.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Rapidly improve the quality of teaching so that none is inadequate by:  all teachers, assisted by additional adults in classes, accurately assessing pupils’ work and using this information to plan lessons that match the needs of individual pupils  reducing the time that pupils listen to adults and increasing the time for them to work by themselves or with others  ensuring that teaching is of a brisk pace and fully engages pupils in activities that motivate them to do their best at all times  ensuring that work is planned so pupils can practise their skills in reading, writing, mathematics and information and communication technology.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils’ achievement in English and mathematics throughout the school by ensuring that:  targets in English and mathematics are challenging and regularly reviewed by pupils and teachers and this information is used directly to inform the next steps of learning and teaching  pupils’ progress is monitored and tracked closely so that those at risk of underachievement are quickly identified and appropriate action is taken to address these concerns  pupils have time to respond and to act upon teachers’ written and oral feedback to improve their work  pupils are given more challenging work in mathematics to develop their problem-solving abilities and to apply skills in meaningful investigations in other subjects  teachers and additional adults in the Early Years Foundation Stage place greater emphasis on planning and assessing children’s achievement in language, communication and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ behaviour by:  taking effective and firm action to ensure that inappropriate behaviour and racist or homophobic incidents are not repeated  ensuring all incidents of misbehaviour are monitored thoroughly and appropriate actions are agreed and rigorously followed up to prevent unacceptable behaviour  ensuring lessons involve pupils in their learning so they do not become bored and misbehave.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve attendance and punctuality by:  working more closely with parents and carers, especially those who take their children away from school in term time, to improve rates of attendance  review arrangements at the start of the day to ensure pupils are punctual for school and ready for lessons.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management at all levels by:  establishing professional links with effective local schools so that exemplar practice is modelled and brought back to lessons and to leadership systems throughout the school  implementing a timetable with regular checks on the quality of teaching with a greater focus on pupils’ progress, taking swift action if progress is not rapid enough  improving the school’s improvement plan by including tight timescales for the completion of actions and identifying governors’ responsibility in evaluating success in these areas  making sure the governing body uses accurate information to hold senior leaders and staff to account for improved rates of pupils’ progress and teaching that is at least consistently good  making sure that the checks on staff performance at all levels holds them to account to achieve the priorities in the school improvement plan to the agreed timescales.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

The school should not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 All pupils, including those with English as an additional language and those from different ethnic groups, do not make enough progress to make up for the long-standing legacy of underachievement in English and mathematics.  Results in reading, writing and mathematics in the Year 6 test have declined further this year.  Children join the school with skills and understanding below the level expected for their age. The provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage does not focus strongly enough on developing children’s early skills in reading, writing and mathematics. A minority of children begin Key Stage 1 with broadly average levels of development, but the majority do not -notably boys, those who are eligible for free school meals and those from a White British background.  The underachievement of too many pupils continues largely unchecked in Key Stage 1. However, in the 2013 Year 1 screening check for phonics (the letters that sounds make) there

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

are early indications of improved attainment. The end of Key Stage 1 tests resultsfor reading and mathematics have also shown some improvements.  The better challenge for the more able in Key Stage 1 has resulted in more pupils securing higher levels in national assessments. In 2013, this was above the national percentage for writing and mathematics.  Current rates of progress, especially in Key Stage 2, remain too slow. The work in pupils’ books and the school’s own data show that progress in both English and mathematics is too variable and often inadequate. Insufficient numbers of pupils are doing as well as they should.  The school’s performance tracking systems are too underdeveloped to help school leaders and teachers identify and then monitor the effectiveness of support for under performing groups of pupils.  Targets in English and mathematics are not set. Pupils, teachers or parents do not have a

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

shared understanding about how much progress each pupil should makethroughout the year.  Pupils say that they enjoy reading. In some classes lower attaining pupils are given a high level of support from additional adults for basic literacy skills, but planning does not ensure that this extra support is set at the right level. Some teaching assistants need further training to help them to manage this role more effectively.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are identified and interventions are put into place. These pupils make similar progress to that made by their peers.  Pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium funding receive extra group work or one-to-one support in reading, writing and emotional development. The funding is also used to ensure that extra-curricular activities, residential school trips or after-school clubs are subsidised. However, the impact of this funding is not demonstrated in the achievement of these eligible pupils by the

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

time they leave the school. They remain a year behind their peers in mathematics and a term behind their peers in English.  Some externally provided interventions funded by the pupil premium are not co-ordinated or monitored closely enough by school leaders. Checks are not made to see if there is a clear impact of this work on closing the gaps in academic outcomes.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Weak teaching over time has resulted in pupils making insufficient progress in English and mathematics. Pupils have many gaps in their learning because inaccurate information has been passed on about their previous performance. Most teachers are inexperienced in assessing pupils’ progress and this, linked to poor planning and learning in lessons, means that underachievement continues.  Pupils’ development in mathematical ideas as they move through the school is poor. In Key Stage 2 there is too much repetition of some concepts such as place value and multiplying by ten for example. Pupils told inspectors that their work was too easy or that they had done the same work the previous year. Pupils are not given enough opportunities to use and apply their knowledge of mathematics in real life situations or problem solving activities.  Strategies such as group work to help pupils catch up are not monitored effectively; in some

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

cases the expectations in these activities is much too low, especially in mathematics.  The pace of learning in lessons is not fast enough. In some lessons pupils become bored and they misbehave. When pupils are in more interesting lessons they are keen to be noticed for their answers, they are able to work with one another in group and partner work.  The new headteacher has begun training for staff on assessment. Where teachers tried these approaches, questioning was stronger and misconceptions about pupils’ understanding was evident from their answers. However, this practice is newly developed and has yet to embed consistently.  Teaching in the Early Years Foundation Stageis effective at helping children to settle in a new environment. However, there is not enough evidence of well planned or exciting activities to help children develop early skills in language, communication and mathematics.  The recent focus on marking in school means that it is mostly up to date in books, but teachers’

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

comments do not always provide next steps or further challenge. Pupils are not given sufficient opportunities for respondingto teachers’ comments or marking.  Lower-attaining pupils or those with additional needs, such as those who speak English as an additional language, do not have their needs and abilities identified specifically enough in planning. As a result, much of what the school offers does not meet their needs and so progress for these pupils is inadequate.  Pupils comment positively on physical education lessons. The programme of games and sporting activities is appropriate. Some health and safety issues require attention - for example shared access to the hall, and ensuring that additional adults to be appropriately dressed if they are leading physical activities.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are inadequate

 Pupils told inspectors that bullying had not been taken seriously by some adults. As a consequence, they say that children either stop asking for help or they fight to solve matters themselves. An analysis of the school's behaviour and incident log for 2012-2013, which includes incidents of racist and homophobic bulling, supports these serious concerns. During the first two weeks of term, twelve incidents of inappropriate behaviour were recorded. Some disruptive episodes were repeated by the same pupils. There is no evidence of effective monitoring or meaningful action by senior leaders to eradicate poor behaviour. There are too many exclusions from school. Some teachers comment that learning in lessons is prevented by some pupils’ poor attitudes. While this was not seen by inspectors, too many pupils showed passive and disengaged behaviour.  Attendance over the last four years and so far this term is well below the national average. Too

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are inadequate

many families are taking their children out of school during term time. This is not challenged robustly enough by the school. The start to the school day is slow; too many pupils are late for lessons, further disadvantaging their opportunities to learn and catch up.  Pupils are keen to talk to visitors about their school. They comment that, ‘the new headteacher has improved things a lot, the new teachers help more than last year’. They understand how to be kept safe. They recognise dangers when using the internet. They have a special card to tell them what to do if they receive an unkind text.  Pupils, to their credit, show respectful attitudes to the adults working with them, especially with the number of new teachers that they have to get to know and trust quickly.  Some parents who spoke informally with inspectors at the start or end of the school day expressed concerns about the high number of staff changes and that this had an adverse

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The significant underachievement and lack of progress for the majority of pupils in school has not been tackled with urgency. The use of performance data is considerably undeveloped. The programme of checks generated by the school about the quality of teaching, learning and pupil progress has been too sporadic. An inadequate focus has been given to pupils’ standards and so the inherent weaknesses in practice at all levels have remained for too long.  Systems of self-evaluation to measure the effectiveness of the school are out of date and over generous. School improvement planning is developing but it does not yet make specific enough reference to what should be achieved by agreed points during the year or how it should be monitored and by whom.  School resources are allocated to pupils in need of additional support, with English as an additional language or those eligible for additional funding. The achievement of these groups, in

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The leadership and management are inadequate

line with their peers is inadequate.  There are not enough teachers in the school who demonstrate highly effective practice. External links for staff to observe and learn from practice in other schools has not yet had an impact upon improving pupils’ achievement.  The new headteacher has made a positive start, according to pupils, staff and governors. She has much to do. Her initial priorities to improve behaviour, staff development and assessment practice are well placed. She is supported by a temporary senior leadership team and new middle leaders. It is too early to see evidence of their impact upon standards.  Pupils appreciate being consulted about changes to the school logo and uniform.. They have enjoyed visits to the Canal and Science Museums, Greenwich and London Art Galleries. Visitors have come into the school for design and music workshops.However, their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development requires improvement because of weaknesses in their

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The leadership and management are inadequate

behaviour.  The school has invested in a coaching programme for sports and physical development. Pupils participate in swimming, a variety of games and local sporting events. These activities are continued in after-school clubs.  The local authority has recently provided a high level of support for the school within its category as cause for concern. This has included regular project groups, training for governors, additional part-time curriculum consultants and advice on effective performance management procedures. However, this support was not soon enough to prevent the school declining further into special measures.  The governance of the school:  The governing body has not challenged or questioned the school effectively for a number of years. They have not consistently held leaders to account for poor results or ensured rapid improvement; as such they have overseen the school’s failure. Recently, with intensive

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The leadership and management are inadequate

support from the local authority, governors have started to take more decisive action to tackle inadequate teaching and leadership. Governors have now strengthened their systems to function more strategically but there is not enough focus upon achieving key priorities for school improvement by agreed tight deadlines. As part of the action to remove the school from special measures a review of governance is recommended.  Governors understand how the pupil premium is being used but they are not clear enough about the impact of school’s resources upon improving standards for all groups of pupils. Arrangements for the safeguarding of pupils 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 100401 Local authority Islington Inspection number 425502

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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 Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3 – 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 228 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Anna Colquhoun Headteacher Harsha Patel Date of previous school inspection 8-9 February 2012 Telephone number 0207 837 5597 Fax number 0207 837 4894 Email address admin@copenhagen.islington.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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