Setting

Mr Dave Tinker Headteacher Church Preen Primary School Church Preen SY6 7LH

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 10 December 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 16 October 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Primary School

Senior leaders and governors are not taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection and plans are not sharply focused on rapidly bringing about improvement. The school should take immediate action to:

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Primary School

 work with the local authority in order to strengthen the skills of the leadership of the school  make sure that the improvement plans clearly specify how and when leaders and governors will check on the effectiveness of the school’s actions  increase the frequency of meetings and monitoring activities carried out by the headteacher and members of the governing body  implement a whole-school approach to the teaching of writing  ensure that feedback to teachers focuses on the progress and attainment of different groups of pupils.

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Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with you, five governors, including, the Chair of 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 679 9166 Direct email : helen.johnson@serco.com the Governing Body and a representative of the local authority. The school improvement plan was evaluated. A range of documentation was reviewed, including information about pupils’ achievement, as well as a review pupils’ work.

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Context

There have been no significant changes since the recent inspection which judged the school to require improvement.

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Main findings

The way you and governors’ plan for improvement is not sharp enough. For instance, actions within the school improvement plan lack precision and focus. The plan does not indicate sharply enough how teaching will be improved and how pupils will be helped to make faster progress. It does not specify the detailed actions that will be taken to help strengthen the skills of senior teachers. Neither does it state who will evaluate the impact of the actions in the plan.

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Main findings

The actions that have been taken since the inspection are not helping pupils in all classes to make faster progress. This is because procedures for checking the quality of teaching are not taking into account the learning and progress of all groups. The results from lesson observations and checks on work in pupils’ workbooks lack detail and teachers do not have clear enough guidance to enable them to improve. You do not always ensure that areas for development are acted upon or that all teachers make the required changes quickly enough. For instance, we found that some teachers are continuing to set writing tasks that require limited responses. This is preventing pupils in these year groups from writing at length and developing their ideas.

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Main findings

Although, there has been an increased focus on helping pupils develop their writing skills by providing more opportunities to write for different purposes. These changes have not been sufficient to ensure pupils in all classes make rapid progress. Work in their writing books shows that in some classes, the work for more-able pupils is not challenging enough. In contrast, the work for pupils who need extra help is too difficult. Little work is recorded in pupils’ writing books to show the systematic development of writing skills over time. It was typical for there to be fewer than four examples of work in pupils’ workbooks since the beginning of the autumn term. On occasions, teachers do not show pupils the best way of improving their writing quickly. As a result, pupils struggle and continue to make the same errors in their work.

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Main findings

Members of the governing body are keen to do all they can to help the school move quickly towards good. They meet regularly to discuss the progress of pupils and the actions that need to be taken in order for the school to become good. Governors have begun to ask suitable questions about the quality of teaching and the progress of pupils. You provide governors with a range of information about pupils’ progress. However, this does not always focus enough on the progress of different groups. This makes it difficult for governors to check if different groups of pupils, such as boys or the more able are making good progress.

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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 inspection, the local authority adviser has made one visit to the school and reviewed the school’s improvement plan. The local authority has made available a termly ‘requires improvement’ development day and ‘satellite’ professional development sessions. The headteacher would benefit from further targeted support to improve the teaching in the school.

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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 Shropshire.

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