Setting

Mr Daniel Pilsworth Headteacher The John Harrox Primary School, Moulton Broad Lane Moulton PE12 6PN

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Primary School, Moulton

Following my visit to your school on 19 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, Moulton

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

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Primary School, Moulton

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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Primary School, Moulton

 act upon the recommendations made in the external review of governance with urgency.

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Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders and the Vice- chair of the Governing Body. I spoke with a representative of the local authority. In these meetings, we discussed the actions taken since the last inspection. I visited every class, spoke to pupils both formally and informally, and looked at their work. The school action plan was evaluated and I scrutinised additional school information, including the records you keep of the monitoring of the quality of teaching and the progress pupils are making. 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

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Context

A class teacher has resigned and the school are in the process of finding a replacement.

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Main findings

You have acted quickly to address the issues identified in the recent inspection. Your action plan is well organised and focused on improving teaching and learning. You have built in opportunities for governors to hold you to account for the success of actions planned to improve learning for all pupils. However, outcomes of actions are not always sufficiently quantifiable. The plan does not include sufficient longer-term targets to check on improvement over time.

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Main findings

Teachers’ marking has improved and has become more consistent across most classes. Teachers’ comments support pupils to develop their learning by asking them to think carefully about their work. You give pupils opportunities to make corrections and deepen their thinking by answering questions teachers ask in their comments. Pupils say they enjoy responding to teachers’ comments. They say they are making better progress because they have time to make corrections and talk to their teachers about misunderstandings in their learning.

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Main findings

You are beginning to improve the quality of teaching by identifying areas of strength and weakness in individual teacher’s practice. You focus training more closely to individual teacher’s needs. You are doing this by using existing good practice within the school to develop and improve teachers’ performance. The school’s own data show that this is beginning to have an impact on the progress pupils make. Since the inspection, progress has begun to accelerate for most groups of pupils. However, it is not accelerating quickly enough in all classes to reach the challenging targets you have set.

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Main findings

You have increased opportunities for pupils to write at length across different subjects. There is a variety of different types of writing around school and in pupils’ books. However, this is not organised in a systematic way to ensure it has the maximum impact in order to improve pupils’ skills in writing.

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Main findings

It is clear that you and the governors are firm in your ambition to be judged ‘good’ at your next inspection. You have strengthened systems for checking the quality of teaching. You go back quickly to check teachers act upon training and advice to improve their work. The English and mathematics subject leaders are now checking the quality of teaching and the progress pupils make more carefully. Governors come into school and check the success of actions taken by senior leaders and are holding them firmly to account. Governors are beginning to ask challenging questions and are developing an uncompromising approach to ensuring their school improves. However, governors’ systems for checking how well the school is doing are not linked closely with senior leaders’ monitoring so that they are able to ask challenging questions with more immediacy. An external review of governance has very recently been completed but governors have not had time to act upon its

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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

The local authority has acted quickly to support the school to improve its development plan. It has also provided effective support in checking the improvements in the quality of teaching. It has brokered a partnership between two other local schools to share training and good practice in teaching, and school leadership and management. It has carried out an external review of governance.

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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 Lincolnshire.

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