Setting

CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 1231231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566868 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: pnuttie@cfbt.com

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Mrs Susan Spooner Acting Headteacher Reinwood Community Junior School Burfitts Road Oakes Huddersfield West Yorkshire HD3 4YL

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Junior School, Kirklees

Following my visit to your school on 7 January 2014, 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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Junior School, Kirklees

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

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Junior School, Kirklees

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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Junior School, Kirklees

ensure governors are informed in a more timely fashion by bringing together the time lines for governors meetings with the schools’ processes for gathering information  sharpen targets for improvement to provide clearer milestones and tighter time frames for assessing the impact of actions taken.

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Evidence

During my visit, meetings were held with the you and other senior leaders, members of the governing body, a representative of the local authority and the headteacher of a successful local school that is working in collaboration with you. In addition I looked at a selection of pupils work and a walk of the school was also undertaken.

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Main findings

Together with senior leaders and governors, you have responded positively to the areas for improvement from the previous inspection. You have acted promptly, identified your own capacity to improve and engaged positively with support from outside the school.

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Main findings

You and your staff responded quickly to the areas identified for improvement. Actions to improve the progress pupils make in lessons has been a focus. A review of how pupils’ work is marked and the way the next steps in their learning is communicated to them has been undertaken. The school has run staff meetings to review and develop a shared view of what constitutes effective learning. This has informed some changes to lesson planning formats. The way in which information about pupils’ progress is recorded has been reviewed. New formats that monitor the progress of groups of pupils more effectively are now in place. This has informed the pupil progress monitoring meetings undertaken by staff at the end of term. The school acknowledges that more refinements are needed and are continuing to review this. A rolling programme of ‘focussed teaching’ has been put in place to address specific gaps in some pupils learning. School leaders are yet to formally review the impact of

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Main findings

all these actions but have monitored implementation through a series of drop in visits to classrooms and sampling work in pupils’ books. A full programme of monitoring activities is planned in the near future with the support of a local headteacher.

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Main findings

A school action plan has been written and shared with staff and the governing body. It has also been shared with the wider partnership of schools. The plan focuses on the areas for improvement from the inspection report, with a clear allocation of key staff and governors responsible for monitoring the progress being made by the school over the life of the plan. However, the plan does not do justice to some of the activity already undertaken and the impact this is beginning to have. This is a clear and ambitious plan in the short term but there is some lack of clarity about how long it will take for the school to become good. In addition, challenging targets have not been broken down into smaller steps. Without these specific details, senior leader, staff and governors will find it harder to accurately assess if the school is on course to meet its’ targets.

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Main findings

The governing body have acted promptly since the previous inspection. Governors, through the local authority, have commissioned a review of their own effectiveness. They have discussed and reviewed the planning for improvement. The Chair of Governors has met with the acting headteacher to review the improvement planning and is taking a direct role in monitoring the impact of the additional activity by the school for those pupils supported by pupil premium funding. Currently the programme of governor meetings does not always tie in with the timelines for information gathered by school senior leaders. Governors are considering how best to bring these processes together to help monitor the impact actions are having in a more timely manner.

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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 support from the local authority has been prompt and proportionate to the needs of the school. The local authority has brokered the further support of a successful school and will provide a review of governance. Monitoring of the school by the local authority has been increased and will happen more frequently.

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External support

The work of the school has been supported by a successful local headteacher who has held three meetings with the school and made additional contributions to the action plan. Visits for staff and school leaders between the schools are now taking place

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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 Kirklees.

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Her Majesty's Inspector

The letter should be copied to the following:

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Her Majesty's Inspector

 Appropriate authority - Chair of the Governing Body/Interim Executive Board  Local authority - including where the school is an academy

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