Setting

Gillian Blatherwick Headteacher Hazel Community Primary School Hazel Street Leicester, LE2 7JN

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 3 February 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the findings. 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 December 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

 give greater priority to improving classroom practice and the quality of teaching, and ensure that teachers and teaching assistants are more focused on how well pupils are learning in all lessons  make sure that staff improve the way they measure pupils’ progress, particularly in mathematics, as well as improving their mathematical subject knowledge  raise teachers’ expectations of pupils’ behaviour in lessons, especially when pupils move from one activity to another and at the end of lessons  make sure that action plans specify more clearly who is monitoring, managing or evaluating the school’s progress, and include interim milestones in the plans so that leaders and governors make more regular checks on teaching and pupils’ progress. 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 9158

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Evidence

During the visit, a meeting was held with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and acting assistant headteacher. Her Majesty’s Inspector also met three governors, including the Chair and Vice Chair of the Governing Body. The inspector held a telephone conversation with the local authority’s school improvement adviser to discuss the actions taken since the inspection in December 2013. The school’s development and raising attainment plans were evaluated. Following visits to classes with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, the school’s monitoring documents and pupil assessments were inspected.

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Main findings

Following the recommendations of the last inspection in December 2013, the governing body has been subject to an external review. Governors have started to address the shortcomings highlighted in the inspection to improve their monitoring roles and to provide more challenge for the school’s leaders. The senior leadership team and governors have produced action plans to guide their monitoring of teaching and pupils’ learning. Nevertheless, the plans lack focus and are too fragmented to be of any real use in the long term, and they lack interim milestones to ensure that pupils’ progress and teaching are checked regularly. The school’s plans also lack clear priorities, making it difficult for leaders to focus on the most important actions aimed at increasing the amount of good or better teaching. Currently, there is still too much teaching that requires improvement or that is inadequate.

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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 in December, the local authority’s school improvement adviser has provided accurate evaluations and delivered training to the staff. However, teachers and teaching assistants are not seeing enough good practice to improve their own teaching. Given that there is not yet enough good teaching across the school, there scope and potential for the local authority and the school’s leaders to establish more effective links with other schools and practitioners to help teachers and support staff improve their teaching and classroom practice.

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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 Leicester.

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