Setting

Mrs Corinne Martinez Headteacher Four Lanes Community School Hanmore Road Chineham Basingstoke RG24 8PO

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School

Following my visit to your school on 23 January 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the school’s recent section 5 inspection.

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School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in October 2013.

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Evidence

During this inspection, I held meetings with you, your deputy and the leadership consultant, the Chair of the Governing Body and two other governors and two representatives from the local authority. The local authority’s statement of action and the school’s action plans were evaluated.

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Context

Four support staff and five new teaching staff, including a deputy headteacher, have joined the school since the last inspection. An experienced leadership consultant has been appointed to work closely with the headteacher. The governing body has been bolstered by a parent governor and a community governor and a further three local authority governors have been appointed. Tribal 1–4 Portland Square Bristol BS2 8RR T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0117 311 5323 Direct email : suzy.smith@tribalgroup.com

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

You and your senior team have responded very positively to the concerns raised in the last inspection. Improvements made in the short time since the inspection have made you confident of securing rapid further improvements to the school. The school expects to be good by January 2015. To achieve this you are systematically tackling all aspects of the work of the school that need to be better, and some progress is already evident. For example, you put a new assessment information and pupil tracking system in place. This shows that Year 6 pupils have made good progress in the last eight weeks in mathematics. However, you, your senior team and governors know the legacy of underachievement across the school, in a variety of subjects, will take time to eradicate.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

New appointments to the leadership team, including the leadership consultant, have added much needed capacity to leadership. As a result, increased monitoring of the school’s work has shown that the quality of teaching is improving and a higher percentage is now good. Year leaders are working in each year group supporting less experienced colleagues with planning and raising expectation of pupils’ achievement.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The local authority is providing good support to the school’s leaders and governors. For example, a teaching and learning consultant is modelling effective teaching to staff which has begun to improve their practice. The governing body, including newly appointed governors, is tackling the deficiencies identified by the local authority review of governance. Plans are in place to involve governors more fully in regular monitoring of the school’s improvement priorities.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Planning and delivery of the statement of action and associated school improvement plan have been a collaborative process. The statement of action and the closely associated school action plans tackle all of the areas of the school needing improvement. Monitoring of the action plans is giving leaders good initial information about those areas that are progressing well and those where more focus is required. Plans have success criteria and milestones for success. However, you, your senior leaders and governors know the monitoring cycle that is in place needs to be more precisely defined on a half-termly basis over the school’s journey out of special measures. This will enable those monitoring the school, including governors and the local authority, to track the rate of progress more incisively.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

A parents’ meeting has been held and although parents and carers are concerned, most demonstrated strong support for working with the school to secure its improvement. For example, parents and carers were very keen to understand how to better support their children’s learning at the meeting. As a result, mathematics evenings have been organised by the school to help parents and carers better support their children in mathematics.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Plans are in place to consult regularly with parents and carers. The school aims to formalise the timeline for further parental consultation with the aim of systematically gathering their opinions on the school’s improvement in line with half-termly monitoring.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Following the monitoring inspection the following judgements were made:

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The local authority statement of action is fit for purpose

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The school’s improvement plans are fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The school may appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection after discussion with me about the year group and support package.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

I am copying this letter to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Hampshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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