Setting

Jayne Parker Headteacher Westglade Primary School Syke Road Top Valley Nottingham NG5 9BG

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School

Following my visit to your school on 13 February 2013, 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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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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School

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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School

 check more closely on the rates of pupils’ progress over time, in particular those who are more-able and of middle ability to ensure that they are reaching standards which they are capable of  improve the quality of your school improvement plan so that governors are able to check more frequently the impact of teaching on pupils’ achievement.

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Evidence

During this visit, meetings were held with you and other senior leaders, members of the governing body, and a representative of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. We conducted a tour of the school, visiting every 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 9146 Direct email : clare.benson@serco.com class. I met with a group of eight pupils from Key Stage 2 and looked at a sample of their work. I considered the school’s most recent data on the attainment and progress of groups of pupils. The school's improvement plans were evaluated.

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Context

Since the last section 5 inspection, the teacher of Year 4 pupils has left the school. The governing body has appointed a teacher as her replacement who will join the staff team at the beginning of the second half of the spring term 2014.

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Main findings

You have wasted no time in putting together a plan so that senior leaders and those responsible for leading English and mathematics check more frequently on the quality of teaching. Teachers are being provided with clear guidance on how to improve their practice and have been given opportunities to observe colleagues both within and beyond the school. Your subsequent visits to lessons, as well as consideration of work in pupils’ books and information about pupils’ achievements, show that teachers have responded to the advice of leaders and the good quality provision that they have observed. Consequently, teachers have improved their practice. Teachers are more involved in assessing and recording the outcomes of pupils’ attainment and rates of progress. This has helped them to gain a better understanding of the next learning steps for individual pupils. As a result, pupils are being provided with activities which more consistently provide the right amount of

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Main findings

Pupils say that the new marking code, ‘tickled pink and green for growth’, has helped them to understand more clearly what they have done well and what they have to do next to improve their work. Boys in particular, have been keen to show how they have improved their work in response to teachers’ marking. As a result, boys have been more motivated to learn.

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Main findings

The leader of English has scrutinised pupils’ books in order to evaluate the quantity of quality of pupils’ work. As a result of her analysis, pupils are now being provided with more regular opportunities in which to produce longer pieces of writing across a range of subjects. This has helped pupils to make faster rates of progress in writing.

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Main findings

Governors have ensured that systems for the appraisal of teachers have become more robust. Consequently, teachers have been set challenging yet achievable targets relating to the rates of progress of the pupils in their care. Governors have commenced more frequent checks on the achievement of different groups of pupils in particular, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, those who are eligible for additional support via the pupil premium funding, and pupils whose prior attainment is lower than their classmates. This has helped governors to gather information independently, which has made their evaluations more rigorous. Consequently, they can hold senior leaders to greater account for the quality of provision and achievement of vulnerable pupils.

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Main findings

You have gathered information more frequently relating to pupils’ progress. This has helped you to identify individual pupils who require additional support in order for them to catch up with their classmates. However, your checks of pupils’ progress do not take sufficient account of the progress which pupils of different abilities are making over time. In particular, you are not checking closely enough whether more- able pupils and those of middle ability are on track to exceed expected rates of progress and reach standards that they are capable of.

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Main findings

Your school improvement plan clearly sets out a series of actions which are to be undertaken in order to strengthen leadership, improve the quality of teaching and raise standards. Although you have clear success criteria relating to pupils’ achievements at the end of the academic year, the lack of specific, interim milestones at the end of each term makes it difficult for governors to be able to ascertain the extent to which actions are having a positive impact on pupils’ achievements, in order to gauge the rate of improvement.

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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 provided a ‘light-touch’ level of support to the school. This is because officers have confidence in the capacity of the school’s leaders to secure further improvements due to their track record of helping the school move out of a category of concern within the last two years. The local authority has brokered support from a Teaching School Alliance as well as local primary school both of which are based in Nottingham. This has helped teachers in Key Stage 1 to develop their skills in the teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds they make) and writing.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Children’s Services for Nottingham.

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