Holton-le-Clay Junior School

Holton-le-Clay Junior School Picksley Crescent, Holton-le-Clay, Grimsby, DN36 5DR

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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This is a good school

 Pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  The 2013 Year 6 tests confirm above average attainment in English and mathematics.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school is good. They feel safe and their enthusiasm is reflected in consistently good attendance figures.  Teaching is good overall. Teachers plan exciting lessons and inspire pupils to become enthusiastic readers.  The executive headteacher and her leadership team have brought about rapid improvements and have good capacity for further developments.  Initiatives to track the progress that pupils make have improved teaching.  The school supports pupils who need extra help in their learning well.  The partnership with Holton-le-Clay Infant School is improving pupils’ achievement.  Pupils’ enthusiasm and participation in musical, sporting and artistic activities are an important factor in their personal development.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 The best practices in the teaching of writing are not widely shared to raise standards further.  Year 5 pupils make inconsistent progress in English and mathematics.  A small proportion of pupils reach Year 6 with gaps in their mathematical understanding.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed six lessons, all of which were jointly observed with the headteacher. A number of small group activities were also observed with the headteacher.  The inspector talked to pupils, looked at work in their books and listened to them read.  During the inspection meetings were held with senior leaders, subject leaders and the special educational needs coordinator. The lead inspector also had meetings with the Chair of the Governing Body and a local authority representative.  The inspector took account of the 22 responses on the online questionnaire, Parent View and one letter from parents. He analysed the 16 questionnaires completed by school staff.  The inspector observed the school at work and looked at a range of documentation, including its development plans, information on pupils’ progress and attainment and evaluation of its own performance. He looked at pupils’ books and reports produced by the local authority.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector also looked at information on staff performance and records relating to attendance and behaviour, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

Alan Giles, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Holton-le-Clay is much smaller than the average junior school.  Pupils are taught in separate Year 3 and Year 6 classes and in three mixed Year 4 and Year 5 classes.  The vast majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds, and there are very few who speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below average. The proportion supported through school action plus or through a statement of special educational needs is average.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is well below average. This funding is to support pupils in local authority care, known to be eligible for free school meals or from service families.  The present headteacher is relatively new to the school and took up her post in September 2012.  She is the executive headteacher within the Holton-le-Clay Junior and Holton-le-Clay Infant

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Information about this school

School partnership.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to be consistently good or better by:  Making sure teachers check on their pupils’ understanding in lessons to further help them achieve the best they can  ensuring Year 5 teachers have consistently high enough expectations so they can set ambitious targets for their pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve achievement by:  giving pupils more challenging work when they investigate and solve problems in mathematics  encouraging pupils to write more extensively and take more pride in the presentation of their work.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Previous underperformance has been tackled successfully and now most pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The Year 6 test results in 2013 showed attainment in English and mathematics to be above average and this reflects good progress for pupils who entered school with skills that were average for their age. A small proportion of more-able pupils underachieved in reading in these tests.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Good practices in the teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make) are improving the reading skills of younger pupils. Guided reading sessions successfully involve older pupils in reading from a wide range of texts to broaden their skills and understanding and reading standards are rising swiftly throughout the school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupil premium funding is used to provide extra learning resources and guidance from well- trained support staff. Eligible pupils make good progress and in 2013 their attainment was level with their classmates in mathematics whilst they were one term ahead of them in reading and two terms ahead in writing.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The small proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress because teachers and teaching assistants successfully boost their confidence and skill levels with clear steps to success. These pupils out-perform similar pupils nationally and achieve as well as their school friends in reading.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The more-able Year 6 pupils are on course to achieve well. They are very responsive to challenging targets set for them, including regular visits to the local secondary school to work with specialist teachers.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 High expectations of pupils in Years 3 and Year 4 are helping them to accelerate their learning and nearly all make expected progress. High proportions of these considerably exceed expectations and make outstanding progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 A significant proportion of Year 5 pupils have not made the progress they are capable of. This is a main priority for the school and improvement plans are in place to improve key writing and mathematical skills for these pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers are accurately assessing what all pupils are capable of when they arrive in Year 3. Leaders have coordinated these practices across the infant and junior school partnership and Year 3 pupils make a quick and positive start to their learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers use the extensive information available on pupils’ progress to plan challenging lessons for all levels of ability. In a year 6 lesson pupils interpreted a Thomas Hardy poem on the sinking of the Titanic, describing it as a ‘twist in the tale’ with ‘ironic’ outcomes.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching in other subjects is improving pupils’ English and mathematical skills because it inspires them to be creative. Year 3 pupils talk excitedly about the features of Picasso paintings and Year 4 and Year 5 pupils use their iPads to research and record the geographical features needed to host a Winter Olympic event.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching assistants are well deployed and contribute significantly to pupils’ good achievement. They ensure that the support they provide for all abilities builds carefully on their current levels of understanding to accelerate learning and progress further.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The school has met the targets set by their last Ofsted inspection to improve teaching so that pupils know what is expected of them in lessons. The success criteria for all abilities are made clear by teachers when starting lessons, but the appropriate next steps are not always given to maximise progress for all.

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The quality of teaching is good

 When marking books teachers are accurately confirming and praising how well pupils have done and what they need to do next. These comments are not consistently followed up to test whether pupils have understood the directions given or have corrected their mistakes.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching needs to increase writing and mathematical challenges for a significant proportion of pupils in Year 5. These need further inspiration and challenge to extend their writing and presentation skills and consolidation of number understanding in problem-solving situations.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Often it is outstanding. No disruptive behaviour was observed at any time during the inspection and school records show that this is typical.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils have a sound understanding of the different forms that bullying can take and they were keen to say bullying is very rare and always dealt with effectively. They also understand the issues surrounding cyber-bullying.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils enjoy working together and often ‘partner-up’ in lessons. Good collaboration was evident when Year 4 and 5 pupils developed character profiles in a Michael Morpurgo story and used sweets to improve their understanding of fractions by applying them to real-life situations.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 On rare occasions, when teachers give over-lengthy instructions or their work becomes too easy, some pupils lose focus and become restless.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance rates are good and pupils arrive at school and lessons on time. Parents agree that their children are happy, safe and well looked after at school. The school promotes many health- related activities and pupils participate eagerly in these.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils’ positive attitudes are clearly evident in the number of personal responsibilities they are given, for example as counsellors and trained play leaders, and the very high numbers who participate in after-school activities.

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The leadership and management are good

 Since her appointment in September 2012, the headteacher has provided strong leadership. She swiftly and accurately identified the school-improvement actions needed for the school to be good.

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The leadership and management are good

 In questionnaires staff say that leaders are doing all they can to improve teaching and that they agree with the direction the school is taking. Training is helping staff to meet most pupils’ progress targets and teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom is linked to pay and promotion.

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The leadership and management are good

 Initiatives to sharpen the tracking of the progress most pupils make have led to the collection of more accurate information. This has enabled the school to improve teaching by stretching many more pupils and enabling them to achieve their full potential.

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The leadership and management are good

 There is a strong commitment to evaluating how well things are going. Leaders have an accurate overview of teaching strengths and in all joint observations the headteacher’s judgements of teaching and learning matched those of the inspector. The impact of the actions taken by leaders demonstrates the continuing capacity for improvement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have prioritised the need to use additional staff more effectively. The teaching of small- group work and one-to-one learning is proving successful and is further accelerating the progress of those pupils who need extra help, or further challenges, in their learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 The whole-school focus on the teaching of phonics and guided reading is improving the reading skills of most pupils. Further measures to improve writing standards to the same levels are in place.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have successfully monitored and evaluated the impact of action plans that focus on practical investigations and problem-solving in mathematics. These actions have successfully improved pupils’ understanding but have still to be consistently applied in all year groups.

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The leadership and management are good

 Other subject leaders are new to their roles and have had training to understand pupil progress information more clearly. They are at an early stage of development but are enthusiastically taking on their responsibilities to provide support to other teachers.

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The leadership and management are good

 The schools’ mission statement – ‘to help pupils understand the world and each other’ – is successfully undertaken. Studies of world differences, international music and fair trade are just a few examples of these successes.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school listens to pupils’ views very well, for example in religious education and personal, social and health education and the pupils’ council and these activities have a positive impact on their personal development.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have promoted equal opportunities successfully whilst ensuring that there is no discrimination within the school.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is spending its sport funding on additional coaching expertise and a fuller participation in the local sports partnership. A large number of pupils benefit from this by accessing an extensive range of external sporting activities.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school works closely and collaboratively with the local authority and this has helped it maintain a more securely good position.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governing body, led by a new chair, is working effectively with the headteacher to consolidate the recent changes made.  Recent training and a review of its performance is improving the impact of the governing body because governors now have a better understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.  Members of the governing body have good levels of information from the headteacher to help them hold the school to account for its performance and are well placed to support future developments.  Governors oversee the arrangements for the spending of the pupil premium funding and are aware of the approaches that have successfully raised the achievement of those pupils who are eligible.  The governors understand how to measure the impact of the sport funding plans and understand that the local sports partnerships are widening the scope for pupils’ participation in

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The leadership and management are good

sport.  The governing body makes sure that all safeguarding requirements are met.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 120497 Local authority Lincolnshire Inspection number 440569

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Type of school Junior School category Community Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 150 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Tracey Frisby Headteacher (Executive) Dawne Hunt Date of previous school inspection 10 May 2012 Telephone number 01472 826432 Fax number N/A Email address enquiries@holton-le-clay-junior.lincs.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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School details

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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School details

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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