Setting

Mr Nicholas Sykes Headteacher Chapel Allerton Primary School Harrogate Road Leeds West Yorkshire LS7 3PD

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Primary School, Leeds

Following my visit to your school on 28 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, Leeds

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in November 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Primary School, Leeds

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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Primary School, Leeds

 ensure curriculum breadth and the quality of teaching in other subjects are sustained while prioritising mathematics  ensure evaluations of teaching quality observed make a clear link to its impact on pupils’ learning  agree targets and milestones for 2014/15 to reflect good or better progress for pupils in all key stages.

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Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders, a group of staff, two representatives of the governing body and a representative of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. The school improvement plan CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566939 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: glaw@cfbt.com was evaluated. I toured the school with a group of pupils and scrutinised a range of documents including evidence from your most recent monitoring of the quality of teaching and other aspects of the school’s work.

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Context

One teacher left the school at the end of the autumn term and since the inspection there have been internal teacher changes in several classes. Additional staff are currently being deployed to teach pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 and a temporary middle leadership appointment has been made with responsibility for mathematics in upper Key Stage 2.

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Main findings

Although disappointed with the inspection outcome you and your leadership team acknowledge that the variation in performance between subjects needs to be urgently addressed. A wide range of strategies are being used to improve the teaching of, and raise standards in, mathematics across the school. Increased curriculum time and staffing, more opportunities for pupils to use and apply their mathematics skills in other subjects and themed mathematical events are beginning to improve rates of pupils’ progress and their enjoyment of mathematics. The profile of mathematics is much higher across the school including additional resources and improved learning opportunities in the outdoor area of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Training for teachers and support staff is having a positive impact on their practice. Focused work on pupils’ targets is helping them to address their individual weaknesses, such as, recall of multiplication facts. Assessment of pupils’ learning in

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Main findings

lessons and marking of their work is being used more effectively to inform teaching so gaps in pupils’ knowledge or misconceptions are being addressed more quickly. There is much stronger emphasis on monitoring the progress of individual pupils from their starting points and a greater expectation on teachers to secure good pupil progress in all year groups. Teachers also have a better understanding of the need to move learning on quickly in lessons where pupils have clearly mastered a particular aspect of mathematics to enable them to make faster progress.

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Main findings

The school’s action plan focuses sharply on tackling the areas for improvement identified in the recent section 5 inspection and incorporates helpful and suitably challenging milestones and targets for 2014. However, targets and milestones for 2015 that reflect the school’s ambition to build further on the projected improvements in 2014 are not currently included. You and your leadership team are being more robust in the monitoring of the quality of teaching and are determined to ensure that all teaching is consistently good. However, your evaluations, while identifying teaching strengths and areas requiring further work, do not always make explicit the impact of teaching on pupils’ learning and progress. Recently appointed leaders are increasingly contributing to the school’s improvement by drawing on external good practice and by working more effectively with each other and the rest of your staff. The school’s work to improve parental support for their child’s learning

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Main findings

is continuing to develop and you rightly recognise that this is another key element in raising achievement. Governors are continuing to monitor the school’s progress and challenge senior leaders about its performance effectively. They recognise the importance of embedding strategies to raise standards, securing consistency in teaching quality across the school and the need to put in place a sustainable leadership structure that will successfully promote continuous 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

Although at a relatively early stage in the partnership, the National Leader of Education and his school are already supporting improvements in senior and middle leadership. Opportunities for the senior teams from both schools to meet together and discuss approaches to school improvement are helping you and your leadership team decide on the best way to tackle the school’s areas for development. Best practice in other local schools, such as resources and strategies to identify and address gaps in pupils’ knowledge and understanding in mathematics, are being utilised effectively in the drive to raise standards. Local authority mathematics expertise is helping to improve consistency in the teaching of calculations and enhance the skills of teaching assistants. The recently established Joint Review Group is well placed to enable you, your leadership team, governors and the local authority to monitor the school’s progress closely.

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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 Leeds and as below.

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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  Contractor providing support services on behalf of the local authority - where appropriate  The Education Funding Agency (EFA) if the school has a sixth form  Diocese – for voluntary aided and voluntary controlled schools  The person or body responsible for appointing foundation governors if the school has a foundation  DfE - Academies Advisers Unit [ colin.diamond@education.gsi.gov.uk ] – for academies

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