Setting

Lisa Meacher Headteacher Moulton Chapel Primary School Eaugate Road Moulton Chapel Spalding PE12 0XJ

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 27 March 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report my 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

This was the first monitoring visit since the school was judged to require improvement at the section 5 inspection in January 2014. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Primary 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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Primary School

 Improve the analysis of data on pupil progress and the quality of teaching, so that it is quicker and easier to judge small improvements.  Add evaluation milestones to the school development planning, so that the governing body can receive regular professional evaluations of the school’s progress.

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Evidence

During the visit I met with you, the school improvement adviser, the Chair of the Governing Body and a group of pupils. I toured classes to see pupils working and looked at their work. I also scrutinised the school’s development planning, records of 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 6799163 Direct email : lewis.mackie1@serco.com the checks that the headteacher makes on the quality of teaching and the school’s tracking of pupils’ progress.

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Main findings

The pupils described a generally very positive view of the school, where work is well adapted to their needs and teachers have high expectations. Pupils’ books show that they take a pride in their work and are working hard. Teachers are using many elements of potentially good practice, which are still at an early stage of development. For example, all teachers have adopted a common approach to marking pupils’ work. The aim is to encourage pupils to learn more from the teachers’ comments and corrections, but teachers are not yet allowing enough classroom time to maximise the benefits of this. Pupils said that they learn best when they have enough time to make their corrections.

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Main findings

The January inspection report identified improvements in leadership and management following the reduction in the teaching commitment of the headteacher. This has continued to show impact. There are effective systems to check on the quality of teaching and on pupils’ progress. The headteacher regularly visits classrooms and looks at the quality of teaching and of pupils’ work. Efforts have been made to ensure that teachers’ assessments are accurate and pupils’ progress is checked every half-term. However, the evidence gathered through these activities is not used well enough to provide a good guide to further improvement. Feedback from lesson observations is being used to help shape the professional development of staff but this could be more effective if the evidence gained from other checking activities supported it.

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Main findings

The Chair of the Governing Body, who was new to the governing body in October, has made a very promising start in addressing the areas of governance that required improvement. Governors are now visiting the school more regularly and they are recording their visits. Following an audit of governors’ skills, roles have been allocated by the chair and a standards committee has undertaken training to better understand the school’s assessment data. Records of governing body meetings indicate that governors are becoming more confident in challenging and supporting school leaders.

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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 headteacher has made good use of the support available to her. A local leader of education from Bourne Primary School has been providing leadership support and advice. The local authority school improvement adviser has also been providing an enhanced level of support to the school. Particularly good use is being made of the links with the other schools in the collaborative partnership, and there is real strength being gained from the joint work undertaken by the headteachers and the staff across all five schools.

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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 Lincolnshire County Council.

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