Pound Hill Junior School, Crawley

Pound Hill Junior School Crawley Lane, Pound Hill, Crawley, RH10 7EB

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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 Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Recent initiatives to improve pupils’ achievement have been successful and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is now above average.  All groups of pupils make good progress because teaching is good with a substantial proportion that is outstanding.  Parents are very supportive of the school, saying that it offers their children ‘a warm and welcoming atmosphere’. The school very successfully includes its many different cultures.  Pupils get on very well together because of the strong guidance the school offers through its provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This underpins the mutual respect and excellent relationships that exist between adults and pupils.  Attendance has improved and is now above average. Pupils come to school happily and keen to learn because lessons are interesting and stimulating and they feel very safe and well cared for. They are extremely polite and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

well behaved and enjoy each other’s company.  There has been significant staff turbulence but this has been wisely managed by the very experienced headteacher. A newly established but strong senior leadership team, well supported by the governing body, is ensuring that strategies to improve teaching and achievement are successful.  The governing body supports and challenges the school well in its determination to become outstanding.  The school benefits significantly from strong partnerships with local schools, outside agencies and the local community.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 A small minority of teachers, although effective overall, have not yet developed all the skills they need to help pupils learn more rapidly.  Marking is not always used well enough to help pupils to improve their work.  Pupils’ handwriting and the care they take in the general presentation of their work is not always of a high enough standard, especially in Years 3 and 4.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited 23 lessons and observed 16 teachers. They also talked to pupils about their work and heard individual pupils from Years 3, 4 and 6 read.  A wide range of documents were scrutinised, including systems for checking progress, records relating to behaviour and attendance, safeguarding procedures and the school’s analysis of how well it is doing and how it plans to improve. Records of monitoring the quality of teaching and the minutes of the governing body meetings were also examined.  The inspectors looked at samples of pupils’ work across a range of subjects and ages.  Meetings were held with members of the governing body, school staff and groups of pupils. Individual pupils were spoken to in lessons and around the school. A meeting took place with a school adviser from the local authority.  Questionnaires from 21 members of staff were analysed. The inspectors took account of the

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Information about this inspection

views expressed in 59 online responses from Parent View and comments from parents during informal meetings before school during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Anna Sketchley, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Janet Watson Additional Inspector Jane Ladner Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Pound Hill is a larger than average-sized junior school. Pupils attend from a wide area.  All pupils are taught in single age classes.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported through school action is above average as is those with special educational needs supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs.  The proportion of pupils eligible for additional funding (pupil premium) is average. Pupil premium is funding for children in care, those known to be eligible for free school meals and pupils with a parent in the armed services.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is above average as is the number of pupils in the early stages of learning English. There are currently 30 languages spoken by pupils attending the school.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations

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Information about this school

for pupils’ attainment and progress.  Due to the retirement of the headteacher in July, governors are currently seeking to appoint a new headteacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Use the outstanding practice already existing in the school as a model to further improve the quality of teaching so that a higher amount of outstanding teaching enables pupils to make quicker progress.  Ensure that marking is used consistently across the school to show pupils the next steps they should take to improve their work.  Improve pupils’ handwriting and ensure that they take more care in the presentation of their work, especially in Years 3 and 4.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 When pupils join the school the levels at which they are working are quickly established and used, alongside previous national test results, to measure pupils’ progress. School data shows that all groups of pupils make good progress from the starting point established by the school. During the inspection school data was thoroughly examined and pupils’ progress was checked through scrutiny of their work books from when they started at the school and their prior knowledge and current learning in lessons.  Pupils’ attainment and progress in all three areas of reading, writing and mathematics have improved because of the new approaches used by teachers that have been introduced over the last two years. The most able pupils make good progress in all three areas of reading, writing and mathematics. Sometimes their progress is outstanding.  The school’s strong reading culture means that pupils are enthusiastic about reading for

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The achievement of pupils is good

pleasure. They read with fluency and lively expression from books appropriate for their age and ability, confidently retelling the story and predicting the future storyline. The youngest readers, and those who find reading difficult, ably use their knowledge of letters and sounds to tackle unfamiliar words such as ‘elbowed’ and ‘privileged’.  Using high quality books on which to base the development of pupils’ writing skills and improve their sentence construction, punctuation and spelling is proving very successful. Pupils in a Year 5 lesson made rapid progress and ably demonstrated writing in diary form, using paragraphs and varying beginnings to sentences. They were fully engaged in the writing process as they expressed the need to ‘get into the character of the homeless boy’.  Scrutiny of pupils’ writing books during the inspection showed the most able pupils to be writing at a higher level than is expected. The books of Year 6 pupils at risk of not doing as well as they

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The achievement of pupils is good

might, demonstrated real engagement with the story ‘Wolf Brother’. Work was well presented and pupils were writing at the expected Year 6 level.  Sometimes pupils in Years 3 and 4, and those who find learning more difficult, do not present their work as neatly as they might and teachers do not draw sufficient attention to this when marking pupils’ work.  A dip in attainment in mathematics last year was due to an unusually high number of pupils with gaps in their knowledge and understanding who joined the school late in Years 5 and 6. In addition some pupils had complex needs. Although these pupils had extra funds to support their needs there was insufficient time for them to catch up and results for Year 6 in 2013 showed this group of pupils to be three terms behind other pupils in their learning in mathematics. This adversely affected attainment overall and it was not as high as the previous year.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 School information shows that pupils currently receiving additional support from pupil premium funding are reaching standards in reading, writing and mathematics that are very close to those of other pupils in the school.  Previous checks on how well pupils were doing in mathematics revealed that more emphasis needed to be placed on pupils’ basic number skills. As a result the school adopted a new strategy for teaching mathematics with a significant focus on number skills and the use of them in everyday life. This is increasing pupils’ confidence with number and raising achievement.  Tasks are challenging and meaningful for more able pupils and as a result pupils are making rapid progress and achievement is rising. This was clearly evident in a Year 5 lesson where the most able pupils were seen to be working at a much higher level than would be expected as they competently solved problems, demonstrating the ability to change fractions and decimals to

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The achievement of pupils is good

percentages.  Short, daily ‘maths meetings’ for all pupils enable them to practise their mental mathematics skills regularly.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are well supported both by teachers and teaching assistants. Special programmes and extra support from outside agencies ensure that these pupils make good progress from their starting points and reach standards that are close to those in the same group nationally. Pupils who speak English as an additional language achieve well and reach standards that are above average and similar to those of all other pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers have high expectations of pupils so they know very clearly what is expected of them. This means they are eager to learn so no time is wasted. Teaching in literacy and numeracy and other subjects is good.  Pupils work with enthusiasm in lessons as they capture pupils’ interest and imagination straight away due to the dynamic and stimulating teaching and a sharp pace. Pupils in Year 6 became immediately engaged when one pupil was in the ‘hot seat’ as a character from a book they were studying. The teacher’s astute questioning of pupils in preparation for the writing task was highly successful in extending pupils’ thinking and discussion.  Pupils are very clear about what they are to learn because the purpose of the lesson is shared very clearly with them at the outset. Data projectors and whiteboards are used particularly well for this purpose.  Pupils have very good opportunities to challenge themselves throughout the lesson because

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The quality of teaching is good

tasks are arranged in degrees of difficulty. These are often stuck into their books giving them the opportunity to manage their own learning by ticking off tasks as they complete them. The more difficult tasks engage and challenge the most able pupils well and as a result they make rapid progress.  Pupils work diligently, remaining on task. They know how to help themselves to learn and what to do if they are ‘stuck’. They readily turn to a dictionary, use information from the classroom wall or find practical equipment appropriate to their needs.  Personal learning targets are regularly shared with both parents and pupils and this means that pupils are clear about what they must do next to make the best possible progress. Older pupils know and understand what level they are working towards and what they must be able to do to achieve it.  Marking generally contains useful comments to help pupils take the next step in their learning,

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The quality of teaching is good

helping them to make rapid progress. However, it is not consistent across the school so that in some classes pupils do not have a clear idea of what they could do to improve a piece of work and this hampers their progress.  A wide variety of well-planned homework tasks gives pupils good opportunities to practise their skills at home.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils is outstanding

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. It has been sustained since the last inspection. The school fosters excellent relationships. Exclusions and incidents of challenging behaviour are very rare. During the inspection pupils were unfailingly polite and impeccably behaved in the building, in assembly and on the playground. They were warm and friendly towards visitors.  Pupils fully support the ideals of the Rights Respecting School Award awarded by UNICEF and live it in their relationships with each other and the activities they are involved in. The school’s provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very strong and makes a significant contribution to the high level of mutual respect that exists between adults and pupils.  Pupils have a thirst for knowledge and are eager to learn. They demonstrate this in their response to their homework tasks and their exceptional perseverance and the ability to get on

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The behaviour and safety of pupils is outstanding

with their tasks in lessons when working unsupervised. This prepares them extremely well for the next stage in their education.  Pupils play a full part in the life of the school. They thoroughly enjoy all the responsibilities they are given, for example as members of the school council and as Eco Representatives.  Attendance has risen since the last inspection and is much higher than the national average.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils say they feel very safe in school and this view is fully supported by parents.  Being involved in a variety of risk assessments, especially those during residential visits, allows pupils to develop their own codes for keeping safe. Pupils have a very good understanding of internet safety and know how to deal with bullying should it arise but say with great conviction and pride that there is none in the school. School records confirm their views are accurate.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils is outstanding

Pupils know exactly what to do and who to go to should they be worried about anything and are confident that an adult will help them.

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The leadership and management are good

 Monitoring the work of the school is well established. The direction of the school and what needs to be done to improve is very clear and there is a comprehensive plan for action with the correct priorities. There has been very light support from the local authority.  The experienced headteacher has established a relatively new but strong leadership team and, together with the governing body, they have the ambition, drive and determination to become an outstanding school.  Recent successful initiatives are rapidly driving forward improvement and demonstrate that the school has the capacity to secure the further development it seeks.  Impressive school tracking of pupils’ progress enables teachers to know their pupils very well indeed and to use it to plan accurately for the next steps in learning for each individual.  Robust systems are in place to measure teachers’ performance against national standards and

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The leadership and management are good

needs have been correctly identified. Comprehensive training for the new initiatives in English and mathematics has ensured that most teachers have the skills required to ensure that pupils make the best possible progress.  However, the skills of some teachers, especially those relatively new to teaching, are not yet effective enough to secure the outstanding teaching that would enable pupils to make more rapid progress. The school has identified these needs and has the capacity to meet them from within the school.  The skills and knowledge of current middle managers are good. Some new middle managers are about to be appointed and a comprehensive plan to support their development where necessary is already in place.  Very good links across subjects ensure that pupils consistently practise their literacy and numeracy skills, for example in their work on the Himalayas and Madagascar. A wide variety of

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The leadership and management are good

clubs, visits and visitors enhances learning and an impressive commitment to using the train for off-site activities, and offering residential experiences for all ages throughout the school, all make a very valuable contribution to pupils’ social development. Sport, music and information and communication technology are strengths of the school.  Additional funding for sport is being used effectively to provide new outdoor multi-skills facilities, two new full-time physical education ‘apprentices’ as role models for pupils and further training for teachers from an advanced skills teacher from the local secondary school. Impact is already being seen in the further improvement of pupils’ physical skills and their understanding of how to lead a healthy lifestyle.  Strong partnerships with local schools, the local community, external agencies and most particularly parents all support and enrich pupils’ learning and development very well.

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The leadership and management are good

 Equal opportunities for different groups of pupils are promoted well and the school does not tolerate any form of discrimination. The governing body and school staff make sure that safeguarding procedures are followed rigorously and meet statutory requirements.  The governance of the school:  Skills from the world of work, and specific training undertaken by governors, are assisting them well with the important task of appointing a new headteacher. Governors know the school thoroughly because of regular visits and comprehensive reports from the headteacher and deputy headteacher, particularly about pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching. They carefully link teachers’ performance with pay and the progression of pupils and are able to ask challenging questions and support the school in its further development. They are aware of what support has been provided to improve teaching and to address underperformance in the

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The leadership and management are good

past. Governors have a robust knowledge of the spending and impact of additional funding for both pupil premium and primary school sport. Governors set rigorous objectives for the headteacher, monitor them throughout the year, and review them thoroughly annually. Governors carry out their statutory duties diligently.

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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 125905 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 441056

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Junior School category Maintained Age range of pupils 7 – 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 362 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Suzie Naylor Headteacher Malcolm Willis Date of previous school inspection 8 – 9 February 2011 Telephone number 01293 447000 Fax number 01293 447002 Email address office@poundhilljunior.w-sussex.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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