Mayhill Junior School

School report Mayhill Junior School The Bury, Odiham, Hampshire, RG29 1NB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Not enough pupils make consistently good progress, notably in mathematics and in writing. Consequently, over the last three years, attainment has declined.  Pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to learning prevent them from doing as well as they should.  Not all teachers set high enough expectations for pupils’ achievement, including neat handwriting and good presentation of work.  The match of tasks to pupils is not always suitably challenging for the most able and for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. One consequence of this is that some disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are overly reliant on adult help.  Pupils do not gain a clear enough understanding of the next steps in their learning through target setting and feedback from marking, or have enough opportunities to put advice about improvement into practice.  There are not enough opportunities for pupils to apply and develop their writing and

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

mathematical skills in a range of subjects.  Leaders, managers and the governing body have not done enough to promote improvement since the previous inspection.  Those leaders responsible for overseeing important subjects or aspects of the school do not all have the necessary skills or experience to be fully effective.  When leaders check on teaching they do not pay enough attention to the impact on pupils’ progress, or give teachers advice about improvement that is sharp and clear enough.  There is not enough rigour in evaluating the success of actions to bring about improvements.

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The school has the following strengths

 The school has maintained above average attainment in reading.  Teachers’ good relationships with pupils lead to a positive atmosphere in classes.  Attendance is above average overall, and pupils feel safe in school.  Teachers have a good knowledge of the subjects that they teach.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 12 lessons, of which three were joint observations with the acting headteacher and the deputy headteacher. Inspectors also heard a sample of pupils in Years 3 and 4 read.  Meetings were held with groups of pupils, members of the school’s staff, the Chair and Vice- Chair of the Governing Body and two other members, and a discussion took place with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors analysed the 58 responses that were recorded on the online survey (Parent View) by the end of the inspection, and spoke with small numbers of parents accompanying their children to school. Written communications were also received from two parents.  Inspectors also took account of the 13 responses to the questionnaire for school staff.  Inspectors observed the school’s work, and looked at a range of documents, including the school’s own data on pupils’ current attainment and progess, planning documentation, records

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Information about this inspection

relating to behaviour and attendance, and documents relating to safeguarding, performance management, the pupil premium, and the curriculum.

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Inspection team

Chris Grove, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Sue Quirk Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a junior school that is smaller than average in size.  The proportion of pupils supported by the additional funding known as pupil premium (which provides support for children looked after by the local authority and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals) is below average. The premium also provides support for the children of service families, which represent a large minority of pupils at the school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is broadly average.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is also broadly average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  A new headteacher took up post from September 2011. At the time of the inspection, the

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Information about this school

headteacher had been on leave for reasons of ill health since early January 2014. The deputy headteacher had also been absent because of illness, but had returned to the school and was present during the inspection. The third member of the senior leadership team had very recently commenced maternity leave. An acting headteacher had been appointed to the school, and took up this post on the day before the inspection took place.  The school holds the Healthy Schools award.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality and impact of teaching by:  setting consistently high expectations about pupils’ achievement, including in mathematics  ensuring better challenge for all groups of pupils, including the most able, through a good match of tasks  making sure that disabled pupils and those with special educational needs have better opportunities to achieve without over-reliance on adult assistance.  Raise pupils’ achievement in mathematics, and especially in writing, by:  making sure that pupils develop a better understanding of the next steps in their learning through improved use of target setting, better feedback from marking and more frequent opportunities to respond to advice given  ensuring that teachers set higher expectations for the neatness of pupils’ handwriting and good presentation of their work  providing more opportunities for pupils to apply and develop their mathematical skills in a

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

range of subjects.  Strengthen the impact of leaders, managers and the governing body on raising standards at the school by:  improving the attendance of vulnerable groups of pupils  ensuring that those leaders who have responsibility for subjects or aspects of the school receive the necessary training and are well supported by senior leaders and governors  improving procedures for monitoring the quality of teaching so that greater emphasis is placed on how well pupils achieve  giving clearer and sharper advice to teachers about how they could improve their own teaching  evaluating more rigorously the success of actions to bring about improvements. An external review of governance, to include a specific focus on the school’s use of the pupil premium, should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and governance may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In the years since the previous inspection, pupils have not achieved well enough, especially in writing and mathematics.  Over the last three years, attainment by the end of Year 6 has been lower than previously, when it had been well above average. Although the school has maintained above average attainment in reading, attainment in writing has declined sharply, and is broadly average.  Like others, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make better progress in reading than in writing and mathematics. Inspection evidence indicates that these pupils continue to make slower progress than others in both writing and mathematics.  While the most-able pupils typically make good progress in reading and in mathematics, inspection evidence indicates that these pupils make more limited progress in writing.  Pupils from service families generally make better progress in reading and writing than in

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

mathematics, but there are considerable variations in numbers between year groups.  Pupils make better progress in reading because teachers match reading books to their interests and abilities. Pupils’ progress in writing is slower because they do not undertake enough work to gain sufficient practice in developing their skills. In mathematics, not enough pupils of different abilities make the progress of which they are capable because teachers do not have sufficiently high expectations of what they could achieve.  In national assessments at the end of Year 6 in 2013, the gap between those in the school supported through additional funding and all others narrowed considerably in reading and writing by comparison with the previous year, but widened in mathematics. This represented a gap of about four terms in mathematics, which is similar to the gap found nationally. The gap was about two terms in reading, and half a term in writing. Inspection evidence shows that

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

eligible pupils continue to make better progress in reading and writing than in mathematics.  The use of additional funding has resulted in improved attainment in reading and writing by eligible pupils. However, there is only very limited evidence of action to raise these pupils’ attainment in mathematics. The funding has mainly been used to provide additional adult support for pupils. The role of emotional literacy support assistant enables the school to offer improved counselling and advice. Other adults have been positively involved in reading activities with pupils across the school, and in booster work for Year 6 pupils.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching requires improvement because it has weaknesses so that the majority of pupils do not make consistently good progress in English and mathematics.  Teachers do not always set high enough expectations for pupils’ achievement, including the presentation of work and neatness of handwriting.  Teachers do not consistently plan work that takes into account what pupils already know, understand and can do. In particular, more-able pupils and those who are disabled or have special educational needs do not always get suitably challenging work.  Teaching assistants are often assigned to support disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. Some of these pupils have been allowed to become overly dependent, relying excessively on adult support in undertaking their work, and taking too little responsibility for their learning.  The feedback to pupils is not sufficient to promote improvements in their learning. Teachers

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

regularly mark pupils’ work conscientiously. However, they do not capitalise on pupils’ interest in improving their work as much as they could. Marking does not regularly indicate the next steps in pupils’ learning, nor do teachers often provide opportunities for the pupils to reflect on, and apply, the teachers’ suggestions for improvement.  Although targets for learning are included in pupils’ books, teachers make too little reference to them. Target-setting arrangements are not being used effectively to help pupils to understand what more they need to achieve in order to reach higher levels.  The good relationships between teachers and pupils do much to create a positive atmosphere for learning in classes.  Teachers ensure that learning generally proceeds at a good pace, and have good knowledge of their subjects and of the curriculum. This helps them to address any misconceptions.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils require improvement

 Pupils’ behaviour requires improvement. Their attitudes to learning are not consistently good.  At their best, pupils’ attitudes to learning make a good contribution to their progress. However, where teachers’ expectations are not high enough, pupils are not motivated to work as hard as they should. Sometimes, for example, pupils chat too much while working, which impairs their concentration.  Pupils behave well around the school, and are polite towards adults, for instance by holding open doors for them. At breaktimes in the playground, pupils are respectful of each other, play well together, and have learned to manage themselves in an orderly way. In assembly, pupils are focused and attentive. The hall is quiet and pupils behave responsibly at lunchtime.  In the survey of parents, more respondents disagreed than agreed that the school makes sure its pupils are well behaved. Similarly, in the staff survey, a large majority did not judge pupils’

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The behaviour and safety of pupils require improvement

behaviour as good, or that behaviour is consistently well managed. Inspection evidence shows that while pupils conduct themselves well outside lessons, their attitudes to learning in classrooms are not always as positive as they should be.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe. They know, for example, about risks from smoking and cyber bullying, and about road safety. Most parents, and every member of staff who completed the surveys, agreed that children are safe at school.  Pupils have a good understanding of the different forms of bullying and its persistent nature. They say that there are few bullying incidents, and that these are addressed quickly. Most members of staff who returned a questionnaire agreed that the school deals effectively with cases of bullying. There have been few exclusions in recent years and none in the current year.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils require improvement

 Attendance is above average overall. However, attendance rates are markedly lower for vulnerable groups of pupils.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because progress since the previous inspection has been too slow in some areas. Consequently, the school’s overall effectiveness has declined.  The monitoring of teaching and of other aspects of the school, such as the effective use of additional funding, has not been consistently robust enough to identify and address all weaknesses. As a result, leaders and governors do not have a clear enough view of how good teaching is, or whether spending is having sufficient impact. Leaders do not always know whether actions to bring about improvement have had enough impact.  Leaders and managers have not done enough to improve teaching. Observations of teaching are regularly undertaken, but leaders do not consider sufficiently the extent of pupils’ progress in judging the impact of teaching. Furthermore, teachers do not always receive sufficiently sharp advice about how to improve their teaching with a view to accelerating pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 Senior leaders have not done as much as they could to improve the below-average attendance of vulnerable groups of pupils.  The impact of those leaders responsible for subjects (known as middle leaders) has not been fully evident in raising pupils’ attainment. There has been insufficient training and support to ensure the effective discharge of leadership responsibilities.  Opportunities for pupils to apply their literacy and mathematical skills in a range of subjects are too limited. The school does much to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, for instance through the range of after-school clubs available.  The school has clear planning to use the primary sports funding with appropriate priorities to improve teachers’ knowledge and skills, and a commitment to additional sporting opportunities for pupils. However, operational difficulties have slowed implementation. The Healthy Schools

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The leadership and management require improvement

award also recognises the promotion of pupils’ physical well-being.  The school maintains a careful focus on all aspects of safeguarding and child protection, which fully meet statutory requirements. This is verified by pupils’ views and by the surveys in which all members of staff and most parents agreed that pupils are safe in school.  The school’s engagement with parents is weak. The survey of parents points to widespread unease about aspects of the school. A majority does not think the school is well led and managed, and a substantial minority would not recommend the school to another parent. Parental reservations are mirrored in the staff questionnaire where a large majority does not agree that the school is well led and managed.  The local authority has provided considerable support. As well as advice on specific aspects of English and mathematics, the authority has worked increasingly closely with the governing body

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The leadership and management require improvement

to identify the school’s needs. This has yet to have full effect and the school has been assessed by officers of the authority as requiring high priority support.  The governance of the school:  The governing body understands the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and knows where improvement is required. Despite this, the actions taken by the governing body have not succeeded in resolving identified weaknesses or rectifying the decline in standards. Governors understand the implications of nationally produced data about how the school has performed, where it has underperformed, and the consequent implications for teaching. They recognise the significance of their role as performance managers of the headteacher, and have adopted a robust approach. Governors judge that there is not enough rigour in their arrangements to appraise and reward other staff. They are well informed about how pupil premium funding is

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The leadership and management require improvement

spent and are clear that better use of the funding is required in order to lift the performance of pupils eligible for free school meals, although pupils from service families are better supported. Inspectors recognise governors’ recently increased capacity in holding the school to account as a result of the considerable training they have undertaken and the support that they have received from local authority staff.

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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 116075 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 431406

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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 Community Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 196 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Phil Jenkins Headteacher Stephanie Kimber Date of previous school inspection 17–18 March 2009 Telephone number 01256 702973 Fax number 01256 702972 Email address adminoffice@mayhill.hants.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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