Heathfield Infant School

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

 Pupils’ achievement is not consistently good across the school.  Not enough progress has been made since the last inspection. Attendance rates are still below average. Teachers’ expectations are too often not high enough.  Work provided does not always stretch the more able. Teaching assistants are not always effectively deployed to maximise pupils’ learning.  Pupils do not make fast enough progress, including the more able, the majority of those who have special educational needs or disabilities, and those who are eligible for additional pupil premium funding.  The behaviour of pupils in lessons is sometimes not good enough, because they lose interest.  Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage do not make good progress because activities are not always tailored to their developmental needs. Children’s progress is not well enough tracked in the Nursery. The outdoor provision has a limited impact on learning.

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

 Those who are middle leaders, of either subjects or year groups, are not well enough trained or held to account enough for their areas of responsibility.  Leaders and managers, including governors, have not had a strong enough impact over time in improving teaching and achievement.

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The school has the following strengths

 The current leadership team, headed by the interim headteacher, has made a good start to tackling underachievement. The school is well placed to move forward.  The school is a welcoming community where pupils from different backgrounds get on well together.  Pupils who attend the special resourced provision for those who have speech and language difficulties make good progress.  Parents have positive views about the care provided for their children. The school’s work to keep pupils safe is good. Pupils say they feel safe, and they get on well with each other.  Provision for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 26 lessons and part lessons, including six joint observations with the senior leadership team. In addition, inspectors heard pupils reading in Year 2.  Meetings were held with a group of pupils, members of the governing body, including the Chair, and school staff. There was a discussion with the teacher in charge of the special resourced provision. A meeting was held with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors took account of 66 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as holding informal discussions with parents who were collecting their children from school.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and analysed a large range of documents and policies, including the school’s own data on pupils’ current progress and its planning and monitoring documents. They also examined records relating to behaviour, attendance and safeguarding.  The views of staff were analysed through the 15 responses to the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Liz Bowes, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Fatiha Maitland Additional Inspector Robert Eyre-Brook Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Heathfield Infant School is a larger-than-average-sized school.  The school has an interim headteacher who took up his post in September 2013. He is the headteacher of the adjacent junior school. The two schools are shortly to become federated, when the interim headteacher will become the executive headteacher of the two schools under a single governing body.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is higher than average. Pupil premium is extra funding provided by the government for looked after children and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.  The proportion of pupils with special educational needs supported through school action is much higher than average. The proportion of pupils who are supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is slightly below the national average.  Pupils come from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. The largest ethnic groups are White

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Information about this school

British and those from Other White backgrounds. The proportion of pupils who are learning English as an additional language is much higher than the national average.  The school has a special resourced provision for 10 pupils who have speech and language disorders.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that:  teachers always have high expectations and consistently provide work that stretches all groups of pupils, including the more able, and keeps all pupils engaged and interested  teaching assistants are always effectively deployed to maximise pupils’ learning.  Rigorously monitor pupils’ progress and provide intervention and support as necessary to ensure that the progress of all pupils is improved, particularly for those pupils who:  are more able  have special educational needs or disabilities  are eligible for additional funding called pupil premium.  Ensure that the percentage of pupils making a good level of development is above national averages in the Early Years Foundation Stage by making sure:  that the activities provided are tailored to the developmental needs of the children  teachers track children’s progress throughout their time in the Nursery, particularly in writing

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

and mathematics  the outdoor provision provides a wide range of activities to support children’s learning.  Improve leadership and management, especially the leadership of teaching and learning, by:  developing the role of middle leaders further by providing more training and holding them more to account for their areas of responsibility  increasing rates of attendance by working closely with parents and agencies to reduce the number of pupils taking days off  ensuring that full use is made of the school’s new progress tracking system. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ achievement requires improvement. Irrespective of their different ethnic backgrounds, pupils have not made consistently good progress over time because teaching has not been effective enough.  In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children enter with skills and abilities below those typical for their age. By the end of Reception they have fallen further behind and the proportion of children with good levels of development is well below the national average. This has been the case for two years.  When children enter the Nursery, progress is not carefully tracked. They are not assessed in their writing and mathematical skills until seven months after they have started. The outdoor area is not fully utilised for children’s learning. For example, before lunch most outdoor activities are packed away for Reception children and in the afternoons all that children can do outside is ride bikes. Children are not prepared sufficiently for their move into Year 1.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Until recently, the progress of different groups of pupils has not been monitored carefully enough and learning activities have not sufficiently addressed the needs of particular groups.  More able pupils do not make fast enough progress overall because they are not sufficiently stretched by the work provided.  The majority of those pupils who have special educational needs or disabilities do not make enough progress, particularly in writing in Year 1 and in mathematics in Years 1 and 2.  Pupils currently in school who are eligible for additional funding through the pupil premium do not make enough progress, including pupils eligible to receive free school meals. In 2013 the gap in attainment in Year 2 between eligible pupils and their classmates was nearly two terms behind in writing and reading and a term behind in mathematics.  Pupils learning English as an additional language make better progress than these particular

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

groups, but their progress is still not fast enough.  The 2013 Year 1 phonic reading check indicated that there was a below average percentage of pupils meeting the nationally expected standard. The local authority has provided help in the teaching of phonics and the re-check in Year 2 indicated that attainment was better. Initiatives have recently been introduced to encourage a love of reading. For example, pupils really enjoyed coming back to school in the evening wearing their pyjamas to listen to a bedtime story.  Those pupils who attend the special resourced provision make good progress from their starting points. Teachers and other adults provide an interesting range of experiences that develop speech and language skills well.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Too much teaching requires improvement. This is because, too often, expectations of the work that pupils can do are not high enough, particularly those who are more able, and work provided is not challenging enough  Too often, lessons do not sufficiently enhance key literacy and numeracy skills for different groups of pupils, including those with special educational needs or disabilities, and those eligible to receive pupil premium funding.  Activities provided for children in Nursery and Reception do not closely match their developmental needs and, as a result, their progress is not fast enough.  Teaching assistants are too often not well deployed to maximise pupils’ learning. For example, in some lessons teaching assistants just sat quietly next to pupils and did not help them to move their learning forward and engage in the lesson.  In a minority of the teaching, expectations are higher, planning is effective, activities are

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

appropriately challenging and pupils are fully engaged and interested in their work.  Technology is used appropriately to support learning.  In most classrooms attractive displays provide lots of prompts to help pupils learn on their own and find things out for themselves. In the special resourced provision, displays are exciting and stimulating, for example the display about growing plants.  Pupils have homework in both English and mathematics. Pupils from both Years 1 and 2 are very aware that if they do their homework well then that helps them improve. As a Year 2 pupil said, ‘My homework on finding halves and quarters of things at home was really fun, I enjoyed folding the rug in half.’  Teachers and other adults in the special resourced provision provide a stimulating range of experiences that develop speech and language skills well to ensure that those who attend make good progress.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. In some lessons, when work is too easy or too hard, pupils become restless and do not concentrate fully on the tasks the teacher has set.  Attendance levels at the school have previously been very low and, although they have improved recently, they are still below the national average. The school has appointed a family support worker who is working on following up absences.  Pupils understand about bullying and are aware of the different forms that it can take, such as cyber bulling. They say that they found the anti-bullying week very interesting and report that bullying is rare. Pupils are confident that teachers would sort out any problems.  In the playground, pupils get on well together and show respect and kindness to others. The overwhelming majority of parents who spoke to inspectors or who completed Parent View said that their children feel safe and are well behaved. Pupils and parents appreciate the family

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

atmosphere in the school.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. The school has comprehensive systems for undertaking risk assessments. Systems to support vulnerable pupils are effective. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in different situations, such as on the roads or when using computers.  The school is effective in promoting good relationships between pupils from different backgrounds. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because they have not yet led to good teaching and progress. The issues identified at the previous inspection regarding teachers not having high enough expectations of pupils and also of the low attendance rates have not been addressed quickly enough.  Middle leaders, such as those in charge of subjects or year groups, are not yet fully trained or held fully enough to account for their areas of responsibility. Many middle leaders, of either subjects or year groups, are new in post and, as a result, are still developing their roles.  This year, the interim headteacher has introduced a new system for tracking progress, which has been beneficial in showing the groups of pupils that are not making good progress. Those who have special educational needs or disabilities, children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, the more able and those who are eligible for additional support from the pupil premium have been

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The leadership and management requires improvement

identified in particular as not progressing as quickly as they could. Whilst the school, in conjunction with the local authority, has introduced many initiatives to increase rates of progress, the impact has yet to be fully felt. Consequently, the school’s effectiveness to date in promoting equal opportunities has been limited.  The local authority has been very supportive, with frequent visits to the Early Years Foundation Stage, as well as providing help with the teaching of phonics. It has carried out ‘drop in’ sessions to observe the quality of teaching.  The subjects and experiences that the school teaches enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils report how they enjoy the range of clubs, such as drama and dance, that enhances their learning experiences.  The school is now clearly showing that it has the capacity for further improvement. The interim headteacher and deputy headteacher have worked hard over the last year and are beginning to

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The leadership and management requires improvement

implement many positive changes to both the management structure and in how the school is run. Staff report that things have changed considerably for the better in the past year. They say that there have been significant improvements since the interim headteacher has taken over and that there is now a clearer focus on improving standards.  The additional primary sports funding for physical education and sport is being used to buy into the local authority programme. Pupils really enjoy sports such as football. Participation rates in sports have increased which has enhanced pupils’ well-being.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is well trained and recent appointments have provided expertise in particular areas, including the Early Years Foundation Stage. Governors now have an accurate understanding of the school’s performance data and the quality of teaching, and so have clearly identified the strengths and areas for development. They know the actions taken by

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The leadership and management requires improvement

current leaders to improve the quality of teaching, how teachers’ pay is being linked to their performance and about procedures for tackling underperformance. They have also been involved in setting performance targets for the interim headteacher. Governors monitor how the additional sports funding is being spent.  Governors have attended training sessions such as for finance and safeguarding. They ensure that safeguarding policies and procedures meet statutory requirements.  Whilst governors know how the additional funding for pupil premium is being spent, they have not yet made full use of the school’s newly-introduced tracking system to ensure that the impact of the spending is raising the attainment and progress for eligible pupils.

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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 102891 Local authority Richmond Upon Thames Inspection number 443770

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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 Infant School category Community Age range of pupils 3−7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 429 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Byron Chamberlain Headteacher Paul Clayton (interim) Date of previous school inspection 6 December 2010 Telephone number 0208 8944074 Fax number 0208 8933419 Email address info@heathfield-inf.richmond.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 and 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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