Setting

Mr Jason Brewster Headteacher Coppice Farm Primary School Laver Close Arnold Nottingham NG5 7LS

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 22 May 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

The visit was the second monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in May 2013. 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

 update the school’s safeguarding policy to align with the government’s latest statutory guidance.

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Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders, representatives of the governing body, including the Chair, a headteacher from a partner school, and a representative from the local authority, to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. A number of other documents were looked at, including the outcomes of leaders’ monitoring activities, and the single central register of staff suitability checks. I undertook a tour of the school with you to observe pupils while they were learning and to check samples of work in pupils’ books.

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Main findings

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 : 01216 799164 Direct email : tim.ogbourn@serco.com There have been significant improvements in your school since the last monitoring visit, when leaders were judged not to be taking effective action. You, and your staff team, are now working in a coordinated manner, and with determination and urgency, to improve the quality of teaching. As a result, the quality of teaching is improving and most pupils are beginning to make better progress. You are aware of the subjects and classes in which pupils’ progress is less strong; for example, in reading in Years 1, 4 and 5, and are taking appropriate actions to address this.

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Main findings

Your staff team, including teaching assistants, have now been trained to teach phonics (the sounds that letters make) effectively. Staff assess pupils carefully in phonics lessons to ensure that they work in a group at the right level of difficulty.

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Main findings

Clear guidance has been provided to each teacher to ensure they understand how to improve the quality of their work. You have devised individual teacher improvement plans to underpin your work in this area. The plans include details of any additional support teachers need to receive to help them to improve. You monitor the plans frequently to check that teachers are on-track. The quality of teaching is improving, but school records indicate that there is still some teaching in the school that requires improvement.

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Main findings

Pupils’ writing books show that pupils, across the school, are now being given more frequent opportunities to write at length. This is helping them to practise and consolidate their writing skills. Teachers mark pupils’ written work in books frequently and often identify how pupils can improve the quality of their work. However, the quality of teachers’ marking in mathematics books varies considerably between classes. We discussed during my visit how leaders, and teachers, could check more carefully to ensure that their marking makes an impact on accelerating pupils’ learning in all subjects.

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Main findings

You have made your expectations of school leaders clear and leaders now understand their roles. You have also provided leaders with more time to focus on their leadership responsibilities. As a result, the morale of leaders has improved greatly since my last visit.

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Main findings

Training on data about pupils’ achievement has been well received by governors. As a result, the governing body now has an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and the performance of different groups of pupils, including those supported through the pupil premium (additional government funding). It uses this knowledge to challenge you, and other leaders, to improve the school. The governing body has also carried out useful work to identify how leaders can work more effectively with parents and carers.

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Main findings

The school’s single central record of staff suitability checks meets requirements. We discussed during my visit how you need to work with the governing body to revise the school’s safeguarding policy, to align with the latest statutory safeguarding guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (April 2014). 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 local authority has worked well, in conjunction with partner schools, to provide effective external support. Support has included moderations of the school’s assessments of pupils’ learning, training for governors on interpreting data about pupils’ performance, and joint observations of teaching. In recent months the level of support has begun to decrease as you, and other school leaders, have become more confident, and skilled, in driving improvement internally.

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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 Nottinghamshire local authority.

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