Setting

Debi Cossins Executive Headteacher All Saints' CofE Junior School Nelson Avenue Warwick CV34 5LY

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Junior School

Following my visit to your school on 17 June 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection 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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Junior School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in month and year. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Junior 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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Junior School

 use pupils’ books and data about achievement over time, rather than lesson observations, to reach judgements about the quality of teaching  use information from the school’s tracking system to focus more sharply on attainment gaps for different groups of pupils in each class and whether these are closing rapidly enough  use frequent checks on the quality of work in pupils’ books to identify what is working well and what teachers need to improve  keep a record of what teachers have been asked to improve and check rigorously that these actions are having the desired impact on pupils’ achievement. 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 679 9168 Direct email : narinder.kurana@serco.com

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Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with: you and the associate headteacher; the governing body; and a representative of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. The school’s rapid improvement plan was evaluated. Other evidence was examined, including: checks on the quality of teaching, records of pupil progress meetings with teachers and information about the current achievement of pupils. Short visits were made to classrooms to look at the work in pupils’ books.

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Context

Since the section 5 inspection in March, three teachers have left the school and one has joined. Three teachers are due to take up posts in September. One teacher has begun a period of maternity leave. The senior leadership team has been strengthened by the appointment of a subject leader for mathematics.

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Main findings

You and other leaders have responded quickly to the inspection findings by making clear your expectations that only good teaching is good enough for your pupils. Your systems for discussing pupils’ progress each half term have made teachers more accountable for achievement. Some teachers have responded well to this and are keen to improve and willing to act on the training and advice you have provided. You and governors have taken decisive action where this is found not to be the case. This has resulted in some turbulence in staffing. You have managed to minimise the disruption to pupils caused by these enforced changes and have used opportunities presented by staff mobility to strengthen subject leadership.

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Main findings

Your high expectations are reflected in the rapid improvement plan, which sets out steps to be taken to address each area for improvement identified at the inspection. The plan shows the medium and long term improvement you expect to achieve. The plan does not show as clearly how and when you and the governing body will judge if the school is on track to achieve these goals and so if improvement is happening quickly enough.

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Main findings

You have made clear to teachers through looking at books and staff meetings how you expect pupils’ work to be marked. Some teachers are following agreed procedures well. This is not happening in all classes. Overall, books seen during this inspection indicated that practices are improving, but that inconsistencies in the quality of marking mean the impact on pupils’ learning is still limited.

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Main findings

You and the associate headteacher have made frequent visits to classrooms to check on the quality of teaching. The picture you have built from these checks indicates most teaching is consistently good. This does not closely correlate with evidence about the quality of learning over time. The school’s tracking information and the work in pupils’ books shows that progress still varies widely between classes and for some groups of pupils throughout the school. These measures are a more accurate indication of teaching quality.

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Main findings

Governors now receive more useful information about progress and attainment. They use this to challenge you over potential underachievement. They do not yet have sufficient information to challenge you about the relative achievement of different groups of pupils, such as those eligible for pupil premium funding. This group of pupils is not doing as well as most other pupils.

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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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Main findings

During the inspection it was agreed that you will:  attend, with senior leaders and subject leaders, a series of HMI-led workshops to focus on improving the impact of subject leaders on the quality of teaching and achievement of pupils  send HMI your updated rapid improvement plan  send HMI copies of your headteacher reports to the governing body  provide HMI an analysis of achievement data at the end of each term.

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External support

The local authority acknowledges that it has not offered adequate challenge and support for the school since it was judged to require improvement. A learning improvement officer has now been assigned to the school and will initially visit every two weeks.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Children’s Services for Warwickshire local authority and to the Diocese of Coventry.

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