Exhall Junior School

St Giles Junior School Hayes Lane, Exhall, Coventry, CV7 9NS

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Effective leadership and management have successfully raised the quality of teaching to good since the previous inspection.  Teachers’ performance is managed well and any underperformance by staff or pupils is robustly tackled.  Pupils achieve well. Actions taken to improve mathematical learning have been particularly successful.  Pupils respond well to the high expectations the staff have of their behaviour and their learning, and they are proud of what they achieve.  Pupils behave well, and they feel safe and well looked after. They care for and respect others and work and play well together.  Parents who spoke to inspectors, and the majority of those who responded to the online questionnaire, were very satisfied with the school and what it does for their children.  Pupils’ attendance has improved significantly and is above average this year. Pupils enjoy school and they are eager to learn.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Governors support and challenge the school well, especially in relation to how well pupils are learning.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 There is not enough outstanding teaching throughout the school to help pupils make even more rapid progress, especially in writing.  The way the school measures its progress towards its stated priorities is not related precisely enough to raising pupils’ achievement.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited 18 lessons. Three of the visits were conducted jointly with the headteacher or deputy headteacher.  Inspectors also observed play and lunchtimes, and held discussions with pupils, governors, staff and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 26 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) and also gained parents’ views by speaking to some parents as they brought their children to school.  Inspectors considered the 23 responses to the questionnaires for staff.  A wide range of documents was scrutinised, including information about pupils’ progress and attendance, the school improvement (rapid achievement) plan, the school’s self-evaluation document, and records and policies about safeguarding and the quality of teaching.  Inspectors examined the work in pupils’ books, and sampled sessions where pupils were being taught spelling, grammar, or mental mathematics, or were taking part in guided reading

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Inspection team

Doris Bell, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Lisa Morgan Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This junior school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. The number on roll is growing, however, and there are two classes in each year group.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs who are supported through school action is average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is above average.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives additional funding, known as the pupil premium, is well-above average. This funding is for looked-after children and those known to be eligible for free school meals.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is above average. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above average. None are at the early stages of learning to speak English.  The school runs a farm which consists of geese, hens and two pigs, which pupils help to look

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Information about this school

after, and space to grow vegetables.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Make a greater proportion of teaching, and therefore learning, outstanding, especially in writing by:  ensuring that all teachers show pupils how to write well and how to edit their writing as they go along  making sure that specific writing skills are taught consistently well so that pupils can make best use of the many opportunities they have to use and extend those skills in different subjects.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Sharpen all plans for improvement by:  linking priorities more closely to improving pupils’ rates of progress  introducing clear, measurable deadlines into all action plans and using them to track progress towards priorities even more precisely.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well, but progress is better in reading and mathematics than in writing. With minor year-on-year variations, pupils’ attainment on entry to Year 3 is, typically, average. In 2012 and 2013, attainment rose to well above average in Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Reliable data in school, checked against the work in pupils’ books, show that the improvement has been sustained this year. Progress remains better in Years 5 and 6 than in Years 3 and 4 but it is improving rapidly in Years 3 and 4 now because teaching has improved there.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils enjoy reading and they read well. They have good comprehension skills, and gain good insights into different authors’ styles by, whenever the occasion arises, meeting and talking to well-known authors. Pupils use their reading skills well in different subjects.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Weaknesses in mathematics, identified at the previous inspection, have been tackled well. Pupils very much enjoy mathematics because they are successfully taught how mathematical skills are used and applied in everyday life. The current Year 6 project, ‘Money Matters’, is an excellent example. In it, pupils have learned about wages, taxation and budgeting, and how, for example, the types of houses people have depend on the size of mortgage they can afford.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils use their literacy and numeracy skills well in different subjects and they understand how what they learn in one subject can help them in another. In Year 5, for example, pupils extended their knowledge of world geography in a World Cup football project, which provided the stimulus for learning about angles, working out trajectories and plotting co-ordinates on a grid.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils learn to write in different styles for different purposes and some also learn how to edit and improve their writing. However, not all have the skills to do this, because they are not systematically taught those skills throughout the school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make the same good progress as other pupils. They are supported well in class and in short withdrawal sessions that help them gain the skills they need to take a full part in class lessons.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 More-able pupils are also being pushed further now. They, too, are making good progress, and the proportion reaching the higher levels has improved this year.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils who speak English as an additional language make good progress. Teachers and support staff ensure they understand and use the right vocabulary in different subjects so that their learning is not limited.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In 2013, pupils eligible for the pupil premium also made good progress. They reached standards similar to other pupils in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test, were less than one term behind in mathematics, and approximately one-and-a-half terms behind in reading and writing. Data in school show that these gaps, which are narrower than those found nationally, have closed further this year.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils are benefiting from the additional sports activities available through the primary schools sports funding. Participation rates are good and pupils very much enjoy competing in school and against other schools. They understand how all of this helps to keep them fit and healthy.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching has improved since the previous inspection and is now good. The work in pupils’ books, especially in Year 6, shows that it is sometimes outstanding. It secures pupils’ overall good progress and makes a strong contribution to their personal development.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The links teachers make between subjects, and the constant linking of learning to everyday life, especially in mathematics, are giving pupils greater insight into what they might aspire to as adults and what they need to do to get there. This has been good for all pupils, and particularly useful for more-able pupils, who are beginning to see how they can themselves apply their learning further.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching also encourages pupils to think more deeply, challenge themselves and challenge and help each other, and therefore learn more.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ marking provides good guidance for pupils on how to improve their learning. Pupils appreciate the time given to them to act upon marking, do corrections, and solicit additional support from staff or other pupils when they do not understand something.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils who need their learning broken down further are often taught in smaller groups to help them overcome specific difficulties so that they, too can make good progress. They are taught well in these groups.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers make good use of what they find from assessing and marking pupils’ work to plan further learning for different groups in their classes. A key strength is the way they adjust their planning, and, often, pupils’ learning in lessons, to pick up on areas that need further development or consolidation before moving on. Pupils recognise and appreciate this, and it is one of the reasons for the improved progress in mathematics.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Reading and mathematics are taught consistently well, writing less consistently so. In writing, some staff guide pupils through the process of writing well, showing them how to question themselves and edit and improve their writing as they go along. This leads to good progress. However, they sometimes expect pupils to write well without showing them how and, while they still make progress, their learning is more limited.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school’s work to improve attendance has paid off and attendance is now above average. Pupils are excited by their learning. They are eager to do well and proud to show and talk about their work, which they present well.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of pupils is good and pupils very much appreciate the systems and procedures that keep it so. Overall, pupils are reflective and caring, and they respect each other and adults. Nevertheless, in lessons, some occasionally ‘switch off’ or start to become distracted when not working directly with an adult.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils learn to care for the environment and the wider world, for example, through helping to manage the school farm, where they learn to grow vegetables and look after the animals. They also raise funds for different charities. They play and work together well, regardless of background, faith or culture, and are prepared well for life in a diverse British and global society.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. The school tackles the rare incidents of bullying well. Pupils say any such incidents are sorted quickly and the parents who spoke to inspectors talked of bullying and other poor behaviour ‘being nipped in the bud’.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils with behavioural difficulties are supported well. The school can pinpoint striking successes in improving behaviour and even turning it round so that pupils with previous difficult behaviour become mentors for other pupils. The nurture room (the Snug) provides a safe space where pupils can go to reflect or seek support. They talk of ‘going to the Snug for a hug’ sometimes.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils feel listened to and valued. They trust staff to help them and say they can also get support from members of the school council or the playground rangers. They report that the worry box, which lets them post concerns anonymously if they wish, is emptied daily and issues picked up and sorted straight away.

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The leadership and management are good

 Senior leaders, having successfully improved teaching and learning, are fully committed to securing further improvement. They have not shied away from taking difficult decisions to reach the point they are at now, but have kept firmly at the forefront of those decisions the need to ensure the pupils’ good progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has made good use of the effective support it received from the local authority, and from other, more successful schools, following the previous inspection. The local authority continues to check the school’s work, but its support is less intensive because the school demonstrates strong capacity to improve further on its own.

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The leadership and management are good

 Those who lead and manage different subjects have grown into their roles well. They support senior leaders in the rigorous checks made on teaching and learning. Areas for development are followed up with good guidance and, where relevant, with further training for staff on how to improve. Teachers work together well, sharing ideas, checking assessments are accurate, and helping pupils of all abilities to succeed equally well.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school’s evaluation of its own work is accurate. It leads to well-considered school improvement priorities and action plans for different subjects, and to the targets set for staff as part of the robust management of their performance. However, the means by which progress towards the targets and priorities are to be measured are not focused sufficiently on the impact they are intended to have on pupils’ overall achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 The well-planned range of subjects and topics makes a strong contribution to pupils’ progress. It is taught well and, by motivating pupils, stimulating their curiosity, and focusing them on good learning, it supports their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well.

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The leadership and management are good

 Exciting projects take pupils’ learning across all subjects and give them a say in which direction to take that learning as the projects develop. For example, literacy, numeracy and personal development skills were successfully combined by Year 6 pupils. They composed unbiased questions for a market research questionnaire, analysed the information collected, and began to use it in an enterprise project aimed at selling goods at a profit to pay for an end-of-year school trip.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school uses visits, visitors and a good range of sporting and other out-of-school activities extremely well to give pupils additional experiences they would otherwise not have, and provide different contexts for learning. Further enrichment through ‘Forest School’ activities and caring for the school farm are instilling in pupils the importance of caring for all creatures and for the wider environment.

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The leadership and management are good

 The provision for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is well-managed. Recent improvements are accelerating the pupils’ progress. These include ensuring support programmes are targeted correctly and learning is broken down into the small steps the pupils need to take to learn successfully.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school ensures equality of opportunity in everything it does, and parents refer to the school as creating a culture that is ‘one of inclusion and care’. The school works hard to eliminate discrimination of any sort, and to ensure that all pupils have the chance to do well.

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The leadership and management are good

 The pupil premium has been used wisely to help eligible pupils. The school has very carefully analysed the differences in what these pupils experience compared to other pupils, and has set rigorous procedures towards helping them to catch up.

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The leadership and management are good

 Sports funding has been used effectively to set up a range of extra-curricular clubs and activities, and engage pupils in competitive sport. It is now being targeted at improving staff expertise in games and physical education to improve these aspects of pupils’ learning further.

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The leadership and management are good

 Safeguarding requirements, including those for child protection, meet the government’s current requirements. The school is vigilant in identifying and supporting pupils who may need additional support from time to time, for whatever reason.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  There has been a marked improvement in governance since the previous inspection. The governing body has made good use of an external review and subsequent training to enable it to hold the school to account for its performance. Governors are now instrumental in determining the school’s goals and guiding the school towards them. They understand how to interpret external data and data held by the school. By visiting lessons and talking to teachers, pupils and parents, they find out what teaching and pupils’ progress are like, and how parents view the school. They carry out a range of checks on pupils’ progress and challenge the school well.  Governors ensure that reviews of the performance of all staff are carried out rigorously, and lead to improvement. They are fully involved in making decisions about staffing and staff salaries. Where improvement is not happening, they support the headteacher in making

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The leadership and management are good

sometimes difficult decisions to secure better progress for the pupils. They also keep a close check on the impact that the pupil premium and primary school sports funding are having on pupils’ progress and personal development.

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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 125585 Local authority Warwickshire Inspection number 442574

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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 221 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Amanda Gardiner Headteacher Anne Perry Date of previous school inspection 14 November 2012 Telephone number 02476 313375 Fax number 02476 731041 Email address admin2571@welearn365.com 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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