Setting

Mrs Judith Osler Executive Headteacher Trumpington Meadows Primary School Hauxton Road Cambridge CB2 9FT

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 11 September 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the outcome and inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the school’s most recent section 5 inspection.

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Primary School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to have serious weaknesses in May 2014. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Evidence

During this inspection, I held meetings with the headteacher, the senior leadership team, leaders of Key Stages 1 and 2, two representatives of the local authority, and a consultant headteacher. I had telephone conversations with the Chair of the Governing Body and another representative of the local authority. I evaluated the local authority’s statement of action and the school’s improvement plan.

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Context

Since the section 5 inspection, three teachers have left the school. To replace these, two teachers have moved across from the nearby primary school with which Trumpington Meadows Primary is federated, and an assistant headteacher has temporarily moved back into the classroom to team teach Year 3/4 with a newly qualified teacher. The senior leadership team has been temporarily reorganised to accommodate the planned absences of the headteacher. An external review of Serco Inspections 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 6799164 Direct email : tim.ogbourn@serco.com governance has been completed. Discussions relating to the school becoming an academy are at a very early stage and there are no firm plans.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The headteacher and governing body have begun positively and rigorously to address the areas for improvement identified by the section 5 inspection. The school’s plans for improvement are detailed and focus tightly on each key issue, indicating who will undertake tasks and how these will be evaluated. There are clear success criteria and identified times during the year to assess progress. These plans fit together extremely well with the local authority’s statement of action. The experienced governing body has already had an external review of its governance. It has now begun to refocus its attention on standards and the quality of teaching, following its earlier concentration on the construction of the new school. As a result, the governing body is now providing a much better balance of challenge and support. It has enabled the school to use its funding for the pupil premium to appoint a teacher with responsibility for providing physical education and other

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

related activities to ensure that disadvantaged pupils are fully engaged in the life of the school and receive appropriate support. The school is at a very early stage of considering the process of becoming an academy, and the headteacher and governing body are in a good position to make sound judgements about the school’s future.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The headteacher is ably supported by the senior leadership team, and this is demonstrated by the fact that, during the headteacher’s planned absences, the school’s improvement plans are driven forward effectively and well. One major focus has been to ensure that improvements in the quality of teaching are embedded securely. The school has ensured that new teachers are supported and guided effectively. All staff know that their planning and marking will be scrutinised carefully, and this is beginning to improve the quality of marking and feedback comments in books. Pupils respond to these comments and teachers are beginning to check closely that pupils actually make the improvements identified in the marking. The school has a rigorous process for generating assessment information about pupils’ progress, and the senior team has made staff more accountable for the progress pupils make in lessons, especially in writing and reading. However, it is too

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

early for the school to demonstrate that these changes have resulted in a marked improvement in pupils’ attainment and progress.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The school has received excellent support from the local authority and this is to be further consolidated by planned support by its literacy and mathematics consultants. The school’s literacy leader has introduced a number of innovations to enable pupils to write at greater length, and the most-able pupils are now being given good support to stretch their writing further. These developments have also enabled parents to be more involved in their child’s learning and progress.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Following the monitoring inspection, the following judgements were made: The school’s improvement plan is fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The local authority’s statement of action is fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

I am copying this letter to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body, and the Director of Children’s Services for Cambridgeshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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