Setting

Ms K Marshall Interim Headteacher Haylands Primary School Bettesworth Road Ryde Isle of Wight PO33 3HA

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School

Following my visit to your school on 8 October 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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School

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

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Evidence

During this inspection, I met with you and the deputy headteacher, the Chair of the Governing Body and Chair of the Leadership and Management Committee, the numeracy leader, one of the literacy leaders and a representative from the local authority. We visited some classrooms and looked at work in pupils’ books. I also evaluated the local authority’s statement of action and the school’s improvement plan.

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Context

Since the previous inspection, five teachers have left and four new teachers have joined the school. Tribal Kings Orchard 1 Queens Street Bristol, BS2 0HQ T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0117 311 5307 Email : rachel.evans@tribalgroup.com

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Since the previous inspection in July, you have taken urgent and decisive action to tackle the areas for improvement identified in the report. The school improvement plan clearly shows what actions you intend to take and the impact those actions should have. As we discussed, your drive to improve the school is ambitious. You need to monitor the improvements closely to ensure there is sufficient time for them to embed.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

You have introduced a regular, focused reading session for all pupils to improve reading and support writing. You correctly identified that some of these sessions are not yet as effective as they should be and you are supporting individual staff to improve this.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

You have organised and carried out relevant and effective training to improve teachers’ skills and knowledge. The training day in September was very helpful for enabling teachers to recognise how much progress each child needs to achieve this year, and focus on how they are going to support groups of pupils with similar gaps in their understanding.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Teachers are becoming more effective. Most lessons have a clear, relevant learning objective and there is evidence that some teachers are trying to challenge more able pupils. However, in two mathematics lessons we saw, the activities did not help the pupils to understand the learning as the task was too complicated.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Senior leaders are supporting you in your checking of teaching and pupils’ progress, but this is not happening as much as it should be. While teachers are adjusting to your higher expectations, it is important that leaders are regularly checking class routines and teaching so that you have a clear understanding of what is and is not happening. An example of this was when we observed a class lose a significant amount of learning time because of a daily ‘drink session’ after break. It is positive that you and senior leaders check pupils’ work in books regularly and provide comprehensive feedback to individuals on areas for development.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

You have reorganised the roles of middle leaders so that they are now responsible for subjects. The support and training they are receiving from local authority advisors are effective in helping them to develop their areas of responsibility. An example of this is the planning guidance they are writing for teachers so that it is clear what should be taught and when. However, you need to prioritise the development of teachers who lead subjects so that they can make sure teaching in their areas of responsibility is helping pupils make expected, or better than expected, progress.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Governors have provided strong support and challenge for the school but, until recently, this has not resulted in improvements to pupils’ progress. They are enthusiastic about the planned review of governance as they recognise the opportunity to become more effective and systematic in their monitoring of school improvements. The previous systems for holding leaders to account have been improved so that they do not have to rely on anecdotal information, but gather harder evidence, when raising concerns or asking questions. They are clear about what information should be provided at their half termly meetings with senior leaders and are beginning to challenge effectively.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The local authority’s statement of action clearly details what support is being provided for teachers, senior leaders and governors; this support is relevant and effective. The lead learning partner knows that improving the skills of middle leaders is a priority and a significant amount of time is being committed to support this; however, it is not as explicit in the statement of action as it needs to be.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

You, the governing body and the local authority have planned an effective ‘hand- over’ to the new substantive headteacher. Prior to starting in January, he is meeting with you for a day each week to make sure he understands the actions taken and what needs to happen next.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Following the monitoring inspection the following judgements were made:

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

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 Hampshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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