West Green Primary School

Woodlands Park Road, Tottenham, London, N15 3RT

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Inspection dates 30 September – 1 October 2014

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Inadequate 4 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Early years provision Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Achievement is too variable in Key Stage 1. Although it improved in 2014, over the last three years, standards in English and mathematics at the end of Key Stage 1 remain below average.  Until recently, not enough attention was given to developing children’s language skills in the Nursery and Reception. As a result, over the last three years, children were not able to make rapid progress to reach a good level of development before entering Year 1.  Pupils make slower progress in writing because they have not mastered a range of writing techniques.  The most-able pupils are not always challenged to reach their full potential.  Good or better teaching has not been a constant feature that has enabled pupils to achieve well as they progress through the different year groups.  Senior leaders have made important changes to accelerate improvement but it is too early to see the full impact on achievement in all year groups.

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 The middle leaders are sharpening their leadership and management skills.

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The school has the following strengths

 An astute and experienced senior team, led by the executive headteacher, provide clear strategic direction which staff embrace.  The interim executive board is candid and provides both rigour and challenge. They have used partnership work with other schools very well to expedite change.  Pupils behave very well, they are happy and safe.  Teaching and the national test results in Year 6 are good and the vast majority of pupils in this year group achieve well.  The most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils are achieving well because of good teaching and support.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited eleven lessons. Six of these were joint observations with the executive headteacher, the head of school and other senior leaders. Short visits were made to a few music lessons.  Meetings were held with the senior and middle leaders, the Chair of the Interim Executive Board, two groups of students, a group of parents and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors looked closely at the school’s work, including the assessment information on pupils’ progress, minutes of the interim executive board and records of monitoring visits to the school, pupils’ work, records about attendance and behaviour; the curriculum and the special educational needs policy.  Inspectors did not use the response to Parent view, the online questionnaire for parents because very few parents use it to record their views. A meeting was held with a few parents and their views were taken into account.

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Inspection team

Carmen Rodney, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with section 13 (4) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures.

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Information about this school

 West Green is an average sized-primary school with slightly more boys than girls.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is high. The three largest groups include pupils from any other White background, and pupils from African and Caribbean heritages.  A high proportion of pupils speak English as a second language.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action is well below average but the proportion at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above the national average.  A well above average proportion of pupils are known to be eligible for the pupil premium. This is additional government funding provided for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, or looked after or are from service families.  When the school was last inspected in September 2013, it was judged to require special measures. Inspectors made four monitoring inspection visits in December 2013, March 2014, July 2014 and

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Information about this school

September 2014 to evaluate the rate of progress to improve the school. A minority of pupils join or leave the school other than at the usual times each term. The mobility of pupils in the school is among the highest in the local authority.  Before the previous inspection, the local authority had served the school with a warning notice and introduced the interim executive board (IEB). Following the last inspection in September 2013, the local authority brokered an arrangement for the executive headteacher to oversee the strategic running of the school. The deputy headteacher was appointed as acting headteacher for two terms before her arranged departure. The current headteacher was appointed to the substantive post in April 2014. A new leadership team is in post.  Since the previous inspection, the school has worked with Campsbourne Primary School as its main partner school. The interim executive board and the governing body of Campsbourne Primary School have

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Information about this school

formally agreed to work as a soft federation for 18 months.  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?

 Further develop teaching to ensure that it is consistently good or better so that all pupils can make rapid progress in their learning by:  maintaining a sharp focus on developing pupils’ language skills, particularly when children enter the Nursery and Reception  ensuring that the focus on developing pupils’ writing skills is well developed and sustained in all year groups, particularly in Key Stage 1  ensuring that the most-able pupils are consistently challenged to improve their achievement over time.  Ensure that the changes outlined in the school improvement plan and the interim executive’s plan are consolidated over time by: - developing further the capacity of middle leaders to sharpen their evaluative and monitoring skills as part of the drive to improve the work of the school - developing the planned curriculum further to enable pupils to make rapid progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 When the executive headteacher and the interim executive board were appointed in 2013, the school did not have a clear vision for ensuring that pupils could achieve well. Within one school year, the candidness, commitment and drive shown by them and other senior leaders in addressing weaknesses have led to substantial changes in the culture of the school. Changes have been decisive and rapid.  An experienced senior team, well supported by middle leaders and all staff, provide strong leadership and a clear vison on school improvement. Roles and responsibilities are defined and the core business of driving school improvement is now imprinted in the planning of every member of staff. The common mantra is ‘high expectations and no child is left behind’.  Senior leaders have turned the school around based on their methodical approach to eradicating weaknesses and developing organised and robust systems to hold staff to account for pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils, staff and parents spoken to recognise that pupils are making better progress. They all agree that the school environment encourages learning and behaviour is good and communication with parents is better. Planned workshops for parents have strengthened their involvement in the school and in their children’s learning.  The significant improvement in the 2014 results, particularly at Key Stage 2, illustrates the improvement in teaching and the high expectations teachers have of pupils’ learning and their behaviour. Consequently, Pupils are now making better progress. .  Senior leaders in holding staff to account, monitor teaching regularly. The Teaching Standards are used as the common benchmark against which teachers are expected to enhance their practice. Performance management is therefore regular and there is now a consistent approach to raising standards. Staff are left in no doubt that actions are deliberated and swift to ensure that teaching leads to most pupils

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The leadership and management are good

exceeding the minimum progress expected nationally. Senior leaders have successfully instilled a ‘no excuse culture’: these were previously bywords.  In 2014, because of greater demands placed on teachers to improve achievement, no member of staff moved up the pay scale. As a result of increased monitoring, accountability and raised expectations, staff either left or were moved on. Subsequently, senior leaders have a supportive and captive staff who understand and support the strategic vision for school improvement. This reformation has led to reorganising staff so that class teachers’ can use their expertise effectively where needed. Teaching assistants are now appropriately deployed to provide targeted support.  The procedures for assessing pupils are now accurate and reliable. This is enabling teachers to target intervention and develop their planning particularly as detailed tracking of pupils’ progress is contributing

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The leadership and management are good

to them quickly identifying potential underachievement and putting in place personalised support. This is ensuring that every child has equal access to appropriate support.  Senior leaders’ responsiveness to meeting pupils’ needs have led to them dealing effectively with the underlying barriers to underperformance, namely weaknesses in improving good language and numeracy skills. They have researched and invested well into the most appropriate strategies and methodologies linked to needs. Actions include setting groups by ability and providing targeted support. Pupils spoken to say that this provides them with more challenging work.  Effective support is provided for all staff. Middle leaders are however still sharpening their leadership skills. Nevertheless, further work is planned to consolidate their leadership and management skills. Teachers and support staff have benefited widely from effective partnership work. This has led to teaching being more

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The leadership and management are good

structured and targeted to meet pupils’ needs.  The quality of pastoral care is a strength and enables pupils to stay on track with their learning. School based mentoring and case studies show that actions to support pupils and families are timely and targeted. Good links are established with a range of multi-agency services.  The curriculum is kept under review and plans are in place to introduce the international primary curriculum. While much weight is currently given to developing pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to make better progress, music and French are new subjects which pupils’ enjoy. The funding for sport is used effectively. Pupils in all year groups, including children in early years benefit from the specialist teaching.  Provision for pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural development is strong. Enrichment activities and subjects such as music, art, English, history and geography provide a good range of experiences for pupils

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The leadership and management are good

to explore other cultural heritages. For example, through music, pupils play a range of instruments, including African drums, and they experience spiritual moments when considering harvest and interpreting different musical forms in preparation for assembly. Issues on morality and cultural experiences are delved into during circle time and topic work. For example, pupils in Year 6 can readily present reasoned arguments on protecting the eco-system.  The governance of the school:  The interim executive board has worked very well with the senior leaders to accelerate the school’s effectiveness and restore trust in the community. They have used their specialisms in education, civil service, business and human resources to support senior staff in restructuring the staff and appraising their performance. The IEB questions the school’s performance and capacity; they are knowledgeable about the performance of pupils in different key stages and about how well different ethnic groups

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The leadership and management are good

achieve; consequently, their termly strategic plan is sharply focused both on the day-to-day running of the school and its long term future.  They challenge performance management and have tightened procedures to ensure that pay award is underpinned by the criterion, ‘good results’.  They have worked closely with the local authority and are alert about the school’s future. Minutes of their meetings and discussions indicate that they are proactive in their planning and in ensuring that the senior leaders have the capacity to sustain the good results achieved in 2014.  The interim executive board is well informed about the pupil premium spending and the impact of the use on pupils’ progress. They have plans to ensure that there is greater rigour in assessing this work.  They ensure that safeguarding requirements are fully met.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils’ desire to learn and succeed later in life was demonstrated in their writing about their dreams and in discussions with them. Their ambitions reflect the views of their parents.  Behaviour and attitudes to learning are good. They settle down to work quickly, work well together and particularly enjoy the talk-partner activities. This collaborative approach to working extends to the playground where team work and playing together crosses all types of boundaries. A striking feature of pupils in the playground is their responsiveness to playing games with the adults who supervise them.  Pupils take their responsibilities as counsellor and peer mediators seriously and see themselves as influencers who can bring changes. For example, they have been influential in requesting a new kitchen and changing the school meals.  The schoo’s work to keep pupuls safe nd secure is good. Pupils and their parents and/or carers, report

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

that their children are secure in the school. This level of reassurance is linked to the high visibility of staff, including the caretaker around the building. In addition, pupils say that they trust staff; they communicate very well with them and report that they can always turn to a member of staff or a peer mediator if there is a problem.  Pupils’ self-assured approach is linked to their reports as well as those of their parents that there is no bullying. On the rare occasion when ‘bullying’ occurs they consider ‘silly name calling ‘as low level and indicate that if there are concerns they are dealt with immediately. Pupils are shrewd when talking about e-safety and are also knowledge about other forms of bullying.  Exclusions are low and linked to the robust pastoral care, including the mentoring work with pupils requiring additional support. The school has not had any permanent exclusion since 2011. Attendance is

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching has not been good enough over time in all year groups. The high turnover of staff in some year groups means that pupils’ progress has not always been rapid. When this is combined with other factors including previous inaccurate assessment, unplanned transition and high mobility, the quality of planning to develop pupils’ learning was compromised.  These factors have now been consigned to the past and the quality of teaching is now better and improving. Nevertheless, gaps in pupils learning remain particularly in classes where the school, until recently, found it difficult to appoint high quality staff.  Teachers are focused on developing basic core skills in English and mathematics. They have responded well to the support and training provided and good strategic deployment means that they are using their specialist skills very well to plan and accelerate pupils’ learning.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers are dedicated to their craft and experienced practitioners are used to demonstrate good practice that will stimulate pupils’ learning and engage them. For example, they know their subject, and confidently use a range of approaches to motivate students. For example, in well planned literacy lessons, teachers used music, and a range of activities to extend pupils’ imagination to develop the mood of a story. As a result, pupils wrote sensitively and drew on a wide and descriptive vocabulary to convey a foreboding mood. Similarly, older Year 6 pupils in different ability groups successfully understood how to use persuasive techniques. This was successfully done because of consistency in the clear lines of questioning; discussion and application of the taught skills.  The teaching of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs ensures that over time, they make good progress. Planning identifies the needs of pupils with additional needs and targeted support in

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

lesson involving the use of repetition and demonstrations work very well.  Where teaching has not been good enough over time, skills taught have not been reinforced and planning has not taken into consideration the needs of pupils. For instance, the most-able are not always stretched well.  Marking is detailed and accurate assessment is now used effectively to meet the needs of pupils. Pupils report that the green pen marking helps them to address weaknesses in their work. However, there is not enough emphasis on presentation skills and pupils taking pride in their work.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Whereas standards were previously low, pupils are now making better progress. As a result of the clear drive for improving teaching and raising expectations, the 2014 national tests rests were the best achieved in the last three years.  The Key Stage 2 unvalidated national test results improved significantly. Altogether, 93% of Year 6 pupils reached the standard expected nationally in English and maths combined with over one-third of all pupils achieving the higher level 5 in writing and mathematics. Results in grammar, spelling and punctuation and mathematics were also high. These results exceeded the average across the local authority and overall, progress was good. However, because of a blip which preceded the current leadership team, none of the most able pupils were entered for the higher tests in mathematics and reading.  Scrutiny of work and in lessons seen, the most able were fully challenged. Pupils report they are given

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

challenging work. Notwithstanding, parents report that they would like to have more challenging homework set because their children ‘race through’ the work. Senior leaders have begun to address this matter by using specialists mathematicians, rolling out a new programme of teaching mathematics and using training to increase staff expertise. Further work is planned.  These good results mask the variability and rates of progress of pupils in other year groups. At Key Stage 1, pupils made better progress which was better than the predictions based on their starting points. The moderated results were however below the national and local authority averages. The most able pupils did not achieve the higher levels.  The school’s tracking information on pupils’ progress indicate that pupils are now making faster progress because teaching is improving strongly and assessment information is used well when

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

planning. Nevertheless, achievement for pupils is not yet good because weakness remain in Key Stage 1, in early years and in the progress pupils make in writing.  The 2014 unvalidated results show that all pupils receiving additional support through the pupil premium made the progress expected nationally with a significant minority making good progress particularly in reading.  Pupils at school action plus achieved well in comparison to those with a statement of special educational needs. Both groups are now making better progress than in previous years, and in lessons, pupils with additional needs make similar progress to other pupils based on the good quality support provided.  The school’s assessment information provides compelling evidence that based on improvement in teaching; pupils are now making better progress. A good range of literacy and numeracy strategies, the setting of pupils in Key Stage 2 for English and mathematics, increased monitoring and target setting are

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

all contributory factors to accelerating pupils’ achievement.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Evaluative reviews of early years have resulted in radical overhaul in the quality of provision. The start that children now make to their lives at school has improved. This is because the school has acted swiftly to begin using reliable and clearer systems to identify the starting points of children. The information is used well to identify what has to be done to prepare them for Reception and beyond. Children’s achievement in all areas of learning in 2014 were below the national and local averages.  Transition arrangements are now good. The information provided from the preliminary work to check children’s pre-school skills on entry to Nursery, means that the quality of care and planning to target weaknesses in children’s language skills are now better. Provision however, requires improvement because the changes are too recent to measure the full impact on children’s progress.  An experienced and specialist early years teacher takes a leading role in managing the provision. Close

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The early years provision requires improvement

working with the local authority adviser for early years has contributed to a much improved learning environment for children. The development of robust systems to track and use focused activities to support children’s development has started. For example, focused teaching sessions on phonics (the sounds letter make) and number work through the new mathematics strategy are contributing to children making good progress since the start of the new term. This is linked to the vibrant teaching, use of practical and colourful resources, clear questioning and well established routines to engage and motivate children.  Careful planning and well-resourced areas of learning, including the outside areas, are combined well with focused teaching activities to accelerate children’s learning. Children work and play well together.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 102115 Local authority Haringey Inspection number 447367

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4-11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 266 Appropriate authority Interim executive board Chair Joel Brookfield

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Headteacher

Date of previous school inspection 10-11 September 2013 Telephone number 0208 800 4676 Fax number 0208 802 8297 Email address admin@westgreen.haringey.sch.uk 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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Headteacher

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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Headteacher

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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Headteacher

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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Headteacher

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Headteacher

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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