Setting

Mr Peter Hamlyn Headteacher Carbeile Junior School Trevol Road Torpoint Cornwall PL11 2NH

p.1

School

Following my visit to your school on 17 November 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.

p.1

School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in July 2014. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

p.1

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:

p.1

School

increase further the pace of improvement, including by stating more clearly leaders’ expectations of good and better teaching and by making clear how the aims of the new curriculum will be met refine the school action plan so that the intended outcomes of planned actions are more clearly shown, together with appropriate timelines and interim checkpoints work with the partner infant school to secure the effective transfer of assessment information and ensure pupils make rapid progress from their starting points as soon as they join the school in Year 3. Tribal Kings Orchard One Queen Street Bristol BS2 0HQ T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0117 311 5359 Email : christina.bannerman@tribalgroup.com

p.1

Evidence

During the inspection, I met with you and with other school leaders to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. I also met with the Chair and vice-Chair of the Governing Body, spoke by telephone with a representative from the local authority and met briefly with a parent who has children at the school. Together, we made short visits to three classrooms and looked at examples of pupils’ work. We undertook a brief scrutiny of records of the checks on teaching and evaluated the school action plan.

p.2

Context

Although appointed prior to the previous inspection of the school, the current headteacher took up his post at the beginning of September 2014. There has been some restructuring of the school’s leadership team, including a new co-ordinator for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Another deputy headteacher has recently been appointed and is due to join the school in the spring term 2015. There is currently one vacancy on the governing body.

p.2

Main findings

School leaders, governors and the local authority have fully accepted the findings of the inspection which judged the school to require improvement. There is a clear determination on the part of the school community to tackle the issues identified and to bring about rapid improvement. For example, you have ensured a more rigorous approach to the checks on staff performance and have introduced regular ‘pupil progress’ meetings to hold teachers to account for pupils’ achievement. This has already sharpened their focus on those pupils with gaps in their learning and targeted support for these pupils is now in place. There is also more detailed scrutiny of the progress of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and they are being helped to make up lost ground. The good quality of marking, noted at the previous inspection, was also seen in many of the books we scrutinised, and the wide range of display work around the school is a reflection of a renewed emphasis

p.2

Main findings

Staff have benefitted from observing practice at your partner support school and you have introduced a systematic process for checking the impact of teaching on pupils’ learning. However, although staff have worked together to identify some of the characteristics of effective teaching, these have not yet been set out as ‘non- negotiable’ features of most lessons. This limits the impact of checks on teaching because not all staff are fully clear about leaders’ expectations, including how the aims of the new national curriculum will be met. For example, in mathematics, the most-able pupils are sometimes taught work from older year groups, rather than developing a deeper understanding of the work they are already doing. In addition, , although the school action plan identifies suitable priorities and a wide range of actions in response, it does not make fully clear what outcomes are expected as a result, including at interim checkpoints along the way.

p.2

Main findings

Governors have responded well to the findings of an external review that took place shortly before the previous inspection. They are using their knowledge of how well the school performs in comparison with other schools to provide greater levels of challenge for school leaders. In addition to being linked to aspects of the school action plan, they are also developing ways in which they can gain a detailed, first- hand, understanding of the work of the school. Governors, school leaders and the local authority rightly recognise that more needs to be done to ensure pupils joining Year 3 from your partner infant school are able to make rapid progress from their starting points. This includes developing more effective links to facilitate the transfer of more comprehensive assessment information, such as samples of pupils’ work.

p.3

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.

p.3

External support

The local authority has provided useful support, including with the appointments of the headteacher and deputy headteacher, and through a link initially brokered with Burraton School. Your school improvement partner has contributed to a local authority review of the school, and has helped leaders to develop their skills in observing teaching, as well as providing training for staff. The local authority has also secured the support of a partner support school, Sir Robert Geffery’s School in Landrake, which has provided useful opportunities for staff to observe teaching.

p.3

External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Cornwall.

p.3