Setting

Mr G Rothwell Headteacher Lyndon Green Junior School Wensley Road Sheldon Birmingham B26 1LU

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School

Following my visit to your school on 26 November 2014 with Mark Capel, Associate Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and the time you took to discuss behaviour at your school.

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School

This monitoring inspection was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for inspecting schools with no formal designation. The inspection was carried out because the Chief Inspector was concerned about responses from parents recorded on ParentView, Ofsted’s online questionnaire.

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Evidence

I considered a range of evidence including:

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Evidence

 observations of pupils’ behaviour and their attitudes to learning in lessons  observations of pupils’ behaviour throughout the day, including discussion with pupils  documentary evidence including current information about behaviour  discussions with school leaders, staff and parents.

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Evidence

Having evaluated all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Evidence

Leaders and managers have taken effective action to maintain the high standards of behaviour and attitudes identified at the school’s previous inspection. Serco Inspections Colmore Plaza 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 679 9165 Direct E: victoria.mortimore2@serco.com

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Context

Lyndon Green Junior School is a larger than average primary school which currently has 372 pupils on the school roll taught in 12 single-age classes, with an additional support centre for pupils who need additional help with their learning. About a quarter of the pupils are supported by the pupil premium (additional government funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the local authority) which is about the same as that seen nationally. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is average. About a quarter of the pupils are from minority ethnic groups and the proportion who speak English as an additional language is very small.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

A small number of parents and carers expressed concerns, through the online questionnaire, about the quality of care their child receives at this school. This includes how well school leaders work with parents and carers in dealing with concerns that are raised, how bullying is dealt with, and the quality of information provided to parents and carers about the progress being made by their child. The visit did not reveal any evidence to support these concerns and it is clear that pupils are very well cared for at this school.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Bullying is rare, although pupils say that a few of their peers sometimes use unkind words. Pupils are confident that when they tell a teacher, they will do everything that can be done to make sure it stops and this is successful. One way in which school leaders have made sure this happens is through involvement of the pupil who has been bullied in the detailed logging and monitoring of any incidents. Pupils know what actions are taken, including informing parents, and know the pupil who has bullied them will be monitored to make sure further incidents do not occur. This work has helped to improve pupils’ own understanding of how they make, and keep, friendships.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils have a very good understanding of how to keep themselves safe while being encouraged to use their imagination and creativity in play. In addition to organised ball games in a separate area, pupils love using equipment from the ‘playpod scrap store’ at lunchtimes. Pupils, including those who are disabled, were seen having fun and working together in groups, and individually, to invent their own games. For example, cargo nets were suspended from a beam to make a swing, pieces of foam were stacked to make a ‘bouncy mat’, various items of scrap were arranged to make a den. Pupils actively discussed how to make their play safe and carried out their own risk assessments of the activities, agreeing shared rules of their game including taking turns. All areas are well supervised by adults who have high expectations of behaviour and intervene quickly when additional reminders are needed.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The high regard shown towards peers in outside social time extends to the pupils’ good conduct seen in the building. Pupils show respect towards each other and greatly value the support they receive from their teachers in lessons. Pupils work hard and said they are keen to receive ‘green cards’ and a wide range of other rewards, including being allowed to choose a prize from a box. Through these rewards, teachers promote positive behaviours such as good effort, keeping the table tidy, settling to their work quickly, reading every day and producing work of a high standard. Pupils show great pride in their work and have a shared respect for each other’s possessions. In a peer assessment activity, pupils explained how important it was to write neatly in their partner’s book so that the comments can be read easily and help them to improve their work.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils respond enthusiastically to challenge in lessons and generally show very positive attitudes towards their learning. In a Year 6 mathematics lesson, pupils solved a problem to find the co-ordinates of missing vertices involving points in all four quadrants when the labelling of axes was missing. Year 4 pupils worked hard in finding examples of alliteration and connectives in their writing. When pupils were less involved such as when they didn’t have enough work to do, were not involved in answering questions or where they had to listen to others for a long period of time, some low-level disruption such as fidgeting, looking through the window or tidying their trays was seen. Teaching assistants did not always know how best to keep pupils fully focused on their learning.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

At the time of the last inspection, attendance was judged to be outstanding. Taking into account the 2014 attendance figures provided by the school, attendance continues to rise and has been consistently above the national average for a three year period. The school’s figures indicate that fewer pupils than seen nationally are frequently absent and this figure continues to fall. School leaders’ strategies to improve attendance are successful and pupils say they like coming to this school and are very happy here.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

There have been no pupils excluded, either permanently or for a fixed period, since 2011/12 and the number of incidents of unacceptable behaviour is gradually reducing, particularly at lunchtime. This is because all staff, including lunchtime supervisors, share the responsibility to help pupils to improve their behaviour, and staff take a consistent approach to how behaviour is managed.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

School leaders take seriously their responsibility to find out the views of parents, carers and pupils and are committed to using these to further improve the school. Analyses from the school’s annual parent questionnaire, returned from almost all parents and carers, show that views are overwhelmingly positive towards the work of the school. This was confirmed by parents who met with us during the visit, many of whom gave specific examples as to how this school has helped their child to ‘grow’, develop confidence and to improve their social skills in addition to their academic work. Pupils also have regular opportunities to improve the school through seven separate focus groups in addition to an active school council.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Parents and carers are kept very well informed about the progress being made by their child through highly detailed written reports, informal meetings at the start or end of the school day, regular email contact with teachers and a range of formal meetings. This includes a very effective transition programme from the infant school which aims to remove anxieties and provides continuity of care which enables all pupils, including those who are disabled or who have special educational needs, to settle in quickly.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Parents appreciate the guidance they receive from the school such as knowing how to support their child with reading, which ensures the school’s work extends consistently to the home.

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External support

Pupils and staff talked very enthusiastically about their lessons with Forest Schools, although this was not actually observed during the visit. This work enriches the curriculum and is an integral part of the work of the school, being mentioned specifically through key skills development in pupils’ written progress reports for parents and carers. The school does not access behaviour support through the local authority, as school leaders have developed their own systems felt to be more cost effective and to have greater impact.

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Priorities for further improvement

 Carry out checks on the quality of teaching assistants’ work in lessons, providing them with feedback on their work, and link this to support or training to enable them to further develop their skills in improving progress

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Priorities for further improvement

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

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