Hart Plain Infant School

Hart Plain Avenue, Cowplain, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO8 8RZ

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Overall effectiveness

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

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

 Pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics requires improvement as it is not yet good. Boys, in particular, do not achieve well enough in writing. This is because teaching over time has not been good enough to enable pupils to make good progress.  Teachers are not always clear enough about pupils’ level of development. Consequently, they do not always set work at the right level for them.  Teachers’ feedback does not consistently give pupils specific enough advice on how to improve their work and teachers do not make sure they correct it.  Progress in reading is hampered because there is not enough attention given to developing the skills needed to read fluently and with understanding.  In writing, pupils do not have enough chances to practise their writing, for example, across the subjects. Expectations for what boys can achieve are not high enough.  Pupils do not get enough opportunities to practise

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

problem solving in mathematics.  Policies and procedures to ensure pupils’ good behaviour, safety and well-being are not followed thoroughly enough by all staff. Pupils’ behaviour and safety are not always good enough.  Senior leaders are not thorough enough in checking teaching and learning or setting specific and measurable targets for improvement.  Middle leaders are not careful enough in checking the effectiveness of their actions, nor are they sufficiently enabled to support staff in order to drive improvement.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils’ progress is speeding up. Careful checks on progress, effective support and increasing challenge are promoting pockets of good progress at Key Stage 1, particularly in reading.  Children in the early years make a very positive start to their learning due to effective quality of education, excellent relationships and good teaching.  The headteacher and senior leaders make sure that the school is welcoming and supportive. They have dealt well with the staff changes that have sometimes had a negative impact on learning in the past.  Governors, several of whom are new, provide effective support and challenge to the school. They are fully involved in checking the school’s work.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed learning in 27 lessons or part lessons, of which two were joint observations with senior staff.  Meetings were held with two groups of pupils, the Chair of the Governing Body and four other governors, the headteacher and other senior staff. Additionally, a telephone conversation was held with a representative of the local authority.  The inspectors took account of the 23 responses to the online Parent View survey and the 46 paper questionnaires completed by parents. They also spoke to several parents when they brought their children to school. The inspectors took account of the 22 staff questionnaires.  The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school’s own information on pupils’ current progress, planning and checks on the quality of teaching and assessment. They also reviewed the New National Curriculum, records relating to behaviour and

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Information about this inspection

attendance, the sports premium action plan and documents relating to safeguarding.  The inspectors listened to pupils read in Year 2.

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Inspection team

Janet Sinclair, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Hart Plain Infant is an average-sized school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is average. This is additional government funding for pupils who are looked after or known to be eligible for free school meals.  Pupils attend the early years classes full time.  There have been significant changes to staffing since the previous inspection, including the appointment of a new headteacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistently good or better by:  ensuring that teachers have a clear understanding of the level pupils are working at so they can target work for them more precisely  raising expectations of what pupils can achieve, checking their understanding regularly within the lesson in order to adapt the level of challenge or support  ensuring that all teachers give pupils clear and specific advice about how to improve their work and check that pupils follow this advice.  Improve pupils’ achievement by:  ensuring that reading is more securely taught through both individual and group reading  increasing occasions when pupils are able to practise writing at length both in literacy and across all activities  increasing boys’ rates of progress in writing through higher expectations of what they can produce  ensuring pupils have regular opportunities for practical problem solving in mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ behaviour and safety through ensuring all staff consistently apply the school’s policies and procedures.  Build the capacity of leadership and management to drive improvement by:  ensuring that senior leaders are more thorough and precise in checking teaching and learning and target areas for improvement  extending the role of middle leaders so that they use their skills and expertise more effectively and thoroughly in order to drive improvement.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 The work of leaders and managers has not yet resulted in good quality teaching and achievement across the school.  There have been many staff changes since the previous inspection. This has sometimes disrupted pupils’ learning and led to a significant dip in achievement. Senior staff have worked well to manage this and have put systems in place to secure improvement. For example, they have improved the teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) and attendance has risen significantly. They have also recruited successfully, for example the special educational needs leader and behaviour support mentor. Both are already having a positive impact on the achievement of those pupils they support. Provision in the early years is effective and progress overall is speeding up. This shows that the school has further capacity for improvement.  Middle leaders, who have received effective training and support, are keen and ready to bring about

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The leadership and management require improvement

improvement in their areas of responsibility. However, they are not yet sufficiently trained in checking thoroughly what is provided by the school and staff. They are not yet involved in leading their areas to provide good support and challenge to their colleagues. This limits their contribution to driving developments in teaching and achievement in their areas or year groups.  The school improvement plan is detailed and comprehensive and progress towards meeting key improvements, including self-evaluation, is regularly checked by governors. Although it sets out the agenda for improvement, it is not always focused in sufficient depth on the main areas for development, nor are expected outcomes always specific enough to be measured. This limits its overall impact in speeding up progress.  Senior leaders’ checks on teaching and learning include regular lesson observations, training and reviews of teachers’ planning. Leaders aim to tackle weaknesses in teaching, but although feedback to staff is

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The leadership and management require improvement

good, systems are not yet thorough enough to ensure that practice is consistently effective.  The school’s process for setting staff targets makes sure that staff have individual and whole-school priorities linked to improving their performance and the progress of pupils in their class. Appropriate training and support are given.  Careful checks on pupils’ progress ensure that the school has a clear view of how well individual groups of pupils are doing. Specific support is given to those falling behind and this is helping to close the gaps in the performance of different groups. This shows that the school is focused on promoting equality of opportunity and tackling discrimination.  The school uses the government’s primary sports funding to provide swimming lessons for all pupils in Year 2. Staff are also developing their expertise in this area through training. Pupils take part in swimming competitions and all benefit from the opportunity to take part in a new sport. This is already

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The leadership and management require improvement

having a positive impact on pupils’ skills and physical well-being. Regular physical education ensures pupils have good opportunities to be physically active. The school is committed to continuing this provision and sustaining it over time.  Planned activities provide good coverage of relevant skills and knowledge. Pupils’ progression through English and mathematics activities is well planned. This contributes well to pupils’ improving achievement. Topics provide opportunities to develop an understanding of life in modern Britain and to find out about other faiths. Good use is made of visits, for example to HMS Victory and the Planetarium, to enhance pupils’ learning.  The school makes sound use of additional funding to ensure disadvantaged pupils participate well in school life and make similar progress to others in the school. This includes the appointment of a successful family liaison officer who provides effective links between home and school.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 The local authority provides sound support for the school, including regular guidance and specialist support for English and mathematics, that has helped them to improve.  The school has clear policies and procedures to ensure the safeguarding and safety of all pupils and staff. However, these are not always consistently applied by all staff, some of whom are not clear about the school’s expectations.  The school works well with parents. This starts in the early years with a good introduction to school for children and parents, including home visits. The school provides workshops for parents such as a mathematics workshop and termly ‘Meet the Teacher’ visits. Parents who responded to the online survey and paper questionnaire, and those spoken to during the inspection, were mainly happy with the school and what it provides.  The governance of the school:  Governors, some of whom are new, fulfil their statutory duties well. They have sought expert guidance

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The leadership and management require improvement

to enable them to challenge the school more effectively. They have committees in place and visit the school regularly to check on its effectiveness. This enables them to provide good support and challenge to the school. They learn about how effective teaching and learning are because the headteacher keeps them informed and they have reports from the local authority. They have ensured that all safeguarding policies and procedures are in place so that pupils and staff are kept safe. They receive detailed information about the school’s finances, which ensures governors have an accurate view of spending. They also check how additional funding is spent to make sure that it is used effectively. Detailed information is provided on pupils’ achievement so they know how well pupils are doing. Governors undertake appropriate training to develop their knowledge and skills and ensure they are up to date on any new initiatives. They are involved in setting targets for the headteacher’s performance and also

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The leadership and management require improvement

check the process in place for all staff. They reward good teaching and support the headteacher in tackling underperformance, where necessary.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  In some lessons where work is too hard or too easy or provides uninteresting content, pupils lose interest and misbehave. Behaviour is not always effectively managed by staff either in lessons or at break-times.  Although policies and procedures are in place, they are not always used effectively to challenge poor behaviour or ensure agreed safety policies are followed.  Pupils know what is expected for their behaviour and know that they will have ‘time-out’ if they misbehave in lessons.  Behaviour at play-times is boisterous and can sometimes leads to more serious disagreements. Additionally, football at play-times is not always well contained or controlled by staff. Some staff engage well with pupils and involve them in games, but others provide limited support.  The school council are keen to make behaviour at break-times better. Pupils spoken to appreciate the fact

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Behaviour

that there is a friendship bench for them to go to at play-times, should they need it.  Attendance has improved strongly due to the school’s efforts, including the appointment of an attendance officer. Pupils mainly enjoy coming to school and attend regularly. Exclusions, although high, relate to a very small number of pupils with challenging behaviour. The school helps them to settle back into school well.  Pupils know what constitutes bullying and say that there is some in the school. However, they say that staff sort it out quickly.  At lunch-times, pupils behave well, socialise with each other and enjoy the food that is on offer.  Overall the school provides well for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Assemblies and visits to places of worship are used well to develop their understanding of different faiths and cultures. Pupils generally work well together, know how to behave and listen to each other in lessons. The

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Behaviour

school promotes British values through encouraging pupils to be tolerant and respectful. .

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure requires improvement.  The school provides a safe environment for its pupils and this ensures pupils mainly feel safe. Occasionally the boisterous behaviour of others makes them feel unsafe at break-times.  Pupils feel safe in school and happy to go to any member of staff should they need help. They learn about staying safe through, for example, visits from fire officers and regular fire drills.  Pupils have a sound knowledge about safe use of the internet. However, weaknesses in the school’s implementation of policies and procedures mean that prior to the inspection, pupils may have had access to unsuitable materials. This was immediately rectified by leaders during the inspection once they were made aware.  Those parents who expressed a view during the inspection were mainly happy with behaviour and safety.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching requires improvement because it has not been good enough over time to ensure pupils make consistently good progress. There have been staffing issues and changes that have had a negative impact on the quality and consistency of teaching. This has slowed pupils’ progress.  Teachers are not always secure in making accurate assessments of pupils’ learning. This makes it difficult for them to set work at the right level for pupils. Consequently, work is sometimes too hard for the least able pupils and too easy for the most able.  Additionally, teachers do not check sufficiently on pupils’ understanding during lessons in order to reshape tasks if necessary, to ensure effective learning.  Teachers do not always use feedback well to help pupils improve their work or show they have understood and acted on advice.  Teaching is now helping to develop pupils’ writing skills more effectively, for example through activities

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

such as writing a letter to Santa. These fully engage them and stimulates their writing. However, such an approach is not yet used well enough to support boys’ progress in writing, as expectations for what they can achieve are not high enough. Additionally, there are few chances for pupils to practise what they have already learnt when writing in other subjects such as history or science. This limits their overall progress.  Teachers ensure reading sessions led by staff provide pupils with regular opportunities to read both individually and within a group, which they enjoy. This is helping to speed up progress. However, pupils are not given enough time to develop key reading skills such as an understanding of the text or an ability to predict what will happen next. This limits progress.  Teaching of mathematics helps pupils to develop their calculating and measuring skills. However, pupils’ ability to investigate number patterns or solve problems receives less focus. This slows the development

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

of their mathematical understanding.  Improved teaching of phonics, through a more structured, systematic approach, better matched to pupils’ abilities, is helping pupils to improve their phonic skills. Pupils are starting to use these skills to help in their reading and writing.  At times, good subject knowledge and effective use of specific vocabulary such as ‘phonemes’ and ‘complex sentences’ in English, familiarises pupils with correct terminology, accelerating their progress.  Teaching assistants provide sound and sometimes good support for small groups of pupils. These include pupils who are disabled, those with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils. For example, pupils with challenging behaviour are well supported and effectively challenged, enabling them to behave well and make good progress.  More able pupils are effectively challenged through teaching that moves their learning along quickly and

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

high expectations of what they can achieve. The school currently groups these pupils separately for English and mathematics.  Teachers make sound use of homework such as reading, holiday homework and phonics. .

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requires improvement

 Pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics, given their starting points in Year 1, requires improvement. Not enough pupils have achieved well over time. Staff turbulence and past weaknesses in teaching, especially in Key Stage 1, have meant pupils have not achieved as well as they able to.  Attainment at the end of Year 2 fluctuates between the national average and above in reading and mathematics and mainly around the national average in writing.  The progress of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs requires improvement. However, their achievement is improving due to better checks on their progress and increasingly effective support and guidance that are well targeted at their needs. The special educational needs leader has been effective in securing this.  The school works hard to support pupils’ reading, with regular adult-led reading sessions, pupils reading individually to an adult, paired reading and regular checks on their progress. However, staff do not

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requires improvement

always focus enough on the range of reading skills needed to make pupils into effective readers. This slows their overall progress.  Progress in writing and mathematics is improving due to the school’s efforts. However, not enough pupils make good progress. This is because teachers and leaders have yet to make sure all pupils are engaged and interested in their learning or have enough chances to practise what they have learnt.  Along with additional support provided in school, more able pupils attend ‘able writer’ and ‘able mathematician’ workshops. These are organised through the network of local schools and allow the school to more fully meet their needs. This is helping to accelerate their progress.  The proportion of pupils who succeeded in the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2014 was in line with the national level. This is an improving picture. Daily, well-structured teaching of phonics has helped the

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requires improvement

school to make this improvement.  Disadvantaged pupils in Year 2 attain better than other pupils nationally in reading and mathematics and similarly in writing. However, they do not achieve as well as their attainment lags behind other pupils at the school by about one term behind in reading, writing and mathematics. Their progress across the school requires improvement.

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is good

 Children in early years achieve well, and sometimes very well, given their starting points. They make rapid progress early on and this helps them to catch up quickly. However, although they achieve well, their attainment is not consistently better. As a result, because of variations year on year in their skills on entry to school, they do not always reach the nationally expected levels in all their learning. Children are keen and well prepared to learn in Year 1.  Careful checks on how well the children are doing and a clear understanding of their levels of development ensure that work is set at the right level. Any issues are identified and dealt with quickly. For example, additional activities such as ‘hand gym’ improve their ability to manipulate small objects, which in turn helps with their handwriting skills.  Engaging teaching ensures children learn well, and at times even better. For example, excellent

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is good

questioning by staff deepened children’s knowledge and understanding of the properties of ice and water very effectively.  The surroundings and activities planned both indoors and out ensure children are able to learn for themselves, work with others and solve problems. This enables children to make good progress in all their learning.  Excellent relationships ensure children feel safe, behave extremely well and enjoy their learning.  Safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures are fully in place.  There are good links with parents through, for example, mathematics workshops and ‘stay and play’ sessions. They are encouraged to contribute to their children’s learning journals (collections of children’s work and adults’ observations).  The early years leader is fairly new to her post but has a clear vision to maintain and improve on the existing effectiveness of early years. She has ensured all staff work well together as a team to provide

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is good

exciting challenging activities for the children that promote purposeful learning.

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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 115966 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 443763

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4−7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 175 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Steve Furby Headteacher Ruth Kenny Date of previous school inspection 4 November 2009 Telephone number 02392 262511 Fax number 02392 230609 Email address r.kenny@hartplain-inf.hants.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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School details

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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School details

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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School details

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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School details

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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School details

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

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