Setting

Ann Marrs Headteacher Stoke Primary School Briton Road, Coventry CV2 4LF

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School

Following my visit to your school on 11 February 2015, 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.

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School

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

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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:

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School

 make sure that the improvement plan defines who is monitoring and who is evaluating the impact of the school’s actions. This needs to be done to provide objective assessments at key points during the school year to judge that the school is on course to maintain the current trend of improvement to teaching and pupils’ achievement  make sure that the intervention work provided for groups and individuals, such as pupils from White British backgrounds, accelerates their progress to narrow achievement gaps with other pupils.

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Evidence

During the inspection, and in addition to touring classes with you, I held meetings with you and the deputy headteacher and a member of the governing body. I also met with one of Coventry’s improvement partners. The school’s improvement plan 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 9158 Direct email : rachel.dayan@serco.com and assessment information about pupils’ progress and performance were evaluated and I undertook a scrutiny of pupils’ workbooks.

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Context

The school appointed the acting deputy headteacher to the permanent post soon after the inspection in October 2014. An assistant headteacher has been appointed and will join the school in April 2015. A new Vice Chair of the Governing Body will be appointed in March 2015 to replace the one who left in January 2015.

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Main findings

Your senior leaders, governors and teachers with management responsibilities undertake a good range of monitoring to improve teaching. There are routine and regular reviews of pupils’ work and accurate assessments of their progress and performance. The governors’ quality and standards committee and the school’s leaders use assessment data intelligently and robustly to check that the teaching and intervention work provided for individual pupils and groups are having a positive impact on raising achievement. The evidence from pupils’ work and current performance data show that improvements are already happening with many pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and the most able, making accelerated progress. For example, the most recent in-year progress and assessment data show that standards and the quality of pupils’ mathematics and writing work are improving well in most classes.

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Main findings

Your judgements and those of senior leaders about the quality of teaching and its impact on pupil achievement are accurate and refer specifically to how well pupils are learning in lessons. This is good practice. Leaders track how well pupils are doing using assessment information that is accessible to staff and governors. However, it is not always clear in the school’s plans for improvement who is evaluating the impact of the school’s actions or whether assessments are objective to inform governors and the local authority of the pace of improvement towards becoming a good school. It is important that all monitoring activities are undertaken by different leaders, staff and members of the governing body to ensure that evaluations are objective and identify sustainable improvement.

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Main findings

There are enough good practitioners in the school to influence the work of all staff. In addition, you are in the process of establishing partnership working with other schools through one of Coventry’s clusters called the ‘Aspire Network’, comprising both primary and secondary schools. This provides opportunities for teachers and leaders to tackle common issues such as raising the achievement of pupils from White British backgrounds. You have rightly identified this as a priority as last year’s national assessments showed that this group of Year 6 pupils did not achieve as well as other pupils in the school. Ofsted may carry out further visits and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection.

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External support

The local authority is providing the right balance of challenge and support. Together with senior leaders and governors the actions taken since the October 2014 inspection have been effective. The school is now looking to increase the scope for more rapid improvement to teaching and pupil achievement by forming productive links with other schools through the ‘Aspire Network’. This has the potential also to provide more opportunities for teachers and support staff to see and share good practice.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Head of Education, Standards and Improvement for Coventry.

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Her Majesty’s Inspector

cc. Chair of the Governing Body cc. Local authority

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