Four Lanes Community Junior School

School report Four Lanes Community Junior School Hanmore Road, Chineham, Basingstoke, RG24 8PQ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Inadequate 4 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The headteacher and senior leaders have worked closely together to bring about improvements in teaching. Consequently, teaching is consistently good and continues to improve.  Pupils are making good progress from their starting points. Their progress in reading is particularly strong across the school.  All groups of pupils make similar progress because senior leaders and teachers keep a close check on individuals’ progress and quickly put in extra help if pupils start to fall behind.  The behaviour of pupils is good because most are determined to work hard and consistently produce their best work. Pupils are inviting to visitors, show pride in their school and are usually kind and considerate to each other.  Pupils say they feel safe because they know adults care about them. Pupils know a lot about how to stay safe. They weigh up risks and make good decisions to help stay safe.  Leadership and management are good. The

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

headteacher and senior leaders make sure that teachers know what they need to do to improve their teaching. Leaders at all levels share the strong vision for the school. Staff morale is high.  The curriculum is good. It has been carefully planned with the help of local authority consultants to develop the skills pupils need, and to give them engaging opportunities to practise these skills across different subjects.  The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is an emerging strength of the school. Leaders, governors and staff place a strong emphasis on developing rounded individuals.  Governors closely monitor the work of the school. As a result, they have an accurate view about its performance. They hold the leaders to account for improvements taking place quickly, and help to focus the school leaders’ plans.  Leaders and governors are rigorous in ensuring that statutory requirements are in place and understood

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

by staff, particularly those for keeping pupils safe.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teaching is not yet outstanding. Sometimes teachers are not flexible enough to adapt plans quickly if the work is too easy or hard for pupils. Teaching and learning in the new foundation curriculum (non-core subjects) are not as consistently strong as in mathematics and English.  Disadvantaged pupils enter the school a long way behind their peers. This group has yet to make the consistently outstanding, rather than the currently good, progress to fully close this attainment gap by the time they leave the school in Year 6.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection began as the fourth monitoring inspection under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The monitoring inspection was because the school was judged as requiring special measures at its last section 5 inspection. During the visit, inspectors deemed it a section 5 inspection under the same act. Evidence from the three previous visits was taken into account in the judgements.  Inspectors observed 11 lessons across the four year groups, including several jointly with the headteacher, and undertook shorter visits to seven other lessons.  The school’s development planning and self-evaluation documents, policies and safeguarding procedures were scrutinised.  Inspectors met with senior staff, representatives of the governing body, other staff, groups of pupils and representatives of the local authority.  The 33 new responses to Parent View, from the start of the inspection, were taken into account, and

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Information about this inspection

groups of parents were spoken with informally at the end of the school day.

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Inspection team

Peter Gale, Lead inspector Additional 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

 Four Lanes Community Junior School is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium (additional funding for looked after children and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals) is below the national average. There are no looked after children currently attending the school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is lower than the national average.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is lower than the national average, as is the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.  The school meets the current floor standards, which are the minimum standards for attainment and progress expected by the government.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to ensure all pupils make outstanding progress in all subjects over time by ensuring that:  teachers are flexible enough to adapt their planned lessons quickly to maximise learning  the new enriched curriculum for the foundation subjects is embedded fully and consistently well taught  the attainment gap that disadvantaged pupils enter the school with is eradicated early in their school career.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher, supported well by the local authority, has brought about considerable improvements in all aspects of the school’s work since the previous inspection. She leads the school with a clear vision and steely determination that all pupils will be successful, safe and happy.  Performance management systems are strong. All teachers and leaders have individual plans for improvement and these are driving high levels of accountability in the school. This is helping pupils because it has brought an incisive focus on their achievement.  The deputy headteachers, the special educational needs coordinator and the year leaders have all made significant contributions to the school’s improvement. The leadership team is strong and mutually supportive; all staff and pupils benefit as a result.  Senior staff successfully lead work in mathematics and English to ensure very good teaching and curriculum planning for all groups of pupils. Whilst improvements have been made to science and the

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The leadership and management are good

foundation subjects, these improvements are more recent and are not yet as well embedded in the school’s work.  The school’s leaders are engaged in continuous evaluation of the quality of education on offer at Four Lanes. A thorough understanding of emerging strengths and areas that still need improvement drives good quality development planning.  Systems to monitor pupils’ achievement are now very effective. The achievement of groups of pupils, such as the most able, those who are disabled or have special educational needs, or disadvantaged pupils, is checked particularly carefully. The information gleaned is used effectively to provide any necessary extra work to ensure pupils’ progress accelerates.  Improvements to the quality of teaching are led very well. A comprehensive programme of professional development is in place. All leaders are engaged in individual coaching and guidance. Teaching is

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The leadership and management are good

monitored closely and leaders know that the impact on teaching and learning across the school has been strong. All teachers and teaching assistants are working successfully to improve their classroom practice.  Pupils enjoy a rich programme of educational visits. For example, pupils enjoyed understanding how ancestors lived in Hampshire at Butser Ancient Farm. They also get a very good understanding of their locality through projects like ‘Amazingstoke’, celebrating the centenary of Basingstoke.  The curriculum is designed to make a good contribution to all pupils’ social, moral, cultural and spiritual development. All assemblies follow a theme connected to rights, respect and responsibility. Pupils are prepared well for life in modern Britain by a range of activities like writing to their local Member of Parliament about deforestation. The religious education curriculum and friendship groups foster tolerance,

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The leadership and management are good

spirituality and respect; these are reflected in pupils’ attitudes to visitors to the school and each other.  Teachers are required, and seek, to secure equality of opportunity for all pupils. Each teacher regularly plots the progress their pupils have made, checks who is behind and works with individuals to secure improvement. As a result, and because the pupil premium is spent effectively, the achievement of disadvantaged pupils is improving in English and mathematics.  The sport premium is used effectively. Participation in sports clubs is up by a fifth. The school has audited provision and outside interests and chosen to increase the breadth of opportunity available. As a result, pupils are engaged in activities like fencing and street dance.  The school’s leadership and governors have put in place good quality systems around all aspects of safeguarding, and these are reviewed regularly.  All parents spoken with during the inspection were positive about the current teaching at the school, and

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The leadership and management are good

felt it to have improved significantly. Their views agree with the new responses to Parent View at the time of this inspection. The local authority has supported the school very well. Local authority consultants have worked with subject advisers and teachers to develop teaching and learning across a wide range of subjects. The good working relationship between the headteacher and local authority has ensured that the support has been intelligently deployed to match the emerging priorities.  The governance of the school: − The governance provides good support and challenge for the leadership of the school by being linked to different subjects. Individual governors are well trained in their roles and have become a cohesive team. They are well informed about pupils’ achievements and challenge the leadership team effectively to raise attainment further. Close attention is paid to data concerning the performance of groups of

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The leadership and management are good

pupils. Close scrutiny is undertaken of the progress of disadvantaged pupils, the more able and those who are disabled and with special educational needs. Governors make sure that details are published on the school website about how the pupil premium is spent, and its impact. They make regular visits to the school to speak with staff, look at lessons and assemblies. Governors have very tight procedures for ensuring that key policies are in place and regularly reviewed, particularly those related to keeping pupils safe. Governors closely scrutinise performance management arrangements in the school. This scrutiny ensures that recommendations around pay awards are closely aligned to high quality teaching and pupils’ outcomes.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good  Pupils are friendly and welcoming to visitors, frequently opening doors and asking how they might help. They show pride in themselves, their work, and their school. Due to the school’s work on rights and respect, there is a high level of mutual respect shown by pupils to each other.  Pupils respond to good or better teaching very positively. There is a genuine air of excitement and interest in many of the lessons. Pupils are very keen to do well and show tremendous pride when showcasing their work to each other or inspectors.  When teachers give pupils responsibility they respond very well. For example, they enjoy helping each other with their learning when working in groups, and demonstrate maturity when doing so.  Occasionally, where teachers fail to give complete clarity of expectations, pupils’ attention wanders. However, disruption to learning due to poor behaviour is extremely rare.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good.  Parents who responded to Parent View, and those spoken with during the inspection, said that they feel the school to be a safe place for their children. Risk assessments for all trips and visits are undertaken, and where there is risk this is mitigated.  There is very little bullying in the school. Where bullying does occur, occasionally as a result of temporary friendship problems, pupils told inspectors that the school was quick and effective at stamping it out.  The use of racist or homophobic language is extremely rare and teachers’ responses to it are very effective.  Senior staff and governors ensure that safeguarding training for all staff is up to date. A culture of care throughout the school ensures that vigilance is maintained. All appropriate checks are made on adults who work with pupils.  Pupils learn about e-safety in the curriculum and are aware of the dangers around inappropriate use of

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Safety

social media and the internet generally. The carefully planned assembly programme helps pupils’ safety understanding; pupils demonstrated this during a talk about Childline during the inspection.  Attendance is above the national average for all groups of pupils and overall. Pupils are punctual to school. Most pupils enjoy the school and are eager to be there. For the few that are less keen, appropriately assertive responses to unauthorised absence and lateness are made. Senior staff liaise well with the inclusion team at the local authority to support families who need it.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The quality of teaching has improved significantly since the previous inspection. Teaching is consistently good across the school. Teaching is slightly stronger in core subjects due to the more established focus on ‘getting them right’, but foundation subject teaching is improving rapidly. With the help of the local authority, the wider curriculum has been made far more engaging for pupils.  Numeracy and literacy are well integrated across the curriculum. Opportunities to develop pupils’ skills through the wider curriculum are well planned. For example, Year 3 pupils showed outstanding achievement in their writing when describing Roman soldiers’ armour. This was because they were able to wear it and feel its weight. This gave pupils great empathy for the long distances soldiers had to walk. Similarly, Year 6 pupils did some excellent writing about sustainability.  Teachers have very good relationships with pupils and provide them with incisive verbal and written

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The quality of teaching is good

feedback on their progress. As a result, and because they respond diligently to teachers’ written comments, pupils have a very good understanding of their attainment, targets and how to improve their work. This is helping them make good and better progress.  Teachers work very well, in year group teams, to use the comprehensive assessment information they gather about pupils’ understanding, to develop the curriculum and plan carefully for the next lesson or series of lessons. Sometimes, partly because the curriculum is changing, teachers’ planning results in the work being too challenging or not challenging enough. When this happens, teachers are not always able to show the flexibility necessary to change activities quickly enough to adapt the challenge to the correct level. This results in the pace of learning dropping.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs benefit from a wide range of well organised

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The quality of teaching is good

support. The careful combination of ‘bug club’ and paired reading has had a dramatic impact on improving reading skills for many. The range of resources and approaches used are closely checked to make sure they are proving effective, and changed quickly if not.  Teaching assistants work closely with teachers to the significant benefit of pupils. They exhibit great care and skill when working with groups and individuals.  Teachers make sure that the most able pupils are given work to do which stretches their skills and knowledge so they have to think and work hard. In the best lessons they quickly move into doing their work as soon as they understand what they need to do, or get extra input from the teacher, to challenge their thinking. Teachers probe pupils’ understanding through good questions. Occasionally, they could give pupils more time to think to generate fuller answers.  Home learning is helping extend pupils and engage them in working with their parents. Pupils complete

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The quality of teaching is good

the work diligently and the school is able to showcase some excellent examples, particularly around the ‘Amazingstoke’ project .

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils’ achievement has risen rapidly since the last inspection. In all classes, and in most subjects, pupils’ progress is at least good.  Year 6 pupils at Four Lanes, in 2014, suffered during their first few years in the school, from the weaker and inconsistent teaching prevalent at the time of the last inspection. Because of this, their progress over their time at the school was slow. Much better teaching near the end of Key Stage 2 significantly raised their achievement. However, this could not fully make amends for the impact of the previously weaker provision. Outcomes in 2014, whilst above the national average, showed slow progress, particularly for middle ability pupils, disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.  The quality of learning is now at least good across the school; current Year 6 pupils are on track to achieve end of Key Stage 2 outcomes that show strong progress from their previously good attainment at

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The achievement of pupils is good

Key Stage 1.  Pupils’ progress generally, and in mathematics particularly, had been a concern at the time of the last inspection. Improvements have been substantial since then, both in the quality of teaching and in the tracking of pupils’ progress. Booster classes are in place to ensure any pupil who falls behind catches up quickly. Problem-solving approaches to teaching mathematics are embedded in the curriculum and pupils enjoy their mathematical learning.  Achievement in English has also improved since the last inspection. The impact of previously poor learning is still evident in some classes, particularly Year 5 writing. However, the good quality of teaching now is helping pupils make up for this weaker teaching in the past, with faster than expected rates of progress.  Pupils respond in detail to marking across the year groups, usually first thing in the morning. As a result, most pupils show a sophisticated understanding of their current levels, targets and how their work may be

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The achievement of pupils is good

improved.  More able pupils have access to stretch and challenge in most lessons, and this is contributing to both their enjoyment of learning and to very much better progress this year. The more able are making consistently good progress at Four Lanes.  In 2014 the gap between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others in reading, writing and mathematics was equivalent to about one year’s progress. Due to the close tracking of all pupils, and the good levels of support they receive, disadvantaged pupils in the school are currently making good progress. Disadvantaged pupils enter the school with an attainment gap equivalent to around a year. Some gaps in attainment with their peers still persist because all pupils are making accelerated progress. Improved provision, and closer monitoring of disadvantaged pupils, have ensured that attainment and progress gaps with their peers are closing securely across the school. Disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 are

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The achievement of pupils is good

on track to match, or exceed, the attainment of other pupils nationally.  The special educational needs coordinator has ensured provision for pupils is very well organised and provides well for their needs. Pupils who are disabled and those with special educational needs are now making good progress from their starting points across the school.

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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 116247 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 454101

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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 Junior School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 284 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Matthew Bailey Headteacher Corinne Martinez Date of previous school inspection 2–3 October 2103 Telephone number 01256 816326 Fax number 01256 816326 Email address adminoffice@fourlanes-jun.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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