Setting

Mrs Candida Reece Headteacher London Meed Community Primary School Chanctonbury Road Burgess Hill West Sussex RH15 9YQ

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Community Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 22 May 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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Community Primary School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in February 2015. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Community Primary 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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Community Primary School

 sharpen the school action plan so that it:  shows exactly what steps will be taken to achieve improvements  clearly identifies the role of governors in holding leaders to account  develop links with other schools to provide models of good practice.

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Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with the headteacher, middle leaders and six members of the governing body to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. A telephone call was made to a representative of the local authority. Brief visits were made to all classes and the school’s action plan was evaluated. The checks made on staff about their suitability to work with children were also reviewed. 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 01173115246 Direct F 01173150430 Direct email :Sara.Whalley@Tribalgroup.com

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Context

Since the inspection in February 2015, the acting assistant headteacher has been made permanent. A new teacher in charge of the special support centre started in April 2015, following a period of interim leadership since December 2014. A new early years teacher was also appointed from April 2105.

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Main findings

You are very determined to improve London Meed so that it is judged ‘good’. The staff team is pulling together well to support you in tackling the areas identified for attention at the inspection in February 2015.

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Main findings

Your action plan targets the right areas to improve the school. You set out helpful success criteria and carefully-thought-out milestones to show what you are striving to achieve and by when. You sensibly shared the plan with all staff so everyone knows just what to aim for. However, the plan is not fully effective because it is not clear enough exactly what steps you will take to reach your goals, who is responsible and how actions will be checked.

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Main findings

You and other senior leaders provide helpful training to develop the skills of middle leaders. You have properly extended middle leaders’ roles, so they review teaching and learning across more classes. This gives them a useful overview of the whole school, and helps them to identify common strands for their work. Middle leaders’ new plans setting out their future actions are at an early stage of development: it is too early to see the impact of this work.

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Main findings

Teachers focus better on setting the right tasks to help pupils make progress. Where this is working well, pupils move forward more quickly in their learning. For example, in a mathematics lesson one pupil explains, ‘If we complete three on spicy, we go on to extra spicy.’ However, this is not always the case. In other classes the work set is often still too easy or too hard, so pupils do not make the progress they should.

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Main findings

Following the inspection in February you rightly concentrated on refining feedback to make it more effective. Pupils’ books show some teachers provide more useful guidance, which helps pupils to improve their work. You know you need to build on this good practice, so it is consistent across the school.

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Main findings

Governors are supportive and fully committed to securing the necessary improvements. Recent initiatives, such as seeking pupils’ views through a questionnaire, and inviting subject leaders to report on their work, give governors a better understanding of how well the school is doing. Governors recognise that more work is needed to ensure the school’s action plan clearly identifies their role in holding leaders fully to account. Ofsted may carry out further monitoring inspections 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 provides helpful guidance to support improvements. For example, you now rightly hold teachers more accountable when you meet them to discuss pupils’ progress. You recognise it would be useful to build links with other schools outside the area, to widen teachers’ perspectives about what it is possible to achieve.

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External support

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

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