Setting

Andrew Beckinsale-Yates Broomhill Junior School Broomhill Road Hucknall Nottingham NG15 6AJ

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School

Following my visit to your school on insert date of inspection, 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 month and year. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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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

 strengthen the consistency of marking in the school, giving pupils sufficient opportunities for pupils to reflect and respond, with all staff checking that the advice has been followed  ensure that the most-able pupils are consistently and highly challenged in their writing across the school  develop the capacity of the governing body to understand school data so they can check that all groups, and particularly the most able, are making good progress 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 9167 Direct email : farhan.aslam@serco.com

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Evidence

During the inspection, I held meetings with you, the subject leaders for English and mathematics, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority to discuss the actions taken since the last inspection. I evaluated the school improvement plan and undertook a scrutiny of pupils’ work with you. I also toured the school with you to see lessons taking place in different year groups, and examined the school’s records of safeguarding checks on staff, governors and volunteers.

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Context

One of the Year 6 teachers has now left the school and the assistant headteacher is now teaching across Year 6 with the support of a Higher-Level Teaching Assistant and a further teaching assistant.

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Main findings

You, senior leaders and governors have reacted decisively to your recent inspection report and the key areas for improvement that were identified. You have fully revised the school’s development plan and the key areas take priority within this. It is an effective plan that is sufficiently detailed, yet easy to follow. The plan involves practical steps to ensure that both teaching and achievement become consistently good.

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Main findings

A number of improvements have already taken place. The first of a number of staff meetings have helped all staff gain a better understanding of what good and outstanding teaching is. Teachers are now improving their teaching as a result, and the level of challenge is improving for pupils. Weekly lessons now give pupils an opportunity to use and apply their skills. This has particularly helped the most-able pupils, who are able to think more deeply and produce work of a greater complexity. Teachers are also giving the most-able pupils tasks that are closer to their ability. However, you and your staff recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that this happens consistently in all subjects and year groups. Teachers are united in their desire to improve the school so that teaching is good across the school. They have agreed a new marking policy which sets out higher expectations for both writing and mathematics for pupils. Teachers are following this policy increasingly

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Main findings

Most, though not all, teachers display a secure knowledge of all the subjects they teach. You are supporting those who are less confident by ensuring those teachers attend external training courses, and by giving them coaching from subject leaders. This is helping them to improve their skills. You have planned more training so that all teachers are able to deliver high-quality lessons. You and senior leaders will shortly undertake a series of lesson observations to check that higher-quality teaching over time is happening. Subject leaders have looked at pupils’ work in writing and mathematics from across the school. This has given them a clear idea of where good or better practice exists, and where further improvement is required. The pupils’ work that you and I looked at during my visit confirms that teachers’ guidance for pupils is improving. The teachers of some year groups are, with minor exceptions, now giving good advice

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Main findings

overall. However, this is not the case in all classes. As a result, not all pupils are yet receiving consistently good guidance, or are given the opportunity to act on this. Teachers are also not always checking whether pupils follow the advice.

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Main findings

Governors have become significantly more involved with the school’s work since the inspection. They have elected a new Chair of Governors and have, alongside staff, reviewed the priorities in the school development plan. They also have devised a comprehensive annual programme of monitoring the school’s work. To ensure that they have an increasingly accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, they have already completed a joint scrutiny of pupils’ work with subject leaders, held meetings on the development plan with staff and visited lessons in the upper juniors to see good practice. This has increased their confidence and made them keen to sustain the improvement in their own effectiveness. They have completed an audit of their own strengths and have set a timescale for additional training on school performance data so they will know if all groups are making good or better progress over time. Governors feel that, after a number of changes in its

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Main findings

membership over recent years, they now have a stable team that has good capacity to continue the recent improvements shown.

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Main findings

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 school has been receptive to the support from the local authority since the inspection, and the advisor is committed to ensuring that this support is continued. Her monitoring reports, which are both detailed and thorough, match the school’s understanding of itself. They have helped the school to confirm the strengths and weaknesses in teaching and performance in each year group, and have plan what action is needed urgently and what issues are emerging which will need action in the longer term to ensure that no group of pupils underachieves. As well as making visits to the school to observe learning in lessons and in pupil’s work, the advisor has linked the school to an outstanding local junior school so that staff at Broomhill can meet teachers there to discuss, and share, the most effective teaching practice. In addition, the local authority is helping to fund a partnership between the subject

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External support

leader for mathematics and a Specialist Leader of Education. This is helping her strengthen her own capacity as a leader but to improve mathematics teaching across the school. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Children’s Services for Nottinghamshire and as below.

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Her Majesty’s Inspector

The letter should be copied to the following:

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Her Majesty’s Inspector

 Appropriate authority - Chair of the Governing Body  Local authority

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