Setting

Mr G Hughes Headteacher Park View Junior School Pinkerton Road Basingstoke RG22 6RT

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School

Following my visit to your school on Monday 8 June 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 February 2015. 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 not taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection. The school should take immediate action to:

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School

 undertake an external review of governance to assess how this area of leadership and management can be improved  ensure the governing body holds senior leaders to account effectively  add appropriate milestones to each section of the school development plan so that leaders and governors can be clear that actions to improve the school are effective  urgently improve weaker teaching.

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Evidence

During the inspection, I met with you, the deputy headteacher, phase leaders, the subject leader for mathematics and the Chair of the Governing Body, to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. I completed short visits to classrooms, during 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 which I spoke to pupils about their work and looked through their books. I evaluated the school improvement plan and the school’s own evaluation of its effectiveness. I reviewed documentation about the work of the governing body and met with a representative from the local authority.

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Context

Since the previous inspection, one teacher has left the school and the subject leader for English returned to work following her maternity leave.

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Main findings

You have shown positive intent in your response to the previous inspection by focusing on improving teaching and learning at the school. However, the work you have done is not leading to rapid enough improvements in teaching and so significant inconsistencies remain.

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Main findings

The work of the governing body is weak. They do not provide robust challenge to you and other leaders so improvements to teaching are not happening as quickly as they could. They have had useful training from the local authority, but they have not become more effective as a result. For example, they do not sufficiently check that the work of leaders is making the difference that is needed.

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Main findings

Some teaching is improving at the right rate, but not enough. Where improvements are most noticeable, teachers are now applying the new marking policy, displays are used more consistently to support pupils’ learning and more teachers are now adapting lessons effectively to meet pupils’ needs because of their better use of assessment. In weaker teaching, however, teachers’ expectations of pupils remain too low. Where this is the case, the impact of the initiatives you have introduced are not making the difference that is needed to improve pupils’ progress. For example, the quality of feedback in Years 4 and 5 is not clear enough to help pupils to improve their work. This means overall rates of progress at the school remain weaker than you had hoped and too few pupils look likely to achieve the higher levels.

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Main findings

Your work to develop the effectiveness of middle leaders has been more successful. You have already made changes to make the most of the different skills of leaders. Middle leaders carry out a range of useful activities to evaluate the quality of teaching in their areas of responsibility. They use what they know to plan training to improve teaching effectively. However, they too are yet to make enough of a difference to weaker teaching.

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Main findings

You have rightly ensured teachers are beginning to get more opportunities to observe good practice, for example, through the links you have developed with Hatch Warren Junior School. This has helped raise some teachers’ expectations of what their pupils can achieve. However, not all teachers have been able to make the best use of this initiative to improve their practice.

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Main findings

Your plan for improvement has some well-considered activities which link properly to the areas for improvement identified in the previous report. You have included some targets for measuring the impact of leaders’ work that relate to pupils’ achievement. However, these are not always ambitious or precise enough. Therefore, they are not helpful in raising expectations at the school, nor are they helpful for governors to hold you to account for the difference you are making.

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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

You and other leaders have made good use of robust and targeted support from the local authority. Consultants have developed the skills of your middle and senior leaders in judging the quality of provision at the school and identifying areas for further development. This has led to some improvements in teaching and pupils’ achievement, particularly in mathematics. Governors’ use of external support has been much less effective, demonstrated in the difficiencies that remain in their work, despite being supported with similarly useful training.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Children’s Services for Hampshire.

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