Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mrs Carole Tobin Headteacher Roxeth Primary School Brickfields Byron Hill Road Harrow Middlesex HA2 0JA

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 14 October 2015, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in November 2010.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

You and other senior leaders, including the governing body, have been uncompromising in driving school improvement. As a team, you work very well together and have a very good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Over the last five years, you have kept up the momentum of improvement. This has been possible because very good systems are used to monitor and evaluate the school’s effectiveness. As a result, staff are very clear about the culture of school improvement.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Since the previous inspection, a key feature has remained as one of the school’s strengths, namely the distributive leadership model and the opportunities for teaching and support staff to develop leadership skills. The leadership team is inclusive and the emphasis on continuous professional development has led to the school having a stable and loyal staff. Talents are nurtured and training is linked to the needs of individuals, the school and national priorities. Consequently, the benefits of training are spread widely. Succession planning is well thought out and staff have opportunities to develop projects to accelerate pupils’ learning. For instance, the proposal to improve pupils’ reading skills resulted in massive changes in revising the curriculum and developing the library. Findings from these initiatives show that pupils love reading, and results in this area have consistently been significantly above average for the last two years. Additionally, the wider range of

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

literary texts now reflects the interests of boys.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

The school has secured consistently good teaching with an improving profile of outstanding teaching. The emphasis on developing high-quality teaching means that the leadership team, including governors, are relentless in monitoring teaching. Staff support and challenge each other. They share good practice through middle leaders acting as demonstrators, team teaching and using a buddy system. Staff seize opportunities to observe outstanding practice in other schools and more of this is planned. Feedback is developmental and very well linked to training and staff appraisal. Leaders recognise that the challenge for the school is to ensure that most teaching is outstanding so that pupils are consistently challenged to exceed the progress expected nationally.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Systems for recording and monitoring pupils’ progress are used very well to identify those at risk of not achieving well. Intervention strategies, and additional support in literacy and mathematics and the homework club, are carefully tailored to pupils’ needs.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

The governing body is authoritative and holds the school extremely well to account for pupils’ achievement. They use their extensive expertise in education and other fields when working with you and other leaders to develop the strategic priorities. They keep the school under scrutiny through regular visits, monitoring of subjects and teaching, and review of pupils’ progress and safeguarding.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

The last inspection recognised that although the school was effective in all areas of its work, there was still more to do to improve consistency of practice and enable pupils to make better progress. The report identified two areas where further effort was required: minimising the variability in pupils’ progress and driving improvement in outcomes by consistently analysing and using information effectively. The school has made good progress in addressing the areas for improvement, and in developing leadership and management and pupils’ personal development and well-being. Nevertheless, although pupils are making better progress, you and other leaders recognise that most teaching is not outstanding and the best outcomes have not been fully realised in writing. Consistency of practice requires that ‘extra push’, particularly at Key Stage 2.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Over the last five years, standards of attainment have mostly been in line with or above the standard expected nationally in both key stages and in early years. Variations in outcomes have occurred in the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics in both key stages. The school has successfully addressed writing in Key Stage 1 and reading and mathematics in both key stages. However, there is still more to do to develop writing skills throughout Key Stage 2.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

In early years, the strong emphasis on developing pupils’ communication skills has led to a year-on-year improvement in outcomes. Most children are now achieving very well in all areas of development. In Year 1, the proportion of pupils who achieved the standard expected in the phonics (the sounds letters make) screening check was significantly above average. A new programme for developing writing has been successfully rolled out in Key Stage 1. This has led to a significant improvement in pupils’ writing skills by the end of Year 2. Outcomes in writing were significantly above the standard expected nationally in 2015. At Key Stage 2, writing is not as strong as in reading and mathematics. Pupils have a good grasp of completing grammatical exercises accurately but they are not always precise when doing extended writing. Grammatical features, particularly sentence construction, require further improvement. These weaknesses have been accurately identified and

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

analysed, and a robust action plan is in place to address them.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Observations of pupils at work and play, and discussion with them, show that their personal development is exceptionally good. Pupils are very well behaved and feel safe because the quality of care is extremely good. They are confident and self- assured, and relationships between all groups are very good. Teachers have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and work. This is combined with opportunities for them to develop a range of leadership skills and take part in extra-curricular activities with partner schools, in particular Harrow School, The John Lyon School and Whitmore High School. The quality of care is exceptionally good and extends to the school working very well with parents to make sure that barriers to learning are not affected by challenging circumstances. As a result, the school works very well with external agencies to provide effective early help and support. The extended school for parents is used very well to show them how to work with and develop

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

their children’s learning. The school’s systems to promote attendance are good and attendance rates have risen over the last two years. They are now average.

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Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Safeguarding is effective.  The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality.  The school has kept abreast of changes in meeting safeguarding requirements. During the inspection, pupils spoke assuredly about their safety in the school because as they explained, ‘All staff are checked before they can work.’ Clear roles and responsibilities for child protection, monitoring and attendance are in place. All staff have undertaken extensive training in all aspects of safeguarding including first aid, the prevention of radicalisation and extremism, female genital mutilation and child sexual exploitation. This has ensured that all have a clear awareness of potential risks and can identify and report early signs.

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Inspection findings

 Since the last inspection, the school has developed a number of considerable strengths. Important changes to the curriculum have been made to ensure that it is more effective in meeting the needs of all groups of pupils. Increased personalisation of strategies and extended classes are helping pupils to make better progress.  The headteacher, with the very good support of other leaders, has successfully created a vision and clear focus on improving outcomes. There is a sharp focus on developing outstanding teaching so that more pupils can make faster progress.  The short visit to the Nursery shows a clear commitment to inclusion. Children work happily alongside disabled children and those with special educational needs from the children’s centre. Staff sensitively and expertly support those with additional needs. Staff track children’s academic and personal development well and can measure the impact of their practice accurately. As

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Inspection findings

a result, the indoor and outdoor environments offer a wide range of resources and opportunities for learning.  Teachers have a clearer understanding of tackling weaknesses in pupils’ learning and are very responsive to the increasing number of newcomers who are at the early stage of learning English. The school has maintained a clear focus on developing children’s reading, writing and number skills from the early years, where assessment information is used well to begin charting their progress. The persistent monitoring of progress means that all can have equal access to support and challenge as they move through the school.  The upward trend in outcomes has been quite marked over the last three years with most pupils making the progress expected nationally. The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers was very small in 2014. However, in 2015, the quality of writing was not strong and this

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Inspection findings

affected the overall rates of progress in Key Stage 2.  Parents are very supportive of the school’s work. They see the school as a family of diverse people from different cultures. Parents place a high value on the support available from all staff, including the caretaker. They described the staff as ‘going over and beyond the call of duty’ in providing support.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted very well. They are aware of what it means to live in a diverse community in modern Britain. Similarly, pupils’ personal development is a strength of the school’s work. Vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils are identified and support is carefully personalised to their needs, in partnership with external agencies, as necessary. Community links are also strong and used very well to raise pupils’ aspirations.  Pupils work diligently; they enjoy the challenges and work well with each

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Inspection findings

other while embracing the support provided from their teacher and support staff.  Behaviour in lessons and around the school is extremely good. Records and discussion with a group of pupils indicate that misbehaviour occurs only occasionally and incidents of bullying are rare. Pupils are adamant that name calling is unacceptable and when misbehaviour occurs, it is dealt with decisively and expertly. Exclusions are very rare because of the strong pastoral system and community culture created. The school has had one fixed-term exclusion in five years. Pupils are rightly proud of their school.  All staff spoken to, and those who completed the questionnaire, feel highly valued and are very positive about the school’s work. Morale is very high. They recognise the school’s journey to develop a self-sustaining community that knows what has to be done to reach the highest level of attainment.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 most teaching is consistently outstanding so that more pupils are challenged to exceed progress expected nationally  results in writing in the national tests at the end of Key Stage 2 are consistently as good as in reading and mathematics. This is particularly so for boys, pupils with special educational needs and those who are disadvantaged. Teachers should ensure that these groups of pupils can apply grammatical features accurately to different styles of writing.

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Next steps for the school

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Harrow.

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Information about the inspection

The inspector observed the school’s work, scrutinised a range of documents and met with the headteacher, other senior and middle leaders, a groups of pupils, the Chair of the Governing Body and two other members, and the school improvement partner from the local authority. Meetings were also held with 13 parents, and the ‘Rights Rangers’, the school council. A visit was also made to the Nursery, which is co- located within Hillview Children’s Centre on a different site within walking distance of the school. The inspection took into consideration the 60 questionnaires completed by staff, the letters from parents and the 117 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View.

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