Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Jenny Pickering Headteacher Imperial Avenue Infant School Imperial Avenue Leicester Leicestershire LE3 1AH

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Infant School

Following my visit to your school on 22 March 2016, 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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Infant School

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

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Infant School

Senior leaders and governors are not taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection in order to become a good school.

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Infant School

The school should take further action to ensure that:

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Infant School

 improvement planning is informed by robust analysis of the quality of teaching and the impact of teaching over time on the progress different groups of pupils are making  a clear staffing and leadership structure is quickly implemented to ensure that roles, responsibilities and lines of accountability are sufficiently clear.

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Evidence

During the inspection, I met with you, the chair of the governing body and the local authority adviser. I evaluated the local authority raising achievement plan and other school documents.

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Context

Since the section 5 inspection in June 2015, two members of staff have left the school. This includes the deputy headteacher. Two new deputy headteachers have been appointed. One will take up their post in April 2016 and the other in September 2016.

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Main finding

Leaders have not assessed whether the school is making progress in tackling the areas for improvement identified at the section 5 inspection in June 2015. This lack of a strategic overview of the school’s current position is seriously hindering the pace of improvement. Leaders have not undertaken any analysis of the progress that pupils are making. Neither have they undertaken any evaluation of the quality of teaching across the school. You are confident that improvements are happening, but were unable to provide any clear evidence to support this view during the monitoring inspection.

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Main finding

The governors and the local authority adviser judged the school development plan to be unfit for purpose. As a result, the local authority produced a raising achievement plan for the school instead. The actions within this plan are formally reviewed by the headteacher, adviser and the chair and vice-chair of the governing body every half term. However, too many actions have not been addressed and consequently the rate of improvement is too slow.

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Main finding

Two deputy headteachers are due to join the school. These leaders will have an important role in making sure that improvement happens swiftly. However, their impact is likely to be undermined by the lack of a clear leadership structure or any detailed understanding of how roles and responsibilities will be allocated. Governors must tackle this as a matter of urgency.

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Main finding

The chair and vice-chair of the governing body have shown commitment to the school and are working with the local authority adviser to monitor closely the impact of the local authority raising achievement plan. They have an accurate view of the barriers which are preventing the school from improving with sufficient speed. Although governors are keen to improve the school, they have not made sure that the improvements needed have been implemented at a fast enough pace.

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Main finding

I have very serious concerns about the lack of decisive action being taken to address the areas for improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection. Urgent action is required. I will be conducting a further visit to check on the school’s progress in accelerating the pace of improvement and to assess the impact of the actions taken.

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External support

School-to-school support is being undertaken with a local infant school. The school also receives support for one day each week from a special educational needs coordinator from a local outstanding school. However, it is too early to identify the impact of this support.

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External support

The local authority adviser began supporting the school in November 2015. This support has ensured that improvement planning is in place and has increased the regularity of when the headteacher and other leaders are held to account. However, due to the school’s lack of self-evaluation, there is insufficient evidence to judge if the support has improved the quality of teaching or pupils’ progress.

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External support

A pupil premium review has been undertaken. The findings of this review have not been acted upon quickly enough. It is essential that the recommendations from the review are implemented quickly to ensure that the school’s work to support disadvantaged pupils is sufficiently effective.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Leicester City Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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