Setting

Mrs Helen Broad Headteacher Intake Primary School Sidney Road Doncaster South Yorkshire DN2 6EW

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School, Doncaster

Following my visit with Her Majesty’s Inspector Chris Smith to your school on 22 September 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, Doncaster

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in March 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, Doncaster

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, Doncaster

 increase consistency and raise expectations of teaching across the early years  strengthen middle leaders’ abilities to precisely evaluate strengths and weaknesses in their areas of responsibility  increase the sharpness and regularity of governors’ checking of the school’s improvement priorities. Ofsted

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School, Doncaster

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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Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders, the Chair of the Governing Body, one other governor and a representative of the local authority to discuss the actions taken since the section 5 inspection. You accompanied me on a tour of the early years and Key Stage 1 and meetings were held with middle leaders, some teachers and teaching assistants. A range of documents were scrutinised, including the school development plan, records relating to the monitoring of teaching, governing body minutes and records of pupils’ current progress. Together, we evaluated some examples of writing from Key Stage 1.

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Context

The school has appointed teachers to fill the vacancies that were present at the last inspection. Three new teachers took up their posts in September. An assistant headteacher now has responsibility for the early years and Key Stage 1.

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Main findings

Your determined attitude to place pupils’ outcomes at the centre of all you do is paying dividends. As headteacher, you are creating a culture of continuous improvement, looking for best practice both within and beyond your own school. You have put in place a plan to address the areas for improvement in the previous inspection report. While the plan includes appropriate actions, it could be improved by clearly identifying who will implement actions, being clearer about the measures for success and providing greater detail about arrangements for monitoring and evaluation.

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Main findings

Middle leaders are beginning to develop their knowledge of the school’s priorities and create their plans for the school’s improvement. Their self-evaluation skills are less developed and sometimes this provides them with an overly optimistic view of improvements made to date.

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Main findings

The actions that you took last year led to improvements in pupils’ outcomes across the school. This is demonstrated by the rising proportion of children who attained a good level of development in the early years. Standards further up the school have improved over the last year, moving close to national averages at the end of Key Stage 1. A similar picture is evident in Key Stage 2 because pupils made more rapid progress, particularly in reading and writing. Improvement is also evident in the standard of pupils’ grammar, punctuation and spelling.

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Main findings

You have secured a stable teaching staff with no temporary or supply teachers, which you rightly identify as a platform for further improvement. The school’s approach to training is well matched to teachers’ and teaching assistants’ individual needs. Effective systems to monitor and support the professional development of less experienced teachers are in place.

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Main findings

The school is working hard to improve attendance. However, attendance levels remain stubbornly below the national average. A number of parents continue to take their children out of school for extended holidays, which does not help the school address the issue and risks the introduction of gaps in children’s learning.

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Main findings

Governors have recently begun to complete their own evaluative reports on school improvement. However, they need to be more rigorous in their systematic checking of the progress the school is making towards becoming a good school. Governors need to hold middle leaders more to account on the progress the school is making in improving pupils’ outcomes.

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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 benefited from a range of external support, including support from a local leader of education, a specialist leader of education and a local authority schools standards and effectiveness partner. This has helped the school with improvements in the development of the early years and strengthening senior leaders’ approaches to checking on school improvements. The local authority continues to check the progress on a termly basis. This support has had a positive impact on the school’s improvements.

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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 Doncaster.

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