Setting

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

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Kay Bowen Acting Headteacher St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Waterlooville Stakes Hill Road Waterlooville Hampshire PO7 7BP

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Primary School, Waterlooville

Following my visit to your school on 12 April 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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Primary School, Waterlooville

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

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Primary School, Waterlooville

Senior leaders and governors are 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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Evidence

During the inspection, I met with you, members of the senior leadership team, middle leaders, the chair of the governing body and another governor, and a representative from the diocese to discuss the actions taken since the previous inspection. I also spoke to a representative from the local authority on the telephone. The school action plans were evaluated. We completed short visits to a range of classes together. With the acting assistant headteacher, I scrutinised some pupils’ work from key stage 2. I reviewed a range of documentation, including minutes of the governing body, reports provided by the local authority and information about pupils’ outcomes and progress.

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Context

Since the previous inspection, an assistant headteacher has returned from maternity leave.

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Main findings

You and other leaders have responded to the previous inspection with energy and determination to bring about improvement. You lead with care, tenacity and focus and so have secured a culture where staff are working together to bring about rapid improvements. This has been very well supported by the strength of the governing body, whose members are also keen to continually improve. They have strengthened the ways that they visit the school by linking their focus to the areas of improvement identified at the previous inspection to ensure that they are fully informed of the progress being made by leaders.

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Main findings

You have rightly focused your energy on developing the wider capacity of leadership. Consequently, subject leaders are taking increasing responsibility for monitoring and leading teaching and learning. They are now observing lessons and providing useful feedback to teachers to improve practice.

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Main findings

The strategies you and the leadership team have employed are already making a difference to the quality and consistency of teaching and learning. You have usefully started by introducing clear guidance for teachers to follow. This has successfully helped raise teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve and the standard of work pupils are expected to produce. Consequently, pupils are working much harder and so the quality and quantity of their work are improving. For example, pupils are already more accurate and precise in their use of grammar and spelling in their writing.

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Main findings

Teachers are making better use of assessment to ensure that they plan lessons that take account of pupils’ different starting points. For example, they make good use of systems that you introduced to provide useful feedback to pupils during and following lessons. You have helped teachers to implement practices that allow them to focus precisely on those pupils who need specific support with specific concepts. For example, teachers were seen on several occasions working with small groups of pupils to help them improve their understanding of concepts such as area, perimeter and measuring angles. Consequently, lessons are increasing in their effectiveness to help all groups of pupils make stronger progress. Some teachers still need further support to develop their skills in assessing pupils’ progress during lessons. On occasions, some pupils who are not working directly with an adult would benefit from more timely intervention to make even better progress.

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Main findings

The strong focus on pupils’ basic skills has also already started to improve pupils’ spelling, grammar and punctuation and understanding of basic mathematics. For example, the work that leaders have done developing the use of mathematical resources to secure pupils’ mastery of the number system is helping pupils to improve their ability to calculate with accuracy. Opportunities to share good practice are already better. Subject leaders, who are also often your strongest practitioners, are sharing their expertise effectively through the coaching role you have asked them to undertake. Teachers are getting useful opportunities to deliver lessons collaboratively to learn from each other. This could be strengthened further by adding more opportunities for less experienced teachers to observe your strongest practitioners, particularly those who teach in Year 6.

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Main findings

There are some opportunities for pupils to apply in other subjects the skills that they learn in English and mathematics, but this could still be better. Pupils are using what they learn in English to write with fluency and skill in some subjects, for example religious education. However, there are other subjects where this is not done as well as it could be, for example in science. You have rightly identified the need to broaden the focus of leaders and teachers to secure stronger learning across all subjects.

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External support

Leaders have made very good use of excellent external support provided by the local authority and the diocese. For example, advisers have worked well to support the development of subject leaders who are now much more effective and taking a much fuller role in leading and managing change. The effectiveness of support has been helped by how well the diocese and local authority have worked together to ensure that their support has been coordinated.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the diocese of Portsmouth and the director of children’s services for Hampshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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