Damson Wood Nursery and Infant School

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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Kay Luther-Jones and Kate Llewellyn Interim Headteachers Damson Wood Nursery and Infant School Stockwell Rise Solihull B92 9LX

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Infant School

Following my visit with Jonathan Keay, Her Majesty’s Inspector, to your school on 18 and 19 May 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions that have been taken since the school’s previous monitoring inspection.

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Infant School

The inspection was the fourth monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection that took place in September 2014. The full list of the areas for improvement that were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached.

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Infant School

Having considered all the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Infant School

Leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.

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Infant School

The school may appoint one newly qualified teacher before the next monitoring inspection.

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Infant School

I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the chair of the interim executive board and the director of children’s services for Solihull. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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place in September 2014

 Raise achievement and improve the quality of teaching by: - implementing systems for capturing reliable and accurate data on pupils’ attainment and how well they are doing - training teachers to use assessment information to plan lessons with activities of varying difficulty matched to pupils’ ability - training teachers to assess accurately pupils’ standards of work, then use this information to plan lessons that establish higher expectations of what pupils can achieve and boost the pace of learning - regularly monitoring the quality of teaching and learning, taking effective action to bring about improvement where weaknesses are identified - correctly identifying pupils who have special educational needs or disability in the school and ensuring they receive the additional support to which they are entitled - identifying those pupils who speak English as an additional language, including those at the early stages of learning English and those who are

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place in September 2014

advanced bilingual learners and ensure their needs are met - ensuring that the extra funding from the government is directed to eligible pupils - ensuring that all children learning to read are given decodable reading books, that is, books that are closely matched to pupils’ developing phonics knowledge and knowledge of common exception words, to read in school and practise at home - ensuring that pupils have access to good-quality reading books both in the library and in classrooms - developing a curriculum, including in the early years foundation stage, which is broad and balanced and meets statutory requirements; including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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place in September 2014

 Improve safeguarding arrangements as a matter of urgency by ensuring that: - detailed and secure records are kept of any concerns raised by pupils, parents or staff about a pupil’s safety or well-being (in line with statutory guidance and advice from the local safeguarding children’s board) - pupils understand all aspects of how to deal with bullying, including those associated with the ‘protected characteristic’ groups identified in the Equality Act 2010 - the safeguarding policy is updated to reflect current statutory guidance - health and safety procedures are improved and there are rigorous systems for monitoring the attendance of those pupils who may be at risk of potential harm, checking first aid and medicines and that fire evacuation practices are held regularly.  Strengthen leadership and management by: - ensuring that governance is effective through the urgent appointment of an interim executive board

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place in September 2014

- arranging for a headteacher to support this school by sharing basic systems, procedures and good practice to put right the substantial weaknesses identified - implementing a coherent staffing structure which clearly identifies roles and responsibilities and appropriate accountabilities - improving communication with parents so that all parents have confidence in the leadership of the school.

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place in September 2014

An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and governance may be improved.

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Evidence

The inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the two interim headteachers, the deputy headteacher, the teachers with responsibility for early years, reading, writing and mathematics respectively, and the school’s business manager. The inspector also met with the chair of the interim executive board (IEB) and one other member of the IEB, and one local authority representative. The inspectors spoke informally with pupils and parents during this monitoring inspection. The interim headteachers joined inspectors during visits to all classes. Inspectors reviewed examples of pupils’ writing, mathematics and topic work with the interim headteachers.

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Context

Since the previous monitoring inspection, three class teachers have left. One of these teachers was responsible for leading developments in mathematics in key stage 1 and another in reading. The IEB recruited three temporary class teachers and a permanent class teacher. This permanent teacher was also given responsibility for leading improvements in reading across the school. All four teachers joined the school in April 2016. At the same time, one of the existing Nursery teachers took responsibility for leading developments in mathematics in all year groups.

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Context

It is proposed that Damson Wood will convert to academy status in July 2016. Balsall Common Primary School will be the sponsor.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The two interim headteachers are strong and effective leaders. They have increased the frequency with which they check the quality of teaching. The interim headteachers use this information well to identify any training that staff need and to agree the actions teachers need to take to help pupils make faster progress. Both interim headteachers have high expectations of staff. They rightly challenge weaknesses in teaching in order to secure better outcomes for pupils. This combination of support and challenge has led to improvements in teaching since the previous monitoring inspection. The interim headteachers fully acknowledge that while teaching is improving, further work is required to ensure that pupils make the progress they should in all classes and across different subjects.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The deputy headteacher who has responsibility for writing and the teachers with responsibility for the early years, reading and mathematics have benefited from the support and advice from local authority advisers and the interim headteachers. As a result of this support, these leaders have an accurate understanding of strengths and weaknesses in their areas of responsibility and are steadily developing the skills required to lead improvements in the school. The interim headteachers are fully aware that these leaders have yet to ensure that all teachers help pupils to reach even higher standards.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Teachers are continuing to make sure that the curriculum in Years 1 and 2 is broad and balanced. Work in pupils’ topic books shows that science is now particularly well taught. Teachers plan a wide range of activities that give pupils the chance to increase their scientific knowledge, make predictions and carry out investigations. In Year 2, teachers make sure that the activities in subjects such as history and geography successfully build on what pupils already know. In contrast, there are still instances of pupils in Year 1 completing simplistic activities, such as drawing pictures when they can do so much more. These simple activities sometimes hinder the progress that pupils in Year 1 make. In Nursery, teachers plan activities that effectively promote children’s development across all the different areas of learning. In Reception classes, teachers do not provide children with enough opportunities to

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

learn about weight, distance, capacity and money. This inhibits the progress that children in Reception make in mathematics.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Each month staff promote values such as trust and cooperation through assemblies and lessons. Pupils have a good understanding of these values and demonstrate them through their interactions with staff and each other. Pupils are considerate, make visitors to the school feel welcome and treat each other with care. Pupils’ understanding of religions and traditions from around the world is continuing to develop well. Pupils for instance spoke confidently about Buddhism and the use of prayer flags.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The parents who spoke with inspectors were complimentary about their children’s experience of school. They told inspectors that they appreciate the newsletters because they keep them up to date with school events. Senior leaders, members of the IEB and local authority advisers have continued to meet with parents. These meetings have been informative and they have given parents the chance to ask questions about changes to staffing and the academy process.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The IEB has a secure understanding of the school’s strengths and priorities for improvement. Through regular visits to the school, the members of the IEB keep themselves up to date with the actions that leaders are taking and intend to take in response to any weaknesses. The IEB knows how senior leaders use additional government funding to help raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. However, the IEB has not yet checked whether this additional funding is making enough of a difference to these pupils’ learning.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Appropriate arrangements are in place for academy conversion. The members of the IEB and senior leaders from Damson Wood are meeting regularly with senior leaders from Balsall Common Primary School. Senior leaders from both schools have been involved in the appointment of class teachers in preparation for September and they have started to plan joint training events for staff. Plans for a shadow governing body are under way.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teaching has continued to improve since the previous monitoring inspection. Nevertheless, inconsistencies remain and this is leading to variable rates of progress. Senior leaders meet regularly with staff to discuss pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. During these discussions, senior leaders check that teachers have accurately recorded what pupils know, understand and can do. Although this information about individual pupils is useful, it is not used consistently well by teachers when they plan work for pupils. As a consequence, the activities for pupils of different abilities are sometimes too easy or too difficult.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Pupils who have special educational needs or disability and those at an early stage of learning to speak English receive appropriate support from teachers and teaching assistants with their reading, writing and mathematics. Staff also make sure that these pupils receive prompt support and have appropriate resources to help them with their work. This helps them to make the same progress as their peers in English and mathematics. However, in other areas of the curriculum, the work for these groups of pupils is occasionally too difficult and this slows down the progress they make, as confirmed by work in pupils’ books.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Some teachers make sure that they set suitably challenging activities for the most- able pupils. They also use questions well to extend pupils’ learning and to encourage pupils to explain their thinking. In Nursery, for example, the children were asked not only to name the food that ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ wanted to eat, but also to pronounce the sounds in the words. The teacher then went on to ask questions that encouraged the most-able children to correctly match the initial sounds in the words to their corresponding letter. The interim headteachers are intending to work with all staff in order to ensure that they consistently plan activities that provide enough challenge for the most-able pupils.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teachers are getting better at planning activities that capture pupils’ interests. This is promoting more positive attitudes to learning. In one instance, pupils in Year 2 were asked to become detectives and to work as a group to solve mathematical problems relating to time. The pupils responded enthusiastically when asked to complete their work and they thoroughly enjoyed solving the problems.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The presentation of pupils’ work has markedly improved. Staff encourage pupils to write neatly and present their work well, particularly in their writing and mathematics books. In Year 1, teachers do not insist that all pupils present their work as well as they could in their topic books. As a result, pupils sometimes scribble and do not write legibly. Teaching in Nursery has continued to improve. Activities are carefully planned so that children make strong gains in their learning. During the inspection, children were keen for inspectors to visit their shop and purchase books, pet food and mini- beasts. The children spoke knowledgeably about different types of mini-beast and their habitats. Teaching in the Reception classes remains variable. On occasion, the activities that teachers plan lack a clear purpose and as a consequence children are not sure what they are expected to learn.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils continue to behave well in most classes. They are attentive, and keen to learn and to talk about their learning with each other. There are occasions in the Reception classes when children become restless. This tends to happen when teachers waste valuable learning time by not making sure that lessons start on time or making sure that activities have a sharp enough focus.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

In the playground, pupils enjoy using the wide range of play equipment. The lunchtime supervisors interact well with the pupils and encourage them to cooperate and to play team games calmly. A group of pupils told inspectors that they like the option of using the quiet area where they can choose to sit and chat, read or colour pictures. Pupils’ behaviour at the end of lunchtimes has improved. Pupils now line up sensibly and enter the school building quietly.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Senior leaders, staff, office staff and the IEB continue to make sure that the school meets statutory requirements for keeping pupils safe. The school’s business manager makes sure that when new staff are appointed, all the necessary information is checked and verified. Fire evacuation practices are held regularly and appropriate risk assessments are carried out prior to educational visits.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe in school. For example, they understand the importance of crossing the road carefully and sharing any concerns they may have with an adult. Pupils’ attendance remains similar to the national average for primary schools.

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Outcomes for pupils

The deputy headteacher has started to collate information about pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics so that senior leaders can check how well different groups of pupils achieve. However, the way in which this information is currently analysed and presented is confusing. It does not enable leaders or IEB members to accurately gauge how well different groups are achieving or to check whether gaps between different groups of pupils are closing.

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Outcomes for pupils

Work in pupils’ books, visits to lessons and information about individual pupils’ progress show that increasing proportions of pupils are reaching the standards expected for their age and making the progress they should. However, pupils’ achievement remains variable in different classes because of continued inconsistencies in teaching. The interim headteachers recognise that further work is required to help pupils make consistently good progress and to reach higher standards. They are also aware that there are occasions when the progress some pupils make slows because of a few remaining weaknesses in teaching. The actions that have been planned to improve teaching further are appropriate.

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Outcomes for pupils

Pupils make the strongest gains in reading. This is because phonics sessions are well structured and focused on helping pupils to read and spell with accuracy. Pupils have access to a good range of reading books. They enjoy reading at home and school. Older pupils read confidently and with expression.

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Outcomes for pupils

Writing activities are much more carefully planned, so that pupils learn how to write for different purposes. For instance, pupils now know how to write letters, diaries, reports and stories with confidence. Pupils also make sure that they choose their words carefully in order to make their writing interesting. There is scope for extending the opportunities available for pupils to practise and extend their writing skills across different subjects.

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Outcomes for pupils

The actions taken to help pupils make better progress with their understanding of number have had a positive impact. Pupils now have a secure understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Pupils’ reasoning and problem- solving skills are less well developed. The teacher with responsibility for mathematics is in the process of planning training for staff so that they can help pupils make better progress with this aspect of mathematics.

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External support

The level of support from the local authority increased following the changes in staffing and the appointment of new subject leaders. The assistance that the teachers with responsibilities have received has been beneficial and is helping to develop their leadership skills. The school’s local authority adviser has continued to provide the interim headteachers with helpful advice and support. This has contributed to the improvements in the school. The local authority recently undertook a review of the school’s work. This review accurately identifies strengths in teaching and pupils’ learning and some of the areas of weakness. The local authority’s recommendations in relation to raising pupils’ achievement are pertinent. However, the local authority’s evaluation of provision in the Reception classes is too generous. It does not accurately identify where further improvements are required.

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