Haslemere Primary School

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

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Mrs Charlotte Groom Haslemere Primary School Brooklands Court Haslemere Avenue Mitcham Surrey CR4 3PQ

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 11 May 2016, 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 January 2011.

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Short inspection of Haslemere 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 Haslemere Primary School

Since your appointment in 2012 you have sustained an atmosphere of community within the school and a strong team spirit within the staff. Pupils are proud to be part of Haslemere Primary School, staff are proud to work there and parents value the high quality of education provided for their children.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Leaders have maintained a relentless focus on raising standards and providing a rich and varied curriculum which is specifically designed to meet the needs of all groups of pupils in the school. Based around key values, such as resilience, commitment and fairness, the curriculum is focused on the development of the whole child. As a result, pupils make good progress both academically and socially.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Senior leaders and governors have recruited an effective team of teachers to support the school in its work. They have started to develop the skills of some talented practitioners and to prepare them for future management roles.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Leaders have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified during the inspection in 2011. They have revised the systems which check on the quality of teaching. These systems bring together evidence from a range of monitoring activities to make sure that leaders are able to make accurate judgements. Consequently, leaders have a clear view of exactly where strengths and weaknesses lie. There are clear links between the quality of teaching and increases in teachers’ pay.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Under the guidance of your leadership and that of your senior team, the quality of teaching is improving. Pupils make good progress across a wide range of subjects. However, at times activities are not presented in a format that is easily accessed or understood by some pupils. Occasionally, additional adults such as teaching assistants are not deployed to best effect. Consequently, progress for some pupils is not as rapid as it could be.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Leaders have made sure that there are thorough systems and processes in place to keep pupils safe. Any concerns regarding pupils’ welfare are logged in detail, along with actions taken to resolve the situation. Leaders have devised a format for these records which makes it easy to find out if there have been similar concerns raised in the past. This information can then be considered when making new decisions.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

There are similarly rigorous arrangements in place to record and follow up any pupil absence. Leaders do not accept low levels of attendance and work with families to make sure that pupils, even the very youngest, attend well. As a result, attendance is very good, and the number of pupils who are persistently absent has decreased.

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Short inspection of Haslemere Primary School

Leaders and governors have taken on board the most recent guidance and legislation regarding the safeguarding of pupils. They have ensured that members of staff are trained to spot any signs of, for example, child sexual exploitation or exposure to radical views. Some governors attend this training so they can also remain well-informed, and judge for themselves whether any further guidance is required.

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Inspection findings

 Together with your senior leadership team you have nurtured a strong sense of community within the school. Those who work there, pupils and staff alike, want to achieve great things. There are robust systems and procedures in place which make sure that everyone is able to succeed.  The curriculum developed by senior leaders and teachers is tailored to the needs of the pupils in the school. Leaders identified that the language development of pupils joining the school lagged behind their other skills. Working as a close team, teachers developed a broad and balanced curriculum, based on the national curriculum, which is centred on a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. This curriculum is rich in opportunities to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding and, as a result, promotes pupils’ well-being effectively.  Governance has improved. Governors know where the strengths and areas

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Inspection findings

for improvement lie. For example, they could tell the inspector which cohorts of pupils were doing less well than others, and that they were checking the impact of steps taken to address this. They receive information from other leaders and the local authority as well as yourself. Governors ask challenging questions of leaders to hold them to account for their work.  Senior leaders and governors took effective action to secure capacity in the senior leadership team when a vacancy arose. They acknowledge, however, that more opportunities for teachers to develop their leadership skills are needed in order to provide a more secure base from which the school can improve further.  Teachers work together to make sure that there is a high level of consistency in their work. The school’s policy for marking and feedback to pupils is used effectively throughout the school to help pupils improve. Teachers plan interesting lessons that pupils enjoy. This motivates them to

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Inspection findings

want to learn more. Pupils learn to challenge themselves by selecting activities that are at an appropriate level to make them think hard. Sometimes, however, activities are presented in a way which is difficult for some pupils to understand or access. For example, at times instructions or stories are presented in symbol format and too many symbols appear on a page. Pupils cannot decipher them all. This means that pupils do not gain as much learning from the activity as they could.  Other adults in the classroom are generally used effectively to support learning. They use a range of resources to make sure that pupils understand their task. They work with individuals or small groups of pupils so that all pupils make good progress. Sometimes, however, their work could be organised more effectively. For example, their work with small groups occasionally disturbed the teacher’s input to the rest of the class.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils make good progress across all areas of the curriculum. They join the school with skills which are below those that would usually be expected, especially in the area of communication and language. As a result of consistently good teaching and regular attendance, they make good progress in all key stages. Pupils leave the school with levels of achievement that are broadly average.  Leaders and teachers have worked very effectively together to make sure that disadvantaged pupils make just as much progress as others. Published information about the achievement of pupils shows that in 2015 the gap between these groups of pupils and others in the school had narrowed significantly. Leaders carefully check the progress disadvantaged pupils in each year group make in reading, writing and mathematics. Currently, disadvantaged pupils outperform others in some areas, while in others disadvantaged pupils are slightly behind. Any gaps are not significant in size.

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Inspection findings

Where any gap starts to emerge, leaders act swiftly to tackle any underperformance.  The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 high-quality teaching is embedded across all key stages in the school, securing accelerated progress for all groups of pupils  capacity in the school is further extended by providing more opportunities for teachers to practise their leadership and management skills.

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Next steps for the school

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I made short visits to lessons, focusing on the development of pupils’ language and literacy skills. These observations were carried out jointly with senior leaders. I also scrutinised a sample of pupils’ books. A wide range of documentation was scrutinised, including that relating to safeguarding, pupils’ progress and the school’s curriculum. Meetings were held with senior leaders, governors and a local authority officer. I also considered parents’ views through the 39 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View.

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