Rogate CofE Primary School

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

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Ms Amy O’Toole Interim Headteacher Rogate CofE Primary School Rogate Petersfield Hampshire GU31 5HH

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 22-23 June 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 recent section 5 inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection that took place in January 2016.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

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

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

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

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

The local authority’s statement of action and school improvement plan are fit for purpose.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Rogate CofE Primary School

I am copying this letter to the interim chair of the governing body, the Director of Education for the Diocese of Chichester and the Director of Children’s Services for West Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Improve leadership and management by ensuring: – governors fulfil their statutory duties reliably, particularly with regard to: the effective oversight of safeguarding management procedures, including maintaining a single central record of recruitment checks and reliable records of staff safeguarding training; the effective management and oversight of the school’s use of the pupil premium and additional government sports funding; holding leaders firmly to account for pupils’ outcomes; compliance in maintaining the school’s website and statutory policies, including for safeguarding and accessibility; the due scrutiny of information about the performance management of teachers; and the maintenance of accurate records of all governors’ committee meetings – senior leaders evaluate the school’s effectiveness accurately, identifying relevant priorities and devising improvement plans which include sufficiently

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

urgent timescales, measurable targets for improvements in pupils’ achievement, specific staff responsibilities and information about how governors and external partners will evaluate the impact of the actions taken on pupils’ outcomes – senior leaders hold all teachers to account specifically for the progress of their pupils, making effective links with teachers’ performance management – leaders and teachers have opportunities to experience good practice in other schools and to compare their assessments of pupils’ progress with colleagues in good schools using similar systems, to provide professional development for staff and inform improvement at Rogate – pupils’ experience of life in modern Britain develops rapidly to be a more regular feature of their life at school and of the books available to pupils.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Improve teaching so all pupils, including those who need to catch up in their learning and the most able, make good progress during lessons, developing determination and resilience for learning, particularly in mathematics and writing in key stage 2, by ensuring: – teachers make consistently effective use of information about pupils’ previous achievement to plan precisely the learning they intend pupils to achieve, using time in lessons and over each term well, and ensuring well-informed support for pupils’ learning during lessons from teaching assistants – core skills for mathematics and writing are taught systematically and consistently throughout the school, with effective opportunities for pupils to develop their writing in other subjects – teachers consider pupils’ writing skills when feeding back to pupils about ‘whizzy writing’ and pupils’ writing in other subjects, and ensure that work provided for pupils in mathematics, after positive feedback has been given

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

about work completed, is suitably challenging.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Improve early years provision by ensuring: – staff track children’s progress effectively and use this information systematically to inform planning for children’s next steps in learning and to identify strengths and areas for improvement in the provision over time – the outdoor area is deployed fully to promote children’s good progress in all the areas of learning.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 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 management may be improved.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.

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Evidence

I observed the school’s work, scrutinised a range of documents and met with staff and a group of pupils. I spoke to the interim chair of the governing body on the telephone and met with four governors including the vice chair. I met with a representative of the local authority and spoke on the telephone to a representative from the diocese. I reviewed the school’s website, scrutinised the single central record and a range of documents related to safeguarding.

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Evidence

I spoke to a few parents during the course of the inspection to seek their views about the school. Together, we observed teaching and learning in every class.

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Evidence

I looked at a sample of pupils’ work and observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school. I took account of the school’s own information about pupils and evaluated the local authority’s statement of action and the school improvement plan.

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Context

Following the inspection, the local authority appointed you as interim headteacher to the school, and also secured the services of an experienced governor to act as interim chair of governors.

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Context

The school has appointed a new business manager and additional governors since the inspection. The teacher currently working in the early years has only been teaching in that class for a few weeks. She was previously teaching another class and was moved to help improve the quality of teaching and learning for the youngest pupils in the school. You have revised the school timetable so that English and mathematics are now taught every day.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

In a short space of time, you have successfully moved the school forward on its journey of improvement. Together with senior leaders, you are tackling weaknesses in the school with energy and determination. As a result, you have galvanised staff to work more effectively as a team and have helped to raise their expectations of what pupils can achieve. Senior leaders make particularly good use of consultants to help improve the quality of teaching and learning across the whole school.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The governing body is still in the early stages of developing its ability to hold the school to account. It is not yet contributing effectively enough to the strategic direction of the school. Nevertheless, under the strong leadership of the recently appointed interim chair of governors, this has started to improve. Governors now have a better understanding of what they need to do to help the school to improve. An external review of governance is currently underway. Governors recognise the merit of producing a governor action plan from the findings and recommendations of this review. Governors are putting helpful systems in place to help them to become more effective at fulfilling their statutory duties. For example, they have created a cycle in which all policies will be reviewed. The single central record is checked regularly by governors and is now up to date. Most governors have completed safeguarding training and have received certificates.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

My review of the school’s safeguarding practice highlighted that the records completed about concerns of a safeguarding nature are not always sufficiently detailed. I also found that there has not been a premises fire risk assessment completed in the last 12 months. The school’s website is still not compliant, but a new website for the school is scheduled for September 2016.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Senior leaders now have a more accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. With support from the local authority, you have devised a helpful improvement plan that identifies appropriate priorities against measurable targets. The plan includes specific staff responsibilities and reflects urgent timescales.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium has been undertaken. As a result, governors have a better understanding of their role in monitoring the effectiveness with which the school uses this additional funding. Governors now recognise that information about the planned expenditure and impact of additional funding, including for physical education (PE) and primary sport, must be published on the school’s website. Governors have started to request information from senior leaders about the progress made by pupils for whom the additional funding is intended; however, their questions are not yet sufficiently probing. Although senior leaders are developing a plan about the use of the pupil premium, there is no action plan to show how additional funding for PE and primary sport will be used. The records of meetings held by the governing body to date are still weak. Governors recognise this as an area for improvement and have recently engaged the services

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

You triangulate information about the progress made by pupils with the work in their books and your observations of teaching. This enables you to form accurate judgements about the overall quality of teaching and to set appropriate targets for teachers. Although information about the quality of teaching is now shared with governors, it lacks detail about the specific strengths and weaknesses of teaching in the school. Nevertheless, you hold teachers rigorously to account for the progress of their pupils, and this is linked effectively to the management of their performance.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Although in the early stages of implementation, there are now planned opportunities for pupils to develop their understanding of life in modern Britain. Some of the parents who spoke to me stated that you have injected a degree of positivity into the school and that, since your arrival, communication with parents has improved.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

As a result of the school being put into special measures it received an academy order from the Department of Education. The diocese of Chichester is working closely with the school and the local authority to explore academy options.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The training provided by the advisers for mathematics and English has led to teachers focusing more sharply on teaching the core skills in mathematics and writing. Although improvements are still embryonic, teachers are getting better at encouraging pupils to develop the vocabulary they need to explain how they solve problems and to give reasons for their answers using the correct terminology. Teaching typically provides helpful feedback to pupils about what they could do to improve; the school’s policy for providing feedback to pupils is not implemented consistently well by all staff.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teachers now provide more opportunities than has previously been the case for pupils to write in other subjects. This is developing well in religious education, science and in information and communication technology (ICT). Older pupils told me that they would welcome more opportunities to use ICT to help them to edit and improve their written work.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teachers and leaders have observed good practice in other schools. This is set to continue into the next academic year. These opportunities help staff to reflect on and improve their practice.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

From the lessons observed, teachers make increasingly good use of assessment information to plan lessons that are better suited to the different needs of pupils. Teachers typically include activities that challenge pupils, such as to help them develop greater mastery of mathematics. However, the way activities are introduced during lessons does not always make the best use of time, and as a result the progress made by some of the most able slows.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The quality and impact of intervention strategies to help pupils who need to catch up are variable. In some cases, the standard of pupils’ work, particularly those of very low ability in Year 1, is not improving rapidly enough. This is despite additional support. This is particularly the case for those pupils who did not meet the early learning goals last year, and who were not well prepared for Year 1 and the key stage 1 curriculum.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teachers help pupils to develop greater determination and resilience. One pupil told me ‘The work can be difficult, but I don’t give up, I just keep trying.’ While this response from the pupil is admirable, it is unhelpful if the pupil has not been provided with the strategies to be successful. This includes the ability to use and apply their phonics knowledge (letters and the sounds that they make) to read and write unfamiliar words.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teachers benefit from meeting with teachers from other schools to moderate the quality of pupils’ work across the school. This activity highlights that the teachers and leaders at Rogate now make accurate judgements about the assessment of their pupils’ work. Teachers in key stage 2 are getting better at using information at the beginning of every unit of work to consider how best to meet the different learning needs of their pupils, particularly in mathematics and writing.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is improving in the early years. The new teacher in the early years uses a newly devised system to track the progress made by pupils. Although this is not yet done electronically, the system provides a clear and accurate view of pupils’ development and is used effectively to plan pupils’ next steps in learning. Staff in the early years are starting to make better use of the outside area. Parents are rallying round to help improve the quality of the outside area. However, the progress of pupils in the early years is held back by the poor learning environment and lack of resources.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

The majority of pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. A few pupils said that there was a little bullying but that when it occurs staff usually deal with it well. They told me that they feel safe in school and enjoy their lessons. They know how to keep themselves safe when using the internet. A few of the older pupils said they would like to learn about the dangers of extremism and radicalisation.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils demonstrate a good understanding of fundamental British values. This includes the need to obey the law and to respect others. Pupils enjoyed the recent focus on learning about different cultures and faiths. One pupil told me that he looked on the internet for places of worship in the south-east. This taught him that there are lots of different religions in the region.

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Outcomes for pupils

From the lessons observed and the work seen in pupils’ books, pupils are beginning to make better progress in mathematics, especially in learning about fractions, producing graphs and telling the time. Older pupils are getting better at investigating and solving problems and younger pupils are becoming more confident in addition. However, pupils are not sufficiently confident about their times tables and this holds them back when trying to solve complex mathematical problems. The quality of writing of some of the disadvantaged pupils in Year 1 is of a very low standard and is not progressing quickly enough. Other pupils in key stage 1, especially the most able in Year 2, make good progress, including those with low starting points. Pupils are becoming more adept at using the past and present tenses and are starting to use these correctly in their writing. Many use basic punctuation correctly in their writing; others still struggle to use capital letters in the

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Outcomes for pupils

The presentation of pupils’ work in lower key stage 2 is often untidy, particularly in mathematics. Although pupils in this part of the school are progressing well, there is still not enough challenge for the most able, and therefore too few are set to exceed age-related expectations. Pupils in upper key stage 2 are starting to produce written work of high quality. These pupils use their targets to create their own learning objectives and engage in their learning enthusiastically.

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Outcomes for pupils

The school has yet to embed its systems for tracking and monitoring the progress made by different groups of pupils. Consequently, there is insufficient data to check on the extent to which gaps are narrowing.

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External support

The quality and impact of external support has been variable. This has improved recently, and since the newly appointed local authority senior adviser for the area started working with the school. Senior leaders benefited from the support provided by the local authority to develop the school’s improvement plan. However, the evaluations undertaken by the local authority about the progress made by the school against the targets in the plan are at times overly generous and lacking in detail.

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External support

Relationships between the governing body and the local authority have been a little strained. This is due to what governors consider to be insufficient and late communication and support from the local authority.

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External support

The school receives helpful and accurate feedback from consultants about aspects of teaching and learning. This contributes well to the development of senior leaders’ ability to help the school to improve.

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External support

Governors particularly appreciate the support they receive from a national lead for governance. This is helping them to develop and better understand their roles and responsibilities.

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