King's Academy Northern Parade (Infant)

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

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25 February 2016 Mrs Sue Wilson Executive Headteacher Northern Parade Infant School Kipling Road Hilsea Portsmouth PO2 9NJ

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

Following my visit to the school on 2 February 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 March 2011.

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

You and the associate headteacher have sustained the school’s effectiveness since the last inspection. You and your staff clearly focus well on promoting pupils’ wider personal and social development alongside their academic progress. The school’s values, that include independence, motivation and challenge, guide the work of staff at all levels. Pupils benefit from good care and support. This was evident during the day, as adults gave encouragement and support to pupils both in and out of lessons. All parents who spoke to me informally spoke warmly of the caring and nurturing approach at the school and I saw many instances of this in action during the visit.

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

You have received minimal support and challenge from the local authority over recent years. Instead, you opt to draw on outside expertise to provide challenge and advice. You use various partnerships to keep teaching fresh and look for ways that it can improve. Your current work with a local university to improve teaching in mathematics is a good example. This project has clearly boosted staff confidence in tackling aspects of mathematics and we saw some of the new approach in action in several lessons. Pupils were paying close attention to their calculations, using resources to guide their thinking and supporting one another well. Above all, they were clearly enjoying working things out and were proud of their achievements.

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

Governors have a good awareness of the school’s key priorities. They take a keen interest in current developments, such as the project to improve the way teachers assess pupils’ work, to help pupils know how well they have done. The Chair of the Governing Body listed a number of questions he had identified from last summer’s assessments. These were pertinent and demonstrated that governors provide a degree of challenge for senior leaders as part of their strategic role.

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

During my visit, I saw pupils who were happy and settled in lessons. They persevered with their work and received good support from adults. Some of your support assistants are very skilful in keeping the momentum in pupils’ concentration going. You explained to me that some of your pupils can start to misbehave if the quality of teaching slips. You tackle weaker teaching through support and coaching and make sure that, if pupils are losing out, this does not happen for very long. You have asked your teachers to build variety into lessons, to avoid pupils sitting for too long on the carpet, for example. In each lesson, we witnessed teachers changing their teaching methods to keep pupils interested and involved. Pupils are clearly familiar with this flexibility and move from carpet to tables, and back, sensibly and quickly.

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

Pupils leave the school with a strong grounding in reading and mathematics. Their writing is almost as good and has shown an improving trend over recent years. Writing has certainly improved since the last inspection. More-able pupils are also doing a lot better than they were at that time, particularly in reading. There is some work to do to close the attainment gap for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Although the gap closed somewhat in the 2015 Year 2 assessments, those currently in Year 2 left Reception with a wide gap. The associate headteacher and I looked at some of these pupils’ progress over the last two years and there is still some catching up to do in reading, writing and/or mathematics.

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

My meeting with the governor who has responsibility for safeguarding shows that this important aspect of the school’s work is given high priority. More than one governor has had recent training in safeguarding, to make sure the latest government guidance is being followed. Involving another governor in this role has been a conscious step, to support continuity with this important responsibility, should it become necessary. Governors speak to staff to check that training and induction for safeguarding is as it should be and the school’s policy is embedded. Governors’ last safeguarding audit covered a wide range of activities to check that pupils are kept safe and that staff know the correct procedures should they become concerned. Governors have taken their duty to protect pupils from radicalisation or extremism seriously. All have received the ‘Prevent’ training recently. Discussions with leaders and governors during the visit showed that this duty had been given careful

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Short inspection of Northern Parade Infant School

consideration, taking the infant school context into account. There was no sense of ‘this does not apply to us’. On the contrary, I observed a keen awareness from all leaders that ‘it could start here’ and that staff need to be well versed and well prepared.

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Inspection findings

 You and the associate headteacher are successful in giving pupils a good start in their infant years so that they can move to the federated junior school in a strong position.  You draw on expertise from beyond the local authority to keep teaching fresh and bring in new ideas. The project that has run for several years, led by an external writing consultant, has led to improved writing. The more recent initiative, to improve teaching in mathematics, is also having a beneficial effect. It has improved teachers’ and support assistants’ confidence in teaching the new mathematics curriculum. We saw lively mathematics lessons with pupils working and thinking hard about their calculations.  You monitor pupils’ learning carefully on an individual basis. Pupils’ progress is reviewed regularly to check whether they are on track to reach the expectations for their age. You have aligned your approach to take account of the government’s

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Inspection findings

changes to assessment arrangements, now that levels are no longer used.  When you and the associate headteacher monitor the quality of teaching, inspection evidence shows that there is not always enough focus on how well pupils are learning. Your records, following scrutiny of pupils’ work, include very brief comments on how well pupils learn. These do not go into enough depth to show the stronger and weaker aspects in the learning of different groups.  Your approach to assessment is manageable. Records show at a glance the pupils who are, for example, from disadvantaged backgrounds or service families. These are prominently displayed so that teachers are aware how well their pupils are doing. While individual pupils’ progress is monitored well, the progress of different groups is not checked as well. Given the wide gap between disadvantaged children who left Reception in 2014 and other children, the progress of this particular group

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Inspection findings

needs greater scrutiny to check that any gaps close quickly as they move into subsequent year groups.  In the early years, children were participating in a good range of activities, in the classroom and outside. Adults were alert to children’s needs and provided sensitive, encouraging support. All teachers and most support assistants modelled good pronunciation when teaching sessions on phonics (the sounds that letters make) to develop early reading skills. Learning was more successful when tasks were effectively varied to meet children’s needs. There were occasions when work was too hard for some children when working as a whole class to learn the sound ‘igh’.  Pupils’ personal and social development is given clear priority. You and your staff give good support to any pupils who may find themselves in vulnerable situations. Staff provide good role models for pupils to promote good relationships and a

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Inspection findings

happy atmosphere in school.  The parents who met me in the playground before school were entirely happy with the school’s work. Around 30 parents added comments to their questionnaires. While some were wholly positive, other comments were more mixed. The predominant issue related to communication between parents and the school. This was highlighted for particular praise at the last inspection. However, comments from about 10 parents reported that communication is not as organised, timely and reliable as they would like.  Your staff organise many events and special visits to broaden pupils’ awareness of the world around them and their knowledge of cultural diversity. Photographs around the school show that a range of visitors come into school to share their skills and experiences. Pupils visit places to give them experiences they may not otherwise have. Many parents praised this aspect of the school’s work and

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Inspection findings

appreciated the steps staff take to broaden their children’s cultural understanding.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  any gaps that have opened up at the end of Reception, for disadvantaged children, are closed as quickly as possible as they move through the school  leaders’ monitoring of teaching focuses in more depth on the stronger and weaker aspects of pupils’ learning, including the learning of different groups  leaders find out from parents what is leading to the communication issues that came through in their written comments and take steps to improve the situation.

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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 Portsmouth City Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, the associate headteacher and two governors, including the governor responsible for safeguarding. I visited almost all classrooms to observe learning, with you or the associate headteacher. We saw several ‘zone time’ sessions after lunch, where small groups were working with teachers or support assistants on targeted tasks. I talked to parents before school. During visits to lessons, I spoke to pupils informally and looked at some of their books. A range of documentation was scrutinised, including documents related to safeguarding, pupils’ progress and monitoring of teaching. Responses from Parent View and questionnaires from pupils were analysed.

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