Setting

Mr D McGarrigle Headteacher Addison Primary School Addison Gardens Blythe Road London W14 0DT

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 28 June 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 October 2011.

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have secured the full support of all staff and governors since your appointment in April 2015. Promoting pupils’ achievement and well-being, irrespective of their ability, ethnicity, socio-economic background or gender, are at the core of the school’s work. You have strengthened the capacity of leaders at all levels through a restructuring of senior and middle leaders’ responsibilities. The appointment of an additional deputy headteacher has speeded up the rate of improvement. You have created a tier of middle leaders who have clear duties to oversee specific areas of the school’s work. All leaders are highly motivated and effective in monitoring their areas of work. However, plans for improvement do not have measurable targets which relate specifically to improving the quality of teaching and raising pupils’ achievement. This means that leaders are not held fully

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

All new appointments, including your own, have heralded the end of high staff mobility. New and existing staff are united in securing your high expectations for all pupils. Staff are proud to work at the school. In discussions with me, they expressed great respect and admiration for your strong leadership. The most recent staff survey confirms their satisfaction. You have quickly developed a reflective approach to improving teaching, learning and assessment. Staff work closely together and you encourage them to take risks, try out new ideas and share what works well. They benefit from tailored professional development from school colleagues, and through Ofsted

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted the external support from the local schools who you have forged a strong partnership with. You use the effective advice and guidance from the local authority to good effect.

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

Leaders know the school’s strengths and areas for development and have tackled some of the weakness in mathematics identified at the last inspection. The biggest impact of school improvement work is evident in key stage 1. More recently, progress in mathematics has speeded up in key stage 2 for all groups of pupils. In 2015, attainment in this subject was above average. Pupils are taught calculation skills systematically, which secures their confidence and fluency. They apply these skills in problem-solving activities regularly. Daily lessons are supplemented with homework designed to enable pupils to practise their skills, which they record in their mathematics passports. Nonetheless, further work is required to make sure that all pupils make rapid progress in mathematics. Our joint observations confirmed that pupils’ learning is not always moved on quickly enough when they have achieved fluency in their calculation skills. This slows their progress down. Although

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

teachers identify specific steps that pupils need to complete in order to succeed, in some instances there are too many, and this reduces their rate of learning. Some teachers are adept at providing precise recommendations to pupils on how to improve their learning, but this is not consistent in all year groups.

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

You and other leaders have secured further improvements since the previous inspection. You have radically improved the school premises and maximised space to provide additional areas for group learning. In the early years foundation stage, there are spacious and bright areas for children to learn and play in well organised and better equipped classrooms. This enables adults to teach children in small, focused groups and provides many spaces for children to learn on their own. The local authority regularly moderates your judgements on the quality of teaching and learning. Using this expertise, you have identified further work to be done in this area. With the recent appointment of two new teachers, and guidance from the local authority, staff have improved their skills in assessing the progress children make and recording this in individual portfolios. Staff use their observations well to ensure that most children make good progress. However, they do not use assessments well

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

enough to identify the next steps for the most able children. This is particularly so for those children who have achieved the early learning goals before the end of their time in Reception. As a result, some of the most able children do not make the progress they are capable of, especially in literacy and mathematics.

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

The governing body is effective in meeting its statutory safeguarding responsibilities. The safeguarding governor carefully monitors key aspects of safeguarding procedures rigorously. This includes monitoring staff members’ current levels of understanding about safeguarding procedures. The safeguarding governor and the designated safeguarding lead regularly monitor the effectiveness of checks made on staff recorded on the single central register. The designated safeguarding lead is meticulous in ensuring that the safeguarding of pupils is given the highest priority. Safeguarding training is regular and up to date. Posters with key safeguarding personnel and contact details are displayed in all prominent areas, providing information, prompts and actions for those who have any concerns about pupils’ welfare and safety. The designated safeguarding lead works effectively with all appropriate agencies and follows up concerns tenaciously, recording resolutions

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Short inspection of Addison Primary School

Pupils are well aware of how to keep themselves safe from potential dangers. They show considerable maturity and respect for their own and others’ behaviour, including when using the internet. Pupils feel exceptionally safe, and genuinely struggled to remember if there had been any recent bullying incidents in their discussion with me. They display great insight and sensitivity when they outlined an example of prejudiced-based bullying that they had discussed previously in class. They explained the profound and devastating effect this can have on individuals in later life. Pupils have great confidence in the school’s ability to secure their safety and welfare. They confirmed that behaviour in school had recently improved.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders make sure that there is concerted effort by all to improve the quality of teaching, pupils’ achievement and their personal development. Senior and middle leaders monitor their areas of responsibility regularly. They use this information to implement a range of strategies to boost the progress of pupils who are at risk of underachieving. Work with other schools to secure accuracy of assessments, supported by standardised tests, means that leaders and teachers know how well different groups and individual pupils are achieving. School information indicates some phenomenal rates of progress, particularly of disadvantaged pupils, in reading, writing and mathematics. However, the lack of measurable targets in school improvement planning relating to improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement means that governors cannot always effectively challenge leaders for their work.  Professional development and training of staff is used effectively to bring

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Inspection findings

about improvements. Further support and training is given to those teachers who need it, including targeted support and guidance for the three newly qualified teachers from the lead practitioner for teaching. This additional support is valued and used well to improve the school’s performance.  The impact of the recent focus on improving the effectiveness of teaching phonics (letters and the sounds that they make) is evident in securing better rates of progress in reading. This is having a positive impact on pupils’ achievements, not only in writing but also in mathematics, particularly for those pupils who speak English as an additional language, as they are better able to access key information.  There are improvements in literacy planning, where specific texts are used to provide a meaningful context for pupils’ learning. Work in books confirms that learning is sequential, building on what pupils know and can do. This enables

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Inspection findings

pupils to practise and extend their basic reading and writing skills, including grammar, punctuation and spelling.  Pupils told me that they have more opportunities to read and that they love reading. Those pupils who are not able to read at home have daily opportunities to do so in lunchtime clubs and with reading volunteers. Daily homework provides further practice for reading in Years 2 and 6.  School figures confirm that there are some inconsistencies in the progress pupils make in some year groups, namely in Years 1 and 3. Much of this is a result of previous instability in staffing. However, in some classes, pupils waste time completing work they can already do because teachers do not assess their progress well enough in lessons. In some lessons, teachers identify too many steps for pupils to achieve. This means that pupils do not complete the most important skills to move their learning on. Feedback to

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Inspection findings

pupils on how to improve their work is not as concise and helpful as it is in some other classes. Equally, assessments in the early years are not used well enough to identify and plan the next steps for most-able children. Consequently these children do not achieve as well as they should.  No parents responded to Ofsted’s questionnaire during this inspection. However, 80 parents responded to the school’s recent parental questionnaire. Their views are very positive about all aspects of the school’s performance, including the support for their child’s well-being. Parental partnerships are being strengthened, because staff provide clear information to parents about their child’s work and progress. There are regular workshops to help parents support their child’s learning, particularly in mathematics and reading.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 assessments are used more effectively to speed up progress, including in the early years foundation stage  teachers provide more precise and simple guidance to pupils about what they need to learn  there is greater consistency in the quality of feedback to pupils on how to improve their work  measurable targets are set for leaders on improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement, so that they are held fully to account for their work.

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Next steps for the school

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

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Information about the inspection

I observed teaching and learning in most classes in key stage 2, and in the Reception classes. These observations were carried out jointly with the headteacher. Meetings were held with senior and middle leaders, a member of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. The inspector also had a discussion with a group of pupils. A number of documents were scrutinised, including the school’s own evaluation of performance, those relating to arrangements for safeguarding, the school’s plans for development, information about pupils’ progress and children’s assessments in the early years.

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