Meadlands Primary School

Meadlands Primary School Broughton Avenue, Ham, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7TS

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 This is an improving school. Attainment by the end of Year 2 and Year 6 has risen since the previous inspection. Most pupils make good progress in English and mathematics. Progress in the wider range of subjects is improving.  The wide choice of clubs and activities, in which most pupils take part, helps provide a broad and balanced experience of learning.  Children in the early years make good progress. Teachers provide rich opportunities for children to explore objects and events around them. This builds the children’s confidence and social skills, and their ability to speak, read and write effectively.  The quality of teaching is good because pupils enjoy learning and most develop their ideas and skills well. They say that teachers provide clear explanations and feedback which helps them improve their work, and often give them harder work if they are ready for it.  Pupils who have special educational needs

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and/or disabilities are provided with prompt and carefully organised support, which staff are well trained to deliver. This develops their learning well.  Behaviour around the school is exemplary. Pupils are very courteous to each other and to the adults who help them learn and develop. They are most concerned for each other’s well- being. Disruptive behaviour of any type is rare.  Senior leaders have improved ambitions and expectations across the school. Improved staff training and a clearer understanding of responsibilities have helped improve learning for all groups of pupils. Disadvantaged pupils now mostly achieve as well as other pupils nationally.  Governors use their wide-ranging skills effectively to take on clearly defined responsibilities and hold leaders more accountable for how well the school is improving.  Leaders’ evidence about how well pupils are learning is not focused sufficiently upon pupils’

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

progress. Consequently, teaching is sometimes not matched closely enough to pupils’ needs and abilities to help them make the best progress possible.  Pupils, particularly the most able, are sometimes not given hard enough work to challenge and extend them. As a result, not enough reach the highest standards.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching and learning even further by: – developing a stronger focus on progress when leaders check and discuss what difference teachers are making to pupils’ learning, so that teaching can be targeted even more precisely to pupils’ needs and abilities – improving levels of challenge, particularly for more able pupils, so that they grapple with difficult ideas and challenge themselves to move on to more difficult work when they are ready for it.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 This school has improved significantly since the previous inspection. Senior leaders have greater ambition and raised expectations. Inspectors agree with parents, staff and pupils that learning is mostly good.  Senior leaders have improved how well staff share information and understand what is expected of them and can build their expertise. Parents feel better informed about their children’s learning. Pupils enjoy learning and speak highly of the help they receive from their teachers. Leaders know what further improvements need to be made and have already prioritised actions to do so.  Wide-ranging training/coaching and mentoring help teachers to learn from each other, from more experienced colleagues, external experts and also from visits to other schools. As a result, the quality of teaching has improved throughout the school.  Senior leaders frequently check the quality of teaching within the school. However,

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

although leaders check progress as well as attainment, there is not enough focus upon pupils’ progress.  Pupils benefit from a wide range of opportunities to learn at Meadlands. As well as individual subjects, the school provides clubs and activities to make the experience of learning rich and enjoyable. Pupils enjoy school and develop increasing confidence in their abilities as they move through the school.  Most pupils make good progress in English and mathematics because staff have used their training to become more skilful in teaching these subjects. Progress in other subjects is improving because subject leaders have begun to provide more support for teachers. Senior leaders are driving improvements in progress as a priority.  The local authority has provided high-quality support, which is much valued by school leaders. The local authority adviser challenged them to raise expectations and improve

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

the quality of teaching, and leaders have responded successfully. School leaders used this challenge and a local authority review of the school’s work to effectively target support where necessary.  The school promotes equal opportunities for all pupils. Leaders specifically check how well different groups of pupils are learning, such as different ethnic groups, girls and boys, and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders check that all pupils have access to the resources the school has, and check that their achievement does not fall behind that of other pupils. Teachers identify early those children who need extra help to keep up with their peers and provide well-planned support. Differences between how well groups of pupils learn are small in most year groups and increasingly diminishing.  Funding to support the learning of disadvantaged pupils is used to provide a range of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

interventions. One-to-one and small-group teaching, as well as parental support, ensures that most pupils who are falling behind are helped to catch up. Funding also pays for teaching assistants to plan and discuss with teachers what would be the most useful support for these pupils. For example, the most able disadvantaged pupils are taught study skills which support their rates of progress well. The pupil premium funding also helps subsidise the cost of trips and visits that make learning more lively and real. Differences between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others are diminishing by the end of Year 2 and have disappeared by the end of Year 6.  The school uses the additional primary school sport funding to provide more sporting activities for pupils, with good impact. Over the past year participation rates in sports clubs have increased for pupils with different needs and abilities. External providers

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

are used to share their expertise with teachers.  The school’s personal, social, health and economic education programme is used to help pupils learn about the wider world, their own emotions and social issues. It includes the promotion of British values by providing the experience of democratically voting pupils into positions of responsibility. Pupils learn about the importance of democracy to allow different voices to be heard, and the role of government in helping people live safely and well. Pupils also recognise that it is more effective to share their ideas with others and discuss them rather than become upset or angry. The school’s emotional literacy support assistant is an integral part of the emotional support the school provides to pupils.  The school’s programme for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education has helped create a harmonious school community, where people conduct themselves very

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

much with the needs of others in mind. Pupils learn about different faiths, countries and cultures through visitors, trips outside their locality and curriculum projects. Pupils respect and welcome diversity within their own and the wider community.

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Governance of the school

 Governors have used the review of governance recommended during the previous inspection to take on clear responsibilities. They work through a structure of committees focusing upon key aspects of the work of the school, including finance, safety, and teaching and learning. They evaluate detailed information about how well different areas of the school are improving and ensure that leaders are constantly striving for the highest standards.  Frequent visits to the school by various governors, particularly the chair of the governing body, have helped develop a partnership approach to improving the school. Consequently, governors are involved in agreeing the school’s priorities, how these relate to the strengths and weaknesses in teaching, and the effectiveness of performance management in improving the quality of teaching and learning.  Governors share senior leaders’ ambition and expectations for the pupils at this school.

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Governance of the school

They hold senior leaders accountable for the success of the school by seeking clarification of information provided about standards and the quality of learning. Governors increasingly focus upon pupils’ progress and recognise that further challenge is required for some pupils.  Governors know how well additional support benefits pupils. They have a clear strategy for the spending of the pupil premium and the sports funding, and have helped ensure that differences in rates of progress between disadvantaged pupils and others nationally have diminished overall.  Governors keep themselves up to date by accessing a variety of information, including that provided by the local authority. Regular training, including effective induction for new governors, ensures that they have high expectations and better hold school leaders to account for their planning and actions to improve the school.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. As well as making sure that key information is shared through important documentation, leaders ensure that safeguarding is integral to the daily work of Meadlands Primary School.  Leaders responsible for safeguarding ensure that all staff understand the reporting procedures and the latest guidance. Regular training makes sure that staff take very seriously their responsibility for keeping children safe from exploitation and harm. Pupils learn to be careful about who they listen to or what they read on the internet. The school ensures that pupils and parents know whom to contact if they have any concerns about their safety or the safety of others.  Leaders know that individuals and organisations responsible for keeping us safe, such as social services, the police and family support organisations, work more effectively when they have met and discussed their work with each other. To this end, the school

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Safeguarding

recently organised a successful networking and information-sharing event.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Effective relationships between teachers and pupils enable lessons to start promptly and proceed smoothly. Pupils know the routines and little time is wasted moving between activities. Teachers explain their ideas clearly and use questioning well to check understanding, and pupils are always provided with the help they need.  Teachers use the school’s information about how well pupils are learning to adjust what they teach. Pupils are provided with different activities which offer appropriate challenge. Due to national changes in assessment, staff have taken a little longer to become confident in judging how well pupils are learning. School leaders now know this and use assessment information carefully to make sure that pupils make good progress from their starting points.  Pupils receive regular feedback from teachers through discussion and written comments. Pupils understand well the school’s colour-coding system for marking their work. They

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

know what needs to be corrected and are able to improve their work. Pupils develop their own understanding of what is expected by sometimes marking their own work.  Inspectors saw evidence of teachers’ good questioning skills. Teachers asked follow-up questions to probe understanding and encouraged pupils to use the correct vocabulary.  Teaching is good in most subjects across the school and improving in other subjects. The quality of teaching in the clubs and activities helps pupils play and learn together in different situations. These clubs include sporting and academic clubs. Pupils say that this wider learning helps them understand that they have to work hard to improve.  The most able pupils are sometimes helped to move on to more difficult work, but these activities are sometimes not hard enough. Teachers do not routinely provide sufficiently difficult tasks matched to the most able pupils’ ability. The school is aware

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

that even more challenge is necessary in lessons so that all pupils, but particularly the most able, achieve their best.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  The value of learning and its importance for their future lives is well understood by pupils. The school’s wish for them to ‘Dream Big’ helps develop high aspirations. In the pupils’ survey completed for the inspection, a very high proportion said that they want to learn more about working life, how to apply for jobs and to prepare for university.  Inspectors agree with the views of parents, pupils and staff that Meadlands is a safe place to learn and develop. Regular training, open communication and a vigilant focus on the safety and well-being of pupils contribute to a culture of safety. Child protection is well managed.  The school contributes to pupils’ sense of responsibility by providing a range of opportunities to learn within lessons and through clubs and activities. The most able pupils, in particular, are sometimes still content to complete the work they are given to

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Personal development and welfare

do rather than request harder work they feel they are ready for.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. There is very little disruptive behaviour, and almost all pupils conduct themselves in an exemplary manner. Staff set high expectations through their own conduct, and pupils follow their example. Through prompt and effective action to promote positive behaviour, teachers now have little need to intervene with how pupils play and learn. The school is a calm and purposeful place to learn.  Through responsibilities such as the junior leadership team, pupils are involved in helping improve their school. For example, they helped to write the school’s healthy living policy and help pupils respond to this guidance. Conversations with pupils and other inspection evidence confirm that they understand the importance of learning well, helping others learn and the consequences for behaviour that does not meet the expected high standards.  No prejudice-driven behaviour concerns pupils. Pupils mentioned past incidents but

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Behaviour

also described how they were stopped effectively. They demonstrate the importance of caring for each other by, for example, making friends with pupils who might not have friends with whom to play.  Attendance is well above the national average. The vast majority of pupils enjoy coming to school. No group of pupils has low attendance. Additional support is provided where necessary to help parents ensure that their child attends school. There were no exclusions last year.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Since the previous inspection, the progress made by all groups of pupils has improved in reading, writing and mathematics. Most pupils make good progress and attain well. Progress in other subjects is also improving.  Leaders have helped teachers improve their understanding of pupils’ needs and abilities since the previous inspection. The differences between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others nationally are closing by the end of Year 2 and are now not noticeable by the end of Year 6. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress due to the carefully adjusted support they receive. Pupils for whom English is an additional language benefit from the strong focus on reading and keep up with their peers. There is no difference between the progress made by boys and girls.  Pupils’ attainment in the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2015/16 was above the

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Outcomes for pupils Good

national average. Pupils’ understanding of phonics lays good foundations for the development of their reading skills. Pupils enjoy reading and read at home. They are mostly able to read important information in subjects across the school because leaders have strengthened their focus upon comprehension skills.  Pupils develop a good understanding of mathematics throughout the school. They experience the use of number across all subjects and by the time they are in Year 6, most are confident with calculations, using what they know to solve problems and interpreting graphs and charts. They regularly explain how they have answered questions or solved problems, which helps them understand mathematics more securely.  Progress in the wider curriculum is increasingly good for many pupils and improving to the level of English and mathematics. Most children are well prepared for the demands of secondary education. Deeper learning opportunities are sometimes missed. For

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Outcomes for pupils Good

example, in science pupils understand that the sun increases the rate of evaporation of water but they struggle to understand this to be the general effect of heat.

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Early years provision Good

 Children now join the Nursery class with skills and development that are broadly typical for their age in all areas. By the end of the Reception Year, they have made good progress in almost all areas of learning and are ready for the demands of Years 1 and 2. Children settle quickly into the school’s ways of working. Inspectors saw that children did try to ‘Work Hard Be Kind’. Children use their indoor and outdoor learning areas well to explore the world around them and learn to read, speak, write and use numbers.  The quality of the early years provision has improved since the previous inspection. Children gain confidence to express and explore their ideas freely. They learn by themselves and with others. Children enjoy counting and understanding the numbers they see around them. They learn to join sounds together and read common words. In this way, most begin to produce early writing.  Teachers know the children well. They know what interests the children they teach

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Early years provision Good

and use this knowledge to help sustain good progress. They observe the children carefully and ask questions to check what the children understand. In this way, they encourage children to connect their ideas and ask their own questions to develop learning.  Children make strong progress. Differences between the achievement of disadvantaged children and others nationally are low or diminishing because teachers intervene early to support any child not making enough progress. The early years leader recognises the need to further strengthen children’s communication and language skills and their understanding of the world around them.  The early years leader is very recently appointed and is mentored effectively by a senior leader. She reflects the ambition and expectations of the school well and is already implementing the school’s priorities for the children to succeed at even higher levels. Well-organised checks on how well children are learning and the sharing of

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Early years provision Good

planning and teaching ideas help children make good progress.  The early years learning area is attractive and spacious. Children benefit from a high- quality, outdoor play area that has much to investigate and explore. Children are able to follow and broaden their interests well. Most children move with confidence and excitement into Year 1.

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address office@meadlands.richmond.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 10−11 September 2014

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Information about this school

 The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.  Meadlands Primary School is an average-sized primary school.  There is a higher proportion of girls than boys overall, particularly in Years 3 and 4.  There are average proportions of pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds and those who speak English as an additional language. Almost 70% of pupils are of White British heritage and others come from a variety of cultural backgrounds.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than average. Those pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is much higher than the national average.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives pupil premium funding is higher than average.  Since the previous inspection, there has been a change in the leadership of the governing body.

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Information about this school

 The school runs a breakfast and after-school club for pupils at the school.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning across a wide range of lessons and subjects. Shorter visits to lessons took place through learning walks. Some of these were joint activities with senior leaders. Inspectors also visited the breakfast club run by the school.  During visits to lessons, the inspection team spoke with pupils about how well they were learning and examined work in their books.  Additional examples of pupils’ work were examined for every year group to gather further evidence about how well pupils had been learning over a longer time period.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school. Formal meetings were held with a group of pupils to seek their views of the school. These views were considered alongside the 112 responses to the online pupils’ questionnaire.  Additional meetings were held with senior leaders, subject leaders, eight governors and a representative from the local authority.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors looked closely at a wide range of documents, including the school’s view of how well it is performing, development plans, policies and procedures, pupils’ progress tracking and leaders’ monitoring of the quality of teaching.  The team took account of the 125 online Parent View questionnaire responses, gathered parents’ views at the start of the day and considered responses to the school’s own parental questionnaires.  Inspectors reviewed the 30 responses to the online staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Mehar Brar, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Roger Easthope Ofsted Inspector guidance 'Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child's school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children's services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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