Setting

Mrs Debi Cossins Executive Headteacher All Saints’ CofE Junior School Nelson Avenue Warwick CV34 5LY

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Junior School

Following my visit to your school on 19 October 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Junior School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in April 2016. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. At its previous section 5 inspection, the school was also judged to require improvement.

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Junior School

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection.

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Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with you and the associate headteacher, subject leaders, a representative of the local authority and three members of the governing body to discuss the actions taken since the last inspection. The school’s post-inspection improvement and subject actions plans were evaluated and discussed during the day. A ‘learning walk’ visiting all classrooms was undertaken with you and the associate headteacher. A sample of pupils’ workbooks was scrutinised, along with the school’s latest assessment information, safeguarding records and recent external reports about the school’s progress. Informal discussions were held with pupils and parents. Ofsted

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Evidence

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

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Context

Since the last inspection, a new teacher and a new chair of governors have been appointed.

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Main findings

Leaders work together well and have put robust plans in place to work on the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Parents, staff and pupils are very supportive of the leaders and the changes that have been made, such as a new approach to marking pupils’ work. Governors have used the previous inspection report as a catalyst for change. They have created a new committee structure and have appropriate plans to develop clerking, training and the strategic effectiveness of the governing body.

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Main findings

Senior leaders have worked closely with the mathematics coordinator to put plans in place to improve pupils’ mathematical development and the leadership of this subject. Additional mathematics training has already taken place for some staff and an extensive programme of further training and support is planned to improve leaders’ and teachers’ skills. Additional adults are used well to support those pupils whose progress is slower and in-school ‘catch-up’ sessions are arranged to help improve any weaknesses in pupils’ mathematics skills.

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Main findings

Teachers are enthusiastic and have taken on board the changes leaders have introduced, such as a greater focus on vulnerable pupils. This includes pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium funding (disadvantaged pupils) and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Teachers have also embraced the school’s new marking and feedback policy. The pupils I spoke to said that the new marking system helps them to know how to improve the work. Similarly, some parents I spoke to had noticed improvements in the marking system when they looked at their children’s workbooks during a recent parents’ evening. There is early evidence that teachers’ greater challenge and higher expectations are starting to improve pupils’ skills in mathematical reasoning, for example.

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Main findings

The school’s action and raising achievement plans are detailed and are clearly focused on the areas for improvement recommended at the last inspection. Improvement plans have been produced for the three main recommended areas of improvement, including teaching and learning, mathematics and leadership and management. An external review of the school’s use of pupil premium funding was recommended at the last inspection. The school commissioned a pupil premium review in September 2015 and leaders are acting on the comprehensive recommendations from this review. The local authority has supported the leaders’ appropriate decision to continue with these recommendations.

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Main findings

Leaders are disappointed with the 2016 Year 6 results, which showed that pupils’ attainment and progress were below the national figures in reading, mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling at the expected level. This was particularly the case in mathematics for girls, disadvantaged pupils and those with low prior attainment. Although these results are not yet validated, they are unlikely to be significantly below the national average. Year 6 pupils’ attainment was above the national figure in writing at the expected level. Attainment was typically in line with or above the national figure for the proportion of pupils reaching the higher standard. Responding to a weakness identified in the previous inspection report, you and senior leaders have analysed and identified those subjects and pupil groups which will require greater support in order to improve pupils’ progress. Senior leaders agree that ongoing analysis of assessment information about all pupil

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Main findings

groups, especially those with low or middle prior attainment, will be required to ensure teaching resources are directed highly efficiently and help diminish differences in progress and attainment.

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Main findings

The culture of learning in the school has been improved by a sharper focus on mathematics and increased expectations of staff and pupils. For example, teachers have introduced more reasoning into the mathematics curriculum. Pupils’ workbooks show that they have responded well to this challenge and give detailed and accurate reasons for choosing a particular calculation method, for example. Leaders agree that there is room for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment to be more consistent across the school. Leaders plan to ensure that teachers introduce some of the more challenging work earlier in lessons to help pupils make the progress they are capable of.

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Main findings

Leaders have ensured that safeguarding policies and procedures are kept up to date and staff are kept informed of any changes. As a result of effective systems, which all staff maintain in school, pupils are safe in this school. The safeguarding governor regularly monitors this work. Safeguarding practice is monitored continually to ensure procedures are kept up to date and new staff clearly understand the school’s systems.

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Main findings

The spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of the curriculum remain strengths of the school, supported through enrichment activities, the school’s broader internationally based curriculum and the warm, Christian ethos of the school. Pupils are happy at school and enjoy the range of curriculum and after-school opportunities on offer. Playtimes are particularly well organised with pupils actively enjoying a wide range of sports equipment which is efficiently prepared and cleared away by Year 6 ‘play leaders’. Whole school attendance is in line with or above the national average for primary schools. However, the attendance for disadvantaged pupils is below that of other pupils in the school. Although leaders have taken some action to support and improve the attendance of this group, they are aware that further work is needed here.

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Main findings

Ofsted may carry out further monitoring inspections and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection.

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External support

The school has received effective support from the local authority in the form of school improvement adviser visits. Some recent scheduled visits have been postponed due to illness. The local authority has brokered a link with a nearby highly successful school to help improve aspects of leadership and management, including mathematics, at All Saints’ Junior School. The local authority will provide ongoing support and believes that senior leaders have the capacity to bring about further improvement. The evidence collected during the inspection supports the view of the local authority.

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External support

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

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