Boxgrove Primary School

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

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Holly Broughton Executive Headteacher Boxgrove Primary School Boxgrove Road Abbey Wood Greenwich SE2 9JP

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 7 February 2017, 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 2012.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, the head of school and all senior leaders provide strong, highly effective leadership. You have an ambitious vision for the school, which is shared by staff and governors alike. You have incisive knowledge of your school. You use performance information well to identify areas for further improvement. You, your leaders and staff have worked effectively to tackle the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. As a result, the school continues to improve.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

The school has maintained good quality of teaching despite staff changes over time. This is because leaders at all levels help teachers to improve their skills. In turn, your teachers are reflective professionals who receive good support and training to help pupils achieve well.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

Your partnership working with the school you have entered into a soft federation with is helping to improve teaching, learning and assessment and to strengthen leadership even further. For example, you and other leaders work across both schools. This enables you to share successful practice and constantly build capacity within the leadership team.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

You work extremely well with the local authority and benefit from the good advice they give you in fine-tuning your priorities for improvement. The local authority values your partnership working with other schools. Governors have an extensive knowledge of the school. They hold leaders to account for all aspect of the school’s work. They have enhanced their skills of governance still further since the previous inspection and have successfully achieved the ‘governor mark’.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

The improvements in the teaching of reading and mathematics are clear. However, not all teachers are helping pupils to develop reasoning and problem-solving skills as well as they can. The progress that pupils make in mathematics is sometimes not clear in books because teachers ask pupils to do lots of work on their whiteboards, which they then wipe away. This sometimes means that pupils have no record of the thinking they did or the skills that they used to be successful. Books often show the end result of work, rather than the process of the learning. Your mathematics leader recognises that this is something that teachers need to work on to help pupils make even faster progress.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

Leaders also recognise that there have been clear improvements to the teaching of reading. Teachers have a consistent approach to reading sessions in line with school policy. However, they would benefit from further support in selecting texts which really challenge pupils and help them to make rapid progress.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

While teachers have worked effectively to improve pupils’ handwriting and presentation of work in books, there is still some variability. Inspection evidence shows that there are still pockets of poor presentation and handwriting evident in some classes.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove Primary School

Leaders and governors have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. The head of school has an in- depth knowledge of every vulnerable child, including children who are in need. She is relentless in her drive to ensure that the school’s provision meets pupils’ needs and she is rigorous in her challenge to external services to make sure that they keep children safe. Staff and governors are kept up to date with training and guidance in all aspects of safeguarding. Any concerns are referred immediately to leaders who take swift and effective action. The records of checks on the suitability of staff to work with children are thorough and meet requirements. The pupils and parents I spoke to had no doubts that pupils were well cared for and helped to be safe at school.

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Inspection findings

 My first line of enquiry focused on achievement in reading and mathematics of the disadvantaged pupils who are currently in the school, including the most able disadvantaged pupils. The provisional 2016 national assessments for Year 6 showed that progress in reading and mathematics was broadly average. Disadvantaged pupils achieved standards that were below the national average in mathematics and reading, and the proportion of disadvantaged pupils achieving at the highest level was also below average.  Leaders have taken effective action to improve the rates of progress for disadvantaged pupils. Teachers have developed a consistent approach to teaching reading and are supported well in fine-tuning their skills by subject leaders. As a result, pupils read with confidence and they benefit from exposure to high-quality literature in English lessons. During group reading sessions, teachers ask questions which challenge them to think deeply about texts to

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Inspection findings

develop their comprehension skills. Pupils apply their knowledge of phonics well. Consequently, most disadvantaged pupils, including those who are the most able, have made good progress in reading so far this year. However, teachers need further support to select texts for pupils or to effectively guide pupils to choose texts which challenge them to make the best progress that they can. During the inspection, pupils of all abilities read the books selected for them with ease and several pupils, particularly the most able pupils, commented that their books were ‘easy’.  Leaders have taken effective action to improve the teaching of mathematics and this is having a good impact on the progress that disadvantaged pupils make, including the most able disadvantaged pupils. Book scrutiny and assessment information showed that most disadvantaged pupils are making strong progress. Where they are not, leaders and teachers are acting swiftly to intervene and

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Inspection findings

provide effective support to help them catch up. The most able disadvantaged pupils are making rapid progress in Year 6 because they receive high-quality teaching in a separate ability set. In Year 6, pupils are developing reasoning and problem-solving skills well through interesting and engaging activities. This is not the case in all other year groups. Nevertheless, teachers are working effectively to improve their teaching of these specific skills.  Teachers are consistent in the school’s policy of using whiteboards for pupils to make notes, work things out and ‘have a go’ in mathematics lessons. During the inspection, leaders noted that there was a lot of learning and progress evident in the work that pupils did on whiteboards. The work was then wiped away. Leaders recognised that pupils would benefit from having a permanent record of their successful learning.  Teachers have successfully helped most pupils to improve their handwriting and

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Inspection findings

presentation in books. However, there are still pockets of poor handwriting and presentation evident in some classes in the school, particularly at the lower end of key stage 2. Presentation in some of the Year 2 and Year 6 books was of a very high standard indeed.  During the inspection, I considered how effectively governors hold leaders to account for their spending of pupil premium funding, and its impact on improving pupils’ outcomes. I also explored how governors ensure that policies with regard to safeguarding and special educational needs are reviewed, kept up to date and reflect the most recent guidance.  Governors hold the school to account very well for the spending of the additional funding. Through the teaching, learning and assessment committee, they ask incisive questions about whether the spending is leading to pupils making better progress. Governors challenge the school to improve provision and make sensible

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Inspection findings

suggestions to help pupils further. For example, they suggested that some of the funding should be spent on speech and language therapy for pupils who would benefit from this.  All policies are reviewed regularly and governors ensure that they are kept up to date with all relevant guidance. At the time of the inspection, the most up-to- date policies were not uploaded onto the school’s website. However, paper versions were available for parents and the policies were uploaded on to the school website by the end of the inspection, in line with government guidelines.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the strong practice which leads to rapid progress in the development of problem- solving and reasoning skills in mathematics is developed in all classes across the school  pupils’ mathematics books reflect more fully the good learning and progress which is evident during lessons, so that pupils can look back and remember the skills that helped them be successful when they tackle more challenging work  the good quality of handwriting and presentation of work seen in some classes is further developed in all classes across the school  subject leaders support teachers in selecting reading material which challenges pupils, particularly the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils, to make rapid progress in their reading.

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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 Greenwich. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with you, the head of school, the acting head of school, your senior leaders and four governors. I met with a representative from the local authority. I visited all classrooms with you or your senior leaders and observed learning. I talked to pupils in lessons and as they moved around the building. I heard pupils read and talked to them about their reading experiences in school. I evaluated recent information about pupils’ achievement. I scrutinised a sample of pupils’ books in each classroom. I looked at your records for keeping pupils safe, your policies and other documents. I spoke with parents at the start of the day and considered the 56 responses to the online parent questionnaire. I reviewed the responses to staff and pupil questionnaires.

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