Featherby Junior School

Featherby Junior School Chilham Road, Gillingham, Kent ME8 6BT

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Safeguarding is not effective. Leaders do not undertake the required checks to ensure that all adults working with pupils are fit to do so.  Many staff do not know who they should raise concerns about pupils with. Not all staff, including those with a named responsibility for keeping pupils safe, are trained to do so.  Leaders have not improved the quality of teaching, learning and assessment since the last inspection.  Leaders do not provide parents with important information and policies on the school’s website. As a result, parents do not know how the school safeguards pupils and how additional funding is used.  The curriculum is inadequate because it is not broad and balanced. Pupils do not get enough opportunities to be artistic or musical.  Governors are not effective. They have not been rigorous enough in challenging leaders about the lack of school improvement.  Leaders do not effectively record incidents of

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

unacceptable behaviour, including bullying. As a result, leaders do not know what is working well and what is not. Poor communication between staff means that incidents of bullying are not always dealt with swiftly.  Pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate. Not enough disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities come to school regularly.  The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is too variable. In some subjects, in some year groups, work is too easy or too difficult.  Pupils make inconsistent progress, including pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are disadvantaged. Writing standards in some year groups are not good.  Pupils’ behaviour requires improvement. Lunchtimes are not calm because pupils do not always behave well.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The head of school is having a positive impact. Leaders now have an accurate view of the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes.  Relationships between adults and pupils are good. Classrooms are mostly calm and purposeful places to learn.

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Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Leaders and governors should keep pupils safe by ensuring that all: – adults who work with pupils have the appropriate checks – staff, including those with specific responsibilities to keep pupils safe, are appropriately trained – record-keeping is clear about both the concerns adults have regarding pupils’ well- being and the actions taken by senior staff – adults who work with pupils know and understand how to keep pupils safe, including knowing who the designated persons are – information and policies that parents access on the school’s website regarding safeguarding are available and up to date.  Improve leadership and management, by: – recording unacceptable behaviour, including bullying, more effectively and using this information to improve pupils’ behaviour – ensuring that the governing body is effective in challenging leaders to bring about swift school improvement – using additional funding effectively to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities – providing parents with a website that meets statutory requirements and provides them with other important information, such as the names of staff.  Improve pupils’ outcomes by ensuring that: – planned learning takes account of pupils’ different starting points so that work is not too easy or too difficult – pupils are taught an appropriate range of knowledge and skills in a wide range of subjects including art and music – pupils make better progress in their writing.  Ensure that more disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities come to school regularly. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Leaders have not improved the overall quality of teaching, learning and assessment. The pace of improvement since the last inspection has been too slow.  Over time, the management of the performance of staff has been weak. In 2016, leaders did not check closely enough that pupils were making enough progress. The time leaders spent in classrooms focused too much on what adults were doing and not enough on the impact their actions had, or did not have, on learning. As a result, teaching has not improved quickly enough.  The curriculum is inadequate because it is not broad or balanced. It does not meet the requirements of the national curriculum in a range of subjects including music, art and design and technology. Pupils spend too much time on English and mathematics. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is not well developed by the narrow curriculum.  Leaders do not systematically record and follow up incidents of unwanted or poor

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

behaviour, including bullying. As a result, leaders do not always communicate behaviour issues effectively with each other or parents. On occasions, bullying and unkind behaviour are not stopped quickly enough. Only just over half of the parents who used Parent View think bullying is dealt with effectively. This links closely to the percentage who think the school is well led and managed.  Additional funding to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is not used effectively. The rates of progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are inconsistent. Parents are not provided with an information report which evaluates the effectiveness of the school’s special educational needs policy.  Leaders’ use of pupil premium funding is not effective, despite a review after the last inspection. In July 2016, the progress of disadvantaged pupils at the end of Year 6

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

from their key stage 1 starting points was in the lowest 10% of schools nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders have not met the statutory requirement to publish how the funding has been used and the impact it has had.  The school’s website is wholly inadequate. It meets almost none of the statutory requirements. It provides parents with confusing and contradictory information about safeguarding. The website does not list the staff who currently teach the children or the right names for the classes or year groups.  Sports funding is used effectively. Pupils’ participation in physical activity has increased and pupils are able to access a wide range of sporting activities after school.  The local authority has provided advice and support to the school for a sustained period. However, the impact of the local authority’s work has been limited and standards remain too low. The local authority has a clear view of the range of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

significant weakness in the leadership and management of the school.  The executive headteacher, governors, local authority and parents have welcomed the impact of the head of school. New assessment processes are in place that provide a clear insight into which groups of pupils are making good progress and which are not. Leaders now look closely at learning when they are in classrooms and looking at pupils’ work. As a result, teachers are now given meaningful feedback regarding what is working well and what could be better. Standards in Year 4 have improved because the head of school is beginning to improve teaching, learning and assessment.

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Governance of the school

 Governors are not effective. They do not hold leaders to account well enough for the lack of school improvement. The reviews of governance and pupil premium spending after the last inspection had little or no impact. Governors are now getting timely and insightful information from leaders regarding pupils’ progress.  Although governors decided 13 months ago to replace the old website, they still have not done so. As a result, information on the current website is out of date, unhelpful and irrelevant.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.  Leaders do not make the required checks before adults start to work at the school. Not all adults are appropriately trained to keep pupils safe, including those members of staff named as having a particular responsibility to do so.  Staff are given conflicting messages in training and policies about who they should speak to if they have a safeguarding concern. As a result, too many adults do not know who to report any concerns to when the designated safeguarding lead is not available. Information available to parents on the website regarding safeguarding is both out of date and unclear.  The recording of concerns about pupils’ safety and well-being is inconsistent and therefore ineffective. Leaders do not always record important information about what they have done in response to a concern and what the outcomes have been.  Leaders do systematically undertake assessments of risk, including when pupils are

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Safeguarding

going on trips and visits. These are effective in identifying potential hazards and what to do to keep pupils safe.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 The quality of teaching and learning across the school is too variable.  Not all teachers use assessment information well. Planned learning does not always take account of what pupils know and can do. As a result, some learning is too easy or too hard and pupils do not make good progress.  Teachers do not consistently recognise and rectify pupils’ misconceptions. The most effective learning happens when adults check pupils’ understanding before moving on to new concepts or skills.  Pupils are not always clear about what they are doing and why they are doing it. However, some teachers do offer pupils clear explanations about planned learning and what success will look like.  Teachers do not always provide stimulating and exciting learning opportunities, particularly in topic work. Uninspiring tasks do not encourage pupils’ creativity or curiosity. As a result, pupils take less pride in this work.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Relationships between staff and pupils are good. Classrooms are largely purposeful places to learn where pupils are keen to share their thoughts and ideas with each other and the class.  Some teachers use questioning well to develop and deepen pupils’ learning, particularly in mathematics.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate because pupils are not kept safe.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities who do not come to school regularly is too high and not improving. Leaders do not track persistent absence of pupils closely so do not know if it is improving or declining for certain groups of pupils.  Some pupils take great pride in their school and others do not. For example, the Year 5 library area is well maintained by pupils who volunteer to improve aspects of their school. However, parts of the playground are untidy and litter builds through break and lunchtime with adults and pupils showing less care for the school environment.  Pupils understand what bullying is and is not. They understand there are different types of bullying. Most pupils feel that adults in the school deal with bullying

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Personal development and welfare

effectively, but not all. They are taught effectively how to stay safe online.  Pupils feel safe and say they have a trusted adult that they would talk to.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  Pupils have little to occupy them during break and lunchtime. Behaviour at lunchtime is not good. Some pupils are boisterous to the point of being unsafe as they grab and pull at each other.  Pupils and parents rightly do not feel that pupils always behave well in school.  Adults have inconsistent expectations of pupils’ behaviour, particularly at lunchtime, and not all adults who support pupils are effective role models. Some adults have high expectations, particularly in classrooms.  Classrooms are calm and mostly purposeful places to learn. Some pupils lose focus when the work is too easy or too difficult, but they do not disrupt the learning of others.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Pupils make inconsistent rates of progress, including the most able and those pupils who are working at a lower standard and who need to catch up.  Standards at the end of key stage 2 have not improved since the last inspection because pupils do not make good progress from their starting points. In 2015 and 2016, pupils’ rates of progress were significantly slower than other pupils nationally with the same starting points in reading, writing and mathematics.  Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make inconsistent progress. The quality and impact of interventions to support pupils’ learning vary. For example, in Year 3 additional teaching has led to good progress for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. However, almost all pupils in Year 4 receiving additional support with mathematics have made slow progress.  The proportion of current pupils who are working at age-related expectations in writing

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

varies across the school. Inconsistent teaching over time has created these differences. Leaders have plans to accelerate progress for Year 3 and Year 5 pupils, but it is too soon to see the impact of this work.  The attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils are too variable across the school because, over time, pupil premium funding has not been used effectively. For example, disadvantaged pupils in Year 5 are currently making good progress. However, they have not always made good progress from their key stage 1 starting points, so differences are not diminishing. In Year 4, almost all disadvantaged pupils are working at age-expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics because they have made consistently good progress.  Standards in other subjects, such as art, are low. Pupils do not develop the knowledge and skills over time because some subjects are rarely taught.  The quality of presentation of pupils’ work varies widely. Pupils produce significantly

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

higher quality work in their literacy books compared to their topic books.

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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

Headteacher Rosemary Wiles (Executive Headteacher) Christopher Rutland (Head of School) Telephone number 01634 231984

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School details

Email address admin@featherby-jun.medway.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 22–23 January 2015

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Information about this school

 The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about admissions, key stage 2 results, pupil premium, sports premium, the special educational needs and/or disabilities information report, charging, safeguarding or equalities on its website.  The school met the 2016 floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.  Featherby Junior School federated with Featherby Nursery and Infant School in January 2016 and they have one governing body. The executive headteacher joined the school in January 2016. The head of school started in September 2016.  The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding is broadly the same as that found nationally.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is

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Information about this school

higher than that found nationally.  The breakfast club is run by the school.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed learning throughout the school, often accompanied by senior leaders. Inspectors looked at pupils’ work during lessons and spoke to pupils about their learning.  Meetings were held with senior and middle leaders, members of the governing body and the local authority. Documents relating to governance were reviewed.  Parents’ views were considered through the 93 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, emails to Ofsted and conversations with parents at the beginning the school day. The views of staff were considered through the 20 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey and through meetings.  Pupils’ views were heard through 15 responses to the pupil survey and by talking extensively to pupils around the school.  Inspectors considered a wide range of documents, including leaders’ evaluations of the school’s effectiveness, improvement plans and leaders’ analyses of the quality of

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Information about this inspection

teaching. Inspectors also evaluated information relating to pupils’ progress, behaviour and attendance.  Inspectors also reviewed safeguarding records and the central record of recruitment checks on staff.

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Inspection team

Mark Cole, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Teresa Davies 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 children looked after, 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

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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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