Setting

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

p.1

Miss Angela Campbell Headteacher West Grove Primary School 218a Chase Road Southgate London N14 4LR

p.1

Following my visit to the school on 7 March 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 July 2013.

p.1

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your leadership of the school is highly effective and you have a thorough understanding of the strengths and development areas for your school. You have shared this knowledge with all leaders and governors to allow them a realistic understanding of school self-evaluation. This has enabled the school to develop and to strengthen learning outcomes since the last inspection.

p.1

Your governors are knowledgeable, fully involved in the life of the school and work in close partnership with your leadership team. Governors ask the right questions in order to move the school forward and your leadership team is skilful and supportive in developing staff.

p.1

Pupils take a strong sense of pride in their school and they can articulate the vision of honesty, respect, open-mindedness, resilience and positivity that permeates throughout the school. One member of the school council reported proudly, ‘Pupils and teachers have a shared connection to raise outcomes for all learners.’ Classrooms are bright, attractive and full of colourful displays which reflect the rich diversity of the community.

p.1

At the time of the last inspection, inspectors identified the need to track the progress of pupils closely to ensure that most-able pupils have greater challenge. You have addressed this successfully through working in partnership with local schools as part of the Enfield Learning Community. The tracking of pupils’ progress is now robust and pupil progress meetings are held every six weeks. Any pupil identified as not having met their progress target is given additional support to meet their learning needs.

p.1

You have worked closely with senior leaders to ensure that arrangements for the safeguarding of pupils are secure. As the designated safeguarding lead, you work alongside other safeguarding officers to raise the awareness of all staff to any potential signs of risk.

p.2

Your systems for reporting and recording concerns are clearly understood by all staff and governors. You have developed strong links with outside agencies, including social workers and the local authority designated officer for safeguarding.

p.2

Staff receive regular and appropriate training about safeguarding, including local and national priorities. All checks are in place to ensure that your single central record is compliant and records are detailed, fit for purpose and of a high quality.

p.2

Parents report that their children feel safe and happy. Pupils behave well and are very proud of their school.

p.2

Inspection findings

 Inspection evidence shows that you have been successful in maintaining and strengthening good outcomes for all pupils. Recent published data had shown that outcomes for boys and girls had been variable in key stage 1. This was particularly so for the most-able disadvantaged pupils who were not attaining higher scores in mathematics and writing. You are aware of this and you have identified this as a school priority.  We agreed that my first key line of enquiry would be to explore the level of challenge for all pupils in key stage 1. The school has addressed this by changing the way that it tracks pupils’ progress. Progress is now checked every six weeks against age-related expectations and targets are set accordingly. This is having a strong impact in matching teaching to pupils’ learning needs. Assessment information is shared with all staff, and leaders have arranged for additional support to be offered to pupils who do not meet their expected targets. The

p.2

Inspection findings

mathematics curriculum has been reviewed to present greater opportunities for reasoning and the application of key skills. This is having a strong impact on pupils’ understanding of mathematical concepts.  However, the lower attaining pupils and the most-able pupils in Years 1 and 2 do not have enough opportunities to apply their skills through extended pieces of writing. This is also true of pupils’ topic work, where extended writing skills are not transferred across the curriculum.  My second line of enquiry was to ensure that there is sufficient challenge for disadvantaged pupils. The progress of the most-able disadvantaged pupils in lower key stage 2 is tracked carefully to ensure that they are challenged to attain higher scores. Detailed action plans are in place to raise attainment and deepen learning through extended pieces of writing.  Your pupil premium funding is spent well in providing a wide range of support

p.2

Inspection findings

programmes to strengthen key skills in reading, writing and mathematics. School assessment information is showing that the support offered is having a positive impact on the progress of disadvantaged pupils.  My final line of enquiry was about pupils’ attendance. The most recent figures indicated that pupils who have special educational needs and an education, health and care plan had higher absence and persistent absence than was the case nationally.  I met with you, your attendance lead and your school business manager to scrutinise the detailed records that the school keeps to track attendance. The school has a close working relationship with the educational welfare officer and the number of medical absences for pupils who have special educational needs and education, health and care plans has reduced significantly. It is clear that the school has effective procedures in place to monitor and improve attendance.

p.3

Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

p.3

Next steps for the school

 all groups of pupils have greater opportunities to apply their writing skills through extended pieces of writing  higher expectation of pupils’ outcomes is evident in all topic work.

p.3

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 Enfield. This letter will also be published on the Ofsted website.

p.3

Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I carried out the following activities:

p.4

Information about the inspection

 meetings with the headteacher, assistant headteachers and the inclusion manager  meetings with governors and a representative from the local authority  meetings with the school’s inclusion manager to scrutinise the school’s safeguarding procedures and with the attendance lead to look at systems to track pupil absences  meeting with parents informally in the playground before school  senior leaders accompanied me on my visits to the classrooms. I talked to pupils about their learning, looked at their books and listened to a range of pupils read in Year 2 and Year 6  I viewed the responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I also looked at the online surveys completed by staff.

p.4