Chase Lane Primary School

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

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Carolyn Houstoun Headteacher Chase Lane Primary School York Road London E4 8LA

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 28 March 2017 with Ofsted Inspector Gulcan Asdoyuran, 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.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

You have established a well-maintained and well-resourced school which provides an attractive learning environment for pupils. During our tour of the school, it was clear to see that the pervading atmosphere is calm, happy and busy. Your vision for the children to ‘believe in themselves because anything is possible’ is apparent throughout the school. Pupils speak warmly about the care they receive, saying ‘in our school we want to be the best we can be’.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

Your evaluation of the school’s effectiveness is clear and concise and correctly identifies the school’s key strengths and areas for improvement. Your leadership team has a clear plan for further improving the work of the school. You have aligned this planning closely to the school’s identified areas for improvement and your analysis of previous outcomes achieved by pupils across different subjects. It is clear from these documents and the work undertaken by your team that you have an ambitious vision for all pupils at the school.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

Leaders have carefully analysed pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics in 2016. In light of this analysis, your leadership team has taken decisive action to focus primarily on further improving pupils’ reading, while also working to increase the proportion of pupils achieving at the higher levels in English and mathematics. As a result of changes being made to the way you teach reading, current assessments show that pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are making good progress in reading this year.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

You have provided a whole-school focus to better challenge the most able pupils. This is evident across the school. In particular, this can be seen in pupils’ books, through the good standards they are currently achieving and through the obvious pride they take in their work. This applies equally to the work and attitudes of disadvantaged pupils, with a growing number now working at the higher levels. During visits to classrooms, pupils spoke very enthusiastically about your revised target-setting system. One pupil readily commented, ‘I like to push myself to solve a problem and get to my goals.’ Pupils’ conduct around the school and their behaviour while learning are good.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

Governors share your dedication and have improved their practice since the previous inspection. They are rightly proud of the school and understand the school’s strengths and areas for development. They carry out their duties with thoughtful scrutiny. They check the accuracy of the information provided in reports through meetings with school leaders and by observing pupils at work. Consequently, they provide effective support and challenge to the school.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

You have taken effective action to address the areas for improvement that were identified at the last inspection. There is good guidance for pupils about how to improve their work, which they take ownership of. Pupils also now understand their targets and how to achieve them.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are of a good quality. Staff know the school’s procedures well. Any concerns are followed up quickly in order to make sure that pupils are supported and safe.

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Short inspection of Chase Lane Primary School

Leaders make sure that staff receive up-to-date training and are aware of the most recent statutory safeguarding advice. This has included training covering issues such as female genital mutilation and the ‘Prevent’ duty to safeguard pupils from radicalisation and extremism. Members of the governing body have made sure that they are also well informed about current safeguarding guidance. They regularly update policies and, together with senior leaders, monitor their impact.

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Inspection findings

 During this visit, as well as evaluating safeguarding arrangements, we focused on how well leaders and teachers are:  ensuring that pupils make better progress in reading at key stage 2  improving the progress that key stage 1 pupils make in phonics  improving attendance and reducing persistent absence.  Leaders have put in place a number of measures to ensure that current pupils make better progress in reading. Teachers have developed a sharper focus on guided reading, with challenging whole-class texts that are being matched to equally challenging activities. The school promotes a love of reading through, for example, class books read by teachers, rewards for pupils who read at home and the engaging ‘Get Caught Reading’ displays that are on all classroom doors. As a result, the reading of the most able pupils is fluent and they can articulate their opinions about the texts well. They have good comprehension skills. Less-able

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Inspection findings

pupils are resilient and use phonetic methods effectively to work out more difficult words. Their understanding of the texts is sound.  Standards in phonics are not at the level they should be. As a result, leaders have reviewed recent outcomes and have changed the way in which they teach phonics. Small groups now receive work targeted specifically at their level and this has helped them to make more rapid progress in their learning. Closer checks on how well pupils are doing is helping to identify groups who need extra support. Teaching assistants have been trained to target particular groups, especially disadvantaged pupils who are falling behind, to help them catch up.  Leaders have rightly identified attendance as a key priority for the school. You have put a range of measures in place to address the school’s issue of poor attendance. There is a thorough attendance policy available on the school’s

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Inspection findings

website. This policy sends a clear message to parents regarding the importance of school attendance and the simple steps to follow in the case of absence. You have robust systems in place to analyse absences and also to track the whereabouts of pupils taken off roll. You work effectively with families to support good attendance, for example through the deployment of a family support worker and also by engaging with external agencies such as the education welfare service. Alongside this, you and your staff work directly with pupils through a reward system for celebrating good attendance to promote good habits and reduce absence. Leaders agree that there is still more work to do in order to bring overall attendance up to national levels for disadvantaged pupils and to reduce the high number of persistent absences.  A small number of parents spoke to inspectors about their concerns about bullying. The wide range of pupils spoken to during the inspection say that it

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Inspection findings

does happen occasionally but they get the help they need from staff to overcome their problems. Pupils have faith in leaders and teachers to help them and keep them safe. School records show that leaders deal effectively with issues over time.  Leaders accept that they need to engage more effectively with the small number of parents who raised concerns about the work of the school and the information they are being given. They have been made aware of the need to keep parents up to date with new initiatives and ensure that parents are well informed about how well their child is doing, both academically and socially.

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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

 attendance improves so that it is consistently at or above the national averages for all groups of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils  systematic consultation with parents is developed further to gain feedback on the effectiveness of the school’s work, and to help parents have a clearer understanding of their child’s progress, both academically and socially.

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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 Waltham Forest. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, we held meetings with you and the senior leadership team, your attendance officer and designated safeguarding lead. I met two members of the governing body and spoke on the telephone to a representative from the local authority. We visited classes from Nursery to Year 6 with you, your deputy headteacher and your assistant headteacher to observe pupils’ learning and look at examples of their work. We spoke to pupils in their classrooms, listened to pupils read and spoke to pupils in the dinner hall and the playground.

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Information about the inspection

We evaluated recent information showing pupils’ progress. Records about keeping pupils safe were evaluated. We spoke informally to parents at the beginning of the school day. I also scrutinised the school’s analysis of its attendance records. We took account of 37 responses to the staff questionnaire, 172 responses to the pupils’ questionnaire and 82 parental responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.

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