Edward Bryant School

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

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Mr Richard Waddington Head of school Edward Bryant School London Road Bognor Regis West Sussex PO21 1BG

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

Following my visit to the school on 14 September 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 June 2013.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Ably assisted by your skilled and ambitious leadership team, you have delivered significant improvements to the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. You have earned the trust of parents, pupils and staff through your steadfast drive to improve the school. When Year 6 results dipped in 2016, you were instrumental in improving teachers’ skills and understanding of the new national curriculum requirements. You and your leadership team worked in class and gave teachers useful mentoring and feedback on their teaching. As a result, standards increased and pupils who left the school in 2017 attained in line with their peers nationally.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

Leaders and governors have an accurate understanding of the effectiveness of the school. Monitoring activities have a clear focus on the standards of teaching, learning and assessment and pupils’ outcomes. For instance, you regularly conduct ‘week in the life of’ reviews whereby school leaders and trust officers spend five days with a year group to assess the quality of education these pupils receive. The information gleaned from this is incisive and useful. Furthermore, you provide staff with high-quality feedback that they use to improve further. Trust officers are skilled and offer just the right amount of support for the school. They work effectively with the governing body and the school community council and challenge you to make the school even better.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

Pupils hold the school and the staff in very high esteem. They feel safe and valued. When the occasional problem does arise, pupils are confident talking to either adults in school or the enthusiastic team of Year 6 peer mediators who provide excellent guidance. Behaviour is superb, both in class and in the playground. Pupils’ positive attitude to school is typified by the class ambassadors who proudly explain what they are learning whenever visitors enter a classroom.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

Pupils enjoy the lively and inspiring curriculum, particularly for reading. They spoke enthusiastically about the rewards they earn for reading. Others describe how they built a ‘reading den’ where they could share stories and their love of books with friends. Staff identify pupils who fall behind quickly and support them to catch up. As a result, pupils make strong progress in reading throughout the school.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

At the time of the last inspection you were asked to improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that pupils are given work that encourages them to think deeply. Teachers routinely set challenges for pupils that are closely matched to their needs. In Year 5, pupils compared the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages. They discussed their observations and used their mathematical understanding to answer problems such as, ‘Which number is bigger, 9.8 or 8.9?’ However, leaders rightly recognise that teachers do not consistently ask questions that challenge pupils’ thinking.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. You complete statutory checks on all staff before they commence employment. Trust officers and the governing body monitor records of checks.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

Staff at all levels benefit from effective training, which enables them to identify and report concerns about pupils. When concerns do arise, leaders take suitable action to protect pupils from harm. Excellent relationships with external agencies ensure that, when required, support for families and pupils is helpful and practical.

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Short inspection of Edward Bryant School

Pupils have a clear understanding of how to keep themselves safe. For instance, pupils in Years 5 and 6 explained how they stay safe by being honest with parents about their internet use and not sharing personal information when online. Parents are kept well informed about how to keep their children safe.

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Inspection findings

 At the start of the inspection, we agreed to look at the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements; the quality of support for disadvantaged pupils; the standard of teaching, learning and assessment of writing; and how well leaders use their evaluations of the school’s work to secure improvement.  Leaders, teachers and support staff have a clear understanding of disadvantaged pupils’ needs so they can plan support that helps these pupils to make accelerated progress. For instance, ‘pupil premium champions’ work with pupils in class to support their learning and then meet them again in the afternoon to address any misunderstandings or to provide more challenging work. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils now make strong progress throughout the school.  Writing is taught well. Spelling, grammar and punctuation are taught effectively in English lessons and teachers ensure that pupils get the basic skills right. As a

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Inspection findings

result, in all classes pupils make steady progress and the majority write at the standard expected for their age. Nevertheless, few pupils make rapid progress in English, meaning that a smaller than national proportion of pupils write really well.  Since the previous inspection, the leadership team structure has changed. Leaders now have clearly defined roles and the head of school receives useful support from trust officers. All leaders are involved in collecting and analysing evidence to evaluate the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and they do this well. Support for teachers to improve their practice is helpful and practical . Consequently, teaching has improved over time.

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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

 pupils’ progress in writing is accelerated so that a larger proportion write at greater depth  teachers routinely ask questions that extend pupils’ thinking.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the executive board, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for West Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, senior leaders, the chair of the school community council and two representatives of the multi-academy trust’s executive board, including the chief executive officer. I analysed a range of school documentation, including information about pupils’ achievement, the school improvement plan and safeguarding checks, and policies and procedures. We discussed your own evaluation of the school’s effectiveness. I considered 126 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and spoke to parents at the beginning of the day. Some parents offered written responses, which I also took into account. I analysed the results of the confidential staff and pupil surveys. I met with four pupils from Years 4 and 6 and gathered the views of other pupils throughout the day.

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