Rose Hill Primary School

Rose Hill Primary School The Oval, Rose Hill, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 4SF

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Inadequate

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Teaching is not yet consistently good. Therefore, not all pupils, especially those in Year 2 and Year 4, have made strong enough progress to address previous underachievement.  Some teachers do not make enough use of accurate assessment information to plan lessons that match pupils’ learning needs closely.  Staff do not yet make the best use of resources to support pupils’ learning.  Teachers do not make enough use of assessment during lessons to adjust their teaching to help pupils learn better.  Sometimes teachers miss opportunities to tackle pupils’ misconceptions and address their errors.  There is currently no system to measure pupils’ achievement in subjects other than English and mathematics.  Improvement plans have become unwieldy for senior leaders. This is mainly because they set too many priorities.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The headteacher has set an aspirational tone yet has also ensured that Rose Hill is a school where everyone is welcome without exception.  Leaders and the interim executive board have secured improvements to teaching and learning. The school has improved since the last inspection.  The achievement of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2 is similar to, or above, national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.  The curriculum is broad, balanced and appropriate for pupils.  Pupils behave well because there are clear rules and expectations in place.  Staff provide high levels of care for pupils and promote their personal development well.  Children make good progress in the early years. Provision is good and meets children’s needs well.  Support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is effective. These pupils make good or better progress.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Safeguarding is effective. Staff do all that they can to help keep pupils safe.

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Full report

In accordance with section 13(4) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further strengthen the leadership, management and governance of the school by ensuring that: – improvement planning is refined so that it is focused, manageable and achievable for senior leaders and draws more on the strengths of middle leaders – systems for tracking pupils’ progress are developed to enable staff to measure accurately and check pupils’ achievement in the wider curriculum.  Improve teaching, learning and assessment so that pupils’ outcomes are good by ensuring that: – tasks match pupils’ learning needs more accurately – teachers make the best use of resources to support pupils’ learning – staff deepen their subject knowledge so that they anticipate and tackle pupils’ misconceptions and errors routinely – teachers make use of effective questions and checks on pupils’ learning during lessons to adjust their teaching according to need.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher is a principled leader. She has set an aspirational tone yet also ensures that Rose Hill is an inclusive school; everyone is welcome without exception. This is underpinned by effective personal development and welfare arrangements that also extend to staff. Therefore, staff morale is high and staff build strong, caring relationships with pupils, striving to ensure that they achieve well. As a result, the school has improved considerably since the last inspection.  Middle leaders have benefited from valuable support from senior leaders, a local authority adviser and members of the interim executive board. Consequently, they instigate effective changes to teaching that increase pupils’ learning. For example, the mathematics leaders work in other classes to show teachers successful teaching techniques.  Staff are committed to improving their own skills and knowledge. As a result, the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

quality of teaching has improved since the last inspection. Leaders at all levels support this very well through training, sharing good practice and effective appraisal. Teachers are held to account systematically for pupils’ progress.  The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) provides determined leadership. There are effective systems in place to work with families and support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result of high expectations and careful monitoring of their provision, these pupils are making good progress from their starting points.  The deputy headteacher responsible for the pupil premium ensures that it is spent well. She has drawn on research to determine an approach that places the responsibility with class teachers to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well. This summer, the impact was evident as disadvantaged pupils’ attainment in Year 2 and Year 6 was

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

similar to that of others nationally.  The deputy headteacher leading on the curriculum has developed it effectively to secure the right opportunities for pupils. Rightly, improving pupils’ reading is a central aim of the curriculum. Pupils experience new topics that are linked to high-quality books and include all subjects. For example, Year 4 pupils enjoy ‘Ug!’ as part of their ‘stone age’ topic, and Year 2 pupils are inspired to learn about ‘location’ by the travels of ‘Jemmy Button’. Consequently, pupils make meaningful links in learning across a range of subjects.  Extra-curricular and sporting activities widen the curriculum. For example, drama and gardening clubs help to extend pupils’ skills and talents. Pupils appreciate the range of clubs and see them as part of what makes their school fun.  Leaders ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their understanding of British values are well promoted. These opportunities are woven into

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

the curriculum and are well supported by the school’s own values. For example, the current value, ‘rules’, helps pupils to understand the rule of law. Pupils’ cultural development is fostered through topics such as ‘Japan’ and ‘Islamic arts and Arabian nights’.  The school makes effective use of the sport premium. Pupils enjoy a range of cost-free sport clubs such as the highly popular ‘benchball’ club. Leaders have also introduced a girls’ sports and games club to ensure that more girls are involved in physical activity. As a result of judicious use of this funding, pupils’ participation in sports has increased.  Senior leaders use a clear system to keep a close eye on pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. They use this well to plan appropriate actions to promote learning. However, they rightly recognise that they need to find a manageable way to show and check pupils’ achievement across the wider curriculum.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Since the last inspection, senior leaders have maintained an improvement plan to chart their actions to change the school. Over time, this has become a complicated series of overly detailed action plans that leaders strive to keep on track and under review. This has placed too much pressure on leaders who accept that they need to simplify their own improvement planning and share this work further with middle leaders.  Inspectors were only able to gather views from a few parents as there was only one response to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. Those that inspectors spoke to on the playground had mixed views of the school. However, parents and pupils alike were very positive about homework and reading. One pupil said, ‘We just have to do it and I like it.’  The local authority and the Oxford Teaching School Alliance have provided effective support to the school. For example, senior leaders have valued working alongside other

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

leaders to increase the accuracy of their evaluation of the school. Advisers have also worked with staff in the early years and the SENCo to improve provision.

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Governance of the school

 The members of the interim executive board are committed to the school. They bring helpful skills and knowledge. For example, the chief executive of the River Learning Trust is a very experienced school leader. Members keep the impact of their own work and skills under close review. Consequently, they provide effective challenge and support to school leaders and ensure that all statutory requirements, including those relating to health and safety, are met.  Members check the impact of school improvement work very carefully. They hold leaders to account with much rigour so they can assure themselves that pupils’ achievement is increasing. Nevertheless, improvement planning has become too onerous for senior leaders and members have an important part to play in streamlining this work.  The interim executive board continues to plan and prepare for the future of the school. Delays in agreeing a suitable academy trust to sponsor the school are a source of

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Governance of the school

frustration for senior leaders and members. However, the board and senior leaders have worked well together to continue with school improvement and ensure ‘business as usual’.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders have ensured that there is a culture of care for each individual and that support is readily available to all families, especially those with the greatest need. The designated safeguarding leader and home-school link workers have forged important relationships with pupils and their parents. They are vigilant to pupils’ needs and provide the right help at the right time.  Staff know what to do if they are concerned about a pupil. There are clear procedures in place, and staff receive regular training such as the ‘seven minute briefings’ to raise their awareness of risks, such as radicalisation, to pupils. Records show that staff have taken the right actions to help keep pupils safe. Where necessary, leaders provide whatever challenge and support they can to secure the best outcomes for pupils.  Recruitment checks on staff are fit for purpose and meet current requirements.

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Safeguarding

Records show that leaders take care when recruiting staff to ensure that they are safe to work with children.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Teaching is not yet consistently good throughout the school. Therefore, some pupils have not made enough progress to address fully underachievement from the past.  Some teachers do not make enough use of accurate assessment information to plan lessons to match pupils’ learning needs closely. This means that some tasks are either too easy or too hard for pupils. When this happens, pupils make less progress.  Staff do not yet make the best use of resources to support pupils’ learning. Sometimes pupils do not have access to mathematical equipment in lessons to aid them with counting or calculations. However, in some classes, teachers ensure that pupils have helpful equipment and the right amount of support from adults. In a Year 5 mathematics lesson, some pupils had access to beads to help them to divide. The teacher also made sure that the teaching assistant’s support was shared with a range of pupils rather than just one.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Some teachers do not have a deep enough understanding of all of the subjects that they are teaching. This means that, in some lessons, teachers miss opportunities to tackle pupils’ misconceptions or address errors quickly enough, and pupils achieve less.  In a few classes, teachers do not use questions or other checks on pupils’ learning to adjust their teaching well enough. However, some staff use carefully directed questions to help pupils make connections between topics, introduce new ideas or reflect on their understanding. For example, in a Reception class, the teacher crafted questions for individual children as they played a game of ‘Where is dozy dog?’ This developed each child’s speaking and listening skills at just the right level.  Staff show that they understand phonics well and provide regular opportunities for pupils to practise their reading. This is helping pupils to improve their reading, spelling

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

and writing skills. For example, in both Year 2 classes’ phonics lessons, teachers corrected pupils’ pronunciation of sounds and helped them to understand that two letters can make one sound in a word such as ‘keep’.  Staff at all levels build strong relationships with pupils. They are committed to helping them achieve as well as possible. Across the school, teaching assistants use these relationships with pupils and their knowledge of subjects to successfully support pupils to learn and behave well. Consequently, pupils engage in lessons purposefully and complete their work with care most of the time.  Lessons in subjects other than English and mathematics provide pupils with important knowledge and encourage them to think. As a result, pupils experience a broad and enriched curriculum. For example, a Year 6 lesson sparked pupils’ interest as they considered the complex question, ‘Should we always believe what we are told?’ This

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

enabled pupils to think about their own morals and behaviour. One pupil said, ‘It is best to tell the truth. It is better to lose a friend than lose your dignity.’

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Staff provide high levels of care for pupils and take the time to get to know them well. As a result of these strong relationships, pupils build confidence, self-esteem and greater resilience. Pupils appreciate the care that they receive; one pupil said, ‘Teachers are reliable. They always look after us.’  Pupils relish opportunities to take on responsibility. For example, members of the school council enjoy giving their views. Other pupils value the chance to feed and care for the school chickens and walk the much-loved school dog, ‘Nym’.  There are effective systems in place to address bullying. The home-school link workers act as ‘anti-bullying champions’, sharing important messages as well as supporting pupils who report incidents of bullying. As a result, bullying is rare and pupils are developing a better understanding of what bullying is.

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Personal development and welfare

 Leaders place a strong emphasis on preparing pupils to live safe and healthy lives. For example, ‘e-safety’ takes prominence in the computing curriculum and pupils receive regular sex and relationships education. Consequently, staff help pupils to learn how they can look after themselves.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils are happy and well-mannered ambassadors of their school because staff support them to behave well. They walk sensibly around the school, hold doors open for others and smile as they go. The school is a calm, cheerful and welcoming environment.  Incidents of poor behaviour are rare because staff and pupils agree what makes acceptable behaviour. There are clear consequences for those who break the rules. Pupils like the ‘zones of behaviour’ and appreciate it when an adult rewards them for being in the ‘gold zone’. As a result, pupils are mostly attentive in class and only lose focus when an activity is not sufficiently interesting.  Leaders ensure that pupils with challenging behaviour receive highly effective additional support. Exclusions are very rare. Through close working with families and with great care, staff support these pupils to improve their behaviour over time.

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Behaviour

 Since the last inspection, pupils’ attendance, including that of disadvantaged pupils, has improved significantly. Rates of absence are similar to or better than the national average. Leaders have set high expectations for pupils’ attendance, and the home- school link workers provide considerable support to families to ensure that pupils are in school and on time every day.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Current pupils’ progress in a range of subjects, including reading, writing and mathematics, is variable. In particular, pupils in Year 4 and Year 2 are not achieving as well as those in other year groups because teaching has not enabled them to achieve well enough over time. Despite some improvements to the quality of teaching, these pupils have not yet caught up enough to enable them to reach the standards expected for their age.  For the past three years, not enough pupils have met the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics check. Pupils’ attainment has risen each year but is still below the national average. Until recently, pupils did not benefit from high-quality opportunities to acquire this essential knowledge.  Some of the most able pupils are not yet making good progress. Rates of achievement for this group have been affected by less effective teaching in some year groups. Nevertheless, those who have experienced better teaching have achieved well because

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

leaders have set high expectations for this group. For example, the proportion of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 who exceeded the standards for their age was above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics in 2017.  Pupils who speak English as an additional language achieve similarly to their classmates. Teaching has enabled the majority of these pupils to secure essential vocabulary, skills and knowledge so that they make progress that is the same as or better than that of other pupils.  Last year, a large majority of disadvantaged pupils met the standards expected for their age in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2. This was similar to the achievement of other pupils nationally. Leaders have invested the pupil premium funding into improving teaching and diminishing differences in progress over time between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. Even when teaching has been weaker, these pupils have continued to achieve well because valuable additional support is matched carefully to their needs.  Pupils read widely and enjoy a range of high-quality books. Leaders have made reading an important part of both school life and homework. At the end of Year 6 in 2017, pupils’ progress in reading was above the national average. Current pupils make good use of phonics to help them read unfamiliar words.

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Early years provision Good

 The early years leader is determined to secure the best outcomes for the children in her care. She has established an effective team of staff and ensures that classrooms and the outside area consistently promote children’s development across the areas of learning. Rightly, she has focused on enabling staff to make accurate assessments of children’s skills and abilities and use these to plan their teaching. As a result, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development has increased considerably since the last inspection.  Most children join the school with skills and abilities that are below those typical for their age. Some children have very low starting points. Children, including those in the more vulnerable groups, make good progress across the areas of learning as they move through the early years. The majority of children leave Reception ready for Year 1 and a few exceed the standards expected for their age. This is because staff get to

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Early years provision Good

know each child and support their development effectively.  Staff interact with the children well and skilfully bring more learning into their play so that they make good progress. For example, children made pies in the mud kitchen alongside a member of staff. The staff member mixed the mud gleefully and talked about her creation with a range of descriptive words that helped the children to learn and use new and interesting words.  Staff help children to keep safe. They take time to teach children ways to look after themselves, and make safety part of the daily routine. For example, children come in from the garden and check their hands for dirt. They know that they always need to wash them before they help themselves to a healthy snack.  Children behave very well in the early years. This is because staff have high expectations of children and their support greatly advances children’s personal development. Children know that they can do things for themselves such as pouring

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Early years provision Good

milk, as a spill ‘doesn’t matter’. They also learn to take turns on the ever-popular tricycles. One child even made a helpful list for the teacher and crossed children off so that he didn’t miss his go!

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Email address head.2531@rose-hill.oxon.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 17−18 November 2015

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Information about this school

 Rose Hill is slightly larger than the average-sized primary school.  Pupils come from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. Nearly half of the pupils speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average. This group represents about half of the pupils in the school.  Almost a third of pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan has doubled since the last inspection and is above the national average.  The school has a Nursery class. Children attend this on a part-time basis.  When Rose Hill School was inspected in November 2015, it was judged to require special measures. Subsequently, the school has been the subject of one monitoring inspection where leaders and managers were judged to be taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.  Shortly after the last full inspection, an interim executive board replaced the governing

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Information about this school

body. An academy order has been issued; however, the school has not yet become an academy because no sponsor has been agreed.  Over half of the teachers have joined the school since the last inspection.  The school has received support from the chief executive officer of the River Learning Trust and the Oxford Teaching Schools Alliance.  In 2016, the school met the current government’s floor standards (minimum standards for pupils’ achievement at the end of key stage 2).  The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited all classes, spoke to pupils and looked at work in their exercise books. All classes were visited jointly with senior leaders.  Meetings were held with senior leaders, staff, a group of pupils, two members of the interim executive board and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors spoke to 11 parents on the playground. There was one response to the online questionnaire (Parent View). Inspectors considered the school’s own survey of pupils.  A range of documents were looked at including the school’s information about pupils’ achievement and records concerning pupils’ attendance, behaviour and safety.

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Inspection team

Caroline Dulon, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Lea Hannam 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

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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