Ravenor Primary School

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

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Mrs Leonie Lobo Headteacher Ravenor Primary School Greenway Gardens Greenford UB6 9TT

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Short inspection of Ravenor Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 31 October 2017 with Kusum Trikha, Ofsted Inspector, 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 September 2012.

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Short inspection of Ravenor Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. You have the support of the school community in realising your vision for the school’s development. Parents, pupils and staff agree that the school has improved. The school successfully prepares pupils for the next stage in their education by providing a broad and enriched curriculum. This is seen, for example, in the offer of music for all.

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Short inspection of Ravenor Primary School

The school has strengthened the teaching of phonics, which was identified as an area for improvement in the previous inspection report. Teachers consistently follow the school’s policy and integrate the teaching of phonics with writing. For example, children in the Reception Year who were learning the sound ‘ch’ were encouraged to copy the letters with their fingers on the interactive whiteboard. Pupils’ outcomes in the Year 1 phonics screening check are now above the national average with 88% meeting the standard in 2017. Pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage 1 for writing were also above the national average in 2017. They were in line with the national average for reading. This demonstrates the impact of leaders’ work to bring about sustained improvement in key stage 1.

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Short inspection of Ravenor Primary School

The school provides a safe, ordered and harmonious environment. Pupils behave well during lessons. Their positive attitudes support their learning in class and they make good progress as a result. The values of being ‘responsible and respectful’ are evident in the way pupils conduct themselves and underpin the positive relationships that exist between adults and children in the school. The school’s accurate and thorough self-evaluation recognises strengths as well as areas identified for improvement. For example, pupils’ progress in reading in key stage 2 remains a priority for development, particularly for the most able pupils, as does the attendance of specific groups of pupils.

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Short inspection of Ravenor Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are robust and fit for purpose, and records are suitably detailed. You, together with your staff and governors, ensure that the safety and well-being of pupils are priorities. Staff follow the school’s systems and processes carefully to promote pupils’ welfare. The school’s systems support the ethos that places safeguarding at the heart of the ‘every day of school life’. The development of a ‘well-being for learning’ register to ensure that support for vulnerable pupils is effectively coordinated illustrates this approach. Parents appreciate the school’s ethos, as is evident from the positive comments of the significant number who return the school’s annual parent survey.

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Short inspection of Ravenor Primary School

Staff and governors are clear about their roles, and work effectively with parents and external agencies to safeguard pupils. Staff have received appropriate information and training informed by statutory guidance. Pupils report that they feel safe in school. They say that staff are approachable if there is something that bothers them that needs to be shared. The inspectors saw first-hand the positive way the pupils interact with each other.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed to evaluate the impact of leaders’ actions to develop the early years and foundation stage curriculum to support boys’ literacy skills. This was because more girls than boys met the expected threshold for a good level of development in the Reception Year in 2016. It was also noted that children with English as an additional language made better progress than those from an English-speaking background.  The new leader for the early years has brought increased rigour and greater coherence to curriculum planning and, as a result, boys’ progress in reading and writing in Reception improved in 2017. The progress of Year 1 boys in 2017 was stronger too but still below that of girls. Leaders have therefore identified this as an area for continued focus. Classroom observation indicates that the progress of boys in the Reception Year from an English-speaking background is currently in line with that of their peers.

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Inspection findings

 We also agreed to check how far leaders’ actions are improving the attendance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Current school data shows that the attendance of these pupils has improved from last year but remains below that of their peers and the national average. A newly appointed leader has been given the responsibility to improve the attendance of this group. A number of actions have been taken to provide additional support, including developing a more effective partnership with the local authority’s education welfare officer.  Case studies for individual pupils confirm that the additional strategies employed to improve attendance are having an impact. These include the use of an attendance officer and the firm communication of expectations regarding regular attendance. Improved attendance has also brought about a marked improvement in the progress of identified pupils in both reading and writing. Leaders acknowledge that

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Inspection findings

this area remains a priority for improvement for a significant minority of pupils.  A further area that we agreed to test was the impact of leaders’ actions to improve the progress of most-able readers in key stage 2. This was because the proportion of pupils reaching a higher standard in reading remained below the national average in 2017, although it was considerably above the figure for 2016.  The highly knowledgeable leader for reading in key stage 2 has a clear and detailed strategy for its further improvement. The school has invested in resources including authors’ visits, class libraries, workshops for parents and training. This has helped staff in the teaching of skills that pupils find difficult, such as making inferences from texts. The monitoring and matching of books to pupils’ ability to ensure suitable challenge is a key feature of this next phase of the school’s work.  Finally, we agreed to explore how leaders have planned to accelerate the progress

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Inspection findings

of disadvantaged pupils’ writing, which was below their relatively strong progress in reading and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2017.  The school is now adapting the successful focused and time-limited interventions used to improve pupils’ reading to address weaknesses in writing. For example, small groups of pupils work with a teaching assistant, trained in specific techniques, to develop aspects of writing identified by their class teacher as a weakness. Assessment at the start and finish of each phase provides evidence of impact and informs the planning for the next intervention. Inspectors agreed with the view of school leaders that written work in Year 6 showed disadvantaged pupils now making progress in line with their non-disadvantaged peers.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the new approach to developing pupils’ reading skills, particularly to accelerate progress for the most able in key stage 2, is applied consistently across the school  the attendance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is tracked rigorously so that swift intervention leads to improved attendance. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Ealing. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

We carried out the following activities during the inspection.

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Information about the inspection

 We held meetings with you, senior and middle leaders, including those responsible for safeguarding, to discuss the work of the school. We also held separate meetings with representatives of the governing body and a representative from the local authority. We had informal conversations with pupils and staff.  We visited 10 classes jointly with a member of the leadership team, visiting Reception and key stages 1 and 2.  We analysed a range of documentation including the school’s self-evaluation and aspects of the development plan, assessment and attendance information, safeguarding information, school policies and procedures.  We checked the information on the school’s website.  We considered the views of 29 parents who replied to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as the views of 17 staff who responded to the Ofsted questionnaire.

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