St Margaret's Church of England Primary School

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

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Mr Jeremy Lunnon Headteacher St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School St Margaret’s Grove Plumstead London SE18 7RL

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Short inspection of St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 13 March 2018, 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 December 2013.

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Short inspection of St Margaret’s Church of England 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 St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School

A number of experienced staff have left the school since the last inspection. You and your governing body have restructured the leadership team. Teaching and learning is a key focus for school improvement. There have also been changes to the membership of the governing body. The chair of governors has acted decisively to bring in new governors. These have the skills to develop the school’s infrastructure as it expands and to hold leaders to account. Governors have identified that they must do more to challenge school leaders so that disadvantaged pupils catch up quickly with other pupils.

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Short inspection of St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School

Turnover of pupils during the school year has increased since the last inspection. More pupils are now joining the school speaking English as an additional language. You and your leaders have introduced new initiatives to help them become part of the school community. Parents value the ethos of warmth, kindness and care, balanced with high educational standards.

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Short inspection of St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School

You and your leaders have created a school community where children are very happy. You have given them plenty of opportunities to take responsibility for helping out in school – for example, older pupils taking care of younger children. Pupils’ behaviour around the school is calm and considerate. They are welcoming and polite, with positive attitudes to learning. Pupils and parents say that your staff are always accessible and willing to listen. Parents appreciate the opportunities for their children to develop friendships, and experience a broad range of trips and clubs. They describe the school as ‘positive, vibrant and well led’. One parent wrote, ‘My children are so happy at this school that they complain about the school holidays!’

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Short inspection of St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School

You and your leadership team ensure that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. A culture of vigilance is underpinned by regular training for all staff and governors. Good record-keeping shows that the management of safeguarding is well organised and enables leaders’ swift action when necessary. The inclusion leader is not afraid to challenge external agencies when pupils or their families need increased levels of support or protection.

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Inspection findings

 The inspection focused on a number of key lines of enquiry. The first area we looked at was how well reading is taught. In 2017, pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 did not make such good progress in reading as they did in writing and mathematics.  We looked at the opportunities for children in Nursery and Reception classes to learn new vocabulary and develop a love of reading. We saw high reading standards expected of children and their families in Nursery. Children are given a book bag when they start Nursery and they regularly take home books. This helps them develop good reading habits within the family. In addition, leaders have established a family reading room and parents are welcomed into classrooms to read with their children in the mornings. Leaders also run workshops for parents so that they can help their children at home. Our observations of young children choosing to sit quietly engrossed in books

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Inspection findings

show clearly that they enjoy reading.  Phonics is taught and tracked consistently across the school. Reading books are matched to the pupils’ learning and so provide opportunities to practise skills learned in class. The results of the Year 1 phonics screening check were above national figures in 2017. Recent assessments show that pupils are making good progress this year.  Children believe they can be successful readers and writers. Role-play areas in nursery encourage children to speak and write for a purpose. We saw children confidently pretending to have telephone calls with customers and advising them which flowers and bulbs to buy from their garden centre. Children are confident writers and enjoy writing in a variety of contexts. For example, they recently signed special ‘licences’ to prove their roadworthiness on the bikes in the outdoor area.  We agreed that I would look at what the school is doing to help pupils in receipt of

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Inspection findings

pupil premium funding make good or better progress. We particularly focused on pupils who also speak English as an additional language or who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. This is because by the end of key stage 2 in 2017, the progress of these groups was below average.  Leaders have put a range of measures in place to improve outcomes for these groups. For example, they run workshops for parents who speak English as an additional language. Trained teaching assistants lead focused interventions or one-to-one teaching for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. Senior leaders and teachers review the effectiveness of these interventions each half term.  Your staff have worked hard to make sure that English lessons are enjoyable for pupils. Teachers’ assessments of pupils’ progress so far this year suggest that outcomes are improving. For example, gaps between disadvantaged pupils and others nationally are

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Inspection findings

narrowing. The work I saw in pupils’ books confirms this. However, further development of English teaching is required for disadvantaged pupils in all classes to make consistently good progress.  We also looked at strategies the school has put in place to support low- and middle- prior-attaining pupils in writing in key stage 2. In 2017, these groups of pupils made less progress than pupils nationally in writing at the end of Year 6.  Leaders, including the newly appointed lead for English, regularly monitor pupils’ progress in lessons and books. They have an accurate picture of standards for these groups across the school. They take swift action to make sure that high standards are consistently maintained.  Displays of pupils’ work and the engaging curriculum topics encourage pupils to ‘write and write anywhere’. Teachers expect pupils to take pride in their writing. In key stage 2, we saw examples of pupils redrafting books, where edited work is finalised. In

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Inspection findings

Reception, children display their best examples of writing independently and are keen to discuss this. Pupils are given the opportunity to write in a range of contexts. Overall, pupils’ writing in books shows good progress.

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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

 recently introduced improvements to the teaching of reading and writing are embedded consistently so disadvantaged pupils make good or better progress throughout the school.  gaps in attainment and progress between disadvantaged pupils and others continue to close.

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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 Greenwich. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with the headteacher, deputy headteachers and phase and subject leaders. I also held a meeting with the inclusion and assessment leader and governors. I scrutinised pupils’ work in English. I visited lessons in Nursery, Reception, key stages 1 and 2 to observe learning. I talked to pupils about their learning throughout the day as I visited lessons. I listened to pupils reading in key stages 1 and 2. I analysed 39 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View and 38 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire. I scrutinised documentation, including the school’s self- evaluation and improvement plans, pupils’ attendance information, documentation related to safeguarding and the school’s assessment and behaviour information.

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