Setting

Susannah Bellingham Headteacher Brunswick Park Primary School Picton Street London SE5 7QH

p.1

Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 16 May 2018, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the monitoring inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

p.1

Primary School

The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 and has taken place because the school has received two successive judgements of requires improvement at its previous section 5 inspections.

p.1

Primary School

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection in order for the school to become good.

p.1

Primary School

The school should take further action to:

p.1

Primary School

 eliminate the remaining inconsistencies in teachers’ use of assessment to plan learning which fully meets pupils’ needs  increase teachers’ skills, where necessary, in identifying during lessons when pupils need extra help or are ready to move on, so that they can adjust their teaching accordingly  strengthen the use of assessment to identify how well pupils are attaining in the humanities subjects. Ofsted

p.1

Primary School

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

p.1

Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders and members of the governing body. I also held discussions with staff and with pupils from Years 4 and 6. I met with two senior representatives of the local authority and spoke by telephone with an independent consultant who is supporting the school. I also spoke to parents at the start of the school day. Together, we visited lessons in a Reception class and in Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5. We also undertook a scrutiny of pupils’ work. I reviewed the school’s single central record of staff suitability checks. I evaluated the school’s improvement plan and considered the findings from the range of external reviews the school has commissioned.

p.2

Context

Since the last inspection a new chair of governors has been appointed. Three new members have joined the governing body. An assistant headteacher left the school at Christmas. Teaching continues to be delivered by a combination of permanent and temporary staff.

p.2

Main findings

Leadership at all levels of the school has been strengthened since the section 5 inspection. Leaders, managers and governors are making a bigger difference to the quality of education provided for the pupils than before.

p.2

Main findings

The school’s governance arrangements are much more effective. Governors quickly commissioned the external review recommended by inspectors at the last inspection. With support from an experienced external consultant, governors have used the findings of the review to improve the way they hold you and other leaders to account. The Raising Achievement Board now in place monitors closely the school’s work, to ensure that actions set out in the detailed school improvement plan are being taken quickly enough and are effective. Governors seek additional sources of evidence to satisfy themselves that the school is improving, including through the independent reviews they commission. As a result of these changes, governors have a much-improved knowledge and understanding of the school’s strengths and remaining weaknesses.

p.2

Main findings

Senior and middle leadership across the school have been strengthened considerably. Staff told me that they have a much clearer understanding of your expectations of them than before. They said that the scrutiny of their work has become a routine part of the school’s practice. Your records of the monitoring of the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement confirm this. Middle leaders play a much more prominent role in leading in their areas of responsibility than at the time of the last inspection, and are carrying out their roles increasingly effectively. You and your staff are making much more effective use of assessment information to evaluate the quality of teaching. This information is also being used to identify pupils who are not making the progress you expect. This includes the most able pupils, whose achievement is now scrutinised more carefully than before. Teachers use information about pupils’ previous attainment increasingly effectively to plan

p.2

Main findings

learning which meets their needs. This practice is not fully consistent, however. You also know, and our observations of lessons in key stage 1 confirmed, that teaching is not always adapted quickly enough when it becomes clear that pupils do not understand the work or are ready to move on.

p.3

Main findings

You have improved the curriculum by ensuring that pupils have more opportunities to practise their skills in writing, including in science and in the humanities subjects. The science curriculum has been strengthened considerably and pupils’ scientific knowledge and understanding are now checked rigorously. While improvements have been made to the humanities curriculum, the assessment of pupils’ attainment in the humanities subjects is not as well developed as it is in science.

p.3

Main findings

You know there is more work to do to build on the improvements made, so that the school is judged to be good at its next section 5 inspection. This is particularly the case given the continued challenge you face in recruiting and retaining high-quality staff. Improved leadership and more careful curriculum planning, however, are resulting in temporary staff being supported more effectively than before. This is helping to mitigate variations in the quality of teaching experienced by different groups of pupils.

p.3

Main findings

The results from last year’s national tests are encouraging, particularly the tests taken at the end of key stage 2. The proportion of pupils attaining the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics combined improved markedly to be above average, having previously been below average. Improvements to the reading curriculum meant that pupils made strong progress in reading by the end of key stage 2. Younger pupils’ attainment in phonics also improved strongly. Pupils’ achievements by the end of key stage 1 remain less consistent, however, due to remaining inconsistencies in the quality of teaching, as well as pupils’ sometimes complex needs.

p.3

External support

The school is receiving effective support from the local authority. Good use has been made of a specialist early years adviser, for example. Representatives from the local authority also make valuable checks on the quality of teaching and provide useful feedback to the school on how teaching can be improved.

p.3

External support

You and the governors are also receiving good support from independent educational consultants. This support has helped bring about clear improvements to the effectiveness of leadership, and has consequently strengthened the school’s capacity to improve further. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Southwark. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

p.3