Setting

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

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Ms Candida Reece Headteacher London Meed Community Primary School Chanctonbury Road Burgess Hill West Sussex RH15 9YQ

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Community Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 12 September 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.

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Community 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.

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Community Primary School

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

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Community Primary School

The school should take further action to:

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Community Primary School

 improve the quality of assessment across all key stages so that teachers and leaders identify and support effectively those pupils who start to fall behind and intervene quickly to help them to improve their learning.

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Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with you, senior leaders, middle leaders, the chair of governors, the local authority school improvement adviser and the designated lead for safeguarding. A range of documents were evaluated, including the post-Ofsted action plan. Lessons were visited with you across all key stages. I observed pupils’ behaviour in the hall and on the playground during breaks. I also met with groups of pupils and staff from across the school, and reviewed outcomes for pupils currently in the school. *

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Context

You have appointed an additional assistant headteacher since the last inspection.

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Main findings

The improvements that you and your leadership team have made to standards in the school since the last inspection are clearly evident. In 2018, attainment and rates of progress have improved in key stage 1 and 2 in reading, writing and mathematics, and especially for pupils achieving greater depth. However, there was a dip in the proportion of pupils reaching a good level of development in early years. You are determined to address this weakness quickly.

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Main findings

Your improvement plans focus clearly on achieving the improvements which will make the biggest differences to pupils’ outcomes. Leaders now review progress against the action plans more frequently than previously, moving on quickly from actions which are not leading to improved standards. Governors are fully committed to seeing the school improve. They monitor progress carefully, using both the information that leaders provide and their own visits to the school to compare the evidence with senior leaders and determine the best next steps. They trust in leaders’ capacity to sustain the pace of improvement, and ask challenging questions to hold them to account. Newly established management systems ensure that there is rigour to the process of evaluation and review.

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Main findings

Your focused work to improve the quality of teaching and learning has been the key factor in improving pupils’ outcomes. Staff have seized the opportunities for training and professional development offered since the inspection, including visits to local teaching schools to observe good teaching. They are well motivated and keen to ensure that pupils fulfil their potential. You have developed more structure to lessons and you are ensuring that learning is sufficiently challenging for all pupils. Following the last inspection, leaders quickly reviewed how teachers planned learning. Subsequently, you developed an approach to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their starting points, are challenged appropriately in lessons.

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Main findings

You have made changes to the school’s assessment procedures to ensure that progress information is increasingly accurate. Teachers now pay closer attention to the progress pupils are making in reading, writing and mathematics. You increased opportunities for moderation and standardisation of pupils’ work, both within the school and with external partners, and this has helped teachers to assess progress more accurately than previously. Teachers are now beginning to be effective in providing additional support for those pupils who need it. Nevertheless, this work is not yet having sufficient impact in every area and particularly in early years. Leaders do not yet identify underachievement rapidly enough to ensure that extra provision for those who need help to catch up is quickly in place.

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Main findings

You have revised the curriculum so that it is both rich and broad to ensure that it best meets the needs of your pupils and encourages them to be well motivated to *

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Main findings

do their best. Pupils told me that they now find lessons more interesting than previously and that there are more opportunities for practical or investigative tasks.

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Main findings

Middle leaders have become more effective in their roles. They have led staff meetings on improving the quality of teachers’ questioning skills and on providing curriculum guidance for the knowledge that pupils will learn. They are skilled at holding teachers to account for the quality of teaching and the progress that pupils make. They have a very clear understanding that achievement will not improve consistently until all teaching is good, in every lesson, for every pupil. They ensure that teachers keep a close focus on the achievement of groups of pupils, including the most able pupils.

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Main findings

You have done much to improve pupils’ behaviour. You have devised new systems to ensure that pupils move around the school safely. These have had a positive impact on pupils’ behaviour, especially during lunchtime. Pupils’ behaviour during the morning break and at lunchtime was harmonious. Pupils played well together and were kind to each other. Pupils told me that if they have a problem, there is always an adult they can go to, and I observed this in practice. You have introduced lunchtime sports leaders and trained midday supervisors in play techniques. In lesson time, pupils displayed very positive attitudes to learning and relationships with teachers are warm. I spoke with a number of pupils who said that behaviour in lessons is always good but that it is sometimes less good in the hall at lunchtimes and this can lead to it being too noisy.

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External support

The school benefits from effective but limited support and challenge by West Sussex local authority. In addition, the school is working with both local teaching schools and external school improvement agencies to provide regular training and development.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, 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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