Setting

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

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Jakki Alexander St Anne’s Catholic Primary School Pinkerton Road South Ham Basingstoke Hampshire RG22 6RE

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Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 27 March 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the outcome and inspection findings. Thank you for the help given during the inspection and for the time your colleagues made available to discuss the actions that have been taken since the school’s most recent section 5 inspection.

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Primary School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to have serious weaknesses. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Evidence

During this inspection, meetings were held with the acting headteacher and senior leaders, the chair of the governing body and other governors, two representatives of the local authority and a representative of the Diocese of Portsmouth. I carried out a learning walk jointly with senior leaders. I met with teachers and support staff. I spoke with pupils in lessons and during playtime. I also met with a group of pupils. I reviewed pupils’ work in books with leaders. I considered the views of parents and carers by speaking to parents at the start of the day and by reviewing Ofsted’s online survey Parent View. I reviewed a range of documentation, including minutes of meetings held by governors and various reports from external agencies.

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Evidence

The local authority’s statement of action and the school’s improvement plans were evaluated.

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Context

Since the previous inspection, some senior leaders have taken on more responsibilities to cover your absence. You were not present during the inspection. The assistant headteacher was acting headteacher at the time of the inspection. She had been in this role for five weeks and was being assisted by the key stage 1 and key stage 2 managers.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Leaders have responded quickly and decisively to address the serious weaknesses identified at the previous inspection. They have swiftly introduced systems and procedures to record and analyse information related to any safeguarding concerns. All staff have received training to remind them of their safeguarding responsibilities. There is now a strong safeguarding culture of vigilance shared by all adults in the school. Leaders have a thorough record of information, which they use wisely to respond and intervene when necessary. The systems are new, and leaders are considering their next steps to ensure that they become even more focused strategically in using the information that they record. Leaders are much better placed to identify patterns and issues related to children’s safety. Nevertheless, leaders do not consistently analyse and look for patterns in the behavioural incidents, racist incidents and other derogatory incidents that may be recorded.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Pupils feel safe at the school. They are confident and happy in the school. Pupils articulate strongly their knowledge of how to stay safe online and when using other forms of technology. They are considerate of others, polite and well-mannered. Parents are generally supportive of leaders’ work to develop the safeguarding procedures in the school. Many recognise the effective work done by leaders. However, there remain some parents with concerns about the safeguarding changes underway. Some parents are unsure of these changes and feel uninformed.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Governors have taken a robust and determined approach to changing the way that they work with leaders. They have taken useful expert advice and rapidly asked leaders to address the areas identified in the previous inspection report. Governors visit the school regularly to check that improvements are underway and working as expected. They work with other external agencies thoughtfully to confirm that the work is having the desired impact on the culture of safeguarding in the school. Consequently, there has been a visible improvement in safeguarding culture and practice across the school. Governors work very well with school leaders. They ask leaders well-considered and challenging questions, linked to the school’s development priorities. Because of this, they have an accurate view of the improvements made in the school. They know that the new systems are still developing.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Leaders and governors value the support that they receive from the local authority and local education leaders. They reflect on this and make confident decisions. As a result, they have made a significant impact on the school ethos and culture since the previous inspection. For example, leaders and governors worked closely with advisers in early years provision. Subsequently, they have made helpful improvements to the school’s transition procedures. Leaders and governors now have better procedures in place to ensure that they have the correct information that they need from nurseries and other providers, when children join the school.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Leaders work with staff to ensure that staff understand the procedural safeguarding changes made since the previous inspection, so that they are effective. Staff are well trained and know their legal responsibilities around keeping children safe in education. They know that ‘nothing is too small’ to report. They know how to report and record any worries that they have. Staff actively pursue any concerns that they raise with leaders. They work well with leaders to follow up the concerns that they raise.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Leaders are working to develop pupils’ mathematical knowledge and understanding effectively. Leaders’ plans to improve the mathematical provision address the correct areas for improvement. However, the plans do not identify by when leaders expect the priority improvements to be achieved. Much work to help pupils solve mathematical problems efficiently has taken place since the previous inspection. Pupils’ work shows that they are attempting challenging mathematical problems confidently and regularly. Many pupils solve the problems accurately. As a result, most pupils are making strong progress in mathematics. Leaders’ work to develop pupils’ mathematical reasoning skills is more evident in some year groups than others.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Following the monitoring inspection, the following judgements were made:

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Leaders and managers are taking effective actions towards the removal of the serious weaknesses designation.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The school’s improvement plans are fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The local authority’s statement of action is fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Portsmouth, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Hampshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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