Rowde Church of England Primary Academy

Rowde Church of England Primary Academy High Street, Rowde, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 2ND

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Early years provision Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Over time, leaders and governors have not taken swift action to improve teaching, learning and assessment. As a result, pupils’ progress is weak in key stage 2 and standards are below those of other pupils nationally, especially in mathematics and reading.  The curriculum for reading and mathematics does not develop the skills pupils need for the next stage in their education. British values are not promoted consistently and pupils are not prepared well enough for life in modern Britain.  Governors do not have a full enough understanding of the school’s performance to enable them to carry out their roles. They do not hold leaders to account effectively about why pupils are not making better progress.  Teachers do not have clear guidance and appropriate challenge to enable them to improve their practice. Consequently, teaching is not effective enough to ensure that pupils make progress. Too often, the most able pupils

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

are not stretched sufficiently to develop their thinking and very few reach higher standards.  Repeated changes of leadership have slowed improvement. Middle leaders have had insufficient opportunities to work alongside colleagues to improve teaching. Leaders at all levels do not monitor teaching rigorously enough to be able to tackle weaknesses.  Additional funding is not used effectively. As a result, disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are not making sufficient progress.  Behaviour is not managed consistently well. Current strategies are not reducing the high number of incidents of poor behaviour. Some staff members do not have confidence in leaders to support them in managing serious behaviour incidents.  Leaders have not promoted a strong culture of safeguarding. Procedures are often not tight enough to ensure the safety of pupils at all times.  Leaders have not been effective enough in

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

communicating to parents and carers how well their children are doing and involving them in their children’s learning.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders have an accurate view of pupils’ achievement and are starting to implement improvements.  The Reception class provides children with a positive start to their education.

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Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Rapidly improve the quality of teaching to raise pupils’ achievement by ensuring that all teachers: – plan work that meets the needs of different groups of pupils and provides sufficient challenge, especially for the most able pupils – use assessment to adapt and respond to the needs of different pupils in lessons – teach comprehension skills systematically and thoroughly to develop pupils’ understanding of challenging texts – teach reasoning skills effectively to deepen pupils’ understanding of mathematical concepts.  Increase the effectiveness of leadership and management by ensuring that: – leaders’ plans for improvement have precise targets and milestones for pupils’ achievement and for improving the quality of teaching, and that they are implemented effectively and checked rigorously – leaders, at all levels, monitor teaching rigorously in terms of the impact on pupils’ progress in order to identify weaknesses and resolve them promptly

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– plans for the use of additional funds are targeted precisely to improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND – communication with parents is improved to keep them informed and involved in their children’s learning – governors gain a better understanding of the school’s performance to enable them to hold leaders to account rigorously – leaders tighten the arrangements for safeguarding and check frequently on the effectiveness of their policies and procedures.  Improve pupils’ behaviour by ensuring that: – the management of behaviour policy is applied consistently across the school – procedures for reporting bullying are tightened and incidents of poor behaviour are followed up thoroughly to a successful conclusion – an understanding of fundamental British values is embedded throughout the curriculum to develop pupils’ cultural awareness. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

aspect of leadership and management may be improved further. An external review of the use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Since the previous inspection, considerable turbulence in leadership and staffing has severely hampered the school’s capacity to improve. The quality of education has declined and leaders have made insufficient progress in addressing areas identified for improvement. This has had a detrimental effect on pupils’ achievement and too many leave the school poorly prepared for their next step.  Improvement plans do not focus sharply on improving the quality of teaching and increasing pupils’ achievement. These plans have not been implemented thoroughly enough or then monitored to see what is working well. This means that initiatives, such as the scheme for teaching mathematics, have had limited impact.  Checks on the quality of teaching are not sufficiently analytical to identify why teaching is not having a better impact on learning. Leaders do not identify and address weaknesses promptly. Support and training for teachers are not targeted carefully

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

enough to raise the quality of their work and increase their effectiveness.  Due to the many changes in leadership and staffing, middle leaders have a limited impact on improving teaching in their areas of responsibility. They have not checked teaching frequently enough to be able to provide effective support and challenge to colleagues to improve their work.  The school states its commitment to equality of opportunity but this does not consistently translate into practice. Until very recently, little had been done to ensure that any weaknesses in the achievement of different groups of pupils, such as pupils with SEND, are addressed. Additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND is used to provide some additional staff. Despite this help, these pupils do not achieve as well as they should.  Although the school aims to provide a wide range of subjects, including activities such

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

as woodland studies, leaders have failed to ensure that the curriculum is planned so that outcomes improve. British values are not promoted consistently through the curriculum in order to develop cultural understanding or prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.  Many parents who responded to the online survey, Parent View, or who spoke to inspectors, expressed serious concerns about leadership and felt that communication between home and school could be improved. A number of parents feel that leaders do not listen and respond well to their concerns.  The sport premium is used to enable pupils to participate in a wider range of physical activities and sports competitions. These opportunities are appreciated by pupils. However, the impact of the funding has not been evaluated well enough to enable leaders to adapt the provision for further improvement in subsequent years.  Recently appointed leaders are making changes to improve the school’s work. The new

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

system for monitoring achievement gives them an accurate view of how well pupils are doing. They are implementing plans to help disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, but it is too early for these to have significant effect on pupils’ achievement.  In light of the weaknesses identified, it is recommended that the school should not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Governance of the school

 Over time, governors have not challenged leaders robustly enough about why the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement are not better. Until recently, they did not receive accurate information about how well pupils were doing. This limited their ability to hold leaders to account rigorously for the school’s performance. They have not checked well enough to ensure that their arrangements for safeguarding are effective and meet statutory requirements.  Although they are keen for the school to succeed, governors have not developed their skills to gain a better understanding of their responsibilities.  Governors do not ensure that the school is using additional funding, such as the pupil premium funding, effectively to raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND and develop sport in school.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.  Leaders have not promoted a strong culture of vigilance by checking rigorously that their policies and procedures are being followed consistently and are effective. Leaders provide regular training in the latest safeguarding requirements. However, due to the frequent changes in leadership, some staff report that they are unsure as to whom they report their concerns.  Recruitment procedures are not secure. The record of adults who work with children is not monitored carefully enough to ensure that all required pre-employment checks are completed and the record contains all the necessary information. These omissions were corrected during the inspection.  A number of staff and parents reported that they do not feel that leaders are tackling poor behaviour successfully. Some staff said they do not get the support they need from leaders to manage challenging behaviour incidents.

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Safeguarding

 Leaders do not have tight enough procedures to maintain safety on the school premises. There are shortcomings in systems to ensure that pupils are kept safe. For example, a gate to the playground giving access to the public is not always locked. This was also rectified during the inspection.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 Weak teaching over time, especially in key stage 2, has prevented pupils acquiring the knowledge, skills and understanding to enable them to make sufficient progress in reading and mathematics. There is a lack of urgency to ensure that pupils make the progress they should and achieve the standards of which they are capable.  Teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve. Too often, teachers fail to take account of what pupils already know and can do. This results in work that does not meet the needs of all groups of pupils. The work planned is often too easy for the most able pupils or too hard for others and so their learning is held back.  Teachers do not assess pupils’ understanding and progress sufficiently well to adapt their teaching and the tasks they set to ensure that pupils’ learning moves on quickly. This restricts the progress they make, especially for the most able pupils.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 Currently, there is no agreed or consistent approach to the teaching of reading. As pupils move through the school, teaching does not develop pupils’ comprehension skills sufficiently well. Teachers do not provide pupils with a challenging range of literature to extend their vocabulary and understanding.  The mathematics scheme develops pupils’ fluency in number and provides opportunities for pupils to reason and solve problems. However, teachers do not teach pupils how to apply their knowledge and skills or how to explain their thinking effectively. This limits progress in developing mathematical understanding.  Until recently, there has been a lack of clear provision for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND. Leaders have begun to help teachers plan to meet pupils’ individual needs. Because much of this work is new, little impact is evident yet.  Teachers help pupils develop the basic skills of sentence construction, grammar and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

spelling by providing a range of opportunities to write across subjects. Not enough time is given to editing and improving their writing. Therefore, they do not deepen their understanding of what high-quality writing looks like and very few pupils achieve at greater depth.  Phonics teaching is effective and helps pupils develop early reading skills in line with the expectations for their age.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.  Leaders’ failure to establish secure safeguarding procedures means that pupils are not kept safe at all times and their welfare is not promoted.  The anti-bullying policy is not implemented effectively and incidents are not recorded. Pupils understand what constitutes bullying. They say that incidents of bullying do occur but they are unsure of how to seek help. They feel that problems are mostly sorted out effectively by staff when they do speak out. The majority of parents who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, or who spoke to inspectors, did not feel that bullying was dealt with effectively and could cite incidents to support this.  Pupils do not see themselves as successful learners. Too often, work is not planned appropriately to meet their needs and they do not receive high-quality guidance to

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Personal development and welfare

ensure that they can improve their work. As a result, some pupils are not motivated to try their best at all times and presentation in books is variable.  Pupils enjoy undertaking responsibilities such as librarians and sports leaders. They understand how to be healthy and take part in a range of physical activities. The Forest School initiative helps to engage pupils with social and emotional difficulties positively in their learning.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is inadequate.  The behaviour policy is not implemented consistently across classes. New processes and systems have recently been put in place but are not well embedded. Some parents and teachers report that rewards and sanctions are not applied consistently.  Most incidents of poor behaviour occur outside of lessons. There have been a high number of incidents of poor behaviour this year, some of which have resulted in exclusion from school. There is a lack of consistent follow-up of incidents. Strategies, such as working with the behaviour support team, are now in place but they have yet to have a full impact on improving behaviour.  Effective relationships between pupils and staff ensure that most pupils conduct themselves appropriately in and around school. There are still some low-level disruption and off-task chattering that goes unchecked in lessons.  Attendance is above average and most pupils attend regularly and are punctual to

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

 Outcomes for key stage 2 pupils have been weak for a number of years, particularly in reading and mathematics. The progress made across key stage 2 in mathematics in recent years has been in the lowest 20% compared to schools nationally, and in the lowest 40% in reading. Pupils’ attainment has been below that of others nationally in these subjects, at both the expected and at the higher standard. As a result, they are not prepared well for the next steps in their education.  Despite a decline in outcomes over the past three years, leaders have not acted swiftly to halt the decline and improve achievement across key stage 2. Current assessments provided by the school, learning in lessons and work in books show that progress is not good enough and attainment is uneven between classes. Pupils in Year 6 are still achieving at lower standards than expected. Not enough of these pupils are working at age-related expectations in reading, writing and mathematics and very few are set to

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

achieve at the higher standard.  Work in pupils’ books shows that there have been attempts to raise expectations and introduce more challenging work in mathematics. This has not been successful across all classes. The quality of work in books is too inconsistent and pupils are not developing reasoning skills sufficiently well to become good mathematicians.  Pupils do not develop effective comprehension skills as they move through the school in order to derive deeper meaning from their reading. They are not encouraged to read widely enough across different authors and styles to extend their understanding and vocabulary to achieve higher standards. Not enough pupils develop a love of reading by the time they leave the school.  Disadvantaged pupils have not achieved as well as their classmates from similar starting points in recent years and their progress has been limited. Their achievement is often below the expectations for their age.

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

 Pupils with SEND are not well provided for and do not make as much progress as they could. Often, in mathematics lessons, they do not have a wide enough range of practical resources to help develop their understanding of concepts.  When writing, pupils show improving skills in sentence construction and a developing understanding of grammar. However, they do not spend enough time making revisions and editing their work to produce high-quality writing. Consequently, not enough of the most able pupils are achieving at greater depth for their age.  Achievement in the early years has been above national figures in recent years and most pupils in Year 1 meet the expected standard in the phonics screening check. Standards at the end of key stage 1 rose in 2018 and were above national figures in reading, writing and mathematics at the standards expected for their age. However, current attainment is not as high, and too few pupils are working at greater depth.

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Early years provision Requires improvement

 Leaders’ arrangements for safeguarding and for ensuring the welfare and safety of children are not strong. They assess the risks to children in the early years effectively but they do not monitor their procedures for maintaining safety closely enough to check their ongoing effectiveness.  Parents say that communication is not good between school and home. They do not feel sufficiently involved in their children’s learning and would welcome more participation. Nevertheless, children settle quickly into routines in the Reception class and make a positive start to school life.  Most children start school with the knowledge and skills broadly typical for their age. They make good progress across all areas of learning. As they leave Reception, the proportion of children that achieve a good level of development is above the national average, meaning they are well prepared for Year 1.  Leaders track children’s progress carefully. They can show how provision has been

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Early years provision Requires improvement

adjusted so that, currently, disadvantaged children are achieving as well as others in school. However, changes to the provision to ensure that children with SEND are supported are too recent to show impact.  Staff have extended their knowledge and skills through training activities and by visiting other provisions to observe effective practice. As a result, children benefit from a careful balance of well-planned adult-led teaching, including the teaching of phonics, which underpins the development of early reading and writing skills effectively. Children write letters correctly and spell common words accurately to form simple sentences.  Children also have a wide range of opportunities to follow their own interests. For example, some boys were observed during inspection constructing pyramids and cuboids from straws and plasticine. They worked diligently at this, developing their mathematical understanding as they talked together about the number of faces and

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Early years provision Requires improvement

vertices they needed to make their shapes. However, the most able children are not challenged consistently enough to ensure that they achieve as well as they could.  Children enjoy warm relationships with staff and each other. They listen carefully to instructions from staff and behave well, showing curiosity and delight in their learning.

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Date of previous inspection 8–9 July 2015

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Information about this school

 This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. The majority of pupils are of White British heritage. Pupils are organised in seven classes, one per year group.  The proportion of pupils with SEND with is broadly average. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below average.  Breakfast and after-school clubs are managed each day by the school, known as the Rascals.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed pupils’ learning across the school. Most observations were carried out with senior leaders. In addition, they made visits to classrooms, the dining hall and the playground.  Meetings were held with pupils, governors and school leaders. The lead inspector also spoke with an external adviser who provides advisory support to the school. She also spoke with the local authority designated officer for safeguarding.  Inspectors spoke informally with parents at the start of both school days. They took account of the 71 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as parents’ written responses and views in informal discussions. They also took account of the 24 responses to the staff questionnaire and their verbal feedback, and the one response to the pupils’ questionnaire.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documents, including the school’s improvement plans. They examined information on current pupils’

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Information about this inspection

progress, minutes of the governing body meetings, safeguarding procedures and the plans for the use of the sport premium.  Inspectors listened to pupils read, talked to them in classrooms and evaluated samples of their work.

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Inspection team

Sandra Woodman, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Faye Heming Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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