Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Ian Wilson Headteacher St Margaret’s Lee Church of England Primary School Dacre Park London SE13 5SQ

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Ofsted visit to St Margaret’s Lee Church of England Primary School

Following my visit with Lucy Bruce, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 21 October 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted visit to St Margaret’s Lee Church of England Primary School

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

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Ofsted visit to St Margaret’s Lee Church of England Primary School

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted visit to St Margaret’s Lee Church of England Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you and the senior leader responsible for safeguarding. We did not speak to pupils because of the protective measures in place.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 The school opened to all pupils on 3 September 2020. All pupils are expected to attend full time.  Attendance is slightly lower than at this time last year. You provided support to a small number of families and pupils who were initially anxious about returning to school. Almost all pupils are attending regularly.  All pupils are studying their usual curriculum which includes all the subjects within the national curriculum. You have sequenced your work on supporting well-being to cover topics which have become particularly relevant to your community during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, you have focused on family relationships and mental health awareness during your assemblies.  When pupils returned to school, you and your staff identified a need to develop phonics skills with selected pupils across the school. Gaps you had previously identified in phonics knowledge had worsened. You have invested in

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

new phonics resources to support pupils and to help teachers provide targeted catch-up and intervention sessions.  In mathematics, you identified gaps in Year 6 pupils’ knowledge and skills. You are organising group teaching sessions to help them catch up.  Across all subjects you are focusing on developing pupils’ vocabulary, their retrieval skills and their specific subject knowledge.  Pupils are provided with some remote learning homework tasks which relate to work they are doing in school, such as spelling work. Your teachers have undertaken work to develop the remote learning offer. You are confident that the school is equipped to deliver a remote curriculum for all pupils, should this become necessary in the future. Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

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

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