Setting

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

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Angela Cartwright Head of School Timbercroft Primary School Timbercroft Lane Plumstead London SE18 2SG

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Ofsted visit to Timbercroft Primary School

Following my visit with Janet Hallett, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 13 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 Timbercroft 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 Timbercroft 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 Timbercroft Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the executive headteacher and the deputy headteacher. 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 year groups on 3 September 2020. All pupils are expected to attend full time.  Attendance is higher than at this time last year. Your learning mentor provided support for a small number of pupils who were anxious about returning to school. They are attending regularly.  All pupils are studying their usual curriculum. This includes all the subjects within the national curriculum. You and your staff are placing an emphasis on developing pupils’ oracy skills within the range of subjects taught.  Staff checked pupils’ new starting points when they returned to school and compared these to the expected levels for pupils’ ages in reading, writing and mathematics. These checks have led you to focus on writing in all year groups. You found that pupils had gaps in their phonics knowledge and spelling skills, and that they were out of practice in writing at length.  In reading, you have organised phonics sessions to help pupils in all year

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

groups who have fallen behind. Across the school, staff are spending more time than usual in developing pupils’ reading and oracy skills.  In mathematics, you identified gaps in pupils’ arithmetic skills across the school. You have prioritised different aspects of mathematics in each year group. For example, in the early years you are focusing on developing number bonds. Older pupils are focusing on times tables and place value.  You are providing all pupils with remote learning tasks, for homework, which relate to the subjects being taught in school. You are continuing to offer training, to further develop teachers’ skills in planning and delivering online learning. You are confident that the training staff have received, together with their experiences of teaching a remote curriculum during the period when schools were only open to some children due to COVID-19 restrictions, will equip them well to provide online learning in the future.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

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, chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer of the Maritime academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Greenwich. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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