Setting

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

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Gareth Griffiths Executive Headteacher Bayards Hill School Waynflete Road Headington Oxford Oxfordshire OX3 9NU

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Requires improvement: monitoring inspection visit to Bayards Hill School

Following my visit to your school on 23 June 2021, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the monitoring inspection findings. Thank you for the help your senior leaders and staff gave during the inspection and for the time they made available to discuss the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Requires improvement: monitoring inspection visit to Bayards Hill School

The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) 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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Requires improvement: monitoring inspection visit to Bayards Hill School

This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic began. I discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in my evaluation.

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Requires improvement: monitoring inspection visit to Bayards Hill School

Having considered the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action

in order for the school to become a good school.

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Leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action

The school should take further action to:

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Leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action

 focus on the delivery of the curriculum plans so they are taught effectively to help all pupils learn well  improve the use of the outdoor provision to help children in early years develop across all areas of learning.

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Context

There have been several leadership changes since the last full inspection in December 2019. A new early years leader joined the school shortly afterwards. You became executive headteacher of the two primary schools in the Community Schools Alliance Trust (CSAT). New governors have joined the local governing body.

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Context

There is no longer a chief executive officer post in the trust structure. Leaders are currently receiving support from another multi-academy trust.

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Context

The trust temporarily closed the nursery from the start of this school year.

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Context

At the time of this inspection, you were absent from school.

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Main findings

The leaders I met with show a fighting spirit to improve this school. More recently, the pace of improvement has picked up and leaders are clearer about what they need to do. Action plans outline step by step how leaders will go about making changes. They all recognise that for these plans to be successful, everyone needs to understand what they are aiming to achieve.

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Main findings

The newly designed curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced across many subjects. Within subjects, leaders have identified the essential knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn but have not yet broken that down into smaller steps to help teachers in planning a sequence of lessons. Although pupils study a wide range of subjects, they are not currently learning a modern foreign language in key stage 2. Plans are underway to incorporate this subject into the school’s curriculum from September 2021.

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Main findings

Leaders are now focusing on how teachers deliver the curriculum. Your senior leaders are using research to train teachers on how to present information and model their explanations to pupils clearly. Teachers are using more precise questioning to check pupils’ understanding. They are beginning to recap previous learning, which is helping pupils remember more. With support from leaders, staff are beginning to adapt learning more effectively for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

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Main findings

However, the activities teachers set pupils are not demanding enough currently. Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can do are not high enough. In early years, children are not learning well through the outdoor provision. Activities do not develop children’s knowledge and skills across the different areas of learning. Some staff are unclear about how to support children’s learning.

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Main findings

The school is in the process of moving to a new phonics programme. Leaders are sensibly drawing on the expertise of a local English Hub to help implement the new programme. This has ensured that staff are well trained and understand how to use the programme’s resources and teaching strategies. Your reading leader is working on ensuring that all pupils on the programme read books that match the sounds they are learning.

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Main findings

Trustees and governors show an increasingly secure understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They undertake focused activities to assure themselves about the pace of improvement. They are benefiting from support from the external trust in holding you to account.

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Additional support

Advisers from the external trust are working closely with leaders. They have helped to set out clearer plans which link staff’s professional development to the curriculum. The trust is enabling your leaders to connect with other schools to share expertise. The local authority is providing ongoing support to improve early years.

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Evidence

During the inspection, I held meetings with the deputy headteacher, the assistant headteacher, with responsibility for SEND, subject leaders, and representatives from CSAT and the local governing body to discuss the actions taken to improve the school since the last inspection. I also spoke with a representative from the local authority and the director of primary education of the external trust supporting the school.

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Evidence

I met groups of pupils from Years 4 and 6 and heard pupils from Reception and Year 1 read. I looked at curriculum plans and some examples of work in pupils’ books. I evaluated the school improvement plan, action plans and minutes of trustees’ and governors’ meetings. I considered 20 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 48 responses to Ofsted’s Parent View, including nine free-text responses.

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Evidence

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Oxfordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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