Manor Farm Junior School

Inspection of Manor Farm Junior School Rose Avenue, Hazlemere, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP15 7PH

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Inspection dates: 21 and 22 January 2025

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The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement

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Previous inspection grade Not previously inspected under section 5 of the Education Act

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The headteacher of this school is David Compton. This school is part of Great Learners Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Sarah Baber, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Peter Westaway. 21 and 22 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Relationships between pupils are typically kind and caring. Staff look after pupils well and keep them safe. Pupils appreciate and respect the adults that they work with. If pupils have any worries, they know to tell a member of staff. Pupils rightly trust staff to sort out any problems quickly. Pupils enjoy school and socialise happily at breaktimes and lunchtimes. The school sets high expectations for pupils’ attendance and the majority of pupils come to school very regularly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is ambitious for pupils’ learning across the curriculum. However, although pupils’ results in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2024 were about average overall, pupils’ achievement varies across the school. The approaches that staff use in lessons are not consistently effective enough. Additionally, the school’s support for weaker readers and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is not as strong as it should be.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The breadth and quality of opportunities for pupils’ personal growth are good. Pupils experience a wide range of enriching activities. Underpinned by the school’s values, pupils have a strong understanding of the world around them. They learn to respect and value people with different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Although some pupils thrive academically, pupils’ achievement across the curriculum is not securely strong. Teachers’ expectations vary between subjects and year groups. They do not make sure that pupils are engaged fully in what they are learning. Sometimes, pupils struggle to complete tasks. Teachers’ checks on pupils’ learning do not gauge effectively enough how well pupils have learned new ideas, concepts or skills. The school has a broad, ambitious curriculum in place, providing a solid foundation for further improvements.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Pupils are enthusiastic readers. They encounter a range of stimulating texts in class and borrow books regularly from the school’s library. While specific provision is in place to support weaker readers, this is not effective enough. Books that the school gives these pupils to develop their fluency and confidence are not matched precisely enough to their reading ability. They are not routinely given the support that they need to access class texts fully.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Pupils with SEND with the greatest challenges are supported well and make good progress through the curriculum. However, other pupils with SEND do not get the help that they require to achieve well. Their social and emotional needs are identified and met more effectively than their academic needs. The school does not provide teachers with the specific guidance necessary to support pupils consistently effectively.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Pupils’ personal development is a strength of the school. They understand important social, moral and cultural aspects of life in modern Britain. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe online and how to form healthy, fruitful relationships. They debate 21 and 22 January 2025

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different issues and topics well. Pupils benefit from opportunities that broaden their horizons and aspirations. They develop leadership skills, including by being members of the school’s ‘pupil parliament’.

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Pupils respect the school’s rules and are considerate. Lessons are calm. The school supports pupils with specific behaviour needs effectively. Leaders make sure that staff have the necessary knowledge to manage pupils’ behaviour. The school takes the right actions swiftly if any pupil’s attendance dips.

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The trust has an accurate view of the school’s priorities through a more forensic approach to understanding the school’s effectiveness over the last year. Local governors, trustees and executive leaders all review the school’s progress but not in a clearly defined, coherent way. Therefore, the trust does not hold the school to account for improvements fully effectively.

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Staff appreciate how leaders manage workload, which helps staff concentrate on their work with pupils. Staff value the range of training and support that the school provides, although this is not focused enough on making sure approaches in the classroom are consistently effective. The school engages well with parents and carers overall but those of children with SEND generally have less positive views of the school’s work.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The approaches teachers use in lessons are not consistently effective. Pupils do not achieve as well as they should because they are not fully engaged and teachers’ expectations vary. The school should support teachers to use strategies that enable pupils to learn new knowledge securely.  Lessons are not adapted well enough to meet the academic needs of pupils with SEND. They do not make strong progress through the curriculum. The school should provide staff with the necessary information so that they can support pupils with SEND effectively in lessons.  The ways in which the school supports weaker readers are not effective enough. These pupils’ fluency, accuracy and confidence in reading do not develop as strongly as they should. The school must make sure that books are matched closely to pupils’ phonics knowledge and that they are supported to access texts in class more effectively.  While those responsible for governance and executive leaders within the trust review

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

the school’s progress, there is no cohesive or specific process which aligns the work of different layers of governance and leadership. This means that the school is not held to account as effectively as it could be for the pace and impact of improvements. The 21 and 22 January 2025

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trust should develop and implement a strategy that clearly sets out who is responsible for evaluating what, when and how.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 21 and 22 January 2025

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school is part of Great Learners Trust multi-academy trust.  Manor Farm Junior School converted to become an academy in May 2022. When its predecessor school, Manor Farm Community Junior School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be inadequate for overall effectiveness.  The school uses one registered alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade. 21 and 22 January 2025

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school has received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, science and physical education. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other leaders within the school. The lead inspector also met with members of the local governing board, including the chair. He also met with the chair of trustees and other trustees and the CEO and deputy CEO.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single

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central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspectors reviewed a range of the school’s documentation, including its self- evaluation, action plans, minutes of trustees’ and local governors’ meetings and behaviour incident logs.  The inspectors considered the views of parents shared through Ofsted Parent View and spoke with a sample of parents.  The views of staff were gathered through discussions conducted throughout the inspection, as well as through the staff survey.  Inspectors gathered pupils’ views throughout the inspection, including through classroom visits, group discussions and at breaktimes and lunchtimes.

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Inspection team

Matthew Haynes, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Francois Walker Ofsted Inspector 21 and 22 January 2025

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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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