Langenhoe Community Primary School

LANGENHOE COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL

Dates of inspection: 24-27 November 2003

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LANGENHOE COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL

Inspection carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 Langenhoe Primary School - Page 2 This report may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that all extracts quoted are reproduced verbatim without adaptation and on condition that the source and date thereof are stated.

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LANGENHOE COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL

Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the School Inspections Act 1996, the school must provide a copy of this report and/or its summary free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Type of school: Primary School category: Community Age range of pupils: 4 to 11 Gender of pupils: Mixed Number on roll: 135

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Bracken Way Abberton Colchester Postcode: CO5 7PG

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Telephone number: 01206 735267 Fax number: 01206 735056

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: The Governing Body Name of chair of governors: Mr A Frost

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: 16 March 1998

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL

Langenhoe Community Primary School is a modern, rural school situated four miles to the south of Colchester. It is smaller than most primary schools, and all its pupils are of white British heritage. Its pupils are grouped into five mixed-age classes. The home circumstances of its pupils vary, but overall they are generally more favourable than the national average, and few pupils are entitled to free school meals. The proportion of pupils identified as having special educational needs is about average, as is the proportion with statements of special educational need. The nature of pupils’ special needs includes social and emotional, speech and communication, and visual difficulties. Pupils join the reception class in two intakes, in September and January. Over the course of a year, the attainment of pupils on entry to the school is at least average. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 4

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

25372 Mr M Thompson Lead inspector Mathematics Information and communication technology Art and design Design and technology French Music Physical education 19320 Mrs B Attaway Lay inspector 23453 Mrs C Cressey Team inspector Foundation Stage Curriculum Special educational needs English Science Personal, social and health education Geography History Religious education

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

PBM Brookbridge & Bedford Ltd 13A Market Place Uttoxeter Staffordshire ST14 8HY

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be made initially to the inspection contractor. The procedures are set out in the leaflet ‘Complaining about Ofsted Inspections’ , which is available from Ofsted Publications Centre (telephone 07002 637833) or Ofsted’s website (www.oftsed.gov.uk). Langenhoe Primary School - Page 5

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY PUPILS 8

Standards achieved in areas of learning, subjects and courses

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY PUPILS 8

Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL 11

Teaching and learning The curriculum Care, guidance and support Partnership with parents, other schools and the community

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OVERALL EVALUATION

The school is not effective in enabling pupils to do as well as they can. It has a number of good features: there is a strong ethos of care and of developing pupils’ personal skills; pupils have positive attitudes towards their work; and they behave very well. However, the school also has a number of significant weaknesses which the governors and subject coordinators have not addressed, some of which were key issues at the time of the last inspection. The leadership and management of the school are, therefore, unsatisfactory. The quality of education provided is also unsatisfactory. Weaknesses in teaching and the curriculum have contributed to unsatisfactory learning, low attainment in the core subjects of English, mathematics and science and the underachievement of pupils in all year groups. The school gives unsatisfactory value for money .

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OVERALL EVALUATION

In accordance with section 13(7) of the School Inspections Act 1996 I am of the opinion, and HMCI agrees, that special measures are required in relation to this school.

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The school requires special measures because:

• It is failing to provide an adequate standard of education. • Standards are below average in English, science and information and communication technology (ICT), and well below average in mathematics. • Provision for the youngest children is unsatisfactory. • Teaching and assessment are unsatisfactory. There is not enough good teaching. • The curriculum is unsatisfactory. It fails to ensure that pupils’ skills are developed progressively as they move through the school, and there is not enough time for lessons in Years 3 to 6. • The school’s governance and the leadership of subject coordinators are unsatisfactory. • Provision for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is unsatisfactory.

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Main strengths are:

• The new headteacher has identified the key weaknesses and is addressing them, but the impact of her work cannot yet be judged. • The school is very good at providing for the care and welfare of its pupils. • Pupils’ social and moral development is very good. • The school provides a number of interesting and exciting activities to enrich the curriculum for its pupils, some of which contribute to the school’s strong tradition in music and the high quality pieces of artwork on display.

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Main strengths are:

Progress since the last inspection has been poor. Standards have declined in the core subjects and three of the four key issues from the previous inspection have not been properly addressed. These related to the curriculum, the monitoring of the work of the school, and standards in ICT.

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

all schools similar schools Results in National Curriculum tests at the end of Year 6, compared with: 2001 2002 2003 2003 English C B B C Mathematics B C E E* Science C C D E Key: A - well above average; B – above average; C – average; D – below average; E – well below average. Similar schools are those with similar percentages of pupils eligible for free school meals

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

Owing to the small size of the groups of pupils tested, the results in the table above need to be treated with some caution because the performance of individual pupils can disproportionately affect Langenhoe Primary School - Page 7 the overall result in any subject. However, when the school’s performance in the core subjects is viewed as a whole over the past four years, the trend in its results is below the national trend. In 2003, the school’s performance in mathematics, in comparison to similar schools, was in the lowest five per cent nationally. Inspection findings show that standards on entry are at least average, and children currently in the Foundation Stage are on course to achieve the goals expected of them. In Year 2, standards are below average in reading, writing, mathematics and ICT. In Year 6, they are below average in English, science and ICT and well below average in mathematics. Current

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

standards in Year 6 have fallen since the 2003 tests. In religious education (RE), standards in both Year 2 and 6 are below average because pupils do not study the subject regularly. No judgements were made about standards in other subjects. Throughout the school, pupils’ achievement is unsatisfactory .

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

Overall, pupils’ personal qualities are good . Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good, attitudes towards learning are good, behaviour is very good, and attendance is good.

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION

The quality of education provided by the school is unsatisfactory . Teaching is unsatisfactory in all areas of the school, and consequently pupils’ learning is also unsatisfactory. Teachers are good at managing their pupils’ behaviour. However, as a result of inadequate planning and unsatisfactory assessment, pupils are not challenged enough. The curriculum is unsatisfactory as it fails to provide teachers with the guidance necessary to meet the needs of pupils in the school’s mixed-age classes. However, the range of activities provided to enrich pupils’ experiences, the school’s relationships with parents, and links with other schools are all good. A strong emphasis is placed on providing a safe and caring environment for pupils.

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

The leadership and management provided by the new headteacher are satisfactory . Owing to the very short period between her appointment and the inspection, the impact of the initiatives that she has introduced cannot be judged. The leadership and management of subject coordinators are unsatisfactory. Governance is unsatisfactory . The school is in breach of its statutory duties regarding the performance management of teachers, the provision for RE, and the daily act of collective worship.

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PARENTS’ AND PUPILS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

Parents have positive views of the school. Pupils feel proud of their school and enjoy the work that they do. However, some parents and pupils expressed concerns about the provision in mixed-age classes. Pupils said that sometimes work is too easy and on other occasions they miss out on work being done by those in the same year group but in other classes.

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IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

The most important things the school should do to improve are: • raise achievement, and consequently standards to at least the national average, by ensuring that the significant weaknesses in teaching and the curriculum are addressed, the work of the school is monitored rigorously at all levels, subject coordinators provide better leadership, and the provision for pupils with SEN and in the Foundation Stage is improved;

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IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

and, to meet statutory requirements: • ensure that the regulations regarding the performance management of teachers are fully implemented, provision for RE is improved, and a daily act of collective worship is provided. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 8

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Standards achieved in areas of learning and subjects

The achievement of the pupils of all ages and levels of attainment is unsatisfactory. Standards in English, mathematics and science have declined since the previous inspection. Standards in ICT have not improved and remain unsatisfactory. Throughout the school, pupils are not achieving as well as they should.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Standards in English in Years 2 and 6 are below average overall and have fallen since last year. Pupils’ skills in speaking and listening and reading are satisfactory, but in writing they are unsatisfactory. • Standards in mathematics are below average in Year 2 and well below average in Year 6. Pupils’ skills in manipulating number are generally satisfactory, but they are not performing well enough in other areas of the subject. • Standards in science in Year 2 and 6 are below average. Pupils’ skills in investigative science are underdeveloped. • Standards in ICT in Years 2 and 6 are below average. Pupils’ skills in word processing are satisfactory, but they do not work on other elements of the subject in sufficient depth. • Standards in RE are below those expected in the locally agreed syllabus because the subject is not taught regularly enough in some classes.

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Commentary

Inspection evidence that pupils are underachieving is borne out by the most recent analysis of the school contained in its annual Performance and Assessment Report, which judges its performance against all schools nationally and against schools from a similar context. In this report, the ‘value added’ measure, which compares the relative progress of pupils from Year 2 to Year 6, judges pupils’ progress overall to be below average in comparison with all schools nationally and well below average in comparison with similar schools.

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Commentary

Standards in national tests at the end of Year 6 – average point scores in 2003

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Commentary

Standards in: School results National results English 28.2 (27.8) 26.8 (27.0) Mathematics 24.6 (27.4) 26.8 (26.7) Science 28.2 (28.2) 28.6 (28.3) There were 15 pupils in the year group. Figures in brackets are for the previous year

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Commentary

1. The standards seen in lessons and in pupils’ books show that the pupils in Years 2 and 6 are not currently on course to achieve the nationally expected targets for their year groups in English, mathematics, science, or in ICT. Within the year-on-year fluctuations in standards that can occur when small groups of pupils are compared, this could be expected. However, there is significant underachievement evident throughout the school and the standards currently found in Year 2 and Year 6 could be much higher. This is because of weaknesses in teaching, assessment, and the curriculum, and because the amount of time available for teaching in Year 3 to 6 is below the nationally recommended minimum. Teachers are not generally providing work at different levels to challenge their pupils well enough. Very often, pupils within the mixed-age classes are given the same basic task to do regardless of age or

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Commentary

attainment. Teachers’ expectations of what pupils could reasonably be expected to record in their books are also too low. In mathematics, for example, some pupils in Year 6 have very Langenhoe Primary School - Page 9 little to show for about two-thirds of a term’s work. In RE, almost no recorded work was made available to inspectors. Teachers are not accurately challenging their pupils because they do not have enough assessment information to help them and because the data which is held is not used well enough. The newly appointed headteacher quickly recognised this as being one of the many improvements which needed to be made and has introduced a more structured and systematic approach so that pupils’ progress can be tracked.

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Commentary

2. The weaknesses in teaching and assessment stem from the school’s lack of curriculum development. At the time of the last inspection in 1998 there were virtually no schemes of work in place and part of the key issue stemming from this weakness specifically stated that completed schemes should contain clear targets for each year group. This has not been done and so teachers do not know at what level they have to teach and assess their pupils. Nationally recommended curriculum guidance has been adopted by the school to provide a framework for teachers’ planning but because the school has not adapted the guidance to reflect its mixed-age groupings, pupils’ curriculum entitlement depends on the class that they are placed in and not on their year group.

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Commentary

3. In the Foundation Stage, most children are likely to achieve the goals expected of them in their personal, social and emotional development, communication, language and literacy, mathematical development and creative development. Judgements about children’s attainment in knowledge and understanding of the world and in their physical development were not made because of limited evidence, reflecting the way in which the timetable was arranged and the lack of integrated early learning activities for these children within the combined Reception and Year 1 class.

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Commentary

4. In Years I and 2, most pupils do not achieve as well as they might because of the weaknesses previously reported. The proportion of pupils currently on course to achieve the national target of Level 2 in reading is about average, but not enough pupils are likely to achieve or exceed this level in writing or mathematics, and so standards are below average in these areas, as they are in science. Pupils do not experience the full breadth of the ICT curriculum in enough depth and do not practise their skills as an integral part of learning in other subjects, and so standards in ICT are also below average. In all other subjects, there was insufficient evidence for a judgement on standards to be made.

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Commentary

5. In Year 3 to 6, achievement remains unsatisfactory and not enough progress is being made. Standards are below average in reading and writing and well below average in mathematics.. This is because pupils are not given enough opportunities to apply their learning in other subjects. They tend to forget what they have learned because they do not practise their skills enough.

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Commentary

6. Pupils with special educational needs do not do well enough because the work that they are given is not matched well enough to their attainment and because teachers do not pay enough attention to the individual learning targets for these pupils.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities

The good attitudes, values and personal development of pupils reported at the time of the previous inspection have been sustained. Attendance is above the national average , and the pupils’ positive attitudes towards school are reflected in their prompt arrival. Behaviour is very good , resulting in very good relationships. Overall, pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good .

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Attendance rates are good. • Most pupils enjoy school. • The behaviour of most pupils is very good. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 10 • The school is very good at promoting pupils’ personal development.

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Commentary

7. Pupils have good attitudes towards school, as their parents confirm. Pupils’ behaviour is almost always very good. The emphasis placed on pupils’ positive traits such as working well, smiling, and saying ‘thank you’ makes a good contribution to the very good behaviour in the school. However, in a few lessons when teaching lacks pace and focus, the behaviour of some pupils deteriorates as they lose concentration, and this affects their learning. Bullying is rare and reported incidents are logged.

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Commentary

8. Pupils value rewards entered in the ‘Golden Book’. The sharing of a range of successes, such as gymnastic awards, helps to raise pupils’ self-esteem. The school is good at ensuring that the different achievements of all pupils are celebrated publicly during the course of each year.

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Commentary

9. The very good relationships between all members of the school community are evident throughout the school day. The children are excited by activities such as ‘paired’ reading in which pupils from very different age groups work together. Good manners are effectively promoted, and pupils are often seen to take initiatives such as opening doors for visitors.

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Commentary

10. The school is good at promoting pupils’ personal development and preparing them well for their transfer to secondary school. Responsible tasks, such as photocopying, are undertaken sensibly. Pupils show good independence when learning, and are becoming more involved in their own personal development. For example, older pupils have begun setting their own behaviour targets and are to measure their success in achieving them. To help sustain pupils’ concentration, teachers are encouraging more interaction through the sharing of ideas and valuing of opinions. These initiatives are new and it is too early to assess their impact.

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Commentary

11. Attendance is good, remaining above the national average, and all absences are accounted for. Authorised absence is below the national average. The three fixed-term exclusions, which were imposed during the course of the previous year and which related to the same incident, were exceptional and concerned pupils with known behavioural problems.

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Commentary

12. Overall, the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is good. Many aspects of music, pupils’ high quality art displays, and visitors such as the Essex Storytellers, make a significant contribution to pupils’ generally good spiritual development, as does the school’s good promotion of pupils’ self-worth. Pupils have also made many contributions to the lunchtime ‘Book of Graces’ in which pupils’ grace before meals are recorded. However, the lack of a daily act of collective worship means that pupils are not provided with regular enough opportunities for quiet reflection. Moral development is very good, and is promoted very well from an early age. Pupils’ social development is very good and is promoted effectively, for example through consistent expectations of good manners and the interaction of mixed ages at lunchtime.

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Attendance

Attendance in the latest complete reporting year (%)

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Attendance

Authorised absence Unauthorised absence School data 4.1 School data 0.0 National data 5.4 National data 0.4 The table gives the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 11

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Exclusions

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

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Exclusions

Categories used in the Annual School Census No of pupils on roll Number of fixed period exclusions Number of permanent exclusions White – British 141 3 0 The table gives the number of exclusions, which may be different from the number of pupils excluded.

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL

Overall, the quality of education is unsatisfactory .

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Teaching and learning

The quality of teaching is unsatisfactory and as a result pupils do not learn as well as they should . Assessment is unsatisfactory .

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• There is not enough good quality teaching, particularly in the core subjects. • Planning is inadequate. • Assessment is unsatisfactory, and consequently teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough. • Teachers do not provide enough work at different levels of difficulty for groups of pupils of differing abilities and ages in their classes. • A large number of pupils are withdrawn from lessons for tuition elsewhere and miss opportunities for learning in class. • Pupils enjoy good quality specialist teaching in music. • Teachers manage their pupils’ behaviour well.

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Commentary

13. The quality of teaching is significantly worse that that reported at the time of the previous inspection, with a high proportion of unsatisfactory lessons. The proportion of good or better teaching has fallen by half. Most of the good or better lessons were observed in non-core subjects. There was no good or better teaching in English. The impact of this weakness is seen in the low standards and unsatisfactory achievement of pupils.

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Commentary

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection in 24 lessons

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Commentary

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very Poor

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Commentary

0 1 8 11 3 1 0 The table gives the number of lessons observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about lessons; figures in brackets show percentages where 30 or more lessons are seen.

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Commentary

14. Unsatisfactory leadership has contributed to the decline in teaching quality. The statutory requirements for the appraisal of teachers through performance management have not been met, and the development of teaching through the process of identifying and sharing good practice has not been rigorous enough. Consequently, teachers have not been given their entitlement to regular monitoring, support and professional development. Instead, they have had less structured, informal annual discussions. This lack of rigour and disregard for the law has contributed to the decline in teaching standards. In addition, leadership has not ensured Langenhoe Primary School - Page 12 that teachers are provided with a curriculum framework which gives them a good basis for planning lessons in their mixed- age and mixed ability classes.

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Commentary

15. Teaching is often ineffective in helping pupils to achieve to their potential because lesson planning is not good enough and teachers’ expectations are not high enough. One of the features of the very best lessons is that planning provides a structure within which the challenge provided for pupils can be progressively developed in response to their efforts. This occurs where teachers choose suitable starting points for learning, and to do this assessment needs to be good. This quality of teaching was observed in a physical education (PE) lesson for pupils in Years 2 and 3, in which the teacher made good use of his assessment of the previous session to set out his expectations for the sequences of movements that pupils were to develop. Then, as the lesson progressed, the demands placed on the pupils increased as the teacher introduced variations which he expected to see within the movements. However,

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Commentary

in some of the lessons observed, planning was sketchy and did not provide the basis for good learning to take place, in others it was too ambitious and learning objectives were not achieved. A scrutiny of pupils’ work showed that expectations of pupils’ written work are much too low. In some cases, pupils had very little to show in their books for over ten weeks’ work.

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Commentary

16. Overall, assessment is unsatisfactory. The new headteacher has identified this and has put a system in place which is to be used to help teachers meet the needs of their pupils better by providing information about the progress that they are making. However, at the time of the inspection the data collated by the headteacher had been processed and analysed, but no impact from the initiative was seen. On a day-to-day basis, assessment is not good enough. Corrections are not used well to help pupils to improve, although in a number of books the higher-attaining pupils do not have corrections to do because they are doing the same work as everyone else in the class and found it too easy. Discussions with higher-attaining pupils confirmed this judgement. This lack of differentiation in the work provided is one of the chief reasons for pupils’ underachievement. Teachers do not generally provide tasks designed to

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Commentary

develop pupils’ skills at levels appropriate to the different age groups and ability of pupils in their classes because the curriculum does not provide them with the information that they need about precisely what skills are to be developed and at what level. These findings bear out the concerns expressed by some parents at the pre-inspection meeting.

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Commentary

17. There is little evidence that teachers’ planning of work in classes is matched to the individual targets of pupils who have special educational needs. Support is provided through frequent withdrawal from classes resulting in too many pupils missing parts of mainstream lessons. Many pupils do not make sufficient progress while in these withdrawal groups and their effectiveness is unsatisfactory.

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Commentary

18. Further withdrawal of pupils from lessons occurs for ICT and for music. In the case of ICT, the reason is that the most reliable computers are situated on a mezzanine floor in another area of the school and, for safety reasons, pupils need to be supervised when using them. This situation is unsatisfactory, and is being addressed by the new headteacher. There are also a large number of pupils who receive individual peripatetic tuition or attend group recorder lessons. Pupils were withdrawn from the class for tuition elsewhere in over a quarter of the lessons observed. This arrangement impacts on pupils’ learning since they can often miss important parts of lessons.

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Commentary

19. Overall, teachers’ command of the subjects that they teach is adequate for the levels at which the different subjects are studied. Where subject knowledge is good, pupils generally learn well. This is the case where music is taught by a subject specialist. Teaching in these lessons is characterised by clear learning intentions and good quality explanations.

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Commentary

20. Behaviour is very good in almost all lessons because of the very good quality of relationships between teachers and pupils. When teachers need pupils to pause in their work so that they can concentrate on a teaching point, pupils respond very quickly. Teachers rarely need to raise their voices or remind pupils of their expectations of behaviour. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 13

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The curriculum

The quality of the curriculum is unsatisfactory overall and not as good as reported at the last inspection. The school does not meet statutory requirements in RE. Provision in the Foundation Stage is unsatisfactory. Overall, the accommodation and resources are good.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• The curriculum lacks breadth and balance, and this restricts pupils’ achievements. • Planning of the curriculum is unsatisfactory. • Provision for special educational needs is unsatisfactory. • Provision for children in the Foundation Stage is unsatisfactory. • There is a strong commitment to promoting pupils’ personal health and social education. • The provision for extra-curricular activities is good. • The accommodation is very good.

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Commentary

21. Weaknesses in the breadth and balance of the curriculum create a significant barrier to learning. There is a narrow range of learning opportunities in English, mathematics and science and not all pupils are taught religious education on a regular basis. The school does not meet the minimum recommended time for Years 3 to 6 and there are significant variations between classes in the time allocated for the same subject. Insufficient time is allocated to subjects such as science, mathematics and religious education, resulting in pupils not achieving as well as they should and not reaching the standards they are capable of. A strength of the curriculum is in the provision for music. Class lessons and visiting music specialists make a positive contribution to pupils’ achievements in music. However, pupils are regularly withdrawn from classes for additional tuition and sometimes miss important parts of

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Commentary

22. Although the school has introduced a range of schemes of work since the last inspection there remains a lack of a systematic whole school approach to the planning of the teaching and learning. The school uses a mixture of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies’ recommended schemes of work, commercial schemes and the school’s own guidelines. However, these are not consistently implemented by all staff and this results in pupils of the same age in different classes receiving a different curriculum. The planning is not sufficiently adapted to meet the particular needs of mixed-age classes and to provide staff with a satisfactory framework to promote continuity and progression of learning. Insufficient attention is given to ensuring that work is well matched to the different ages and attainment levels within classes. This lack of guidance has a negative impact on the quality of teaching and learning.

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Commentary

Older pupils talk of work being too easy, of repeating the same work and marking time while younger pupils catch up. As a result, learning is unsatisfactory because of an inadequate curriculum. The outcome is seen clearly in the unsatisfactory and piecemeal quality of work recorded over an academic year. As a consequence, pupils do not make consistent progress or achieve well enough and reach high enough standards.

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Commentary

23. Planning for the Foundation Stage is insufficiently based on the nationally agreed areas of learning for this age group and does not provide a clear framework for what children are expected to learn in relation to the ‘stepping-stones’ and early learning goals. Too often it lacks sufficient interest and challenge to meet the needs of children in the Foundation Stage and is not effective in providing challenging or practical learning experiences to stimulate children’s imagination and curiosity and to develop their early reading and writing skills at the rate of progress they are capable of.

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Commentary

24. The provision for pupils with special educational needs is largely ineffective. The exception to this is the support that pupils with formal statements of need receive. This is satisfactory overall, and is often good, enabling pupils to take a full part in lessons and achieve well Langenhoe Primary School - Page 14 through sensitive and supportive guidance. The identification of pupils with special educational needs is unsatisfactory. The school is committed to early intervention but this sometimes results in pupils being placed on the SEN list too early. Individual plans are often lacking in sufficient detail, are not reviewed often enough and do not provide sufficient information on how well pupils are progressing.

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Commentary

25. Arrangements for pupils’ personal, health and sex education are good and are underpinned by the school’s caring ethos and values. There is a good range of clubs and sporting activities, which enhances personal and social skills. Pupils are very enthusiastic about their activities and staff give very generously of their time to extend pupils’ interests and skills.

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Commentary

26. Overall, the accommodation is very good. The governors’ and parents’ investment of time and finances have created a welcoming and interesting environment. Although some classrooms are small, they are well resourced. The premises have interesting and useful features, such as the mezzanine floors in the foyer and Class 1, which create more space. However, access to these areas would be difficult for those with physical disabilities. The school grounds abound with stimulating features including sculptures, quiet seating areas, retreats and welcome cover from the elements.

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Care, guidance and support

Overall, the quality of care provided for pupils throughout the school is very good , and each pupil is known and valued by staff.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• The care pupils receive is very good. • Monitoring of behaviour and personal development is good. • Procedures for ensuring the health and safety of pupils are very good. • The school listens and acts upon pupils’ ideas. • The monitoring of pupils’ progress is not rigorous enough.

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Commentary

27. The very good care pupils receive makes an important contribution to their enjoyment of school. Each pupil is well known to staff, fulfilling the school’s aims. Pupils work and play in a safe, secure and well maintained environment where health and safety are important; this is an improvement since the last inspection. Pupils’ artwork depicting their school in mosaic and on glass adds stimulus to the environment. There are good induction procedures for the youngest pupils and those joining in older years say they were supported well, for example by being paired with other pupils. The school, as part of a group, has received finance from the Children’s Fund to support pupils’ learning and emotional needs; this will enable pupils to meet other children prior to their transfer to secondary school.

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Commentary

28. Child protection procedures are good and are discussed in staff meetings; training is up to date. The school ensures that pupils in public care are treated in just the same way as others, while being aware of their individual needs. The ‘Safer journey to school’ initiative, currently being discussed with the parish council, is intended to support not only the safety of pupils, but also promote the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The teaching of healthy eating is promoted very well at lunchtime by the excellent quality of school meals, the menus for which have been drawn up by a dietician. The new headteacher has limited the type of food allowed at snack time to promote the importance of healthy eating and to support the many parents who provide salad and fruit in their children’s lunchboxes. There are many trained first-aiders, and good records are maintained of medicines administered in school.

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Commentary

29. The school provides good opportunities for pupils’ opinions to be taken into account and listens to their views on how the school should develop. For example, improvements to Langenhoe Primary School - Page 15 playground equipment were suggested by the school council and this group of pupils helped to interview the shortlisted applicants for the headship of the school.

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Commentary

30. The school’s thoroughness in checking the reasons for the non-arrival of pupils is good practice. Monitoring of attendance is good and becoming more rigorous through the recent introduction of computerised records.

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Commentary

31. The monitoring of pupils’ academic progress is unsatisfactory because it is not rigorous enough, and because assessment data is not used effectively. This contributes to the slow progress many pupils make. Sometimes work is repeated, and there are differences in curriculum coverage for pupils in the same year group but in different classes. The new headteacher quickly identified this as a weakness and has introduced an assessment system to help teachers to track pupils’ progress and better identify areas of weakness. Pupils’ targets are shared with parents and pupils at consultation evenings.

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Partnership with parents, other schools and the community

The partnership with parents is good as is the quality of information they receive.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• The school’s ‘open door’ policy is effective and is appreciated by parents. • Parents give good support to the school and many help in classes. • Parents’ ideas are listened to. • Parenting classes have improved parents’ knowledge of dealing with behavioural problems. • The ‘Friends and Families’ group makes a very good contribution through fund raising events. • The school has good links with other primary schools. • There is inconsistency in the use of the homework folder for older pupils.

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Commentary

32. The school’s good partnership with parents has been sustained since the previous inspection. The weekly newsletters, notice board and availability of leaflets keep parents up to date and well informed. The ‘open door’ policy is effective and appreciated by parents; they also value feedback from the learning support assistants.

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Commentary

33. Most parents have signed the home-school agreement. Attendance at parents’ evenings is high and enables parents, teachers and pupils to discuss targets together. The few parents who do not attend are contacted in other ways. Parents and grandparents willingly help in class and do so in a variety of ways as well as supporting school visits and arts or grounds weeks.

p.15

Commentary

34. Pupils’ annual reports are good and specific to individual pupils. The two-way communication the homework diary provides is appreciated by the parents of younger pupils. The school acknowledges parents’ views that the homework folder for older pupils may not be used as effectively as it should be and is to address this concern.

p.15

Commentary

35. Parenting classes have been welcomed by those attending. Letters of appreciation show that the six themed sessions, such as stress management, encouraging positive behaviour, listening and talking, have improved the participants’ self-confidence and have helped them feel less isolated with their problems. The newly introduced curriculum meetings are appreciated by parents and they find them helpful.

p.15

Commentary

36. The school listens well to parents’ suggestions and some have been implemented, for example the suggestion box for school lunches. The school always ensures complaints are dealt with fully and that parents receive information about the outcome in writing. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 16 37. Overall, links with the community are satisfactory. Benefits are being gained from membership of the local primary schools’ consortium, such as the sharing of resources. Links with the local nursery are satisfactory, but there is no liaison with the mother and toddler group and this prevents early links being developed. There are good links with the secondary schools to which Year 6 pupils transfer through, for example the ‘taster’ sessions for foreign languages provided by a local school enrich the pupils’ curriculum. The school acknowledges contact with the local community is in need of improvement and that pupils would benefit if

p.15

Commentary

there were more visitors from further afield.

p.16

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Since the previous inspection, the leadership and management of the school have been ineffective in raising standards and in improving the quality of teaching. The recently appointed headteacher has a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school and has produced a sensible plan of action to raise achievement and standards but there has been insufficient time for this plan to be fully implemented.

p.16

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Governance is unsatisfactory. In previous years, governors have not been rigorous enough in their monitoring of the school’s work. • Legal requirements are not met in important areas. • Unsatisfactory leadership by teachers has contributed to pupils’ unsatisfactory achievement. • Overall, progress since the last inspection has been poor.

p.16

Commentary

38. Parents who attended the pre-inspection meeting were appreciative of the commitment and energy of the new headteacher. These views are fully justified. The headteacher has raised her concerns about many aspects of the school’s work and performance with the governors and with the local authority’s advisory and inspection service. She has drawn up a detailed school improvement plan to tackle the weaknesses that she has found in subject leadership, teaching, the curriculum, assessment, special educational needs and to raise standards in English, mathematics and ICT. However, because of the timing of the inspection, which took place very shortly after she took up her appointment, the impact of her initiatives is yet to be seen.

p.16

Commentary

39. Many of the governors have been connected with the school for many years and provide useful support in a variety of ways. They are also fully aware of the school’s strengths in caring for pupils and in the quality of its development of pupils’ personal and social skills. However, they have previously not monitored the work of the school well enough, and were unaware that they were failing to meet legal requirements regarding the performance management of teachers, the teaching of RE and the provision of a daily act of collective worship. The lack of performance management and the failure to ensure that RE is taught regularly are adversely affecting pupils’ achievement.

p.16

Commentary

40. The governors are justifiably proud of the initiatives which they have introduced, such as the decision to provide private catering facilities for the pupils and to support local businesses through the purchase of foodstuffs. The impact of this is seen in the excellent quality of meals provided for pupils. The governors’ monitoring of the day-to-day financial management of the school is satisfactory in terms of ensuring that expenditure helps the school to achieve its priorities. However, the governors’ lack of understanding of the weaknesses of the school has meant that their role in shaping its direction has been unsatisfactory. Governors now appreciate this. In previous years, the amount of funding carried forward from one year to the next has been well in excess of the ‘benchmark’ of five per cent. The size of this surplus has declined and, although the most recent figures show a carry-forward figure which equates to

p.16

Commentary

seven per cent of the school’s total income, a portion of this figure relates to capital Langenhoe Primary School - Page 17 expenditure from the previous year. When this expenditure is deducted, the amount carried forward falls within the recommended maximum of five per cent.

p.16

Commentary

41. Progress since the last inspection has been poor, many of the key issues for action have not been addressed satisfactorily, standards in the core subjects have declined, and the school has failed to raise attainment in ICT.

p.17

Commentary

Financial information for the year April 2002 to March 2003

p.17

Commentary

Income and expenditure (£) Balances (£) Total income 445,821 Balance from previous year 53,864 Total expenditure 411,824 Balance carried forward to the next 33,997 Expenditure per pupil 2,921

p.17

Commentary

42. The leadership and management provided by subject coordinators are unsatisfactory. All teachers have responsibility for one or more subject areas. Discussions with them showed that their skills in monitoring and evaluating provision in their areas of responsibility and in providing direction are underdeveloped. The new school improvement plan sets out a programme of action to address this issue. In previous years, teachers have not been able to benefit from the rigorous appraisal of their performance which has been their entitlement since performance management of teachers became statutory in September 2000. Discussion with staff showed that none knew what performance management entails. This lack of rigorous and focused professional development of staff is a contributory factor to the unsatisfactory leadership and management by coordinators, which has resulted in unsatisfactory development of the curriculum and pupils’ unsatisfactory achievement.

p.17

Commentary

43. School administration is efficient. It ensures that teachers are able to focus on their professional duties and are not diverted from their work by administrative tasks.

p.17

Commentary

44. Given the low standards in the core subjects, pupils’ underachievement, the unsatisfactory leadership and management and the poor progress made since the previous inspection, the school gives unsatisfactory value for money. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 18

p.17

AREAS OF LEARNING IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

There were only five children in the Foundation Stage at the time of the inspection and they were taught in the same class as pupils in Year 1. Owing to the way in which the timetable was arranged it was not possible to form judgements about every area of learning. The provision for knowledge and understanding of the world and physical development was not a focus for the inspection and no judgements are made.

p.18

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Children are not achieving as well as they should. • Planning is not sufficiently focused on what children need to learn and does not meet the differing needs of children. • Teaching overall is not good enough; it lacks sufficient challenge. • Progress towards the early learning goals is not recorded well enough. • Children are happy and secure and behave well.

p.18

Commentary

45. Staff have an insecure understanding of how young children learn and of the importance of well planned high quality play to develop children’s skills, knowledge and understanding. Planning lacks clear learning intentions linked to the early learning goals and is usually limited to a list of tasks and activities and not what children are expected to learn. As a result, staff miss opportunities to extend children’s learning. Tasks are not well matched to the different attainment levels and children who learn at a slower rate are engaged in the same tasks as those who are more able. The teacher usually directs tasks and there are very few opportunities for children to explore and investigate for themselves. Assessments are not usually linked to the early learning goals and records are not used effectively to provide suitably challenging activities for children. Although most of the children in school at present

p.18

Commentary

are likely to reach the early learning goals by the end of the reception year, the unsatisfactory provision limits their achievements, and most could do better.

p.18

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision in personal, social and emotional development is satisfactory .

p.18

Commentary

46. Provision is effective in helping children to become settled and happy. Emphasis is placed on helping children to develop an understanding of acceptable behaviour and of what is right and wrong and most children behave well. Stories, such as ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, are used well to develop children’s understanding of moral and social concepts. Children work hard at their tasks even when these are mundane and lack sufficient challenge. Tasks are too often directed by the teacher, resulting in children not having enough opportunities to organise their own learning and become independent.

p.18

COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Provision in communication, language and literacy is unsatisfactory .

p.18

Commentary

47. The provision limits children’s progress, resulting in children not achieving well enough. Insufficient attention is given to the promotion of children’s reading and writing skills and Langenhoe Primary School - Page 19 resources and activities lack challenge. Staff systematically introduce children to letter names, initial sounds and letter formation activities but there is little evidence of tasks being matched to children’s attainment levels. As a result, children who can already write simple sentences unaided are still completing mundane tasks, such as tracing, copying and colouring in. During the course of a week there are insufficient opportunities for children to develop and extend their reading and writing skills in interesting, well-planned ways. A limited range of role-play situations are available, but staff do not engage in these situations often enough to help children explore new ideas, develop new and exciting vocabulary and structures and use

p.18

Commentary

their reading and writing skills independently.

p.19

MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision in mathematical development is unsatisfactory .

p.19

Commentary

48. The provision for mathematical development is unsatisfactory and limits children’s progress resulting in children not achieving well enough. Commercial workbooks, activities and games are used to promote mathematical understanding. More able children can count to ten and use the vocabulary of size and shape accurately. However, a lack of effective assessments results in children making insufficient progress. Staff do not plan for children to extend their knowledge and understanding of number, space and measurement through more stimulating resources and more focused practical activities which children choose for themselves.

p.19

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Provision in creative development is unsatisfactory .

p.19

Commentary

49. The provision limits children’s progress and, as a result, they do not achieve well enough. Role-play situations, such as the ‘Three Bears’ Home‘, do not stimulate children’s imagination sufficiently well. Adults miss opportunities to interact with children in these situations and there is a lack of purpose and focus on developing and extending children’s ideas and language. Tasks to promote children’s creative skills are overly directed by adults, limiting opportunities to design and make. Adults do most of the designing, choosing of materials and selection of appropriate tools, leaving children with the simple task of precisely following the directions and instructions of the adults. As a result, little new learning of skills and ideas takes place. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 20

p.19

English

Provision in English is unsatisfactory .

p.20

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Achievement is unsatisfactory and standards in writing are below average. • The curriculum does not provide sufficient progression to meet the needs of pupils in mixed- age classes and with different attainment levels. • Teaching lacks challenge and is not good enough. • The role of the subject coordinator is underdeveloped and is not effective in ensuring consistencies in the quality of the teaching and learning. • Pupils with special educational needs make slow progress. • Assessment information is not used sufficiently to track pupils’ progress. • Standards in reading are average.

p.20

Commentary

50. In Years 2 and 6, standards in English overall are not high enough and pupils do not achieve as well as they should. Standards in writing in Year 6 are particularly low, and the majority of pupils currently in this year group, including those with special educational needs, are not making the expected progress they should when compared to their national test results at the end of Year 2. Standards overall in English are lower than reported at the last inspection and lower than the 2003 national test results. Improvement since the last inspection has been unsatisfactory.

p.20

Commentary

51. Pupils’ achievement is better in reading and standards are average. Most pupils enjoy reading and by the age of eleven pupils have a repertoire of favourite books and authors, read avidly and borrow books from the library. Pupils know how to locate books in the school library and use their skills satisfactorily to undertake independent research.

p.20

Commentary

52. Standards in speaking and listening are satisfactory overall. Pupils speak confidently in conversation with one another and with adults, and in lessons they understand the ‘rules of audience’ as they listen to one another and their teachers. When answering, they speak reasonably clearly and fluently. Higher-attaining pupils are capable of good standards. For example, a group of these pupils from Year 5 enjoyed a good quality debate as they worked with one of the learning support staff in discussing a newspaper article.

p.20

Commentary

53. Writing skills are poorly developed. There are insufficient opportunities for pupils to develop their skills in writing extended pieces of work. Weaknesses in teaching result in pupils having significant gaps in their learning which depresses standards. A significant number of the older pupils are unclear about the different styles of writing, their use of basic punctuation is inconsistent, and sentence structure is not sufficiently complex.

p.20

Commentary

54. A significant weakness in the provision for English is the lack of an agreed curriculum which provides a secure framework for teaching and learning. Planning is too variable and staff have too much flexibility in which schemes of work they implement. The National Literacy Strategy is not implemented with sufficient rigour and consistency and, as a result, pupils of the same age but in different classes do not receive the same quality of teaching and learning. Planning does not identify the needs of pupils with different learning needs and too often pupils of different attainment levels and ages are engaged in the same tasks, limiting their learning. The support available for pupils with special educational needs is often provided outside the classroom but within class there is little evidence of the teaching and learning being directed Langenhoe Primary School - Page 21 towards their individual targets. This slows progress and these pupils do not achieve as well

p.20

Commentary

55. During the inspection, four out of five lessons were satisfactory and one lesson was poor. There is a lack of the good teaching which is a strong feature in successful schools and is a significant factor in ensuring pupils achieve as well as they should. A sampling of pupils’ work and an analysis of the progress pupils have made over time indicate that, overall, teaching and learning are unsatisfactory. Teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the National Literacy Strategy lacks conviction and its application is, therefore, not rigorous enough. Expectations are not high enough and tasks are not sufficiently well suited to pupils’ attainment and ages. Where teaching is weak, planning lacks detail, learning objectives are not sharp enough, tasks are mundane and lack challenge and, as a result, pupils’ learning is not extended and achievement is unsatisfactory. Most teachers do not successfully plan

p.21

Commentary

different work for groups of pupils of differing abilities and ages. Pupils’ work shows a lack of depth, and there is insufficient written work available to enable pupils to reach the expected standards.

p.21

Commentary

56. The school is beginning to collect data to set whole school targets and assess pupils’ attainment to provide a record of pupil’s progress. As yet, teachers do not use this information thoroughly enough to examine pupils’ rate of progress or to detail the next steps pupils need to take to secure the next level of attainment. Marking is unsatisfactory and most teachers do not routinely offer detailed individual advice to pupils on how to improve. Group targets have recently been introduced, but assessment is not yet used effectively to set individual targets for pupils and to let them know precisely what they need to do to improve and move on to the next level. This is likely to involve pupils more in their own learning and improve standards.

p.21

Commentary

57. Subject leadership is unsatisfactory. The coordinator does not have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the issues relating to language and literacy to improve the provision and enable all pupils to achieve well. The limited monitoring of teaching and learning is not focused rigorously enough on raising standards.

p.21

Language and literacy across the curriculum

58. Opportunities for writing in other subjects arise in several areas, including science, history and geography, but are uncoordinated.

p.21

French

59. French is taught once a week to all pupils from Year 1 to Year 6. Owing to the way in which the timetable is arranged, no French lessons were observed during the course of the inspection and no judgement can be made about the quality of the school’s provision in this subject. However, evidence from discussions with pupils and from displays of work shows that the pupils’ skills in speaking and listening, and in simply recording their work, are carefully developed. The school makes good use of the expertise of the subject-specialist who teaches the subject, and work in French makes a good contribution to pupils’ cultural development.

p.21

MATHEMATICS

Provision in mathematics is unsatisfactory .

p.21

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Standards have declined since the last inspection. • Pupils do not achieve well because of weaknesses in teaching and the curriculum. • Subject leadership is unsatisfactory. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 22

p.21

Commentary

60. Standards are below average overall in Year 2 and well below average in Year 6. For example, in Year 6, only about two-thirds of pupils are on course to attain the nationally expected level, and this is far fewer than in the majority of schools. In addition, the proportion of pupils in line to exceed the national target for Year 6 is well below average. These judgements broadly reflect the school’s performance in the most recent national tests. The results achieved in a single year, by relatively small groups of pupils, need to be treated with some caution, but when results for Year 6 are viewed as a whole over the past three years, they are below average. Over the period from 1999, results for pupils in Year 6 have declined and are much lower than at the time of the previous inspection in 1998.

p.22

Commentary

61. The higher-attaining pupils in Year 2, who are taught with Year 3, are generally working within the lower to mid-range of what is expected nationally for this year group in their number work, and are on course to achieve average to above average standards by the end of the school year. However, the lower-attaining Year 2 pupils, who are working alongside Year 1, are working at a much lower level. In Year 6, most pupils are working within the level expected when using numbers and, for example, show reasonable knowledge of multiplication tables when working out factors. However, standards in other elements of the subject are not at this level. For example, about a quarter of pupils had difficulty in identifying a right angle and far fewer were clear about how to measure an angle.

p.22

Commentary

62. The new headteacher, who is greatly concerned about standards in mathematics, has correctly judged that the cause of pupils’ underachievement lies in the curriculum planned for the school’s mixed-age classes and particularly in the quality of teaching. She has drawn up an ambitious plan designed to improve the quality and use of assessment, re-structure the teaching groups and improve planning. Unfortunately, at the time of the inspection, the plan had only been in place for a very short time and its impact is yet to be seen.

p.22

Commentary

63. Six mathematics lessons were seen. Three were good, one was satisfactory, and two were unsatisfactory. Evidence from these lessons together with a detailed scrutiny of pupils’ previously completed work shows that teaching is unsatisfactory overall, because pupils are not challenged enough. There is not enough evidence of work in pupils’ books in all classes. In Year 6, for example, pupils had only produced between 16 and 19 pieces of work in over ten weeks. The reason for this became evident when a Year 6 lesson about probability was observed. The teacher directed the session well, sustained a good pace and provided a variety of activities and, as a result, pupils sustained good levels of concentration. However, the amount of direct teaching was excessive and pupils were not given enough time to record their findings. Another reason for the lack of recorded work is that mathematics only features

p.22

Commentary

on the timetable for Year 6 pupils on four days a week. Time allocated for the teaching of mathematics is inadequate in all classes.

p.22

Commentary

64. Work is not planned well enough to meet the needs of pupils of different ability within the mixed age groups found in all classes. On too many occasions, all pupils are given the same basic task to do, regardless of age or ability. When this happens, the higher-attaining pupils tend to complete more calculations while the lower-attainers do fewer. During the course of the inspection, teachers usually provided a reasonable range of tasks for their pupils, a feature which was not evident in the work completed earlier in the term. However, higher-attaining pupils in Year 6, including some who were receiving extra tuition for the ‘eleven plus’ exam, commented that they found the work easy. The scrutiny of pupils’ books also showed that pupils within the same age group, but in different classes, are often given different tasks to do, with skills in different elements of the subject being developed. This was a concern of some

p.22

Commentary

parents at the pre-inspection meeting, and for pupils, who commented that they find that they have missed out on work when they move classes. On other occasions, work is repeated. Some pupils in Year 6 commented that they found the work on probability too difficult last year, when they were in the same class, but much easier the second time around. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 23 65. Leadership in mathematics is unsatisfactory because monitoring has not been good enough to identify the weaknesses in the curriculum and pupils’ achievement, and the work of the coordinator has not impacted on standards.

p.22

Mathematics across the curriculum

66. Pupils are generally not good at using and applying the skills learned to help them in other subjects because links between mathematics and other areas of the curriculum are not clearly identified in planning; a shortcoming already identified by the new headteacher. The lack of opportunity for pupils to practise skills also means that they tend to forget what they have learned. For example, in a design and technology lesson in Year 6 a significant number of pupils had forgotten how to construct an equilateral triangle by using a pair of compasses.

p.23

SCIENCE

Provision in science is unsatisfactory .

p.23

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Standards in Year 2 and Year 6 are below average. • Insufficient time is allocated to the subject and planning does not meet the needs of different ages and attainment levels. • Teaching overall is not good enough. • Management of the subject is unsatisfactory. • Assessment is not used sufficiently rigorously.

p.23

Commentary

67. Standards are not high enough. They are well below average in Year 2 and Year 6, and pupils do not achieve as well as they should. Standards are similar to those reported in the most recent national tests, when the proportion of pupils reaching the nationally expected level for Year 6 was below the national average and below average in relation to their attainment when they were in Year 2.

p.23

Commentary

68. A sampling of pupils’ work and teachers’ planning indicates fundamental weaknesses in the provision across both key stages and, overall, it is unsatisfactory. There are wide discrepancies in the allocation of time between different classes, resulting in pupils in the same year groups having unequal provision. There is a scheme of work in place, but it is not adapted sufficiently well to meet the needs of the different ages and attainment levels found with in each class. Pupils in different year groups are completing the same work and are learning the same skills, with no evidence of a progression in their learning. Teaching does not provide appropriate challenges to meet the needs of all pupils, expectations are not high enough, and older pupils in mixed-age classes are not provided with opportunities to move on to the next higher level. Lesson plans lack detail on how previous learning is to be built on

p.23

Commentary

and how the needs of pupils of different attainment levels are to be met. There is insufficient recorded work in pupils’ books to indicate appropriate coverage and depth, and pupils show gaps in their knowledge and understanding of important concepts and ideas, such as what constitutes a fair test.

p.23

Commentary

69. In the two lessons seen, one was satisfactory and one was good. In an effective lesson, taken by the coordinator, clear explanations and imaginative use of resources enabled pupils to develop a good understanding of how muscle and bones work together to provide movement. In another potentially good lesson, in which pupils needed to conduct a fair test to discover which soil was best to encourage seeds to germinate, learning was less effective because pupils received too much support from teaching assistants and parents. This seriously limited Langenhoe Primary School - Page 24 the development of the important independent scientific skills of investigating a hypothesis and interpretation of a range of data.

p.23

Commentary

70. Leadership and management of the subject are unsatisfactory. Limited monitoring of teaching and learning has not been effective and rigorous enough in improving the provision and having a positive effect on standards. Assessment is not being consistently applied as an effective means of monitoring the progress of pupils against the key learning objectives and National Curriculum levels.

p.24

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Provision in information and communication technology (ICT) is unsatisfactory.

p.24

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Improvement since the last inspection has been poor: weaknesses in the curriculum remain, and standards are still below average. • The monitoring and evaluation of teaching, learning, and standards in ICT are unsatisfactory.

p.24

Commentary

71. The significant weaknesses in the school’s provision for ICT, reported at the time of the last inspection, have not been properly addressed. The subject development plan for ICT supports this judgement, and notes that the school has made many miscalculations in attempting to provide an ICT curriculum for pupils. A scheme of work has been provided, through the adoption of nationally recommended guidance for the subject, but many curricular weaknesses remain: • the guidance has not been adapted to meet the wide range of needs of pupils of different ages and attainment found in all classes; • the outline plan for the subject contains no detail whatsoever of what is to be taught to pupils in classes 4 and 5 within each term; • time allocations vary considerably between classes; • the way in which ICT is to be used in other subjects is not clearly identified.

p.24

Commentary

72. Although new equipment has been purchased since the last inspection, the school has failed to keep pace with increased expectations nationally, and resources continue to be unsatisfactory. For example, many of the computers, and some of the printers, are unreliable.

p.24

Commentary

73. Overall, no judgement can be made about the quality of teaching, but in the two lessons observed, teaching was good. In each lesson, the teachers made good use of data projectors to provide pupils with an enlarged view of a computer screen, so that the effects of the commands given could be clearly seen by all. In a lesson for pupils in Years 2 and 3, the teacher skilfully showed how to merge text with graphics taken from a ‘clip art’ selection. The teacher’s good technique of making ‘mistakes’ which needed to be corrected helped pupils to understand how to overcome difficulties in using the program. From their responses, and later practice, pupils showed that they knew how to highlight text, select different fonts, and change the size of the font selected. The levels of competence in word processing seen in this lesson were generally evident in other classes. Standards in this element of ICT are a comparative

p.24

Commentary

strength, and are satisfactory overall. In a lesson for pupils in Years 5 and 6, the teacher gave a clear explanation about how to use a data-handling program to produce graphs, a task which pupils later successfully achieved. However, the pupils’ lack of familiarity with this program is indicative of the weakness in the school’s provision.

p.24

Commentary

74. The recently appointed subject coordinator is enthusiastic and is keen to learn and to improve his skills. He has identified some of the weaknesses in the subject, such as the lack of integration of ICT into other areas of the curriculum, which has been made more difficult by Langenhoe Primary School - Page 25 the placement of most of the reliable computers on a gallery above the foyer. This arrangement means that pupils can only use this equipment safely when directly supervised by an adult, and any pupils with mobility problems would find it difficult to access the machines. A clear plan has been produced to map out future developments in the school’s provision. However, the coordinator has no knowledge of the quality of teaching and learning in other classes because he has had no opportunity to monitor the work of his colleagues and, until the inspection, had no understanding of the full impact of the weaknesses in planning.

p.24

Commentary

75. The recent appointment of a learning support assistant to work as a technician in support of ICT is a useful initiative. She provides informed support to groups of pupils withdrawn from lessons to use the computers on the gallery, and has conducted an audit of software. At the time of inspection, it was too early to judge the impact of her work.

p.25

Information and communication technology across the curriculum

76. Not enough use is made of ICT in other subjects. Some links are made, such as the use of the computers on the gallery by pupils in Years 4 and 5 as part of an English exercise in which pupils had to improve the quality of text. However, the use of ICT is not an integral part of the planning in other subjects and, as a result, opportunities for pupils to practise their skills more regularly are missed. During the course of the inspection, computers in classes were often not switched on.

p.25

HUMANITIES

77. Owing to the significant weaknesses in the quality of education provided in the core subjects, the inspection did not focus on history or geography. Only one lesson was seen in history. In this lesson, the quality of teaching was satisfactory and pupils worked at a level appropriate for their age. No teaching was seen in geography. Judgements on provision in these two subjects cannot be made.

p.25

Religious education (RE)

Provision in religious education is unsatisfactory because the school is not meeting its legal requirements in this subject.

p.25

Religious education (RE)

78. An analysis of the timetable, discussions with pupils and a sampling of their work shows that the subject is not given sufficient time and not taught often enough to meet legal requirements and enable pupils to reach the expectations of the locally agreed syllabus. No RE lessons were observed, because those that were timetabled were scheduled to take place outside the period of the inspection. A sample of pupils’ previously completed work in all subjects provided by the school contained very little evidence of any recorded work in RE.

p.25

CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

79. No lessons were observed in art and design, only one in design and technology (DT) and two in both music and physical education (PE). It is not therefore possible to make a firm judgement about provision in any of these subjects. In addition to observing lessons, evidence was gathered from discussions with teachers and pupils, a scrutiny of planning, work displayed in classes and around the school, short observations of a variety of DT activities and brief observations of pupils at work in an art club and a football session at the end of the school day.

p.25

CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

80. At the time of the last inspection, the main weakness in both art and design and DT was the lack of a scheme of work. This has been addressed through the adoption of nationally recommended curriculum guidance for each of the subjects, which ensures that all elements Langenhoe Primary School - Page 26 of the curriculum are covered. However, the curriculum in both of these subjects remains unsatisfactory because the school has not adapted the guidance to accommodate the mixed- age groupings found in all its classes and has not focused clearly enough on the step-by-step development of pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding as they move from Year 1 to Year 6. The lack of planning for mixed-age classes results, for example, in Year 5 pupils from class 4 working on a DT task involving simple moving mechanisms along with pupils in Year 4 while the rest of their year group, in Class 5, produce model houses alongside their Year 6

p.25

CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

81. There is some work of a very high standard in art and design, produced by pupils in previous years, which is displayed in the foyer and around the school. This includes a very good representation of the former school building made from glazed tiles, and a finely detailed study of the new premises, painted on glass. There is good enrichment of the curriculum through an after-school art club organised by the subject coordinator. Pupils interviewed were very enthusiastic about the experiences provided, referring to it as the ‘Magic Club’ . This comment undoubtedly refers to the opportunities provided for pupils to experiment with a range of more unusual techniques, such as the use of clingfilm or salt on wet paint to produce some high- quality work.

p.26

CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

82. In music , the school provides good opportunities for pupils to learn how to play instruments, to perform in public, and to experience large-scale musical activities. No teaching was observed in Year 2 or Year 6, and so no judgement can be made about the standards achieved at these points. However, the two lessons observed, taught by the music coordinator, were both of good quality. One was with her class of pupils from Years 4 and 5 in which she skilfully developed pupils’ skills in telling a story through music, and the other was instrumental work with groups of pupils from Year 3 in preparation for a Christmas concert. In both lessons, her good subject knowledge enabled her to teach techniques clearly and to develop the challenge for pupils progressively.

p.26

CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

83. There is a strong tradition of music in the school, and this makes a good contribution to pupils’ spiritual, social and cultural development. About a quarter of pupils receive peripatetic tuition and over half of the pupils in Year 3 to 6 are taught to play the recorder by the music coordinator. However, pupils’ participation in these sessions results in them missing work in other subjects. There are regular opportunities for pupils receiving tuition to perform in public, ranging from assemblies to events such as the governors’ annual general meeting for parents. Participation in events such as the Small School’s Music Festival and the Tiptree Music Workshop give pupils valuable opportunities to learn songs, play instruments and perform with pupils from other schools in the locality. Singing is of high quality. In assemblies, pupils sing clearly, tunefully and expressively, and with evident enjoyment.

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CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

84. The curriculum for PE has the same basic weakness evident in other subject areas in that it does not ensure equality of opportunity for pupils who are in the same year group, but in different classes, and does not provide for a seamless development of pupils’ skills. In addition, the subject coordinator does not have opportunities to monitor the quality of teaching and learning in all classes, and so he is unaware of the strengths in teaching which need to be shared and the weaknesses which need to be addressed. Good skills in teaching were evident in one of the two lessons seen in which pupils in Year 3 combined sequences of movements with various balances. The teacher’s explanations were very clear, the challenge for pupils was progressively developed, and expectations of pupils’ behaviour and achievement were high. As a result, pupils learned very well because they knew exactly what they were expected to do and received very good guidance in the form of the teacher’s

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CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

direction and opportunities to observe and evaluate each other’s performance.

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CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

85. There are good facilities for the teaching of gymnastics or dance indoors and good space for outdoor sport. The curriculum is enriched through after-school activities, including the weekly soccer training session which is enthusiastically supported by both boys and girls. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 27

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PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

86. Pupils are successfully learning to play a role as members of their school community, and have a good understanding of the needs of some sections of the wider community through their fundraising activities. They are well informed about the need for rules, and have a good grasp of the consequences of anti-social behaviour. They are learning to make decisions, for instance through the school council, and discuss their ideas on issues relevant to their own lives. Langenhoe Primary School - Page 28

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The overall effectiveness of the school 5 How inclusive the school is 4 How the school’s effectiveness has changed since its last inspection 6 Value for money provided by the school 5

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Overall standards achieved 5 Pupils’ achievement 5

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities 3 Attendance 3 Attitudes 3 Behaviour, including the extent of exclusions 2 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 3

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The quality of education provided by the school 5 The quality of teaching 5 How well pupils learn 5 The quality of assessment 5 How well the curriculum meets pupils needs 5 Enrichment of the curriculum, including out-of-school activities 3 Accommodation and resources 3 Pupils’ care, welfare, health and safety 2 Support, advice and guidance for pupils 4 How well the school seeks and acts on pupils’ views 3 The effectiveness of the school’s links with parents 3 The quality of the school’s links with the community 4 The school’s links with other schools and colleges 3

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The leadership and management of the school 5 The governance of the school 5 The leadership of the headteacher 4 The leadership of other key staff 5 The effectiveness of management 5

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Inspectors make judgements on a scale: excellent (grade 1); very good (2); good (3); satisfactory (4); unsatisfactory (5); poor (6); very poor (7).

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