Manor Field Junior School

MANOR FIELD JUNIOR SCHOOL

Dates of inspection: 13 – 15 October 2003

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MANOR FIELD JUNIOR SCHOOL

Inspection carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 Manor Field Junior School - 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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MANOR FIELD JUNIOR 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. Manor Field Junior School - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Type of school: Junior School category: Community Age range of pupils: 7 - 11 Gender of pupils: Mixed Number on roll: 213

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Haydn Road Brighton Hill Basingstoke Postcode: RG22 4DH

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Telephone number: 01256 329826 Fax number: 01256 816221

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: Governing body Name of chair of governors: Carole Love

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: 1 June 1998

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL

The school serves a well-established but under-privileged neighbourhood in Basingstoke. Because families move within the town’s housing association provision, many pupils of all ages join the school at various times during the school year; they often have poorly developed language and learning skills. Pupil mobility is higher than average, little more than half of Year 6 in 2002/2003 had joined the school at the start of Year 3. The great majority of pupils are of White-British extraction.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL

The proportion of pupils with special educational needs is well above the national average, as is the proportion with full statements. As well as a range of learning difficulties, the special educational needs in the school include social, emotional, behavioural and speech and communication.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOL

The school achieved Investors in People status in 2003. Manor Field Junior School - 4

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

19623 Michael Cahill Lead inspector Mathematics Information and communication technology Music Physical education 9744 Peter Brown Lay inspector 12956 Geoff Allport Team inspector Science Art and design Design and technology Special educational needs 18198 Roger Sansom Team inspector English Geography History Religious education

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Members of the inspection team Subject responsibilities

Cambridge Education Associates Limited Demeter House Station Road Cambridge CB1 2RS

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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 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.ofsted.gov.uk). Manor Field Junior School - 5

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY PUPILS 9

Standards achieved in areas of learning, subjects and courses

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY PUPILS 9

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 effective and provides good value for money. Very good leadership and management are successfully focused on improving pupils’ achievements in a pleasant and purposeful working atmosphere. The quality of teaching is good and this enables most pupils to make good progress, particularly in language and literacy skills, where standards by the end of Year 6 in 2003 were above those achieved in similar schools.

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OVERALL EVALUATION

The school’s main strengths and weaknesses are: • The quality of teaching and learning are good and most pupils make good progress and achieve well. • It promotes good attitudes to learning, good behaviour, relationships and personal development among its pupils. • Very good support, care and guidance enable pupils to be fully involved in all that is offered. • Literacy is taught well, both in English lessons and through work in other subjects. • The provision of a very good range and quality of curriculum enrichment activities, including clubs, visits and visitors. • Support staff make an essential contribution to including all pupils fully in the life and work of the school. • Excellent leadership by the headteacher and very good overall leadership and management directed towards raising standards through improving the quality of education provided.

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OVERALL EVALUATION

• In some subjects, assessment is not always closely enough related to what the pupils are intended to learn and so is not used effectively to match work to pupils’ differing abilities. • The results of national tests, although improving in line with national trends, are below average, especially in writing. • Pupils do not have enough access to computers to develop their skills fully and use them across the curriculum.

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OVERALL EVALUATION

The school has achieved a good level of improvement since its last inspection; all statutory requirements are now met, the management team has a clear and important role and there is very effective monitoring of teaching and learning. Standards have improved in English and mathematics. Subject managers are making an increasingly effective contribution to raising standards.

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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 D D E D mathematics D E E C science D E E D 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

Pupils achieve well in making good progress from what, for many, is a low starting point. Test results for Year 6 pupils in 2003 were in line with the targets agreed with the LEA for English and mathematics. Targets agreed for the present Year 6 are challenging and, if achieved, will represent further improvement. Inspection evidence suggests that pupils are well placed, given continued well-focused teaching and support, to demonstrate this improvement. The overall trend in the school’s test results from 1998 to 2002 was similar to the national picture, with a strong upward trend in English that was not maintained in 2003. Manor Field Junior School - 7 Many pupils enter the school with national test results at the end of Year 2 that are well below national expectations. There is a lot of movement of families into and out of the area that the school serves and in recent years little more than half of pupils in Year 6 in 2002/2003 have joined the

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

school in Year 3. Of this group of pupils, most have made at least the progress expected nationally and many have exceeded it. In addition, a high proportion (more than 55 per cent) of pupils in recent Year 6 groups have had special educational needs. A significant proportion of these pupils have achieved in line with the national expectation; overall, pupils’ achievement is good even though overall standards in English, mathematics and science in Year 6 are below the national average.

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STANDARDS ACHIEVED

Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. The school puts a lot of well-focused and sensitive effort into promoting pupils’ personal development and making sure that all have full access to what it offers. The school is successful in raising pupils’ self esteem and this has a positive effect on their ability to learn and their attitudes. Pupils become mature and responsible, developing good attitudes to school and learning, and behaving well. Attendance and punctuality are satisfactory.

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teaching and learning is good with a particular strength in the teaching of literacy

throughout the school. Teachers insist on high standards of behaviour and provide very good encouragement and guidance to pupils; as a result pupils develop good attitudes towards their learning and most settle down to work well. Teachers and teaching assistants provide excellent support to ensure that all pupils are able to take a full part in lessons and pupils with special educational needs regularly make good progress and achieve well. Because of the school’s well-planned emphasis on developing language skills across the curriculum, pupils develop these basic skills well, especially speaking and listening.

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teaching and learning is good with a particular strength in the teaching of literacy

The curriculum has a strong emphasis on literacy and makes a good overall contribution to pupils’ learning; provision for pupils with special educational needs and provision for promoting personal, social and health education and citizenship are very good. The curriculum is very well enriched through clubs, visits and visitors. In some subjects, planning, assessment and evaluation are not sufficiently refined to provide appropriate challenge for some pupils. Pupils do not have ready access to sufficient computers for efficient skill development and use. Pupils benefit from the very good care, support and guidance that the school provides and from the very good links with the community and other schools and colleges.

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leadership and management are very good. The headteacher, senior management team and other key staff provide strong leadership focused on raising the achievement of all pupils through improving the quality of education provided; the headteacher’s personal, leadership is excellent. The governing body provides very good support and challenge to the leadership team and makes a very good contribution to shaping the vision and direction of the school. The school runs very smoothly and there are very good systems and procedures for evaluating all aspects of its performance.

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PARENTS’ AND PUPILS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

Parents are well satisfied with the school, recognising that it is very well led and managed and appreciating its approachability. They also value the good arrangements for settling in and the fact that children are treated fairly, expected to work hard and so make good progress and become mature and responsible. Pupils like their school very much and trust their teachers and the other adults who help them learn. They value being consulted and the notice taken of their views. Manor Field Junior School - 8

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IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

The most important things the school should do to improve are: • Assessment and planning in some subjects is being developed to enable teachers to match work more sharply to pupils’ differing abilities. This now needs to be extended to ensure consistency and to ensure that the information gathered is used to plan for a more appropriate level of challenge for all. • Continue to build on improvements in literacy skills, especially in writing, and by applying similar strategies raise further pupils’ standards in mathematics and science. • Develop the provision for pupils to acquire and use ICT skills in a planned way to support and extend their learning across the curriculum. Manor Field Junior School - 9

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Standards achieved in subjects

Pupils achieve well, improving their attainment from what, for many, is a well below average starting point. Overall standards are average in Year 6. The school’s trend in national test results over the last five years has closely matched the gradual national improvement, although it fell below it in 2003. There is an increasing proportion of pupils with special educational needs, including many who join the school other than at the start of Year 3. The achievement of these pupils is also good, as a result of good teaching and support that enable them to improve to close to the national expectation in English. There are no significant differences in the achievement of different groups of pupils.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Standards in speaking and listening are above national expectations as a result of the many planned opportunities for pupils to develop these skills. • In the 2003 tests, the great majority of pupils who had been at the school for the whole of Year 3 to 6 made at least the expected progress in English and mathematics, more than a quarter did even better; achievement is good. • In the 2003 tests standards in writing were well below national expectations by the end of Year 6, although there is evidence of improvement in the present Year 6 as a result of the school’s focus on improving this aspect of its work. • Pupils’ attainment in mathematics and in science is below average although the provisional national test results for 2003 show a marked improvement compared with those for 2002.

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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 24.9 (26.1) 26.8 (27.0) Mathematics 25.5 (23.8) 26.8 (26.7) Science 26.9 (26.6) 28.6 (28.3) There were58 pupils in the year group. Figures in brackets are for the previous year

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Commentary

1. National test results for 2003 at Year 6 indicate a slight overall improvement on the 2002 results, summarised in the table above. This is despite the marked fall in the proportions of pupils gaining Level 5 in English, attributed largely to the profile of the year group, including over 50 per cent of pupils on the school’s register of special educational needs. Standards in reading have been improved as a result of the school’s provision of daily guided reading sessions in addition to the literacy lesson. Improvements in writing are working through the school but have not yet had an impact on end of Year 6 test results. However, inspection evidence suggests that writing standards in the present Year 6 are substantially improved. In both mathematics and science there have been significant increases in the proportions of pupils achieving the national expectation of Level 4 and in the proportions achieving the higher

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Commentary

Level 5, although overall standards remain below the national average.

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Commentary

2. Pupils achieve a satisfactory level of competence in information and communication technology (ICT) although there are not enough opportunities for pupils to practise and exercise their skills. It was not possible to observe much teaching or sample pupils’ work to a sufficient extent to make secure judgements on standards in most other subjects. Examination of work in religious education, however, indicates that many pupils exceed the expectations of the locally agreed syllabus. Manor Field Junior School - 10 3. A growing proportion of pupils join the school other than at the start of Year 3. The school’s records over the past three years show that, on average around 75 per cent of the pupils who were at school for the whole of Years 3 to 6 improved by two National Curriculum levels (which is the national expectation for them) in English and mathematics. This figure included about 25 per cent who made three levels progress. Pupils’ achievement at the school is good.

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Commentary

The school has been successful in achieving the targets agreed with the local education authority.

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Commentary

4. The school teaches the skills of literacy well, not only in English lessons but also through work in other subject areas. The skills of speaking and listening are very effectively promoted not only through opportunities for discussion in lessons in other subjects but also when pupils conduct whole school assemblies.

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Commentary

5. The school monitors gender differences in attainment very carefully and is aware that more boys than girls achieved above average results in the national tests for mathematics and science in 2003. The proportions of boys and girls achieving at least the national expectation of Level 4 were similar in these two subjects as they were in writing. In reading, however, a higher proportion of girls than boys achieved the national expectation; conversely, a higher proportion of boys than girls achieved the higher Level 5. Pupils with special educational needs achieve well, often making the same amount of progress, but from different starting points, as their peers. The small number of pupils for whom English is not their home language are well supported in their learning and also achieve well.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities

Pupils’ attendance and punctuality are satisfactory. Their attitudes and behaviour are good, as is their personal development, including spiritual, social, moral and cultural development.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Pupils’ behaviour in and out of class is good. • They show a positive attitude to learning and display high self-esteem. • Opportunities for pupils to show initiative and accept responsibility are good. • Strategies to counter oppressive behaviour are very good. • Relationships are very good between pupils and with staff.

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Commentary

6. As a result of the effective measures now being implemented, attendance is satisfactory and in line with national averages. Most pupils are also punctual in arriving at school.

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Commentary

Attendance in the latest complete reporting year (%)

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Commentary

Authorised absence Unauthorised absence School data 94.6 School data 0.1 National data 94.1 National data 0.4 The table gives the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year.

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Commentary

7. Attitudes to school, and learning in particular, are good. Pupils enjoy lessons and the various extra-curricular activities organised by the school. Relationships between pupils are very good, as are those between pupils and members of staff. The school is successful in providing a wide range of opportunities for pupils to display initiative and accept responsibility. The school council provides a forum through which pupil views can be expressed and acted upon; a school promotion team effectively publicises the school’s achievements, and older pupils organise a wide range of lunchtime activities. The school is highly effective in developing the self-esteem of pupils, with the effect that they rapidly grow in maturity and confidence as they progress through the different age groups. Manor Field Junior School - 11 8. The behaviour of pupils is good, both in classes and around the school generally. They are

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Commentary

attentive to the needs of each other and display courtesy and respect to other people. Very effective behaviour management strategies ensure that pupils fully understand the need for learning to take place in an orderly and calm environment. The appointment of a behaviour manager, strongly supported by both teaching and non-teaching staff, ensures that good discipline is operated consistently and fairly. The school adopts a very pro-active approach, particularly through the use of circle time, in preventing bullying and, as a consequence, occurrences are extremely rare. Three pupils have been excluded for a total of six fixed-term periods over the last year.

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Commentary

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

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Commentary

Categories used in the Annual School Census No of pupils on roll Number of fixed period exclusions Number of permanent exclusions White – British 163 6 0 White – any other White background 2 0 0 Mixed – White and Black Caribbean 3 0 0 Mixed – White and Black African 2 0 0 Asian or Asian British – Pakistani 1 0 0 Asian or Asian British – Bangladeshi 4 0 0 Black or Black British – African 1 0 0 No ethnic group recorded 37 0 0 The table gives the number of exclusions, which may be different from the number of pupils excluded.

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Commentary

9. The school’s provision for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Appropriate opportunities for spiritual reflection are provided through assemblies, and pupils were seen to express their sense of awe and wonder whilst watching a theatre group enact selected passages from Macbeth . Pupils throughout the school develop a strong sense of right and wrong, and this was seen to be strongly reinforced during circle time when pupils discussed the nature and ill effects of bullying.

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Commentary

10. The school is very effective in developing pupils’ sense of social responsibility through a well- planned and targeted approach to charitable fund-raising. Satisfactory provision exists to develop the awareness of pupils of other cultural traditions. The school makes a sound contribution towards preparing pupils for life in a multi-ethnic society.

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QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL

The school provides a good quality of education for its pupils. Leadership strongly promotes inclusion and the development of self-esteem and the way that the school is organised and managed very effectively makes this a reality. The overall quality of teaching and the curriculum is good, with particular strengths in promoting personal development and providing for the high proportion of pupils with special educational needs. The school is a very caring community, where pupils are known well and there are good systems for keeping track of their development and academic progress. The school’s links with its community and with other schools are very strong and effectively promote pupils’ learning and progress. Manor Field Junior School - 12

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Teaching and learning

The quality of teaching and learning is good.

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In lessons where the teaching is good, strengths include:

• Well focused questioning that helps pupils to revise what they have already learned and to achieve further gains in knowledge, skills and understanding. • The creation of a positive and encouraging working atmosphere that encourages pupils to ‘have a go’. • A good range of demands on pupils in terms of listening, engaging in practical work and a good balance of working individually, in pairs or larger groups. • High quality support by other adults that makes it possible for pupils, especially those with special educational needs, to be fully included in the work of the lesson. • A clear focus on improvement, making it clear to pupils what they are intended to learn and providing good feedback through assessment. • High expectations of the standard of work and behaviour.

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Where teaching is less successful, although still satisfactory, the reasons usually include:

• Not making clear to pupils what they are intended to learn and not providing adequate feedback based on assessment. • Lack of follow up to the frequently very good marking of pupils’ work. • Insufficient use of homework to consolidate and extend learning.

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Where teaching is less successful, although still satisfactory, the reasons usually include:

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection in 28 lessons

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Where teaching is less successful, although still satisfactory, the reasons usually include:

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very poor

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Where teaching is less successful, although still satisfactory, the reasons usually include:

0 5 16 7 0 0 0 The table gives the number of lessons observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about lessons.

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Commentary

11. The overall teaching of English, including literacy, is good; literacy is very effectively taught across the curriculum and many opportunities are provided for developing speaking and listening skills. In mathematics, including numeracy, teaching is good, with teachers using practical activities and equipment well. The teaching of science is good in Year 3 and satisfactory in other year groups, often with good features. The skills of ICT are taught well although there is often too great a time lag before pupils can consolidate their learning. In the other subjects of the National Curriculum and religious education, teaching is always at least satisfactory and often good. During the inspection, the teaching in Years 3 and 6 was almost always at least good. This makes a significant contribution towards raising standards.

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Commentary

12. The work of the school is focused very well on developing self-esteem and positive behaviour and teachers and other adults have established a pleasant and purposeful working atmosphere in their classrooms. Because pupils are well consulted and their views taken into account most of them contribute very well to the maintenance of this; high expectations of work and behaviour are assumed. Teachers go to a lot of trouble in planning interesting work that is appropriate to the needs of their pupils and frequently take good account of the different ways that pupils learn by providing activities that engage different senses, for example in watching, listening and engaging in ‘hands-on’ practical activities. This was very noticeable, for example, in most of the mathematics lessons observed. (see paragraphs 56 to 58 ) Manor Field Junior School - 13 13. Pupils with special educational needs are supported very well in many lessons by the co-

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Commentary

ordinator and by learning support assistants; pupils are thereby fully included in the work of the lesson and make good, often very good, progress towards their individual targets.

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Commentary

14. Learning support assistants play a valuable part in teaching the skills of language and literacy. They are well briefed, clear about the teachers’ expectations, able to take initiative and very supportive of pupils with difficulties. They work effectively as a team with each other and with class teachers. On a number of occasions they were seen to identify potential behavioural and learning difficulties and take steps to deal with them without any distraction from the tasks in hand.

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Commentary

15. Some of the most successful lessons observed were those in which it was the teacher’s well - focused questioning at the start of the lesson, combined with a clear statement of what pupils were going to learn, that enabled good building on earlier learning. This was, for example, the case in a very successful gymnastics lesson in Year 3 that had a very clear focus on improvement through meeting the further challenges that the teacher introduced. Very effective questioning at the start of the lesson established that pupils understood the key concepts of balance (three-point), tension, control and travelling and that their target for the lesson was to develop sequences, initially individually and then in pairs. The teacher provided continuous feedback based on assessment that focused on the key concepts and was illustrated through example of the pupils’ work. As a result pupils developed their

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Commentary

understanding of how to improve and increasingly used appropriate vocabulary in their evaluations of each other’s work. Pupils were very clear that the teacher expected ‘Your best’ and responded well to the motivation provided by the information that photographs would be taken during the next lesson to contribute to the class gymnastics book.

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Commentary

16. Teaching was less successful when it was not made clear to pupils what they were intended to learn, either because of lack of clarity in teachers’ planning or simply because the objective of the lesson wasn’t communicated in child-friendly language. Pupils, then, were not aware enough of the purpose of the activities they engaged in or the degree to which they were achieving success.

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Commentary

17. Relationships between adults and pupils are very good and behaviour in lessons is managed very well through encouragement and clear, shared expectations and the provision of work that pupils generally find interesting and can do. Because of this most pupils become confident in their ability to learn and they develop good work habits. They listen well to explanations and usually follow instructions accurately. Their learning is helped a lot by the school’s success in developing good relationships; it was quite striking, for example, how well the mainly ad hoc pairings of pupils in a Year 6 mathematics lesson worked together on a practical task based on equivalent fractions. (Further examples of good practice are included in the commentaries on the subjects of the National Curriculum and religious education, see paragraphs –45 to 86)

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Commentary

18. The marking of pupils’ work is regular, with many very good examples of comments that make clear to pupils the strengths and weaknesses in their work and provide further challenge for them. Unfortunately the pupils do not always obtain maximum benefit from teachers’ efforts when they are not given time to respond to them when their work is returned. Assessment of pupils’ learning and progress is under-developed when there is lack of precision about learning intentions. Because of this, assessment information is not always adequate to be used effectively in matching subsequent work to pupils’ learning needs, setting targets for them or modifying the curriculum. Homework in most classes is not making a consistent contribution to raising standards or to enabling parents to be more involved with their children’s learning. Manor Field Junior School - 14

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The curriculum

The curriculum makes a good contribution to pupils’ learning.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• The provision for pupils with special educational needs, both in aspects of learning and in behaviour. The learning support assistants make a major contribution in this and other respects. • The provision for personal, social and health education is very good. • The provision for developing pupils’ citizenship skills and understanding is very good. • The enrichment of the curriculum through clubs, visits and visitors is very good. • The planning, assessment and evaluation of the curriculum is not yet refined enough to guarantee good continuity, progression and challenge in some subjects. • The limited resources for Information and Communications Technology restrict the potential for enhancing learning using ICT across the other subjects.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

The strengths in the curriculum far outweigh the weaknesses.

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Commentary

19. The school has a significant proportion of pupils (over a third) who are in need of support for their learning that is additional to, or different from, that normally provided in class. The school provides an excellent resource for these pupils through a very highly motivated, well-trained and highly effective team of learning support assistants. These learning support assistants lead initiatives such as “Socially Speaking” and “Friendship Club” which provide valuable extra support for pupils who have trouble settling to work with other children. They also provide consistently high quality support for learning in class. They are well briefed by teachers and have very good knowledge of the particular programmes and targets that pupils with special educational needs are working on. They are well led by the special educational needs co- ordinator. As a result of this high quality support, pupils with special educational needs make

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Commentary

good progress both academically and in their social skills as they pass through the school.

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Commentary

20. The school has strengths in its provision for personal, social and health education and citizenship. There is a well-organized series of lessons throughout each year group to ensure that pupils learn how to work together to resolve problems, how to protect themselves from influences and activities that may harm them, and consider how to build good relationships. All staff, teaching and support, have joined in training to support pupils in their self-esteem and the results are evident, especially in pupils’ effective speaking and listening and collaborative work across the curriculum.

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Commentary

21. The school provides very good enrichment for the curriculum through clubs, visitors and visits. For example, during the week of the inspection, a theatre group inspired Year 6 pupils who were studying the Shakespearean tragedy, Macbeth . An ice hockey player came to visit Year 5 and was interviewed by the children to investigate how his diet enabled him to be a healthy sportsman. The school provides a very good range and quality of extra-curricular clubs and activities, including a judo club, tennis teaching, football training for both boys and girls, clubs for netball, recorders, art, French (Club Bonjour) and textiles. There are many clubs for sports and the arts and more than half the pupils make use of these at some stage during the year. The school makes very good use of local venues for environmental science and, for example when learning about food technology, has made useful links with frozen food producers and

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Commentary

22. These factors contribute significantly to pupils’ personal development and their interest and engagement in their work. They are providing the foundation for improved standards of achievement. Manor Field Junior School - 15 23. The current planning for the curriculum is not yet responsive enough to assessments, where made, of pupils’ progress. Some schemes of work, such as that of science, are not yet securely established and do not securely promote progression in learning because it is not clear enough what levels of attainment are expected by the end of each year group. It is difficult for the school to judge what is working well and what needs to be improved. At the same time, this planning is not yet enabling all teachers to refine their lesson planning with precise learning outcomes, at different levels of expectation for pupils of different abilities, which can then be assessed by both pupils and teachers. This assessment is not yet helping

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Commentary

pupils to improve their work, responding to their own evaluations or to teachers’ feedback before they move on to the next thing. This “assessment for learning” needs to be underpinned more securely in the clarity of the long, medium and short-term planning of the curriculum.

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Commentary

24. The school building and grounds are well managed by a very competent site supervisor. The whole learning environment is kept clean and attractive. In most respects resources are good. ICT resources, although numerically adequate, do not facilitate the teaching of skills to a whole class. The school is awaiting enhancement of ICT in its imminent building programme. At the moment ICT is not able to support effective learning across the curriculum as well as it should.

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Commentary

25. The school meets statutory requirements in relation to the curriculum and prepares pupils well for later stages of education.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Health and safety procedures, including those related to child protection, are detailed, relevant, and properly implemented. • Pupils are provided with very good support, advice, and guidance. • The school is very successful in seeking, and acting upon, the views of pupils.

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Commentary

26. Effective procedures to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of pupils have been established and are rigorously implemented. Detailed and documented risk assessments have been prepared, and those relating to external visits are of very high quality. A comprehensive health and safety inspection is carried out annually, involving a designated governor, and the site supervisor conducts weekly checks.

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Commentary

27. The school provides very good support, advice, and guidance to pupils that are based on close personal knowledge of each particular child. This support network includes both teaching and non-teaching staff, including the administrative officer and her colleagues, and the senior lunchtime supervisor who provides an informal mid-day counselling service, plays a significant role. Within the classroom, teachers are ably supported in their pastoral role by teach support assistants who provide effective one-to-one guidance. Pupils who have difficulty communicating socially, or managing their emotions, are provided with specialist support, including sessions organised during the lunch period. The requirements of pupils with special educational needs are carefully analysed and, consequently, subsequent action plans are relevant and effective. The school makes use of external counsellors when additional support is required.

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Commentary

Manor Field Junior School - 16 28. Induction arrangements for pupils, both for those entering the school direct from the infant school at Year 3 or those subsequently from elsewhere, are very effective and provide a smooth transition into their new environment. Pupils in Year 2 regularly visit the junior school and, conversely, Year 3 teachers and dinner ladies visit the infants. The quality of pupil information provided to Year 3 teachers by the infant school is comprehensive and meaningful.

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Commentary

29. The school is highly effective in seeking the views of pupils and acting upon these. The school council, in which every class is represented, provides an appropriate forum in which views can be both sought and offered. Informally within the classroom, teachers not only seek the opinion of pupils but also visibly recognise their value, with the effect that the self-worth of pupils is significantly enhanced. Pupils very strongly stressed the school’s commitment to keeping them informed and seeking their views on many facets of school life.

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Very satisfactory partnerships have been established with parents, and very good links

established with both the local community and other schools and colleges.

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Main strengths and weaknesses

• Written and verbal communication from the school to parents is good. • Community links are very good and greatly enhance the curriculum. • Partnership with the feeder infant school and secondary school to which many pupils transfer is very good. • Targets in annual written reports are not sufficiently specific and measurable.

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Commentary

30. The school is held in high regard by parents and carers who believe it to be well managed and successful in promoting the academic and personal development of pupils. Parental views are regularly and systematically sought through the medium of questionnaires.

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Commentary

31. Communication with parents is good, and the school provides regular newsletters, which are reader-friendly and informative. The school brochure is comprehensive, well presented, and is effectively supported by the governors’ annual report to parents which provides a good summary of the school’s progress during the previous academic year. Very effective informal communication is maintained with parents through face-to-face contact before and after the school day.

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Commentary

32. Good feedback is given to parents on their children’s progress through the annual written reports, which provide comprehensive information as to their children’s progress academically, and also their personal development. However, some targets set are too vague and difficult to measure. Further useful information concerning pupil progress is available through parent evenings.

p.16

Commentary

33. Parental involvement in the life of the school is satisfactory. Parents assist with school visits and some help is available in the classroom with reading and other activities. Queries and complaints raised by parents are handled quickly and effectively.

p.16

Commentary

34. The school has established very good links with the local community that greatly enhance pupils’ learning. Very strong cultural links have been forged, a recent example being the visit of a local theatre group which very effectively supported the English curriculum by the enactment of Macbeth , currently being studied by Year 6. The visit of a professional ice- hockey player reinforced the science and P.S.H.E. curricula by pupils being made aware of the dietary and fitness regimes common to high activity contact sports. The quality of sports provision is further enhanced through the regular visits of a qualified coach from Basingstoke Hockey Club. Links with a local hypermarket not only serve to expand pupils’ awareness of Manor Field Junior School - 17 commerce but also to assist in the development of their skills and knowledge in ICT through the opportunity to operate the computerised checkout equipment. The very strong partnership

p.16

Commentary

with such community organisations greatly boosts the quality of learning.

p.17

Commentary

35. The school has established very strong and effective links with a wide range of local schools and colleges. Effective collaboration exists with Manor Field Infant School involving joint staff meetings that focus on assessment and moderation and also a wide range of shared activities, including assemblies and activity days. A very strong partnership exists with Claiborne School whose cluster arrangements provide the opportunity for joint in-service days, structured visits related to technology and art, and special subject days specifically designed for able pupils. The curriculum is also greatly enhanced through the school’s links with Brighton Hill College, Queen Mary’s College, and a local “beacon school” which teachers visit to observe specific examples of good practice.

p.17

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leadership and management are very good. The leadership of the headteacher is excellent and that of other key staff is very good. School management is very good. The governance of the school is very good.

p.17

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The headteacher has a clear vision that is shared with and supported by governors and the leadership team; she provides excellent leadership. • There are very clear strategies in place for raising pupils’ attainment and for improving further the quality of teaching and learning. • The governing body provides a very good level of support and challenge to the leadership team. • There are good management systems and very good financial administration; the school runs smoothly.

p.17

Commentary

36. The headteacher displays excellent leadership. She has been in post for five years and during this time has successfully developed an already progressing school. She has developed good working relationships with staff and governors, some of whom are also new to the school. She has also developed excellent relationships with pupils and their parents. The staff and governors share her commitment to, and desire for, whole school improvement, and they work hard to assist this. The headteacher leads by example in all facets of school life, spending a lot of her time supporting pupils and staff and developing the skills of both. As a result the school has developed an ethos where all are valued highly, where expectations are high, where poor behaviours are challenged sympathetically and where pupils are keen to learn positively, knowing that they are valued and cared for. This is a very inclusive school

p.17

Commentary

37. The aims of the school are well reflected in all of its work. A notable feature is an aim to take account of the differing learning styles of pupils and to accommodate these. The school is still at the early stages of this development but early indications indicate that there is a level of resolve that will pay dividends.

p.17

Commentary

38. The school strategic plan, which currently is running alongside an earlier but still relevant development plan, is visionary, and is “owned” by the management team and governors. The plan fully takes account of the self-evaluation of the school that the management team and governors have carried out and has the potential to take the school forward strongly and quickly. The plan identifies weaknesses in the present situation such as ICT and writing and makes provision for improvements; each initiative is carefully costed.

p.17

Commentary

39. The school has been awarded Investors in People status and the process of achieving this has led to a strong staff development programme that has the potential to raise standards further. Manor Field Junior School - 18 40. The last inspection highlighted a need to define the management roles of the senior team and the lower management levels. This has been addressed and with the introduction of two assistant headteachers the management team shares the management burden more widely and releases the headteacher from some less strategic activities. For example, the pupils apply to become part of a ‘school promotion team’ – a part of the drive to give responsibility to a wide number of pupils. The oversight of this rests currently with the headteacher but is due to transfer along with similar initiatives to the new, broader, management team.

p.17

Commentary

41. The curriculum in the school is well managed by the headteacher working with a group of dedicated curriculum managers. The deputy headteacher manages the pastoral side of the equation with skill, sensitivity and wisdom. The school, with the governors, seeks to analyse data from a variety of sources and to act upon the knowledge thus derived. Assessment processes are in place but as yet have insufficient impact on planning and consequently on learning and attainment.

p.18

Commentary

42. The management of the provision for pupils with special educational needs is very good and these pupils make good progress in line with their individual targets. There is a very strong team of learning support assistants and this team is well managed and given opportunity for professional and personal development.

p.18

Commentary

43. The governing body has a clear oversight of the school. The chair of governors is well organised and sufficiently well informed to be able to challenge senior staff and other governors in a critically constructive way. Committees meet regularly and governors shadow key curriculum areas to gain a knowledge of the delivery of their responsibilities. All statutory responsibilities are carried out fully.

p.18

Commentary

44. The school budget is well managed. The finances are healthy and the larger than average carry forward figure is fully explained as earmarked funding for building projects and transitional staffing as the school expands. Spending on SEN is high but represents the significant range of difficulties that the pupils have. Financial administration is very good. The school provides good value for money.

p.18

Commentary

Financial information for the year April 2002 to March 2003.

p.18

Commentary

Income and expenditure (£) Balances (£) Total income 599,962 Balance from previous year 95,955 Total expenditure 641,388 Balance carried forward to the next 54,528 Expenditure per pupil 2850 Manor Field Junior School - 19

p.18

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Results in national tests in 2000, 2001 and 2002 were much higher than at the time of the last inspection; in 2003 they fell back. • The subject is led and managed well. • Literacy is promoted strongly in other curriculum areas. • Standards in speaking and listening are very good. • Standards in writing are too low. • The marking of pupils’ work is not always followed up effectively.

p.19

Commentary

45. Since the last inspection, national test results have improved, mirroring the national trend quite closely. Evidence from lesson observations and from examining the work of the current Year 6 pupils when they were in Year 5 supports the school’s prediction, based on extensive tracking data, that results will improve further at the end of this school year. Achievement has become even across the school and progress is now good in all year groups and for pupils with special educational needs and those learning English as an additional language. This is as a result of good leadership and curriculum development. The subject managers, well supported by the headteacher, are fully aware of the shortfalls within this curriculum area and their improvement plans are already paying dividends. Their focus on spelling, writing and presentation has the potential to improve standards quickly. They effectively monitor the

p.19

Commentary

teaching of the English curriculum, both directly and by work scrutiny and pupil interview.

p.19

Commentary

46. The school has chosen not to follow the structure of the literacy hour but has divided up the English curriculum in order to have better control of the outcomes. Each afternoon commences with a period of silent reading within which guided reading often takes place. Opportunities for extended writing, or for short pieces of quality writing are taken and key grammatical skills are taught systematically throughout the week. Focused phonic work still needs developing with the younger children and plans have been made for clearer teaching of spelling across the whole age range. These plans plus a consistent approach to teaching the skills of handwriting and presentation have the potential to increase further the number of pupils achieving Level 5 at the end of Year 6.

p.19

Commentary

47. The school places a lot of emphasis on raising the quality of speaking and listening and is having a marked success. Pupils are able to speak with confidence to a range of audiences. Moreover they listen carefully to adults and to peers and are able to respond with sensitivity and with deference.

p.19

Commentary

48. Standards in reading are satisfactory. Reading of fiction books is encouraged and many pupils could talk about their favourite books, authors, genres and illustrators. Pupils use non- fiction books to good effect, selecting key points of information and forming opinions that they can back up using cogent, well-formed arguments. They use indexes, contents pages, posters and reference books such as dictionaries and thesauri. They also use electronic versions of the latter using CD-ROM materials. Reading material provided by the school is well matched to ability, is regularly changed and is well monitored by teaching and non- teaching staff. Progress during the four years in the school is marked and by Year 6 there is more confidence and pupils demonstrate a range of higher reading skills. More girls than boys achieved the national expectation of Level 4 in 2003; no significant differences were

p.19

Commentary

observed during the inspection. Manor Field Junior School - 20 49. Writing exhibits a mixed picture. During the inspection and also within the work scrutinised there were examples of very good practice. For instance, more able children in Year 4, working independently with a word processing package, produced a letter to the chair of governors about their proposals for the forthcoming new extension to school, that was correctly styled and punctuated, thoughtful in content, balanced in its argument, correctly spelt and complex in structure. Similarly, in Year 6, the majority of pupils writing from Lady Macbeth’s point of view about the ghost of Banquo produced high quality work that considered carefully the target audience, was imaginative, precise, complex and neatly presented. However, there are still many older pupils who are not using a fluent script in their written work and/or whose writing is poorly formed and poorly presented. This factor alone reduces the

p.19

Commentary

opportunity for more pupils to achieve the higher levels in the tests at the end of Year 6. A number of quite capable pupils presented their work poorly with insufficient pride in the outcome. In terms of national test results, writing remains well below average with too few pupils achieving Level 5.

p.20

Commentary

50. There is an agreed marking scheme that is applied across all year groups that has the potential to improve the quality of work of pupils. Pupils are given termly individual targets and work is marked indicating weaknesses, strengths and areas for further learning. This good marking is not capitalised upon sufficiently and does not often translate into further planning or more focused differentiation. There was little indication in the work scrutinised or the work observed that teachers followed up the targets set, to evaluate how well pupils were meeting them.

p.20

Commentary

51. Apart from this the quality of teaching is good, sometimes very good. Where teaching was very good, pupils were engaged in lively and challenging activities and teachers were intervening in activities with a confident knowledge of the individual needs of pupils. Learning support assistants contributed very well to ensuring that all pupils had access to what was being taught. On the rare occasion when teaching was only satisfactory, this was due largely to lack of pace and reduced attention to the range of ability within the class - resulting in some activities that were less well matched to pupils’ needs than was the case in the majority of lessons. Resources for English are good with well-stocked classrooms and a good library with up-to-date books. Each classroom has a range of good teaching and learning materials to support literacy.

p.20

Language and literacy across the curriculum

52. Valuable contributions to achievement in English are made by all subjects due in part to a focus on topic-based learning that encompasses a range of subject areas. For example, during the inspection, pupils in Year 6 were studying Shakespeare’s Macbeth . This play created a vehicle not only for some high quality extended writing, but also gave the opportunity for good quality drama, art, geography and history to be encompassed in the planning. The presentations and workshops were impressive, but equally impressive was the response of the pupils, the quality of the pupils’ drama, the maturity of the interaction and the evidence of previous learning that enabled the pupils to gain maximum advantage from this type of opportunity. Concentration on developing a range of teaching styles and on understanding different and complex learning styles is having a positive effect on the quality of learning achieved by this cross-curricular approach and pupils are able to apply and improve a

p.20

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Standards have improved since the last inspection. • Good leadership by the subject manager, including effective direct monitoring of teaching and learning and good guidance on sharing learning intentions with pupils. Manor Field Junior School - 21 • Good analysis of assessment data leading to extra emphasis on some areas of the curriculum, for example mental maths. • Knowledge of mathematical vocabulary and understanding questions are stumbling blocks for many pupils. • Not enough use is made of ICT resources. • The marking of pupils’ work is not always followed up effectively.

p.20

Commentary

53. In the 2003 tests standards in mathematics at the end of Year 6 were below average but improving. The test results for 2003 indicated that an increased proportion (57 per cent) of pupils reached the expected standard. As more than 50 per cent of the year group had special educational needs and little more than 50 per cent had been at the school for the whole of Years 3 to 6, this result represented good achievement for many pupils. The school monitors the performance of boys and girls carefully; the considerable difference evident in the 2002 results had been reduced to an insignificant level in 2003. The reduction is due in part to heightened awareness of different learning modes and styles and the school’s positive response to these. The very few pupils for whom English is an additional language achieve well, like their peers.

p.21

Commentary

54. Following the drop in results in 2002 the subject manager led a review of what had gone wrong and identified lack of competence in the four rules of number as a major factor. Improvements in terms of training for learning support assistants, developing pupils’ thinking and self-assessment skills and tracking their progress in terms of National Curriculum levels have all contributed to raising standards. On the evidence of examination of their work during Year 5, standards in the present Year 6, at this early stage in the school year, are in line with national averages.

p.21

Commentary

55. There is a good emphasis on developing competence in mental mathematics through the daily, early morning, slot, which is also sometimes used to pick up on any problems from the previous day’s numeracy lesson. Lesson planning is based on materials from the National Numeracy Strategy and the quality of teaching throughout the school is good. An area for improvement already identified by the subject manager is the sharing of the learning intentions for the lesson with the class, assessing to these and providing good feedback. Marking is carried out regularly and conscientiously, often with good suggestions for further work. This does not benefit pupils as much as it could because pupils usually do not have time allocated to respond and there is no follow up.

p.21

Commentary

56. There are important strengths in the teaching observed. For example, there was a good focus on practical work and teaching for understanding when pupils in a Year 3 class were estimating how long a metre is. There was clear improvement and the teacher’s good focus on the correct use of vocabulary was important given the language difficulties that many pupils experience and which hinders their mathematical understanding. Good clear questioning in a Year 4 lesson also promoted language development and understanding of perimeter. Again, there was a good practical, visual and ‘hands-on’ element as pupils explored the concept of perimeter using a length of string, and good problem solving in working out the length of a side of a square given the perimeter.

p.21

Commentary

57. Good practical work on co-ordinates, using paving slabs in the playground, led to good learning and progress on the part of a class of Year 5 pupils. As well as benefiting from the teacher’s very good provision of appropriate activities, many pupils were fully included in the lesson because of the support of the co-ordinator for special educational needs and a learning support assistant. Pupils used the vocabulary of origin, x- and y-axes correctly. Almost all pupils were able to walk to the point represented by a given ordered pair and higher attaining pupils confidently demonstrated rectangles, right-angled triangles and a parallelogram. Manor Field Junior School - 22 58. Displaying the key vocabulary relating to equivalent fractions provided good support to pupils in a Year 6 lesson. This practice is not consistently enough used throughout the school. The teacher and learning support assistant were both very mobile around the classroom and as a

p.21

Commentary

result the pace of the lesson was good and pupils achieved well in developing their understanding of sets of equivalent fractions. The domino based practical activity was chosen well to promote a visual and tactile element to learning.

p.22

Commentary

59. There are examples of the use of ICT to support and extend learning in mathematics, for example in data-handling, angles and revising for national tests. However, because of the lack of appropriate software and difficulties in achieving access for all pupils within a suitable time span, this aspect is under-developed. There are realistic plans for remedying this when the school’s ICT suite is opened next year.

p.22

Mathematics across the curriculum

60. Pupils do use their mathematical skills in other subject areas, for example there is a strong link made with the study of rivers in geography, and data-handling work and measurement often feature in science. In some cases, however, it is only higher attaining pupils who extend their learning through investigative work and recording in graphical form. It is desirable that all pupils be given opportunities, at appropriate levels, to recognise that the mathematics that they learn has practical applications.

p.22

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The leadership of the subject is strong and the right steps are being taken to improve provision. • Teaching is good in Year 3 and this is providing a strong base for future achievement. • Standards are not high enough, especially for the more able pupils. • Curriculum and assessment improvements have not been completed.

p.22

Commentary

61. Standards achieved by pupils at the end of Year 6 are below average when compared with results obtained nationally and by pupils in similar schools in 2003. Results from the 2003 tests demonstrate that this underachievement is continuing since although the school’s standards have improved, so have those of schools’ nationally. Pupils do worse than expected nationally at the higher Level 5. However, pupils with special educational needs make good progress and many achieve the expected Level 4 at the end of Year 6. In the 2003 results there is little difference between results achieved by boys and girls except at the higher Level 5 where boys do better than girls. The trend in science results over time shows that the school is not yet closing the gap between its results and those achieved nationally. Overall achievement is satisfactory.

p.22

Commentary

62. Year 6 pupils are gaining knowledge appropriately in Level 4 and a few pupils show, for example, that they have more sophisticated understanding of the needs of plants, and can relate this to life processes affecting all living things. However, the lack of higher challenge in the past, reflected in the work sample, especially in insufficient emphasis on developing pupils’ skills in scientific enquiry (AT1), means that pupils are currently not achieving as highly as they could. In particular, the potential higher attainers need to be given a higher level of challenge both in the knowledge and understanding attainment targets, and in scientific enquiry. Manor Field Junior School - 23 63. Teaching is satisfactory. None is unsatisfactory and over a third is good or better. It is strongest in Year 3 where teachers give a high status to encouraging pupils’ ideas and help them to refine their thinking. Pupils’ ideas are gathered through collaborative discussions and

p.22

Commentary

their justification is sought. It is this challenge that moves pupils’ learning forward as illustrated in a lesson on absorbency. The weaker aspects in the rest of the teaching centre on a lack of challenge for some more able pupils, and a tendency for teachers to talk too much, instead of setting challenges with deadlines after a brisk teaching input.

p.23

Commentary

64. The subject is well led by a new subject leader who has recently taken on the role. In discussions with this teacher it was clear that the health of the subject in the school had been accurately diagnosed, and that the necessary steps to build improvement in pupil achievement were known and were already in hand. These steps include: • the more effective inclusion of scientific thinking and problem solving in lessons; • helping pupils to learn how to be scientific, and to appreciate how they need to improve; • the improvement of the science curriculum to ensure that each year builds well on the last, and: • the refinement of assessment procedures at key points through the school to enable the better identification of: • which children are doing well and could do harder work; • which need a little more help; and • where aspects of science teaching are less strong.

p.23

Commentary

65. Pupils’ achievement is only satisfactory due to the historical weaknesses in the curriculum, and some lack of confidence amongst teachers. The work sample showed that too much work has been pitched at one level of difficulty for all pupils, and that too much work has been copied from a standard source, rather than showing pupils’ own ideas in their own words. The expectations of teachers haven’t been sophisticated enough to reflect the pupils’ learning needs or abilities. The new planning for science is still to have an impact on the upper part of the school. Assessment procedures have not helped the subject leader, teachers or pupils to know how well they are doing and how to improve. The school is aware of all these issues and the right strategies are in hand to improve.

p.23

Commentary

66. In the last inspection, over five years ago, the provision for science was judged to be good in many respects. Since that time the school’s results have consistently been below those achieved nationally and by schools in similar social contexts. In this inspection, the evidence suggests that this decline is being halted, and that a coherent improvement plan is already in action with evidence that this is already beginning to impact on teaching and learning, especially in Year 3.

p.23

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

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

p.23

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Good standard of word-processing, incorporating the use of digital cameras, often for significant purposes. • Good assessment of pupils’ skill levels, including active promotion of self-assessment. • Very good leadership by subject manager, including planning for the new ICT suite. • Not enough computers grouped together to facilitate quick follow up to skill teaching lessons or large group use to support and extend learning in other subjects.

p.23

Commentary

67. Many of the pupils in Year 6 are confident and competent ICT users. They display satisfactory knowledge and skills when word-processing, using a publishing package, data-handling and using a spreadsheet. They also know how to access the Internet although they do not yet do this independently at school. These aspects of the ICT curriculum have been emphasised Manor Field Junior School - 24 since the school changed its hardware and operating system and pupils do have some access to simulation and control programs. When pupils in Year 6 produce a handbook about the school for pupils in Year 2 in the neighbouring infant school the outcomes are of very good quality.

p.23

Commentary

68. Examination of pupils’ personal logs, work on display and in the co-ordinator’s portfolio, indicates that there is a well-planned programme of systematic skill development. Pupils in all year groups confidently combine text and images. During the inspection, pupils in Year 3 showed that they had good recall and understanding of earlier work to do with using tools, toolbars and icons and the quality of their learning in terms of combining text and graphics was good in response to clear teaching, focused on a precisely defined learning intention. Very good support by learning support assistants made sure that all pupils, including those with special educational needs, were able to follow the teacher’s demonstration. However, because classes do not usually have ready access to more than three computers it was not possible for pupils to practise what they had been shown. The timescale for follow up for

p.24

Commentary

some pupils could be as long as a fortnight. The school is very well aware of this problem and building of an extension that will include an ICT suite is due to start soon after the inspection.

p.24

Commentary

69. A further good feature of the lesson referred to above was the explicit connection made with developing literacy skills. Pupils would use their notes on the sequence of key strokes as the basis of reading and ‘carrying out instructions’ activities later in the week. Other good examples of cross-curricular linking were noted in the co-ordinator’s portfolio of pupils’ work. For example, pupils in Year 4 had designed a Tudor menu, compiled a set of instructions on how to make a picture frame, illustrated their poems with clip art and described a neighbouring town and presented directions for getting there.

p.24

Commentary

70. The work of pupils in Year 5 demonstrates further progression with some good examples of page design, for example when reporting a fire or advertising a job vacancy. In Year 6, pupils’ reports of, for example, events in World War II or Guy Fawkes show a good understanding of layout as well as a good level of ICT competence. There are many examples of the use of graph drawing programs and one of data capture leading to a time/temperature graph illustrating the results of an insulation experiment. Pupils’ achievement is good throughout the school. No judgement is made on the overall quality of teaching because too little was observed during the inspection.

p.24

Information and communication technology across the curriculum

71. During the inspection, there was not much evidence of the use of ICT to support and extend learning in other subject areas, although Year 5 pupils were using a thesaurus to identify synonyms. Pupils in one of the Year 6 classes chose to word-process their accounts of Macbeth meeting the witches and others, on another occasion, chose to use a program to create the table in which to record the results of their scientific investigation. Evidence from pupils’ books indicates that ICT is used in mathematics to support data-handling and also in geography and history, as well as literacy. There is scope for further development of work such as that seen in the co-ordinator’s portfolio.

p.24

Religious education

72. No lesson observations were possible during the inspection period as religious education is blocked at the end of each term or alternatively taught as a special activity to coincide with elements of the Christian year or elements of other faiths. Manor Field Junior School - 25 73. The subject is well organised by one of the two assistant heads, who has significantly raised the profile of this subject since the last inspection when it was judged to be poor. Teaching is now well organised with a comprehensive scheme of work that has a large number of links with other areas of the curriculum. For instance, when pupils in Year 6 study gods, modern comparative religions are incorporated. Similarly, when studying Easter, there are opportunities to look in art at old masters who depicted in their work such events as the Last Supper.

p.24

Religious education

74. There are many visits, for example to the synagogue in Reading and the Mosque in Basingstoke and visitors are also brought into school to support the studies of the children. Much emphasis is given to the provision of first-hand experiences where possible and pupils are encouraged to empathise with different faith ideas. For example, the school has kept a photographic record of pupils on a pilgrimage in the school grounds, where they pitched tents and observed the religious sensitivities of Islam. Also in studying Judaism, the pupils built a Sukkot in the classroom and considered in detail the links between the Jewish festival of Sukkot and the Christian Harvest Festival. The resultant prayers, poems and pieces of description were sensitive, informative and showed a good understanding of tolerance of other people’s ideas. There is similar sample evidence of high quality work relating to the Muslim

p.25

Religious education

festival of Eid-el-adha studied alongside Pancake Day and supported by one of the school governors who is of the Muslim faith. The evidence suggests that the work of many pupils exceeds the expectations of the locally agreed syllabus.

p.25

Religious education

75. It is clear that this subject has improved significantly since the last inspection and is now well taught, contributing positively to inclusion in the school, and acting as an agent for the development of the school’s caring ethos and is a potential strength of the school.

p.25

Geography and History

76. Both subjects are well managed by co-ordinators with good subject knowledge. Teaching is blocked for maximum impact and recording of work is both discrete to the subject areas and also included in the English curriculum. Examination of the work samples of pupils indicates that good opportunities are provided for pupils to have worthwhile first-hand experiences. For example, in Geography, pupils carry out river and urban studies whilst in History, museum visits and drama are key features of the teaching. Pupils studying the Second World War look at the impact of the war on Basingstoke, and consider the implications of being evacuees. They visit the local museum, draft newspaper articles using their ICT skills and act out issues such as evacuation to enable empathy to be developed. The quality of recording is generally good.

p.25

CREATIVE, AESTHETIC, PRACTICAL AND PHYSICAL SUBJECTS

77. Insufficient work was seen to make overall judgements about provision in each subject in this area, namely art and design, design and technology, music and physical education. However, at least one lesson was observed in each subject, apart from in design and technology and pupils’ actual work or photographic evidence of it was examined and discussions were held with the subject managers. From this evidence it is possible to draw out some general and some particular strengths and weaknesses. It is clear, for example, that the school is very successful in making sure that all pupils, many of whom have special educational needs, are fully included in work in all these subject areas.

p.25

Main strengths and weaknesses

• Very good, informed and enthusiastic leadership by subject managers is leading to enhanced opportunities for pupils to achieve success. • The involvement of external agencies in physical education leads to significant enrichment of the curriculum. • Almost all pupils achieve the national expectation in swimming. • The substantial amount of artwork on display is of a high quality. Manor Field Junior School - 26 • Some aspects of the accommodation and resources restrict music- making opportunities. • In some cases, schemes of work do not make intended learning outcomes sufficiently clear and so it is not clear what level of attainment pupils should achieve at the end of each year.

p.25

Commentary

78. Subject managers benefit from effective delegation and support by the headteacher and provide very good direction for their subjects. The subject manager for art and design, for example, has a very positive effect on the quality of pupils’ work and of classroom and corridor displays, through her example and advice to colleagues.

p.26

Commentary

79. The artwork on display is of a very high quality and demonstrates high levels of skills by pupils. The contexts used link well with the pupils’ work in other subjects and give relevance and impact to the work. Pupils produce paintings in the style of Aztecs, or clay work representing tourism in the Caribbean, or oil pastel pictures of people who help, or work in fabrics based on Tudor roses. One very high quality display shows how digital images from a drama session on bullying have been manipulated and then refined, and turned into monochrome art that powerfully expresses emotions connected with bullying. The evidence strongly suggests that the high standards reported at the last inspection have been at least maintained.

p.26

Commentary

80. There is a range of evidence of design and technology products that show that pupils understand the design process and take care with the quality of their work. Roman war chariots demonstrate understanding of axles and wheels and how to join these to a simple frame. The school has also made very good links with food producers to enable pupils to understand and evaluate how these products are made and the health and safety processes that are needed. There has clearly been good improvement, led by the subject manager, since the last inspection when provision did not meet National Curriculum requirements.

p.26

Commentary

81. Both music and physical education have relatively new subject managers who are providing enthusiastic leadership focused on improving opportunities and pupils’ achievements. The employment of specialist coaches in, for example, hockey, tennis and rugby, for short periods of time helps pupils to develop a wide range of skills and achieve good individual standards. Team skills are less well developed. Pupils also benefit from the involvement of older secondary school pupils who, with their teachers, foster the development of their skills. Lessons observed, in Years 3 and 4, were focused well on improvement in gymnastics skills. Pupils in Year 3 showed above average development of balance, travel and tension in floor- based work. Those in Year 4 whose task was to adapt their floor sequence so that it could be transferred onto the equipment made good progress.

p.26

Commentary

82. The subject manager for music is leading the development of a revised scheme of work designed to support colleagues and promote the progressive development of skills, knowledge and understanding. At present, as with some other schemes of work apart from English and mathematics, there is not enough clarity about what level of attainment is to be expected of pupils in different year groups and because of this the assessment arrangements are under- developed. The school is aware of the need to be more specific in this respect. At present, the teaching of music is hampered because it has to take place in what are often crowded classrooms and because there are too few tuned instruments. Nevertheless, the lesson observed during the inspection was taught well, with a clear focus on improving pupils’ compositions using un-tuned percussion; standards were in line with expectations for Year 3 pupils. The proposed music and drama studio included in the imminent building extension is a

p.26

Commentary

well-planned improvement of the overall provision. Manor Field Junior School - 27

p.26

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

Provision for personal social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship is very good.

p.27

Main strengths and weaknesses

• The school’s approach to pupils’ personal development permeates all of its work. • The school identifies those pupils who need extra help with these aspects of learning, and provides it for targeted pupils in sessions led by well-trained teaching assistants. • The school’s development of lunchtime helper roles for pupils, and the school council, ensure that pupils are able to contribute actively as citizens. • Very good leadership by the co-ordinator.

p.27

Commentary

83. There is a planned programme for PSHE, which is timetabled in all classes. This programme allocates a properly balanced diet covering all aspects of the programme of study, helping pupils to develop skills in looking after themselves, recognizing their responsibilities in living together in a community, and helping them to build lasting relationships. The significant proportion of pupils who have emotional and behavioural difficulties benefit greatly. The evidence of success of this work can be seen in the very mature behaviour and positive learning atmosphere that is usually found in most classrooms. It also helps pupils to achieve well in speaking and listening and in collaborative work across the curriculum.

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Commentary

84. Only two lessons in PSHE were observed in the inspection, both in Year 5. These lessons showed pupils achieving satisfactorily in learning how to deal with the issue of bullying. Two other sessions were briefly observed where learning support assistants were leading sessions for pupils who needed help in anger management or in developing social skills. These sessions, known as “Friendship Club” and “Socially Speaking” had a good focus and enabled these pupils to work together in a supportive environment, learning important skills which would help them settle better into their classroom routines and work better with other children. The teaching provided by these learning support assistants was very good and pupils clearly benefited from them, learning to take account of others, and how to show appreciation for their good characteristics.

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Commentary

85. Leadership of this area is distributed very effectively. The deputy headteacher has responsibility for behaviour, an assistant headteacher is responsible for the PSHE curriculum, the SENCO oversees and guides support for pupils who have learning or emotional and behavioural needs, and teaching assistants lead targeted sessions for pupils in need. All members of staff show their awareness and understanding of the principles that underpin this area.

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Commentary

86. Arrangements to enable pupils to take an active part in monitoring and supporting good behaviour, in leading circle time sessions, in promoting the school, and as members of the school council support this work beyond the classroom. Manor Field Junior School - 28

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The overall effectiveness of the school 3 How inclusive the school is 2 How the school’s effectiveness has changed since its last inspection 3 Value for money provided by the school 3

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Overall standards achieved 4 Pupils’ achievement 3

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Pupils’ attitudes, values and other personal qualities 3 Attendance 4 Attitudes 3 Behaviour, including the extent of exclusions 3 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 3 The quality of teaching 3 How well pupils learn 3 The quality of assessment 4 How well the curriculum meets pupils needs 3 Enrichment of the curriculum, including out-of-school activities 2 Accommodation and resources 3 Pupils’ care, welfare, health and safety 3 Support, advice and guidance for pupils 2 How well the school seeks and acts on pupils’ views 2 The effectiveness of the school’s links with parents 4 The quality of the school’s links with the community 2 The school’s links with other schools and colleges 2

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PART D: SUMMARY OF THE MAIN INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

The leadership and management of the school 2 The governance of the school 2 The leadership of the headteacher 1 The leadership of other key staff 2 The effectiveness of management 2

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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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