Reay Primary School

100634 Unique Reference Number Lambeth Local Authority 276358 Inspection number 26 September 2006 Inspection date Barry Jones Reporting inspector

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Primary Type of school Foundation School category 3 °11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 247 School

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The governing body Appropriate authority Ms Lucy Swanson Chair Ms Elizabeth Tennant Headteacher 5 June 2000 Date of previous school inspection Hackford Road School address London SW9 0EN

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02077352978 Telephone number 02078209165 Fax number

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3 °11 Age group 26 September 2006 Inspection date 276358 Inspection number .

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report 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.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

Reay Primary School is very popular and serves a very disadvantaged area. Until recently children started school in the Reception with skills that were above those seen in most schools. They are now average. There is a higher proportion of pupils who have English as an additional language than for the great majority of schools and it is increasing each year.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006

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Grade: 1

Reay Primary School is an outstanding school and gives excellent value for money. This is summed up by one parent who wrote, `Reay is an exceptional school. There is a great sense of community and the staff make sure that the children have a happy experience there.' The school is friendly and welcoming and the very positive ethos of the school is immediately apparent to the visitor. The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage are good and the children make a good start in the school. Standards at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 are consistently above national averages. Given the starting points of the pupils, this means that the pupils make exceptional progress and their achievement is outstanding. The school responded robustly to a slight dip in performance in the end of Key Stage 2 tests for mathematics in 2005 and there has been a marked improvement in 2006. This exemplifies the high expectations in the school that are

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Grade: 1

shared by staff, governors, parents and pupils alike. The school is not complacent and has similar ambitions to raise the quality of pupils' good writing skills to the level of their excellent reading skills. Pupils' personal development and well-being are also outstanding. Pupils make an excellent contribution to making this a very united, friendly community. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent. They develop a strong sense of right and wrong and develop into confident young people meaning that they are very well prepared for later life. They feel very safe and are very respectful of other beliefs and cultures. The pupils speak very highly of the support from the adults in the school. The quality of care is excellent. Its principal strengths are the very good systems which are complemented by the strong teamwork amongst the staff. In this small school, the staff know the pupils very well and every individual child is important.

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Grade: 1

Pupils also experience a rich range of experiences that reflects an outstanding curriculum. Consequently, pupils achieve high standards in music, art and sport. The main reasons for the school's success are the outstanding leadership and management and the teaching. The school is highly self-critical and the governors hold it to account rigorously. The school knows its strengths and weaknesses very well and responds robustly when it identifies an issue. The school has some outstanding teachers and makes very good use of specialist teachers, especially for music and sport. However, a half of the teachers are new this term and are inexperienced. They are establishing themselves in their classrooms and so the quality of teaching is currently good overall. At the time of the previous inspection the school was very good. Since then there have been improvements in standards and in the quality of the curriculum.

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Grade: 1

The school also has a proven track record in improving the teachers' skills. The new headteacher has built on the very good base to further strengthen the monitoring of the school's work. Consequently, the school has an outstanding capacity to improve.

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What the school should do to improve further

* Bring writing up to the standards reached in other areas of pupils' work. * Develop the skills of the more inexperienced teachers to the level of the best teaching. 4 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006

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Grade: 1

Results have been consistently above national averages in the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 tests for each of English, mathematics and science. Standards in reading are exceptionally high. It is this consistency that is a strength of the school and is a measure of the effectiveness of the leadership and management. Achievement is outstanding. There are no underachieving groups because of the very good tracking of pupils' progress allied to effective support when needed. Boys performed exceptionally highly in the 2005 Key Stage 2 tests. There are no specific strategies that explain this. The boys respond well to the excellent provision and the positive learning climate. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities make similar progress to their classmates.

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Grade: 1

The school council makes a good contribution to school life and their views are acted upon by the school. They have helped to improve the equipment which is available in the playground. There is also a pupils' `eco committee' and these pupils have contributed well to improvements in the environment; for instance, the school pond is now fenced and used for learning. The pupils develop well through sport and achieve high standards for a small school in competitions between schools. They also have a good understanding of healthy eating issues but vary in their take-up of the healthy dinners. There are some pupils who can display challenging behaviour. They rarely misbehave and this is because of the very good skills of the staff and the consistent application of agreed rules. Consequently, behaviour is good. There is little bullying and the pupils say that the isolated incidences are dealt with by the staff very

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Grade: 2

The school does have some outstanding teachers and also several new teachers. In a music lesson, the teacher's enthusiasm and energy were transmitted to the pupils who participated fully and clearly enjoyed the lesson immensely. They sang tunefully and made excellent progress through learning about the effects of differently pitched notes. All teachers plan well, take account of different abilities in their classes and use teaching assistants effectively. Teachers' marking is good, rewards good work and also helps pupils to improve further. The pupils say that the teachers make lessons interesting. The outstanding progress in tests in recent years is due to much outstanding teaching. The school plans to help the new teachers to aim for the high standards demonstrated by the best teachers.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum in the Foundation Stage is good and has been improved recently in the Nursery. It is outstanding in Key Stages 1 and 2. All full-time children from Nursery to Year 6 have lessons with specialist music and French teachers. The school also makes very good use of specialist tutors for dance, sport, drama, art and pottery in Key Stage 2. There is excellent 5 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006 provision for numeracy and literacy which contributes to the outstanding progress made by pupils. The school has a purpose built arts and sports centre which is shared and helps to cement the strong links that the school has with the wider community. The curriculum meets very well the needs of individual pupils. The school is intending to improve provision further by working with an artist and making more use of drama to promote pupils' learning.

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Grade: 1

The staff work very effectively as a team and with outside agencies. The learning mentor has been a long standing member of the community. She is very effective in coordinating the support for pupils who are at risk or who are not making the expected progress. She is adept at involving parents and consequently some of these pupils have subsequently made exceptional progress. The school has a very good tracking system for monitoring pupils' progress. This is used very well by the school and so the guidance given to the pupils is excellent. The pupils know their targets and have a clear understanding of what they need to do to improve further. The school is reviewing its provision to ensure that they maintain their high standards given the increasing numbers of pupils for whom English is not their home language.

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Grade: 1

Leadership and management are very effective in consistently promoting high levels of care and outstanding achievement by pupils. The response to the dip in the mathematics results in 2005 at Key Stage 2 is an example of good practice. The governors challenged the school to say what actions the school intended to take in order to improve matters. The response was coordinated very well by the mathematics leader. This comprised a rigorous evaluation of the test results, consequent amendments to the curriculum, a programme of related staff training and then robust monitoring. This has resulted in a raising of standards and all pupils make at least good progress. The new headteacher has introduced more rigorous monitoring of teaching and the school continually seeks to improve further. The school is considering how it can build on the new structure to provide more opportunities for staff to contribute to the management

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Grade: 1

of initiatives. 6 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006 .

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Grade: 1

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006

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Inspection judgements

School Overall Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 1 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

1 How well do learners achieve? 2 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The behaviour of learners 2 The attendance of learners 1 How well learners enjoy their education 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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and interests of learners?

1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 8 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 9 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you for all your help and cooperation that you gave to me when I inspected your school. You gave me the same friendly welcome that I understand that all visitors receive. I met with some of your councillors and members of the `eco committee'. They told me how their views are valued. They feel that they have helped to bring about improvements to playtime and to the school environment, for instance, the use of the school pond. You very much enjoy coming to school, feel very safe and are well prepared for moving on to secondary school. You do well at sport and understand well healthy eating issues - but not all of you are yet convinced. My dinner was good and I encourage more of you to take the healthy option. I very much enjoyed your harvest festival and your singing was good and performed very enthusiastically. This all means that you develop excellently at the school into responsible young people. Well done!

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

My main finding is that Reay is an outstanding school and that will come as no surprise to yourselves or to most of your parents or carers. There are so many ways in which the school achieves excellence. You make outstanding progress and consistently reach high standards in national tests and in your lessons. You enjoy a rich range of experiences through your lessons, clubs and visits. You do particularly well in art and music. You have had some outstanding teaching in recent years and it is still good. The school cares for you very well and the learning mentor helps to coordinate support for you when there is a need. The strong links with the local community. The school is excellently led by the headteacher, supported by her team and the governors. The school is seeking constantly to improve further. I agree with its plans to improve your writing skills to match the excellent standards you show for reading. There are several new

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

teachers and they intend to become outstanding teachers at your school too. Many thanks again and I wish you continued success. Barry Jones (Lead inspector) 10 of 10 Inspection Report: Reay Primary School, 26 September 2006

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