St Paul's CofE Primary School N11

St Paul's CofE Primary School Inspection report

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101325 Unique Reference Number Barnet Local Authority 276499 Inspection number 4 °5 May 2006 Inspection dates Steven Hill 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 Voluntary aided School category 3 °11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll School

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The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs S Pentecost Chair Mrs P M D West Not previously inspected Date of previous school inspection The Avenue School address Friern Barnet London N11 1NQ

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02083684839 Telephone number 02083614240 Fax number

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3 °11 Age group 4 °5 May 2006 Inspection dates 276499 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 two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

This is an average-sized primary school with a nursery. Just under half the pupils are of White British origin, with the rest from a variety of minority ethnic backgrounds. About a third of pupils have a home language other than English, double the number at the last inspection. Pupils' social circumstances are broadly average. An average number of pupils have learning difficulties or disabilities. Children start in the nursery with average skills, although a small minority are behind their classmates in speaking English. Mobility is average. The school appointed a new headteacher in September 2005, after a two-year period of considerable instability in leadership and staffing.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 7 Inspection Report: St Paul's CofE Primary School, 4 °5 May 2006

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What the school should do to improve further

* Improve the accuracy of the tracking of pupils' progress and make better use of results to improve achievement. * Improve the planning for links between different subjects of the curriculum. In particular, make more use of ICT to support work in other subjects.

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Grade:

Teaching and learning are good and this underpins the good progress pupils make. Although the school correctly identified occasional weaknesses in teaching, the strengths considerably outweigh these and inspectors judge that teaching is good overall. Good teaching was observed in every class during the inspection. Teachers manage classes very well so that pupils' behaviour is good and they work hard. Relationships are very strong. Pupils enjoy their lessons because teachers plan interesting things for them to do. Staff in the Foundation Stage, use their thorough understanding of how young children learn to ensure good progress. Work is planned carefully to match individual needs and pupils' progress in lessons is carefully monitored. Good use is made of the skilled support staff to help pupils learn, particularly those who have learning difficulties. Teachers make consistently good use of the interactive

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Grade:

whiteboards to make their explanations clear and to enthuse pupils. Where teaching is weaker, too slow a pace or gaps in teachers' subject knowledge are often the reasons. Marking is satisfactory, but does not always give pupils guidance on how to improve.

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Grade:

The curriculum is satisfactory and meets national requirements. Pupils have good opportunities to develop their literacy and numeracy skills and to use them in other subjects. Provision for pupils' individual needs is very good, both in class and in well-focused group work. However, planning does not make sufficient links between different subjects. Provision for ICT lessons is good in the computer suite, but there are too few opportunities to use pupils' ICT skills in other lessons. Provision for music is strong. The school uses the talents of its diverse community well. Pupils learn about a range of different cultures, for example through links with a school in Kenya. In the Foundation Stage, there is a rich and practical curriculum that enables children to settle quickly to school and make good 4 of 7 Inspection Report: St Paul's CofE Primary School, 4 °5 May 2006 progress. Pupils have good opportunities to work collaboratively. They are enabled to contribute

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Grade:

effectively to decisions about improving their school. A wide range of very well attended activities enhances the curriculum. There is a good mix of sport, art, music, drama, French and ICT. School concerts develop pupils' enjoyment, confidence and team-work.

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Grade:

The school is a calm and orderly community where pupils have good opportunities to flourish academically and personally. All are valued for what they bring to school and are taught, from Nursery onwards, to be independent and to work collaboratively. Systems, including child protection procedures, to keep all children safe and to care for the most vulnerable, are securely in place. Health and safety policies are rigorously applied. Bullying is rare and improved procedures, after a survey of pupils' views, ensure that issues are addressed promptly. Parents value the regular newsletters informing them about their children's progress and how they can contribute. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities have individual plans that suit their needs well. The gifted and talented pupils are also identified and suitably catered for, an improvement since the last inspection. The tracking of pupils' progress has improved but individual targets

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Grade:

are not set for all pupils to make clear what the next steps in their learning should be.

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Grade:

5 of 7 Inspection Report: St Paul's CofE Primary School, 4 °5 May 2006 .

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Grade:

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 of 7 Inspection Report: St Paul's CofE Primary School, 4 °5 May 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Pupils Thank you for making Mrs Woolhouse and I welcome when we visited your school. We enjoyed talking to you and watching you at work in lessons. You told us that you enjoyed being at school and we could see why. We agree with you that St Paul µs is a good school. Mrs Woolhouse thought that the Nursery was especially exciting. It is particularly good that everyone gets a chance to be included in everything that is going on. By Year 6, you are all doing well in English, maths and science. You learn a lot because your teachers explain things clearly, especially by using the interactive white-boards. They give you interesting things to do and there are lots of different clubs to make learning more exciting. Your work could be even better if you had more chances to make connections between the things you study in different subjects. For example, you are becoming good at using computers in the suite, but you need more chances to practise with them back in class, to help you learn

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

in other subjects. Your teachers are planning how they can do this. We think you are very well behaved, work hard and get on very well with each other. You are good at working in pairs or in teams, and you are also very good at getting on with things by yourselves if you need to. The adults in the school look after you carefully and make sure you are all safe. They keep a careful eye on how you are getting on in class. They need to use the records they keep about your progress more, so that they can quickly spot if things are going wrong and sort them out. They have done this really well this year to help pupils in Year 6 to get much better at maths, and to help younger children get better at reading.The headteacher and the other adults organise the school well and have already started work on the things that need to improve. They are good at working together to help you all learn.We hope that you

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

carry on learning and enjoying school. Best Wishes Steven Hill Lead Inspector 7 of 7 Inspection Report: St Paul's CofE Primary School, 4 °5 May 2006

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