John Shelton Community Primary School

Inspection Report John Shelton Community Primary School

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103698 Unique Reference Number Coventry Local Authority 286727 Inspection number 29 °30 November 2006 Inspection dates Stephen Lake 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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Briscoe Road School address Primary Type of school Holbrooks Community School category Coventry CV6 4JP 3 °11 Age range of pupils 024 76686063 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 024 76688291 Fax number 240 Number on roll (school) Kit Dunkley Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Alan Williams Headteacher 24 September 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 286727 29 °30 November 2006 3°11 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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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 size school serving an area of significant deprivation. More children than average are entitled to free school meals. The percentage of pupils with English as an additional language (EAL) is well above average. The percentage with learning difficulties or disabilities (LDD) is above average. An above average number of pupils enter or leave the school during their school career, many only staying a short time. A significant number of teachers have changed over the last two years and a new deputy headteacher has just been appointed.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006

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Grade: 3

The school is providing a satisfactory standard of education that is rapidly improving. The strong leadership of the headteacher has kept it moving forward in a time of significant staff changes. Good recent appointments are reflected in an improved quality of teaching and learning which is causing the satisfactory achievement to improve. The strong vision of the headteacher and governors is to provide pupils, including those who are vulnerable, such as those with EAL and those with LDD, with key life skills. They do this well by providing a good curriculum which fosters pupils' good personal development and excellent social skills. This is why parents and pupils think highly of the school. Pupils say that they really enjoy school: 'It's a get up and go good school' commented one. Pupils make an outstanding contribution to the community, for example, the very good playground helpers. In the process they learn

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Grade: 3

skills that are important to their future life. Attendance is satisfactory, but despite the school's best efforts a small number do not attend regularly. Children start school with levels of skills below national expectations. They make good progress in the Foundation Stage and enter Year 1 with standards that are broadly as expected although few have skills above that. Pupils in Years 1 to 6, including the more vulnerable, achieve satisfactorily. Teaching and learning are satisfactory, but recent improvements to the quality of teaching have not had enough time to impact upon pupils' attainment at Year 6. Although pupils leave school reaching standards that are broadly average, very few attain above this because those pupils who are more able are not sufficiently challenged to attain higher standards. Standards are rising due to the new, good quality systems for checking on how well pupils are doing

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Grade: 3

and setting targets for improvement. Nevertheless, this is in an early stage of development and the targets set for pupils are not sufficiently challenging. The school cares for pupils well and ensures that they are safe. Good support and guidance are provided and the more vulnerable pupils are given good help in lessons by skilful and experienced teaching assistants. This enables them to make the same progress as other pupils. Leadership and management are satisfactory overall. The headteacher provides good leadership and has developed a skilled team that shares his vision. However, many of the senior managers and curriculum leaders are new to their posts and it is too early to see the full impact of their work. The good systems they have for looking at the work of the school enable them to know their strengths and weaknesses well. The school improvement plan clearly sets out what needs to be done to help pupils achieve

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Grade: 3

better, but targets set for overall achievement in national assessments at the end of Year 6 are not sufficiently challenging. The governors do their job well. Their good knowledge of the school guides them in spending money wisely to make the school better. Improvement since the last inspection is good and the school is well placed to improve further. 2 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006

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What the school should do to improve further

• Provide better challenge in lessons for more able pupils to achieve higher standards. • Set challenging targets for overall school performance in national assessments that reflect the improved teaching.

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Grade: 3

Children make good progress in the Foundation Stage and start Year 1 with skills broadly in line with levels expected at this age, although language skills remain just below. Relatively few gain skills above those levels normally expected. This is an improvement on the standards attained at this stage by the oldest children in the school. By the end of Year 2 pupils have achieved satisfactorily. In the last few years more are attaining above average standards due to the improved teaching. All groups of pupils, including those who are vulnerable, achieve satisfactorily. The standards by the end of Year 6 are broadly average, but very few pupils attain above average standards. Until recently, the best progress has been made in Years 5 and 6. The improved teaching and additional support available means progress in Years 3 and 4 is improving to match the good progress found in Years 5 and 6, although it is

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Grade: 3

too early to see the impact of this in the national assessments at Year 6. Those who have been at the school since Year 1 are achieving better than those who joined during Years 3 to 6 and the school has met or exceeded its targets in national assessments for the last few years.

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Grade: 2

Pupils' good personal development, including spiritual, moral and cultural development, has some outstanding elements. For example, the school's links with a school in Ghana give pupils a good understanding of life in another culture. Pupils know right from wrong and the vast majority behave well and show respect for others. Attendance is satisfactory although overall figures are reduced because a few families have unsatisfactory attendance patterns. Pupils make an outstanding contribution to the community through activities such as the school council or the OWLS (Our Wise Listening Service) that support others at playtimes. Pupils support local charities and make a good contribution to local community events. Pupils have excellent social skills and know how to stay healthy and fit. They enjoy school because the curriculum keeps them interested in learning. They know how to stay safe due to good guidance and are well prepared for their future economic

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Grade: 2

well-being. 3 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006

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Grade: 3

The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory resulting in pupils' satisfactory achievement. The quality of teaching is improving rapidly as a result of recent changes. The impact of this can already be seen in the improved achievement of pupils in Years 3 and 4, but it is too early for the impact of this to be seen in overall achievement at Year 6. Teachers match work well to the needs of most pupils and make good use of questioning to check on how well pupils understand the work set. Information technology is used well to motivate and stimulate pupils. Good systems have recently been introduced to check regularly on how well pupils are doing and set targets for further improvement. These are already proving effective for many pupils especially the most vulnerable who receive excellent support from the teaching assistants, resulting in rising standards. Nevertheless, tasks set are not yet challenging all pupils,

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Grade: 3

especially the more able, enough. Marking of pupils' work is good and provides helpful comments to them on how to improve their work.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is good with some outstanding features. In the Foundation Stage, a good range of activities ensure that children learn well. In Years 1 to 6, the curriculum is modified to meet the needs of pupils with LDD and EAL but less attention is given to matching the curriculum to the needs of more capable pupils. The school has recognised this and is developing more links across the curriculum to extend the learning experiences of the more able. Since the last inspection provision for ICT has significantly improved and is now used well in many subject areas. Enrichment through visits, visitors and extra-curricular activities, is outstanding. Pupils talk enthusiastically about the clubs they attend and the visits they have enjoyed. One commenting that, '… visits are cool'. Visits to the local theatre, the cathedral, museums and other schools, including subject workshops at the nearby secondary school, all

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Grade: 2

enhance the learning opportunities for pupils. Links with local industry are particularly effective in helping pupils understand the world of work.

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Grade: 2

Rigorous systems are in place to ensure pupils' safety and provide them with good guidance on how to live safe and healthy lives. Pupils say they feel confident that they can approach any adult whenever they have a problem. Good links with other agencies and good support in school enable vulnerable pupils to be supported well and make the same progress as other pupils. Foster parents praise the very good support given 4 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006 to looked after children (LAC) that enables them to make the same progress as other pupils. Pupils receive good guidance on how to improve their work through individual targets that are monitored regularly by teachers. Pupils are involved in their own learning by checking progress against their targets but this is in an early stage of development. Parents are involved in supporting their children's learning through the regular reports

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Grade: 3

Leadership and management are satisfactory and improving. School performance has remained satisfactory despite the many barriers to learning, such as disruption of teaching and high turnover of pupils. The vision shared with the governors to make this school a support for the local community and improve the life chances of the pupils is strong. The new senior management team already know the strengths and weaknesses of the school well through the good systems in place to look at its performance. Nevertheless, they and other new co-ordinators have not been in place long enough for the full impact of their work to be seen. Although new systems for setting targets for classes and individual pupils are in place, not enough attention is given to setting challenging whole school targets based upon high achievement. Too little emphasis is placed upon the need to ensure that those pupils with the potential

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Grade: 3

to achieve high standards are set challenging targets. The governors do a good job in supporting the headteacher, making appropriate staff appointments and spending money wisely. Improvement since the last inspection is good, and together with the recent improvements to teaching and learning indicates that the school has a good capacity to improve further. 5 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006 .

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Grade: 3

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 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? 3 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 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

3 How well do learners achieve? 3 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 3 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The behaviour of learners 3 The attendance of learners 2 How well learners enjoy their education 2 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?

2 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. 7 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 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? 8 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you for making us so welcome when we visited your school. We really enjoyed talking to you. You were very polite and gave us a lot of information about what your school is like. We found a number of things that were good about your school, such as: • The good curriculum, with the excellent extra activities, sport and visits that helps you learn how to keep healthy and fit. You told us that you really enjoy school because of this. • Your outstanding social skills and contribution that you make to the school and local community are helping you prepare well for when you leave school. • Most of you behave well and are very polite and friendly, helping others a lot. • The already satisfactory teaching is getting better thanks to all the hard work of your teachers and the excellent support from the teaching assistants. • The school looks after you well, making sure you are safe and finding out what you need

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

to help you learn better. • Your headteacher leads the school well and is responsible for putting in place all the things that are getting better even though the people who help him have only been in their posts a short while. • The governors look after the school well and spend money wisely to make your school better. To help you learn even better we have asked your school to: • Set you more challenging work in lessons, especially for those of you who are more able. You can help by trying to exceed your targets and asking for more. • Set more challenging targets for the whole school to encourage more of you to get higher levels in your assessments at the end of Year 6. 9 Inspection Report: John Shelton Community Primary School, 29 °30 November 2006

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