Setting

Mr Jon Hills Headteacher Grayshott CE Controlled Primary School School Road Grayshott, Hindhead Surrey GU26 6LR

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the Primary National Strategy

I am grateful for the hospitality and co-operation of you and your staff during my visit on 18 September 2006 to look at work in the Primary National Strategy (PNS).

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the Primary National Strategy

As outlined in my initial letter, as well as looking at key areas of the PNS, the visit had a particular focus on the teaching and learning of mathematics and the transition arrangements of pupils to secondary school.

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the Primary National Strategy

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions, but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text. All feedback letters will be published on the Ofsted website at the end of each half-term.

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the Primary National Strategy

The evidence used to inform the judgements made included: interviews with staff and pupils, scrutiny of relevant documentation, analysis of pupils’ work and observation of two part lessons.

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the Primary National Strategy

The overall effectiveness and impact of the PNS was judged to be good.

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Achievement and standards

 Achievement and standards are good. Standards are above average in mathematics and have been since 2001. Pupils generally make good progress during their time at the school and the issue raised in the last report to raise standards has been addressed. Good results were Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 404045 F 020 7421 6644 www.ofsted.gov.uk achieved in 2006 for the pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 and the school succeeded in getting its highest number of pupils to level 5.  Behaviour is satisfactory because there is still a high level of noise in some classes. Pupils spoke about this distracting them when they wanted to learn. Pupils are confident learners, work well in groups and know what they can achieve if they work hard.

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Quality of teaching and learning

 Teaching is good. Teachers have improved their subject knowledge through support from the PNS. They are more confident about delivery of the curriculum and lessons are better resourced to support pupils in class. Pupils say the lessons are more enjoyable than they used to be.  Teachers use good questioning and answer techniques to involve pupils in their learning, although the pace in lesson slows when pupils chatter and disrupt others.

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Quality of curriculum

 The curriculum is good and for mathematics has improved. The school has made good use of the PNS initiatives such as ‘individual spot light’, use of learning support assistants and curriculum themes to make the teaching more relevant to the needs of all the pupils.  The good planning includes more increased use of ICT and a variety of strategies aimed at involving more pupils in their own learning. Pupils spoke about enjoying the problem solving activities such as the ‘maze’ games.

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Leadership and management

 Leadership and management of the school is good because it has focused on what needs to be done to bring about improvement.  The self evaluation is comprehensive but needs to link its description of provision to outcomes for the school especially the achievement of groups of pupils.  Leadership of mathematics is good. The management of assessment data and the tracking of pupils’ progress enables the management to evaluate where the strengths are in the school, and where improvement is needed.  Pupils are monitored individually and this information is used to plan the next stages of learning and set targets for pupils.

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The quality of transition to secondary school

 Transition arrangements with the secondary school are good and information about the pupils’ academic progress is shared. This includes where there are specific groups of pupils such as gifted and talented (G&T pupils), pupils with special educational needs and issues such as girls and boys achievement or poor attendance.

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Inclusion

 The school has put in systems to raise the achievement of the G&T pupils and to track the progress of the looked after children.  Work has been undertaken to support traveller families by helping them access the internet when the children are absent from school.  The school is also tracking the achievement of traveller children and matching their rates of progress to attendance and punctuality.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

 to improve behaviour in class so that all pupils can learn well.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop the PNS, mathematics and transition arrangements in the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

As I explained in my previous letter, a copy of this letter will be sent to your local authority and will be published on Ofsted’s website. It will also be available to the team for your next institutional inspection.

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