St Clement and St James CofE Primary School

St Clement and St James CofE Primary School Inspection report

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100495 Unique Reference Number Kensington and Chelsea Local Authority 307405 Inspection number 6 °7 February 2008 Inspection dates Sue Rogers 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 230 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs L Hargreaves Chair Ms A Stirling Headteacher 16 June 2003 Date of previous school inspection Penzance Place School address London W11 4PG 020 7603 9225 Telephone number 020 7371 2693 Fax number

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3-11 Age group 6 °7 February 2008 Inspection dates 307405 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

St Clement and St James is an average sized school. It serves an urban area of above average prosperity that contains significant pockets of deprivation. An above average number of pupils take free school meals. About half the pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds and the number of pupils who are learning English is high. A wide range of languages are spoken, with Arabic the most commonly represented. There has been considerable staff turnover recently and there are six new teachers this year. The school has achieved Healthy School status and the Activemark.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008

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Grade: 2

This is an improving school that provides a good education for its pupils. They make good progress in lessons and do well in their personal development. The vast majority of parents share this view, as is exemplified in this comment: 'My child has developed a love of learning which she will carry with her when she leaves school'. Parents also confirm the inspectors' view that the school is well led and managed. The headteacher and her deputy work well together and have their sights firmly fixed on improving progress still further. Pupils get off to a good start in the Nursery and Reception classes and continue to make good progress in English, mathematics and science, as they move through the school. Progress is more even than it was at the last inspection because the school is now making much better use of assessment information to target work effectively for all groups of learners. Teaching has also improved and is now good. As a result, pupils leave having achieved well to attain standards

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Grade: 2

that are in line with national averages. The high staff turnover has made it difficult to maintain consistency in teaching and leaders have done a very good job to train their new teachers so well in such a short space of time. A few inconsistencies remain. For example, there are some weaknesses in the management of behaviour and in providing day-to-day academic guidance. The school has also enhanced pupils' progress in other subjects, through improving the curriculum. This has involved allocating more time to some of these subjects. School leaders recognise, however, that subject links are still not developed sufficiently to ensure that learners consolidate their basic skills in other lessons, especially in information communications technology (ICT). Pupils appreciate the effort put into making lessons interesting and thoroughly enjoy their lessons. As one pupil said, 'I like everything at school'. The school has done all that it can to

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Grade: 2

improve attendance to average levels. Learners are very well supported and cared for and the school uses a range of innovative approaches to ensure that pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. For example, social skills are especially well developed as pupils learn to work effectively in 'tribes'. Behaviour is generally good, but pupils chat too much, on occasion, at the expense of working. The school's external awards confirm the pupils' excellent knowledge of how to keep healthy. They also have a good understanding of how to keep safe. Pupils make a good contribution to the community. For instance, school councillors reported, 'We sort out problems in the playground'. Pupils' good social skills and good academic achievement mean that they are well prepared for the next stages in their education. The headteacher has worked hard to recruit her strong new team, to manage their training and

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Grade: 2

to improve the quality of monitoring and self-evaluation since the last inspection. She and other leaders clearly know the schools strengths and weaknesses very well. However, monitoring by all leaders and managers, including the governors, is not yet rigorous enough to iron out all teaching inconsistencies as rapidly as possible and ensure that pupils consistently reach above average standards.

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Grade: 2

Children enter the Foundation Stage with a wide range of skills and abilities, but on average, these are weaker than would normally be expected at this age. Their English skills are especially poor, because a large proportion of pupils come from families where English is not the first 4 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008 language. They do well because of lively teaching and good attention to their language skills. Nursery children, for example, were enthusiastically talking about setting up a tube station and driving a bus as part of their transport topic. Some parents went out of their way to say how much the Nursery has improved since the new Foundation Stage manager began work last September. It has excellent resources and is beautifully organised with great attention to detail, so that children really enjoy learning in a stimulating, colourful environment. The school has

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Grade: 2

identified the need to improve Reception resources and especially the outdoor provision, so that children here have the same free choice learning opportunities that they do in the Nursery. Staff are good at consolidating learning through talking to children about how well they have done. They know that they need to further develop ways for children to understand clearly what is expected during these sessions.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Ensure that teaching is consistently good or better through improving the rigour of monitoring by all leaders and the governing body. ■ Make learning more relevant and build in more opportunities for learning basic skills in other subjects by developing more links between subjects, especially in ICT.

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Grade: 2

Pupils are making better progress because close tracking means teachers can match work successfully to the needs of each pupil. This ensures that learners who struggle to keep up receive the right assistance. Pupils who are learning English make good progress because they are effectively supported by well-trained teaching assistants. Test results at the end of Year 6 vary from year to year because numbers are small, but pupils are achieving well to reach standards that are generally in line with national averages. Pupils who left the school last year made exceptionally good progress in English because the school had made this subject a focus for development. They introduced new approaches to writing, including the use of classroom word banks and also concentrated successfully on handwriting. They are now, correctly, turning their attention to mathematics, aiming for achievement in this subject to match that in English.

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Grade: 2

Analysis shows that they need to focus on the weaker areas of mental mathematics and problem solving and this is in hand.

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Grade: 2

Pupils learn very effectively in their 'tribes' and 'use chatterbox partners' to reap the benefits of group working and to spark ideas off each other. One parent commented, 'The school does a good job to recognise individual talents' and this was confirmed as pupils proudly showed off their singing and dancing prowess in a 'Talent Contest'. Pupils from many different cultures and backgrounds work and play harmoniously together. They learn to appreciate each other through writing 'warm fuzzy' comments. However, pupils do not always take on sufficient responsibility around the school and at playtimes. Pupils lead particularly healthy lives because they are energetic, play plenty of sport and eat very sensibly. 5 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008

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Grade: 2

Enthusiastic teachers ensure learning activities are lively and stimulating through good classroom display, good use of interactive whiteboards and interesting practical activities. For instance, in an excellent English lesson, pupils made great strides in extending their vocabulary by pretending to be estate agents. Learning is good because teachers explain the point of the lesson very clearly and indicate how learners can check that they are successful. However, although marking is done regularly and is positive, teachers sometimes do not give pupils sufficient pointers on how they can make their work even better. Teachers generally manage behaviour well, but on occasion they allow lessons to become too noisy and learning is hampered.

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Grade: 2

Pupils confirm that they keen to learn more, because the curriculum is exciting and relevant with many visits, such as a Year 6 trip to North Devon. The school makes the most of its location within easy access of the museums, art galleries and theatres of London to promote pupils' social and cultural development. Senior leaders have been successful in ensuring that teachers plan effectively to link different subjects However, practice amongst the new teachers is still a little variable. Whereas, for example, historical subjects are used skilfully to promote literacy in English lessons, the encouragement of good quality presentation and writing is not always evident in other subjects. The regular visits to the new computer suite are improving pupils' technical skills, but ICT is not threaded consistently enough into other lessons.

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Grade: 2

Pastoral support for the pupils and their families is very strong. Staff are mindful of all their needs and home circumstances and vulnerable and refugee children feel as much part of the school family as other pupils. Parents agree that their children are safe, secure and well looked after. The school works well with the local authority to give good support to the many pupils who are learning English. Staff and parents act as translators to help inform other parents about what their children are doing. Most learners have long-term targets that they understand and they are clear about what they need to do to learn successfully during each lesson. However, teachers do not refer sufficiently to pupils' targets when marking work.

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Grade: 2

Improvements in the use of assessment information, teachers' planning, the curriculum and support for pupils who need help with English have all resulted in better pupils' progress. Improvements in English teaching have been well managed by the English subject leader and the deputy headteacher has a clear overview of what is required in mathematics. Good staff appointments have been made, including the new Foundation Stage manager. This demonstrates good leadership and indicates a good capacity to improve still further. The staff work as a very effective team, but the pace of improvement has been impeded by staff changes. The school 6 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008 has worked very hard to bring teachers up to speed and senior leaders' detailed knowledge of each individual has been very helpful in doing this. However, monitoring is not systemically

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Grade: 2

organised enough to secure maximum impact. The governing body are supportive and have a good understanding of the necessary areas of development, but they are not tracking school improvement well enough to be able to challenge effectively. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008 .

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Grade: 2

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008

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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? Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

2 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 2 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 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 How well learners enjoy their education 3 The attendance of learners 2 The behaviour of learners 2 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. 9 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008

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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 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 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? 10 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

20 February 2008 Dear Pupils Inspection of St Clement and St James CofE Primary School,London,W11 4PG Thank you very much for the warm welcome you gave us when we visited your school this week. We were delighted that so many of you said 'Good morning'. Special thanks to those of you who helped us by answering our questions. It was good to hear how much you like school and to see how well you look after each other. We agree with you that your school is a good school and think you make good progress in your lessons. The teachers work very hard to make learning exciting and interesting. You do well with your social skills and exceptionally well in learning how to be healthy and in taking good amounts of exercise. You have had several new teachers in school this year, so it is not surprising that some teachers sometimes do things differently to others. We have asked the school to make sure that all teachers use the same methods to make teaching good and to give you points for improvement

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

as often as possible. We have asked the headteacher and governors to check that this happens. We have also asked the teachers to plan more links between lessons so that you get more chances to use the computers in subjects other than ICT. With best wishes Sue Rogers Lead Inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: St Clement and St James CofE Primary School, 6 °7 February 2008

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