The Knights Enham Junior School

Knight's Enham Junior School Inspection report

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116014 Unique Reference Number Hampshire Local Authority 312147 Inspection number 3 °4 December 2007 Inspection dates Mike Dukes 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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Junior Type of school Community School category 7 °11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 162 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Robin Hughes Chair Mrs Anne Hughes Headteacher 8 December 2003 Date of previous school inspection King Arthur's Way School address Andover SP10 4BS 01264 394777 Telephone number 01264 394888 Fax number

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7-11 Age group 3 °4 December 2007 Inspection dates 312147 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

The school is smaller than most junior schools and mainly serves families from a large housing association estate. Many pupils come from disadvantaged backgrounds with around double the average proportion entitled to free school meals. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities is much higher than usual, but the proportion with a statement of educational need is below average. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is below average and few are at an early stage of learning English. The school expects to increase in size following local reorganisation involving the closure of a nearby school.

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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: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007

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Grade: 2

Knights Enham Junior is a good school with some outstanding aspects. The strong leadership and management of the school has secured good improvements to pupils' achievement and created a warm and caring climate for learning. Teaching has improved and is now good overall, following a school focus on this. As a result, progress is now good and has improved, most notably in English. However, progress is not even for all groups of pupils. Those with learning difficulties and disabilities do very well while often more able pupils do not do as well as they could. From low starting points, pupils are now reaching standards that are broadly average by the time they leave the school, showing good achievement. Progress would be better still if there was greater consistency in teaching, especially in the close matching of work to the needs of all pupils. The curriculum is good in that it is now contributing well to pupils' good progress.

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Grade: 2

All staff constantly look for ways to enthuse pupils. Their planning of lessons is about to be revised to improve the interest and excitement of pupils through modifying their approach to delivering the curriculum. The school gives a very high priority to teaching about rights and responsibilities. This leads to the pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development being highly developed. For example, during the inspection, they reflected with mature thoughtfulness during a prayer in an assembly on Christmas and they show highly developed empathy for members of other cultures. Parents appreciate this feature of the school and they are overwhelmingly supportive. As one parent said, 'A lovely caring school - we like the way the school is developing social behaviour'. The pastoral care and academic guidance given to pupils are good and they are well protected from harm. Pupils are strong advocates of healthy lifestyles; they behave well

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Grade: 2

and know how to keep safe. Pupils enjoy school a lot and are developing their workplace skills well. They make good contributions to the school and wider community. For example, they have worked with governors in writing the home school agreement and with local councillors in devising a vision for the future of Andover. The headteacher is a highly capable leader whose clear vision is driving the school to focus strongly on the pupils' entitlement to a good education and high quality care. This has led to a high level of personal development of all pupils and their rates of academic progress improving now to become good. While leadership and management overall are good, subject leaders are very new to their roles and not yet fully effective. Governance is outstanding. Governors have an excellent understanding of their strategic role in the school's development and have very good systems for checking on its effectiveness and holding the leaders to account. As a result,

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Grade: 2

they have very clear understanding of what is working well, what can improve and how it can be achieved. The school's capacity to continue to improve is good because of these very well established and effective systems of leadership and management.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Raise standards in English, mathematics and science by matching teaching more closely to the needs of all pupils, especially those of higher ability ■ Develop the roles of co-ordinators by enabling them to monitor their subjects and support teachers more effectively. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007

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Grade: 2

Achievement is now good across the school. Pupils generally join the school with standards that are below average and they make good progress. Standards in the current Year 6 pupils are close to average and they are on track to reach their challenging targets before they leave school. National progress data for Year 6 in 2007 could be misleading because that cohort of pupils was small and very unusual in its makeup with several pupils joining the school in their final year. Consequently, these national test results suggest pupils' progress was slow. However, detailed assessments made of this cohort of pupils when they were in Year 3 show that they have made good progress during their time in the school. Across the school pupils' rates of progress have improved recently, particularly in English, which has been a focus of school development. Staff's high expectations of pupils' progress are reflected in the challenging targets set for all year groups. These are leading to generally strong

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Grade: 2

progress, although there is some unevenness between classes. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities make especially good progress, often better than their peers. This is linked to the high priority the school gives to meeting their needs and the good support provided for them. Sometimes the most able pupils do not achieve to their full potential because their work does not always challenge them sufficiently.

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Grade: 2

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are outstanding. As one pupil said, 'We are aware of the needs of others - we care for everyone - there is no bullying.' Although a very small number of parents expressed concern for behaviour, pupils' behaviour and attitudes are good and they thoroughly enjoy school. The school has worked very hard since the last inspection to improve attendance and it is now average. Pupils have an excellent understanding of healthy lifestyles. They are very keen on taking up the wide range of opportunities to take exercise, including the daily exercise programme, 'Activate' and they are strong supporters of healthy eating. Some pupils described the school as, 'a safe place to be' and they know they can go to adults if they have problems, especially the pastoral care worker. There are many opportunities for the pupils to take on responsibilities in the school. Pupils accept these enthusiastically and

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Grade: 2

make a good contribution to the school. For example, the school council is an effective and strong voice for the pupils and they have worked closely with the architect in planning the new extension. Pupils are developing their skills for the world of work well. They work well together, either with partners or in small groups and they organise fund-raising activities.

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Grade: 2

Although teaching has become better, both in quality and consistency, and is now leading to pupils generally making good progress, the school is not complacent and aims for further improvement. A particular strength is the extent to which pupils are involved in their own learning using targets and self-assessments. However, there are still some inconsistencies in teaching. In a very successful mathematics lesson seen in Year 5, the teacher had high expectations of her pupils coupled with brisk, lively teaching that was closely matched to the 5 of 11 Inspection Report: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007 pupils' abilities and interests. The pupils gave total attention, with excellent behaviour and made very good progress. In another lesson, progress was slower because the teacher did not ensure pupils paid full attention. In addition, in some lessons progress was slowed, especially for the most able, because teachers did not match their work well to the range of abilities in

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Grade: 2

the class. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities are well taught and as a result, their progress is as good as, and often better than, their peers. Teaching assistants provide good support overall, although they are not always well deployed at the start of lessons. The good use of interactive whiteboards is helping to interest the pupils in their learning. Teachers' marking is usually good. However, there are times when it does not give pupils sufficient guidance on what they need to improve, particularly in mathematics.

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Grade: 2

One of the strengths of the curriculum is the provision for pupils' personal and social education. Another strong area is the enrichment of the curriculum by a wide range of clubs, visits and visitors. For example, most pupils attend clubs for sporting, musical and general interest activities. Regular visits take place such as the Year 3 and Year 4 trip to a Hindu temple, Year 5 to Mary Rose and the Year 6 residential trip to Hook Court. Visits from The Fire Brigade, Police, and theatre and music groups are also regular features, make learning interesting and enjoyable for pupils. Overall, the curriculum enables most pupils to make good progress. Recent amendments have led to improved pupil progress in English, mathematics and science. For example, the school has established additional work programmes to boost literacy levels, and the mathematics curriculum is better matched to pupils' needs, following good partnership

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Grade: 2

work with the local authority. The school recognises the curriculum does not yet make the best use of forming links between subjects. They have grasped this opportunity and have begun a major revision to achieve better links with the aim of 'exciting pupils and improving standards'.

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Grade: 2

The caring ethos of the school ensures that pastoral support is a strength. Pupils support each other well because of the positive climate of respecting each other. As one pupil said, and;quot;We are a rights respecting school - we work well together. We are encouraged to be aware of how others feeland;quot;. Pupils value being able to take their troubles to the adults in the school, especially the pastoral care worker. Safeguarding procedures are robust and protect pupils well. The assessment of risk is well-managed, keeping pupils safe when on visits and making the school premises a secure environment. Academic guidance and support is good. Staff keep a careful check on pupils' progress and use the information well to identify pupils who need additional help. Although intervention programmes and the good support from teaching assistants enable most pupils to make good progress, the needs of the most able are

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Grade: 2

not always fully met. Academic guidance given to pupils in class is good, particularly from the use of personal targets.

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Grade: 2

Most parents agree that leadership and management are good. As one wrote, 'Our headteacher does a really good job for the school.' The headteacher has focused the school on the pupils' 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007 entitlement to a good education and high quality care. This has led to the pupils' moral and social development being outstanding and their rates of academic progress improving consistently. The school's self-evaluation is mostly accurate. The resulting strategic plans are good tools for improvement with clear strategies for raising achievement and standards, reflecting a good capacity to improve. The headteacher, well supported by her deputy, has adopted rigorous systems for monitoring the progress of individual pupils. However, sometimes opportunities are missed to use this data to check the progress made by groups of pupils. Senior staff have good systems for monitoring lessons and this has led to an improvement in the

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Grade: 2

quality of teaching. In the past, subject leaders have not been able to make a full contribution to improving their subjects. This is because their roles in monitoring their subjects and in supporting teachers were limited. The school has begun to address the issue and the roles of the subject leaders for English, mathematics and science are currently being re-defined. Governors make an outstanding contribution to the school and the local authority acknowledges this. They fulfil all of their roles very effectively, they rigorously hold the school to account and they are fully involved in the life of the school. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007 .

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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: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007

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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 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?

1 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: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007

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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: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

13 December 2007 Dear Children Inspection of Knight's Enham Junior School,Andover,SP10 4BS Thank you for making us feel so welcome at your school and for being so helpful during the inspection. We are pleased to agree with you that Knights Enham is a good school. We were impressed at how keen you were in supporting your work on Rights, Respect and Responsibility. As one of you told us, 'We are a rights respecting school.' This is clearly part of your good behaviour we saw around the school. It is also connected to how well you get along with each other and enjoy school. Both inspectors were pleased that you are strong supporters of healthy living. You explained for us how well staff are caring and look after you well. In lessons, you mostly worked hard and learned well because you get on well with your teachers and they usually make your work interesting. We were pleased that you are using your targets

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

well to help your learning. Some of you need to concentrate harder in lessons. Sometimes this was because you found your work too easy and you were not quite learning as quickly as you could. It is pleasing that most of you are making good progress now. This is better than it was in the past because staff have concentrated on getting their teaching better. Your good progress means that most of you are reaching your hard-to-get targets and that is very good news. Good luck for the future! We have asked your teachers to carry on making their lessons even better, especially by setting you work which is not too hard or easy, so you make even better progress. You can help by telling your teacher if work is not at the right level for you. We have also asked the teachers in charge of English, mathematics and science to help to make improvements in those subjects. Yours sincerely, Mike Dukes Lead Inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Knight's Enham Junior School, 3 °4 December 2007

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