Lincoln Birchwood Junior School

Lincoln Birchwood Junior School Inspection report

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120508 Unique Reference Number LINCOLNSHIRE LA Local Authority 313643 Inspection number 5 °6 February 2008 Inspection dates Marina Gough 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 288 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Steve Allnutt Chair Mrs Tracey Bowman Headteacher 13 January 2003 Date of previous school inspection Larchwood Crescent School address Lincoln Lincolnshire LN6 0NL 01522 800971 Telephone number 01522800973 Fax number

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7-11 Age group 5 °6 February 2008 Inspection dates 313643 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 three Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

The school is situated on the outskirts of the city of Lincoln in a large housing estate. The area is one of high social disadvantage and take up of free school meals is well above the national average. A very high percentage of pupils have learning difficulties and a high proportion have statements of special educational need. Pupils' attainment when they join school is typically below the national average. Mostly pupils are of White British ethnicity and only a small number have English as an additional language. Two pupils are from Eastern Europe and are at an early stage of learning English. A new headteacher started at the beginning of this term.

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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: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008

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Grade: 3

This is a satisfactory school that has the potential to do better under the leadership of the new headteacher. Progress since the last inspection has been satisfactory, but significant staff changes have delayed the implementation of some improvements. The school provides satisfactory value for money. Standards are below the national average in English, mathematics and science at the end of Year 6. The pupils' starting point when they join in Year 3 is below the national average. Although pupils make satisfactory progress overall, they do not make the expected gains in learning in Year 3. The school is not yet doing enough to make the transition from infants to juniors smoother for all pupils so that they can have a positive start to their education. The school has made a good start in addressing this problem by initiating a new nurture group which is due to start in the very near future. However, there is still not enough being done to

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Grade: 3

support Year 3 pupils academically. Pupils' behaviour is satisfactory overall. Pupils often behave well in lessons, especially when they are highly motivated about their learning. However, a number of pupils lack self-discipline and demonstrate inappropriate behaviour if they are not well managed. Pupils know how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and how to keep safe. However, because their basic skills of literacy and numeracy are weak they are not sufficiently well prepared for the next stage of their education. Teaching is satisfactory and has some good and outstanding features. Teachers work hard to make lessons interesting and to capture the pupils' attention. They use interactive whiteboards well to bring learning to life and in the main manage pupils' behaviour very well. There are times, however, when staff do not always match work sufficiently closely to the needs of some individuals. The school has done much to enliven the curriculum for pupils, and now provides a good range

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Grade: 3

of visits for pupils to extend their learning and experience. The long morning sessions are not used to best effect. Some of the lessons in the morning are too long for those pupils who lack motivation and who have poor levels of concentration. The school provides satisfactory levels of care, support and guidance for pupils of all ages. One of its strengths is the way in which it supports vulnerable pupils pastorally, working hard to remove barriers to learning. The provision for pupils who have learning difficulties is good, and those pupils from Eastern European backgrounds make similar progress to other pupils. Leadership and management are satisfactory and as a result the overall capacity to improve is satisfactory. The new headteacher has only been in post for four weeks, but together with the senior leadership team, is already setting a clear agenda for improvement that is appropriately focused on raising standards. Although the school knows itself well in many ways, the lack of

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Grade: 3

a comprehensive rigorous tracking system means that it is not able to set accurate, challenging targets to bring about an improvement in standards. This aspect of the school's work is inadequate. Almost half of the staff are newly qualified teachers, and whilst they bring a wealth of talent and creativity to the school they lack experience and can provide only limited support for leadership. The school lacks a middle tier of management, however, the governing body is supportive and capably fulfils its statutory duties. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Introduce a rigorous tracking system so that accurate and challenging targets can be set.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Ensure that the transition for Year 3 pupils is improved so that their progress is accelerated, and standards are raised. ■ Make more imaginative use of the morning teaching sessions.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Introduce a tier of middle management to strengthen the leadership of the school.

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Grade: 3

Standards when pupils start school in Year 3 are below the national average. During their first year, the Year 3 pupils lose some ground. Pupils in Years 4, 5 and 6 make satisfactory progress. By the time they leave school at the end of Year 6 standards are still below the national average although achievement is satisfactory. The school has made a good start in raising standards and has identified the key groups of pupils who are not doing as well as they should in individual subjects. Booster groups are supporting pupils who have more ground to make up than others. Pupils with special needs are well supported so that they make similar progress to their classmates. The progress of Eastern European pupils is satisfactory.

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Grade: 3

Pupils' spiritual, moral and social development is satisfactory. Pupils know the difference between right and wrong and have an understanding of a range of faiths and cultures gained through activities such as 'diversity day'. They have a good awareness of the need to eat healthily and take regular exercise. Attendance is satisfactory and the school is working hard to improve it further. Behaviour is satisfactory overall and pupils are developing an awareness of the needs of each other through activities such as Circle Time. Behaviour is at its best in lessons where pupils are highly motivated and where teachers set clear boundaries. A small number of pupils lack self-discipline and can quickly become frustrated. Pupils feel safe and report that any instances of bullying are dealt with swiftly. Pupils enjoy having jobs around school and older pupils especially show good skills when working as a team member. Although

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Grade: 3

pupils' basic skills of numeracy and literacy are weak, given their satisfactory progress and their positive attitudes they are soundly prepared for the next stage of their learning. The school council meets regularly and is justifiably proud of its contribution to the school community through the development of new playground facilities.

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Grade: 3

During the inspection some good teaching was seen which was characterised by high expectations, a real sense of purpose and very positive management of those pupils who have difficulty in managing their behaviour. Teachers make good use of questions to extend the pupils' learning and to check their understanding. Interactive whiteboards are used to very good effect to bring learning to life. Pupils respond well to the imaginative and visual way of presenting information that these facilitate. A weakness of teaching is that there is not enough reliable assessment information for teachers to use as a basis for their planning. This means 5 of 11 Inspection Report: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008 that there are times when work is not always matched sufficiently close enough to pupils' levels of ability. Some of the teaching seen during the inspection was exceptionally creative and pupils

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Grade: 3

responded extremely well to the highly stimulating tasks they were given. The good monitoring of teaching by the headteacher and senior leadership team, and the appointment of some lively and enthusiastic newly qualified teachers, have done much to improve teaching and learning over recent months.

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Grade: 3

The school has effectively broadened pupils' horizons by providing a good range of trips and visitors to the school. Pupils are offered a satisfactory range of extra-curricular activities although they say that they would like more. The provision for pupils' personal, social and health education is good, and the social and emotional aspects of learning programme is having a positive impact on learning and behaviour. The recent focus on raising standards in English and mathematics has resulted in the school devoting most morning sessions to these two subjects. Given the short attention spans of some of the pupils, these long lessons are too demanding. The school has recognised that this optimum learning time could be used more imaginatively to maximise its full potential.

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Grade: 3

One of the school's strengths is the way in which it has reached out into the local and wider communities to bring in external professional support for some of the most vulnerable pupils. There are good child protection procedures in place, and appropriate steps are taken to safeguard the pupils and to ensure their well-being. Pupils' progress is slow in Year 3. This is largely because they are very unsettled when they join the junior school having come from two smaller infant schools into a new and very different setting. The current arrangement whereby they are in mixed age classes with Year 4 pupils makes it even more difficult for the most needy pupils to settle in quickly to the new routines. The school has introduced individual and group targets to help pupils to improve aspects of their work, although this process is still being embedded. Pupils do not yet have enough information and understanding about the long-term

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Grade: 3

goals that they are working towards and the means by which they can achieve them. This is why care and guidance is satisfactory overall.

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Grade: 3

Leadership and management are satisfactory. Although the headteacher has only recently taken up post she has a good understanding of the school's strengths and areas for improvement. The senior leadership team works well together and there is a good sense of team work amongst the staff and a shared desire to take the school forward. The school is at a critical time in its development. Many good strategies are in place to bring about further improvements in the school. However, the lack of accurate and detailed information about pupils' progress and attainment as they move through the school is a weakness that constrains the school's ability to set challenging and accurate targets. Overall the school's capacity for improvement is satisfactory. 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008 Over the last few months there has been a high staff turnover and almost half of the teaching

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Grade: 3

staff is newly qualified. This means that there is currently no opportunity to share out leadership roles for subjects and aspects within the school, the bulk of the leadership resting with the senior team. This places a heavy workload on a few people. The school is aware of the need to devolve some of the responsibilities as soon as the new staff have the necessary experience. Governors are supportive and are regular visitors to the school. They diligently fulfil their statutory duties. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008 .

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Grade: 3

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 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? 3 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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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?

3 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 3 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 3 How well learners enjoy their education 3 The attendance of learners 3 The behaviour of learners 3 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?

3 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: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 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 4 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 3 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: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

6 February 2008 Dear Pupils Inspection of Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, Lincoln, LN6 0NL Thank you for making our visit to your school so enjoyable. We were pleased to see how well most of you get on with one another, and that you enjoy your lessons. Most of you make satisfactory progress in Birchwood, but even so when you leave school at the end of Year 6 the standards you reach in English, mathematics and science are not high enough. One of the reasons for this is that in Year 3, pupils sometimes find learning difficult because they take a long time to settle into their new school. These pupils sometimes do not get off to a good enough start and we have asked the school to see if they can do something about this. We can see that your teachers are now giving you targets but we would like them to keep good records of your progress so they know exactly how well you are doing as you move through the school.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Your teachers work hard to make lessons interesting for you, and we can see how much you like the interactive whiteboards. However, some of the mathematics and English lessons are very long and so we have asked teachers to look at ways of making the morning sessions more interesting for you. We were pleased to hear that you now go on a good number of trips to places of interest, and you told us how much you enjoy visitors coming to the school to help you with your learning. Many of your teachers are new not only to your school but to the job of teaching. Whilst this is good in many ways, they are not yet allowed to take on extra responsibilities. This means that the headteacher and other staff who have been teaching for a little while do most of the extra work. We are keen that the new staff take on some additional roles as soon as is possible so that the work of running the school can be shared more evenly.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Your new headteacher and governors have a good idea of what they need to do to make Birchwood an even better school, and to help you to succeed. Marina Gough Lead inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Lincoln Birchwood Junior School, 5 °6 February 2008

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