Setting

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Mrs E Taylor Headteacher St Philip’s Catholic Primary & Nursery School St. Philip’s Avenue Leeds LS10 3SL

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Ofsted survey inspection programme – ICT

Thank you for your hospitality and co-operation, and that of your staff, during my visit on 18 March 2008 to look at work in ICT.

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Ofsted survey inspection programme – ICT

As outlined in my initial letter, as well as looking at key areas of the subject, the visit had a particular focus on the impact of ICT on whole school improvement.

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Ofsted survey inspection programme – ICT

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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Ofsted survey inspection programme – ICT

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

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Ofsted survey inspection programme – ICT

The overall effectiveness of ICT was judged to be good.

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Achievement and standards in ICT

Achievement and standards in ICT are good

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Achievement and standards in ICT

 Attainment on entry is below average.  Standards by the end of Year 2 are in line with national expectations and by the end of Year 6 most pupils are in line with national expectations and some have exceeded them.  Pupils in the Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1 achieve well in ICT. They experience a good range of ICT learning activities across all strands of the subject. They collaborate well and show respect for one another when working together. They clearly enjoy their ICT work and are highly motivated by it.  Pupils at Key Stage 2 experience the full range of ICT activities and most continue to make good progress. There is less opportunity for progression in the areas of sensing and control and for a small number of higher attaining Year 6 pupils some learning activities are not challenging enough.  Most lessons are well differentiated. This ensures that pupils with learning difficulties and / or disabilities make similarly good progress to

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Achievement and standards in ICT

other pupils.  Use of ICT in other subjects is well embedded and high quality ICT work is evident across the curriculum in all years.

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Quality of teaching and learning of ICT

The quality of teaching and learning is good.

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Quality of teaching and learning of ICT

 The lessons observed were very thoroughly planned and prepared. Learning activities were particularly well differentiated to meet the needs of learners. A small number of higher attaining Year 6 pupils are insufficiently challenged in some ICT lessons.  Teachers are mostly confident and competent in their teaching of ICT. Interactive Whiteboards are used routinely to enhance teaching and motivate learners.  Pupils get good feedback about the quality of their work and assessed work samples are collected in a folder in support of accurate teacher assessment. Summative assessment levels are awarded to each pupil by the end of Year 6.  Resources are deployed flexibly with a central suite complimented by class based computers and laptops. Good links are made between discrete ICT teaching and subject use of ICT to provide a context for learning ICT skills and capabilities.

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Quality of the curriculum for ICT

 Thoughtfully modified national units of work are used well to cover all the strands of the ICT programme of study and good curricular links are made with other subjects to ensure that ICT capability is developed in a meaningful context.  There is a good breadth of learning experiences in ICT at Key Stage 1 and a good balance between the strands of ICT.  At Key Stage 2 the use of data logging and control is less well developed though some learning activities are provided in these areas. The local CLC is used frequently so that pupils get experience in the use of specialised software packages.  A lunch time computer club operates on each day of the week. This enhances the ICT curriculum further and is used by a large number of pupils.

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Leadership and management of ICT

Leadership and management of ICT are good.

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Leadership and management of ICT

 There is a clear shared vision for ICT that is written into the recently reviewed and updated ICT policy.  The school has a good modern network system in use and though it does not yet have a virtual learning environment the functionality of the existing system is good. Learning resources are accessible from the Local Authority over a county-wide system.  As acting Headteacher you have managed ICT well and there are plans to appoint a replacement ICT subject leader soon.  The national self review framework has been used effectively as a tool for ICT self evaluation, both in 2006 and again in 2008. An ICT action plan is in place with appropriate priorities identified.

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Impact of ICT on whole-school improvement

 ICT has had an obvious impact on the quality of learning experiences and attainment of pupils in subjects across the curriculum.  Pupils are very clear about how much they enjoy their work in ICT. They are highly motivated and behave very well when using the high quality ICT resources.  ICT is particularly well used to support learning in literacy and numeracy and has helped to raise attainment in these areas.  Pupils use ICT independently with confidence in a number of subjects. High quality ICT use is evident in most subject areas.  Pupil tracking systems enable intervention and support for pupils at risk of under achieving. The existing system does not automatically identify these pupils, however, which limits its efficiency.

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Inclusion

 ICT lessons are very well differentiated to provide good access for all pupils and good support for those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.  A very small number of Year 6 pupils require more challenge in some of their ICT learning activities.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

 to increase the learning activities in the areas of sensing and control at Key Stage 2  to provide more challenge for the higher attaining pupils in Years 5 and 6.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop ICT in the school. As I explained in my previous letter, a copy of this letter will be sent to your local authority and will be published on the Ofsted website. It will also be available to the team for your next institutional inspection.

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