Setting

Mrs Kate Utting Consultant Headteacher Waite End Primary School Mill Road Waterlooville PO7 7DB

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SCHOOL

Following my visit with Sue Rogers, Additional Inspector, to your school on 18 and 19 June 2008, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to confirm the inspection findings.

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SCHOOL

The visit was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures in November 2007. The monitoring inspection report is attached and the main judgements are set out below.

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SCHOOL

Progress since being subject to special measures – satisfactory

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SCHOOL

Progress since previous monitoring inspection – satisfactory

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SCHOOL

Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.

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SCHOOL

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be posted on the Ofsted website. Please inform the Regional Inspection Service Provider of any factual inaccuracies within 24 hours of the receipt of this letter.

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SCHOOL

I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the chair of governors and the Director of Children Services.

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H M Inspector

Prospects Learning Services Prospects Services LTD 19 Elmfield Road Bromley Kent BR1 1LT T 08456 40 40 40 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 020 8315 1250 Direct F 020 8315 1279

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the consultant headteacher, the deputy headteacher, two governors including the chair of governors, some of the staff, a group of pupils and two representatives from the local authority (LA).

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Context

The school has appointed a new headteacher who is due to take up her post in September 2008. The consultant headteacher will continue to provide the school with support and guidance until the end of the summer term 2008. The school is making use of an existing member of staff to teach Year 1 as one of the teachers from this Year group has now left the school.

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Achievement and standards

The work done on improving the quality of teaching is beginning to impact on the achievement and standards of some pupils. This is particularly evident in Years 2, 5 and 6, but is less evident in Years 1, 3 and 4. The progress pupils make in the Foundation Stage continues to be satisfactory. Although the progress made by the small number of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities remains inadequate over all, this is beginning to improve following the support provided by the LA’s learning support services together with improvements to the quality of individual education plans. The school recognises that some of the most capable pupils are still not provided with sufficient challenge. This is resulting in too few pupils gaining the higher levels at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. The deputy headteacher is taking a leading role in this area to help teachers recognise the need for additional challenge

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Achievement and standards

The school has put in place new tracking systems. The information this provides enables staff to have a more accurate view about the rate of progress pupils are making in English and mathematics. It also helps staff to identify those pupils who are underachieving. However, not all subject leaders are yet able to make good use of data for target setting purposes. Although targets have been set for all pupils in mathematics this has yet to happen for other subjects.

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Achievement and standards

A minority of staff are already beginning to put to good use the training they have received about reading and writing following a specific programme of phonics. Where this is used well, it is beginning to have a positive impact on increasing pupils’ ability to read more confidently.

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Achievement and standards

The proportion of pupils working at the expected levels is rising as pupils move through the school. Pupils in all year groups except Year 3 and Year 4 are increasingly working at levels that are broadly in line with national expectations. The exception is writing in Year 2 where some pupils are still further behind than they should be. The number of pupils working at higher levels is still too low in all year groups

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Achievement and standards

Progress on the areas for improvement identified by the inspection in November 2007:  ensuring that all managers, and teachers in lessons, make better use of assessment information so that pupils’ progress is tracked more effectively, and work is set that challenges and meets the needs of all pupils – satisfactory

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Personal development and well-being

Pupils’ personal development is satisfactory. Attendance has dipped since the last inspection and is below average. Nevertheless, pupils say that they enjoy school and value the strong relationships that they have with adults. They behave satisfactorily and are compliant, even when some lessons are on the dull side, because of the respect they have for their teachers. They are confident that school is a safe place to be and say that there is no serious bullying, just the odd argument that is quickly resolved thanks to the intervention of the playground ‘buddies’. They are enthusiastic about taking on this kind of responsibility. The school council is proud of a number of achievements, most notably improvements to the school premises.

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Quality of provision

Satisfactory progress has been made in improving teaching since the last visit. School leaders and the local authority have worked hard to introduce some useful teaching strategies and these are especially evident in the improvements to the classroom environment. However, there are still too many weaknesses in teaching, which remains inadequate overall. Teaching is stronger in the Foundation Stage and in Years 2, 5 and 6 and this is reflected in pupils’ progress.

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Quality of provision

Pupils in the Foundation Stage make satisfactory progress that is good at times, because of thoughtfully planned activities. They enjoy lively discussion on the carpet, where teachers’ good questioning ensures that they develop their thinking skills and their vocabulary. For instance, opportunities to develop pupils’ personal and social skills were seen, as children enthusiastically talked about Mr. Gumpy and his feelings in different situations. Teachers and teaching assistants successfully develop children’s learning when working with them in small focus groups. Teachers are beginning to use a good planner that helps children make choices about their independent work. However, expectations of what children will do when they are working independently are not always made sufficiently clear. Consequently, children working independently do not always achieve as much as they could.

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Quality of provision

Teaching in Key Stages 1 and 2 is most secure in English and mathematics. Teaching in these subjects is well supported by classroom displays that include vocabulary and remind pupils about their learning strategies. Teachers are generally consistent in their use of assessment prompts to remind pupils what they are learning. Learning objectives are usually, but not always clear and relevant. Teachers’ planning has improved, but at times, there is not enough detail to support good explanations and demonstrations. On these occasions, pupils become confused about what to do and this restricts their independence, and slows down progress. Teachers are making better use of school assessment information to plan interventions when pupils fall behind and match of work to pupil’s ability is improving, but is inconsistent. Planning does not always give enough detail about work for more-able pupils.

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Quality of provision

There are now mathematics and literacy intervention programmes in place for pupils in Years 1 to 6. These are aimed at helping pupils to catch up with their learning. Although it is too soon to measure the impact of these programmes, they are beginning to help fill the gaps in pupils’ learning.

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Quality of provision

Teachers have improved their ability to help pupils to develop their thinking skills. Where this is done well teachers make effective use of questioning and paired discussion. For example, pupils were making excellent progress in understanding how to portray characters through role-playing Macbeth in one outstanding English lesson. Questioning in this lesson was excellent. Questioning is less good where teachers are unclear about their intended outcomes and in some lessons pupils made slow progress because they were not encouraged to think about challenging enough issues. On these occasions pace of the lesson is still too slow.

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Quality of provision

Pupils say that they enjoy school and find some lessons fun. However, they become restless when lessons do not engage them. Restless behaviour disrupted a minority of lesson. At times, this was because pupils were uninterested in the lesson, but at other times, it was also because the teacher was not sufficiently assertive. Teachers’ use of the interactive whiteboard to motivate pupils is improving. Nevertheless, the most useful features of the boards are underused. Pupils are often not engaged interactively. All too often, lessons lack relevance to pupils. This is because learning is not placed in an interesting or meaningful context. Some helpful work has been done on visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning styles. This is a useful rubric for planning lessons and pupils are enthusiastic about discussing their own preferred style of learning. However, there is more of an emphasis on looking and listening

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Quality of provision

In most classes, relationships are good and pupils appreciate the trouble that most teachers go to in explaining and helping when they do not understand. There are helpful traffic light systems to aid communication between pupil and teacher and to support useful self-evaluation. Marking has improved. There are pockets of very good practice, using the new two stars and a wish system and this gives clear next steps in learning. However, this is remains inconsistent across the school.

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Quality of provision

The quality of communications between teaching and support staff has improved. Learning support assistants now have a better understanding of their role and receive clearer direction about how they can support pupils. In some lessons, the work of additional adults is good, for example in supporting younger pupils in the development of their phonological skills.

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Quality of provision

The school has adapted national materials to ensure that it meets all the necessary curriculum requirements. Leaders have gone further in developing the curriculum for English and mathematics. However, the school recognises that the curriculum is in need of review to ensure there is greater progression in skills and understanding and that it is as engaging as possible. Links between subjects are not yet strong enough to ensure that all learning is relevant and that opportunities are made to teach English and mathematics in other lessons.

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Quality of provision

Progress on the areas for improvement identified by the inspection in November 2007:  ensuring that all teachers have a clear focus on how pupils learn best in lessons, including adapting their teaching to meet the varied learning styles of pupils – satisfactory

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Leadership and management

The consultant headteacher is providing the school with good support three days a week. She has worked with staff to produce an action plan for the summer term, which focuses on the key issues for improvement. This has successfully brought together the work of the school and the actions for improvement contained within the local authority’s statement of action. As a result, there is now a common sense of purpose with staff working more effectively as a team. The senior leadership team has a clear and accurate view of what the school needs in order to improve. The team has benefited from the addition of a third member.

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Leadership and management

The roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers are beginning to develop; this includes the collection of data and scrutiny of pupils’ work. As a result, there is now a more accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Subject leaders now manage a budget, produce action plans and leaders of core subjects track the progress made by pupils.

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Leadership and management

Leaders and managers at all levels are now more focussed on progress and standards. Although they have yet to set targets for all pupils in all core subjects. Senior leaders in the school have correctly identified the need to embed and review new initiatives as well as the value of developing and maintaining the rigour of monitoring and reviewing the progress pupils make at regular intervals.

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Leadership and management

The school has provided training for all staff in the teaching of phonics and increased training opportunities for all teaching and support staff. Teachers and the deputy headteacher have benefited from opportunities to observe good practise in other schools.

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Leadership and management

Lesson observations within the school and feedback to teachers has led to some improvements in teaching; however, these observations do not focus sharply enough on what pupils are actually learning, the progress made by different ability groups or the standard of work.

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Leadership and management

Governors have benefited from training and as a result have become more proactive in their role of challenging and supporting the school. The effectiveness of the governing body has been strengthened with the addition of a new governor. As a result, governors are becoming more involved in the strategic leadership of the school but have yet to become an intrinsic part of the school’s monitoring processes. Progress on the areas for improvement identified by the inspection in November 2007:  ensuring that all managers conduct rigorous monitoring and evaluation of the impact of their initiatives, and that systems are in place to track their success – satisfactory

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External support

The quality and impact of external support for the school is satisfactory overall. The school has continued to benefit from the support provided by the advanced skills teachers, the School Improvement Partner (SIP), the district manager for the LA and the consultant headteacher. This has led to a change in culture at the school and satisfactory progress being made in all key areas. The support has helped staff to become reflective practitioners with staff and governors developing a greater sense of urgency of the need to raise standards in the school. Staff have particularly benefited from the support in improving the quality of individual education plans to help meet the needs of pupils with learning difficulties and/ or disabilities. However, some staff are still too dependent on the external support and have yet to apply what they have learnt consistently well without additional support.

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External support

There is now a closer working partnership between the school and those who provide external support. This is helping to develop and embed systems and practices to help the school to improve. As a result of this support and the dedication and hard work of the staff, the school is beginning to make slow but steady progress. Staff at the school now have a better understanding of what they can do to improve the quality of their work and the learning outcomes for pupils. The consultant headteacher has already started to work with the newly appointed headteacher to ensure a smooth transition and handover of leadership in the autumn term.

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External support

The district manager and SIP have worked closely with the school to ensure that it is now back on track. Progress towards actions is now reviewed more regularly. The LA has also undertaken an in depth review of the work of the governing body. This has been followed up with additional support to enable them to develop their role more effectively. This has led to some improvements in the quality of governance as demonstrated by the rigorous process used for the appointment of a new headteacher.

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