Langley Green Primary

133967 Unique Reference Number West Sussex Local Authority 328784 Inspection number 16–17 October 2008 Inspection dates Selwyn Ward Reporting inspector

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The registered childcare, managed by the governing body, was inspected under section 49 of the Childcare Act 2006.

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Primary Type of school Community School category 3–11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 334 School (total) 0 Government funded early education provision for children aged 3 to the end of the EYFS 0 Childcare provision for children aged 0 to 3 years The governing body Appropriate authority Mark Sudan Chair Allison Wallis Headteacher 31 October 2005 Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Date of previous funded early education inspection Not previously inspected Date of previous childcare inspection Langley Drive School address Langley Green Crawley RH11 7TF 01293 525675 Telephone number 01293 538340 Fax number

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3–11 Age group 16–17 October 2008 Inspection dates 328784 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. 2 of 11 Inspection Report: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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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 larger than average. Over 80% of the pupils come from a variety of different minority ethnic backgrounds. The largest group within the school are of Pakistani origin. A very high proportion of pupils are learning English other than as their first language, with almost 80 pupils currently at an early stage of learning English. As families are relocated, a relatively high number of pupils leave for other schools partway through their primary education. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is below average. Children join the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) with skills and capabilities well below those expected for their age.

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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: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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Grade: 3

Langley Green provides a satisfactory education for its pupils. Its particular success is in creating a friendly and harmonious community where pupils from quite diverse backgrounds are helped to quickly settle, mix, work and play together. Parents speak positively about how much their children enjoy school. One voiced the views of many in commenting, 'My child always looks forward to school each day.' Arrangements for pupils' care and welfare are strong and, as a result, pupils feel safe and happy at school. They soon learn the school's orderly routines so that they behave well and are increasingly keen to learn. Where the school has been less successful is in matching the pupils' academic progress with their good personal development. Again, a parent summed up a shared concern that, 'My children are not as far along as I'd hoped in their writing and mathematics.' Standards by the end of Year 6 are below average. This represents an improvement on previous

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Grade: 3

years, when standards have been exceptionally low, as they still are at the end of Year 2. From Years 1 to 6, pupils are all taught in mixed-age classes, and even within year groups the range of different abilities is quite wide. On those occasions when pupils are set tasks that are individually tailored to their needs, they make brisk progress. Too often, however, pupils are all expected to do similar work. This means that teaching and learning, and pupils' achievement, are only satisfactory. The pupils who need extra help learning English benefit from mostly good support. Where multilingual help is provided, however, the staff do not always use questioning to extend and challenge the children. This particularly limits the progress that children make in the EYFS. There are examples in the school of first-rate marking that gives pupils clear guidance on how to improve their work, but this is by no means universal. Sometimes, work

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Grade: 3

remains unmarked for too long. Although pupils are mostly aware of their writing targets, the school is only just beginning to experiment with the process of setting individual targets in mathematics. Leadership and management are satisfactory. Although school leaders have an overly positive picture of some aspects of the school, they have a broadly accurate picture of its strengths and areas for development. Through regular monitoring, they have correctly diagnosed that, for example, teaching has not been closely enough matched to pupils' different capabilities. However, they have not done enough to follow up the points identified for development to ensure that improvements are put in place. Nevertheless, some initiatives are having a positive impact. Having identified that pupils have hitherto done much better in reading than in writing, school leaders have introduced 'Power Writing' across the school to extend pupils' vocabulary

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Grade: 3

and use of language. This has been successfully linked with the way the curriculum is organised into topics that interest and excite the pupils. They become quite engrossed in learning about historical and ecological topics, such as medieval knights in Years 5/6 and gorillas in Years 3/4, and this feeds through into their enthusiasm for writing. The curriculum is satisfactory because some of the most imaginative initiatives, including those involving information and communication technology (ICT), have yet to be fully rolled out across the whole school. Plans remain in their infancy to ensure that pupils develop and build on their skills as they work through the different topics. Nonetheless, the gradual rise in standards and the positive initiatives that have been started show the school's satisfactory capacity to improve. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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Grade: 3

During their time in the EYFS, children make at least satisfactory progress in all areas of learning. They make good progress in their mathematical skills and personal, social and emotional development. On entry to Year 1, children's attainment is still well below that expected for their age. The good care and support for children is clear in the induction arrangements which help them to settle easily into the Nursery. Parents are also welcomed and join in the early morning activities. This helps to give their children a settled start to the day. Staff are in the process of developing the ongoing observations that they use to plan the next steps for children's learning. They work well as a team, in spite of the long distance between the Nursery and Reception classes, which are located at opposite ends of the school. Together, staff ensure that children have access to interesting and stimulating activities, especially in the indoor environment. In

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Grade: 3

the doctors role play area, for example, the teacher successfully modelled good relationships and effective questioning to extend children's learning. There is a satisfactory balance of teacher-directed and child-initiated activities, but sometimes opportunities are missed for staff to extend children's language skills both in their home language and in English. Leadership and management have correctly identified that staff have not had training in the new framework but have yet to arrange this.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ More closely match work to individual pupils' learning needs.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Follow up with rigour initiatives and areas for development identified by school leaders so that improvements are consistently applied across the school. ■ Carefully monitor the impact of support for non-English speakers in the EYFS so that children's learning is extended. ■ Ensure that all pupils have a clear understanding of what they need to do to improve their work, in mathematics as well as in English. A small proportion of the schools whose overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory but which have areas of underperformance will receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection.

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Grade: 3

Standards have been exceptionally low in previous years but they were better in 2008. They remain very low in Year 2, where, for example, no pupils in 2008 were assessed at the higher Level 3 in reading, writing or mathematics, but the results in Year 6 show standards that are below average. Pupils make good progress in reading, particularly in Years 3 to 6, but achievement overall is satisfactory. Although some pupils progress at a fast rate, that is not the case for all. For some, the rate of progress is slow because pupils are generally set the same work in lessons without regard to their individual capabilities and what they have learnt before. Pupils learning English as an additional language are helped to make similar progress to the others in their classes. The same is true for those who join the school partway through their primary education. The progress that pupils make in their key literacy, numeracy and ICT skills

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Grade: 3

prepares them satisfactorily for the next stage of their education. 5 of 11 Inspection Report: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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Grade: 2

There is a strong sense of community and pupils welcome the opportunity to celebrate the wide range of cultures and languages they bring to the school. Pupils are friendly and courteous. Their behaviour is good in lessons and as they move around the school. They play well together in the playground. A number of Years 5 and 6 pupils are training as play leaders organising games for younger children. Most pupils enjoy coming to school. Attendance is improving, although some families still take extended holidays abroad and this interrupts pupils' learning. Pupils have a good awareness of how to live healthy lives. They participate in a range of sports and other physical exercise. There are lots of opportunities for pupils to take responsibilities or to help one another, for example as 'language experts', translating for those still at an early stage of learning English, or as 'mischief busters', helping to mediate quarrels. Through the

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Grade: 2

school council, pupils have helped to introduce healthy alternatives in the school tuck shop. Pupils make a good contribution to the wider community, for example by raising money for charities and taking part in the Crawley Junior Citizen workshops.

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Grade: 3

Relationships throughout the school are good. It is because they like and get on well with their teachers that pupils are so happy at school. Teachers manage their classes well so that pupils remain attentive and on task. When teachers ask questions, many hands go up as pupils are encouraged to have a go even when they are not certain of the correct answer. In many lessons, good use is made of ICT, including the interactive whiteboard, to provide activities that help to make learning fun. Very often, however, pupils of very different capabilities are set very similar work to do. This limits pupils' progress because it means the work can be too difficult for some and too easy for others. When they are given work to do in groups, pupils do not always understand what they should be doing. Teaching assistants are often used well to support pupils who need extra help, for example because they are at an early stage of learning English,

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Grade: 3

but, sometimes, when the whole class is being taught, they can be just passive observers.

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Grade: 3

Key staff have been involved in a local authority 'creative curriculum project' and, as a result, the school is working on revising its curriculum. It has been awarded Activemark and the Eco-Schools bronze award in recognition of its good practice in these areas. Some very creative use is made of ICT, including some highly imaginative use of image manipulation software to track the exploits of an apparently 'time travelling' teddy bear who appears in historical photographs linked to topics being studied. As with other initiatives, however, these are not consistent across the school. Teaching through topics has helped to stimulate pupils' interest but the school has not put in place plans to ensure that pupils develop and build on their skills. A programme of curricular enrichment, including off-site and residential activities, French, and a range of clubs and visitors, all help to enhance the curriculum.

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Grade: 3

6 of 11 Inspection Report: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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Grade: 3

The school has welcomed an increasing number of pupils from other parts of the world, including many at an early stage of learning English. These pupils, and their families, are given very good support to help them to settle in quickly and to identify their needs. The school draws well on the support of other agencies such as speech therapists and health workers. One pupil said, 'Teachers are really kind here. They help us when we are stuck.' Relationships between pupils, teachers, teaching assistants and other adult helpers are warm. Pupils are encouraged to share their feelings and to appreciate those of others. Academic guidance is more varied. Some of the marking of pupils' work is regular, detailed and very helpful but some is less so. Pupils have well focused targets to improve their writing, but only those in one class have targets for mathematics.

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Grade: 3

The headteacher and leadership team have created an environment where relationships are good and individuals feel valued. The school plays a central role in the local community and does much to work in partnership with parents and others, including by helping families new to the country to settle in. Monitoring of teaching and learning is carried out regularly, including through 'learning walks' that support the professional development of staff. However, areas for development from observations are not always followed through in order to secure a significant improvement in performance. Some exciting initiatives have been introduced, including 'Power Writing'. which has begun to have an impact on raising standards. Governors have a clear understanding of the school's strengths and areas for development and are very supportive, but they have not done enough to challenge school leaders to help drive up

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Grade: 3

standards. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 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: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 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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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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EYFS?

3 How well do children in the EYFS achieve? How good are the overall personal development and well-being of the children in the EYFS? 3 How effectively are children in the EYFS helped to learn and develop? 2 How effectively is the welfare of children in the EYFS promoted? 3 How effectively is provision in the EYFS led and managed?

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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/or disabilities make progress

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Achievement and standards

1 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: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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learners?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which 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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learners' needs?

How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners? 3 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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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 3 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 3 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated 2 How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? 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: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Dear Pupils Inspection of Langley Green Primary School, Crawley, RH11 7TF Thank you for making us so welcome when we came to visit your school. Langley Green is giving you a satisfactory education. Standards are improving, although they are still below average. You are making reasonable progress in lessons but we think you could be doing better. We could see that you make faster progress when your teachers set you work that is matched to what each of you can do. We saw this in some of your 'Power Writing' lessons. Very often, though, you are all doing similar work, which means it can be too difficult for some of you and too easy for others. This is one of the things that we have asked the school to improve. The school takes good care of you and that is why you feel so safe and happy. We were pleased to see how well you all get on together and how well behaved you are. You are keen to learn and do well, and we have asked the school to help you more by making sure that you all know

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

exactly what you need to do to improve your work. You can help too by following the advice teachers give you when they mark your books and by trying hard to achieve your targets. Your headteacher and school leaders visit lessons to see how well you are doing. They have also started some new ideas to help make your learning fun, like the topic work and the Moodle website. We have asked them to make sure that when they spot points that could be improved, they check that the improvements are made. We have also asked them to make sure that the children who are just beginning to learn English are given a little extra push. Yours sincerely Selwyn Ward Lead Inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Langley Green Primary, 16–17 October 2008

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