Setting

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 404040 F 020 7421 6855 www.ofsted.gov.uk enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

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Mrs J Rayner Headteacher St Leonard’s Primary School St Leonard’s Avenue Stafford ST17 4LT

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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 1 July 2008 to look at work in information communication and technology (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 quality of assessment.

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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 pupils, 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

 Attainment on entry in ICT is broadly average. Pupils make good progress so that by the end of Year 6 standards have improved to be above average. This represents good achievement.  During the reception year pupils begin to learn to type words, to use the mouse to drag and drop on screen elements, to use a digital camera and to control programmable floor toys. In Years 1 and 2 they begin to use spreadsheets to draw bar charts, to use internet search engines and to use some of the features of a word processor. Standards by the end of Key Stage 1 are average.  Pupils make more rapid progress during Key Stage 2. By the time they reach Year 6 pupils can use ICT well to communicate and present their ideas and to record and manipulate data. Some Year 6 pupils reach exceptionally high standards in programming and animation.  Pupils of all ages are unanimous in saying that they enjoy using and prefer working with ICT. They say it helps them produce better work because

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Achievement and standards in ICT

they can edit out any mistakes they make when for example word processing or when filming each other’s presentations.  Pupils are prepared very well by the school to be able to work independently.

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Quality of teaching and learning of ICT

 Teachers and teaching assistants have good subject knowledge.  Learning is planned so that pupils can work on tasks independently or in small groups. Teaching ensures pupils are clear about their learning objectives and then provides substantial opportunities for pupils to work on the tasks at their own pace. Pupils of all ages and abilities respond well to this approach which is effective in enabling them to consolidate and extend their skills.  Pupils were highly motivated in an innovative Year 6 lesson by being challenged to design and programme a computer game. A good choice of software and good support from the teacher made this demanding task possible for most pupils. One autistic pupil learnt some complex and high level programming principles and was enabled to make outstanding progress.

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Quality of the curriculum for ICT

 All aspects of the statutory National Curriculum programmes of study are covered well. Provision for some aspects such as learning how to program are covered exceptionally well.  The school is developing a skills based curriculum which brings together several subjects into one topic. The use of ICT in improving learning is carefully planned into topics. For instance in a topic about life in tudor times pupils researched dress and mannerisms on the internet and then wrote, performed and filmed a production to illustrate their learning.  Until recently the school operated the government’s after school ‘CC4G’ (Computer Club for Girls) which some of the girls spoke enthusiastically about.

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Leadership and management of ICT

 Developing the provision for ICT has been a priority since the last inspection. The leadership of the school expects ICT to be widely used to improve learning as acquiring ICT skills has been identified as important for pupils’ future economic well-being. A significant investment in ICT resources and staff training has been made to enable this to happen.  The school uses a national scheme to evaluate its ICT provision and has a good understanding of its strengths and areas for development. Plans are already in place to improve the weaker aspects of provision such as assessment.  The school has made good progress in improving ICT provision since the last inspection.

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Use of Assessment

 Roughly every half-term work in ICT is checked and pupils who are above, at and below national expectations are identified. However assessment does not identify the National Curriculum levels pupils are working at apart from at the end of Key Stage 2.  The school recognises that it needs to introduce more rigorous assessment and tracking procedures to inform teachers and pupils more closely of the level they are working at and of what they need to do next to improve their work.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

 introducing systems to moderate and standardise pupils’ work to ensure assessment is consistent  ensuring pupils know the level they are working at and know how they might improve their work  tracking the progress of individual pupils so that teachers are aware of who is meeting their targets, who is exceeding them and who is falling behind.

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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.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

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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