Setting

Mrs Anne Knight Headteacher Newport School Newport Road London E10 6PJ

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Thank you for the help which you and your staff gave when I inspected your school on 7 May 2009, for the time you gave to our telephone discussions and for the information which you provided before and during my visit. Please could you pass on my thanks to all the staff and pupils and to everyone who spoke with me.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

In April 2009 the governing body of the school was replaced by an interim executive board (IEB).

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

As a result of the inspection on 21 October 2008, the school was asked to:  improve the quality of teaching and learning significantly through ironing out variability, in order to accelerate pupils’ progress and raise standards  more rigorously monitor the quality of teaching and learning  strengthen governance to ensure that the governing body holds the school to account for the effectiveness of its performance.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Having considered all the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time the school is making inadequate progress in addressing the issues for improvement and in raising the pupils’ achievement.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

While there have been some clear improvements in the quality of teaching and learning, pupils’ progress and the rigour of monitoring, there remain important areas within these that have not improved at a rate that would secure sufficient improvement by the time of the next inspection.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

The school’s data show that Year 6 pupils are currently on track to reach higher standards and make more progress than Year 6 pupils did in 2008. The teaching in separate attainment groups and the focused support for areas of weakness are contributing to this. The school’s data also indicate variability across year groups and between English and mathematics, and that progress and standards remain well below average. There are some improvements in methods of tracking and in Prospects Learning Services Ltd Prospects House 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 Gill.Close@ofsted.gov.uk Page 2 monitoring and intervention when pupils are not making expected progress, but records are not held in formats that make it easy to track individual or overall progress against targets in each core subject over a school year or key stage.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Observation records show that teaching for some classes has improved since the inspection, but there remains too much inadequate teaching. The inspection visit confirms this. While some pupils benefit from consistently satisfactory or better teaching, others do not, so their progress is too slow. The headteacher, assisted by the local authority, is taking a range of actions to improve the situation and understands the urgency of this. There are strengths in teaching across the school on which it can draw to support improvement. Since the last inspection, the school has improved the system used to cover teachers during their planning time, and so specialists now teach pupils music, art and physical education on these occasions. The school has also worked with supply agencies and monitored supply teaching to raise quality. There are a substantial number of classes that are currently being taught by supply teachers. This affects continuity and is a concern to some pupils

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

and parents. The additional support and activities provided for pupils outside lessons sometimes causes them to miss important parts of the class lesson.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Pupils recognise the notable improvements in the quality of teaching since the last inspection. Although pupils spend less time listening at the beginning of lessons, which leaves them longer to do their own work, these listening times are still too long and often provide too little challenge for higher attainers. There are more activities that pupils find interesting and an increased use of information and communication technology, including some that conveys ideas clearly. Most pupils have individual targets in English and mathematics that are helping them to focus on what they need to do to improve, and some pupils make self-assessments against these targets. Although National Curriculum levels have recently been provided at parents’ meetings, pupils are not familiar with them or with what they need to do to reach the next level. A new marking system has been introduced this term with guidance and targets focused on areas of weakness. It has led to some improved

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

written interaction between teachers and pupils but too much work is not marked well enough to help pupils improve.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Senior and middle managers have a clearer awareness of accountability and have brought about some improvements in the quality of teaching and learning in their areas of responsibility. There are some structures in place that provide appropriate foundations for improvement. The new role of a non-teaching leader and manager for the Early Years Foundation Stage is improving planning and consistency. However, current staff absence, for which the leader is providing cover in the class, is limiting its potential. Observations during the inspection, made jointly with senior staff, showed accuracy in judging quality but the areas identified for development did not always focus on the most important improvement needed. Records of previous observations suggest that some may have been too generous and do not show systematically how improvements have been supported and achieved in areas for development. Middle managers have received initial training on their roles and

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

are beginning to be involved in supporting improvements in teaching and learning, Page 3 but not in systematic monitoring. The differing quality of teaching across the core subjects is not being tracked. Plans for monitoring the impact of teaching, assessment and intervention initiatives are not clear.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Since the last inspection, there has not been increased challenge through governance. The IEB held its first meeting recently and set up some appropriate steps to obtain evidence of improvement. It does not have systems in place to obtain first-hand information from pupils, parents and staff but recognises the importance of having them. It has begun to address the key staffing issues that are hampering the school’s improvement.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

There are some shortcomings in safeguarding, which the school is now tackling.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

The local authority has provided support, which has had some impact. This has been mainly through an adviser who has assisted the headteacher in developing accountability, complemented by literacy and numeracy consultants who have led whole school training but not supported work in all classes. The local authority’s statement of action prepared after the last inspection was not fit for purpose. It required amendments in a number of respects, including clarifying how the school would gather and take into account parents’ views, how the monitoring of teaching and learning by leaders would be improved, and details of milestones with success criteria for evaluating impact. These amendments have not been made, so the school and the IEB do not have a clear view of the details of the planned support. Further support from the local authority is needed to accelerate improvement in teaching and learning for all staff across the core subjects of English, mathematics

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

and science and to increase the impact of monitoring by senior and middle leaders.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

I hope that you have found the visit helpful in promoting improvement in your school. This letter will be posted on the Ofsted website.

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