Setting

Ms A Craig-Kemal Paxton Primary School Woodland Road London SE19 1PA

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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 October 2009 and for the information which you provided during my visit. Please do extend my sincere thanks to the staff, pupils and the chair of governors who gave up their time to meet with us.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

As a result of the inspection on 25–26 February 2009, the school was asked to

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

 accelerate the rate of pupils' progress in order to raise standards and improve achievement in English, mathematics and science.  develop more rigorous and accurate self-evaluation in order to identify weaknesses, address them quickly, and set targets that are more challenging.

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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

Pupils’ achievement and standards have been improved slightly in 2009 on the previous year’s results and the school has made pleasing progress in some areas. The school exceeded its targets in Key Stage 2 in English and science to just below national averages but did not reach its target in mathematics. Although the decline in standards in mathematics reported at the last inspection has been reversed and is now improving, standards are still well below national averages. Results in science have significantly improved from the previous year.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

The trend of improving reading and writing standards in Years 1 and 2, identified at the last inspection, has been consolidated in 2009. However, teacher assessments in Tribal Group 1-4 Portland Square Bristol BS2 8RR T 08456 40 40 40 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Page 2 mathematics at end of Key Stage 1 indicate lower attainment than in the previous year.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Progress across both key stages is inconsistent for pupils of different abilities. More able pupils are not making the progress of which they are capable, and this was particularly evident in the literacy and numeracy lessons observed. The school has not developed strategies for developing pupils’ literacy skills in lessons; for instance, pupils are not helped to improve the spellings of key words or gain a good understanding of the use of punctuation in their writing. Therefore, the standards of pupils’ written work are too variable and highly dependent on an individual pupil’s ability.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

At the last inspection, teaching and learning were judged as satisfactory but during the monitoring visit, observations of lessons revealed weaknesses that were not previously identified. The progress of pupils who are lower attaining and those at early stages of English is, in some cases, inadequate, as teachers are not planning lessons by taking into account pupils’ different abilities. Teaching assistants are not deployed consistently well in the planning of learning and preparation of teaching materials, for instance through the use of appropriate carefully structured tasks. Expectations of pupils are low and the pace of teaching and the staging of activities are sometimes pitched inappropriately. Too little use is made of assessment activities that can inform teachers of the progress that individual pupils are making. In some instances, where teachers use self-assessment techniques, this is not

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

established as an ongoing meaningful activity that enables pupils to reflect on their progress or the standards of their work in relation to the learning objectives. Marking is inconsistent across the key stages and is not yet an effective tool for improving progress and guiding pupils on how to improve. Target setting is in place, but the targets are not sufficiently helpful in guiding pupils.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Behaviour, in general, is good in lessons and around the school. In some lessons, where older pupils are not engaged in their learning, there are incidents of low-lying disruptive behaviour. Owing to the efforts of an Education Welfare Officer and a Parents’ Officer, persistent absence has improved slightly since the last inspection but is still too high. Attendance, on the other hand, has remained at below national averages over three years.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Through support from Streatham Wells, the partner school, and the School Improvement Partner, self-evaluation has improved. Senior leaders have provided a satisfactory account of the school’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to achievement and standards, although the school has been too generous in its evaluation of teaching and learning. Internal observers place insufficient emphasis on pupils’ learning and progress and are not yet evaluating the impact of assessment processes in lessons.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

The local authority has provided good levels of support through an external review and through consultancy for improving teaching and learning. For instance, training Page 3 has been planned with the Primary Consultant on teaching more able pupils, levelling and guided writing. Unforeseen and extenuating circumstances that involved periods of absence for both the headteacher and the partner head since May 2009 have meant that external support is not timely and therefore is not as effective as it might have been. The school has not been able to make as much progress as it should have, at the time of the monitoring visit. By the time of the next inspection, the school will need to demonstrate the impact of its actions in ensuring rapid improvement, critically in the area of teaching, learning, pupils’ progress and standards.

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Ofsted monitoring of schools with a notice to improve

Overall, there is a lack of clarity as to how the different aspects of the external support are coordinated and this will be crucial in securing the rapid improvements needed to sustain capacity in the school’s leadership team and its teachers.

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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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