Setting

Miss Preston William Bellamy Junior School Frizlands Lane Dagenham Essex RM10 7HX

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of William Bellamy Junior School

Following my visit with Grace Marriott, Additional Inspector, to your school on 16–17 March 2010, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of William Bellamy Junior School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures in October 2009. The monitoring inspection report is attached and the main judgements are set out below.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of William Bellamy Junior School

Progress since being subject to special measures – good.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of William Bellamy Junior School

Newly Qualified Teachers may not be appointed.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of William Bellamy Junior School

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be posted on the Ofsted website.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of William Bellamy Junior 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’s Services for Barking and Dagenham.

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Her Majesty’s Inspector

Tribal Group 1-4 Portland Square Bristol BS2 8RR T 08456 40 40 40 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 0845 6404045 Ofstedhelpline@ofsted.gov.uk Page 2

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, groups of pupils, governors, the children’s centre family support coordinator and the principal inspector from the local authority.

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Context

Since the inspection there have been changes to the senior leadership. The deputy headteacher who was also the special educational needs coordinator has resigned. A new deputy headteacher has taken up her post, as has a new special educational needs coordinator.

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Pupils’ achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

Unvalidated results from the 2009 national tests show that attainment has improved and overall attainment is broadly average. Results in English improved and are in line with the national average. Science remained a relative strength while results in mathematics fell. Overall, pupils’ progress was in line with national expectations. However, this disguised a lack of progress for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities due to provision which was judged by the last inspection as ‘inadequate’. Since then, provision in this area has improved and pupils’ progress is now satisfactory. The school’s internal monitoring information, supported by inspectors’ classroom observations, shows pupils’ current progress to be satisfactory. While good improvements in provision have taken place, in many instances it is too soon to see the impact on pupil outcomes.

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Pupils’ achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

Progress since the last inspection on the areas for improvement:

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Pupils’ achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

 raise the achievement of all pupils quickly – satisfactory.

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

The improvements noted in the inspection report in areas such as behaviour and attendance have been maintained. Behaviour in lessons now makes a positive contribution to pupils’ learning. Behaviour around the school is characterised by politeness and courtesy. Page 3

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The effectiveness of provision

Since the inspection, the school has implemented a rigorous programme of monitoring and evaluation to ensure leaders fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The monitoring and evaluation of teachers’ work has led to focused support where needed and a general programme of in-school professional development aimed at raising the quality of teaching and learning. Inspectors accompanied the headteacher and deputy headteacher to six lessons and were satisfied with the robustness of their lesson evaluations. The school’s monitoring information shows that the quality of teaching has now improved. The proportion of teaching that is at least good has risen to over a third. Even where teaching is less successful, the application of common routines and approaches across the school, such as talk partners and no hands up, is leading to a general rise in pupil engagement.

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The effectiveness of provision

Pupils work well in groups. Teachers group pupils at tables reflecting the level at which they are working. This enables different work to be set but this is at an early stage of development and often most pupils in the class do similar work. Catering for the needs of the more able pupils sometimes results in those pupils doing the same as everyone else before tackling some extra questions. The planning for more able pupils needs to increase the expectation of challenge rather than quantity of output. Less able pupils are supported by learning support assistants who help with their work. The school has extended the working day for learning support assistants to allow teachers to brief them before the start of the school day on how to support pupils in forthcoming lessons. This is a good innovation.

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The effectiveness of provision

Teachers have begun to plan together and there is evidence of consistent approaches being adopted in classrooms. The deputy headteacher supports teachers in their joint planning. As a result, planning is improving with teachers now thinking about learning rather than simply a list of tasks. There is variability in the extent to which teachers have adopted new approaches to planning.

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The effectiveness of provision

The appointment of an inclusion manager to coordinate all aspects of provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities has led to faster and clearer identification of these pupils. Class teachers are also now involved in developing individual education plans for pupils. The new tracking systems are starting to provide teachers with accurate information about pupils’ progress. This enables them to plan more effectively to meet pupils’ needs in class and set helpful targets which can be shared with pupils and parents and which are reviewed regularly. The range of intervention provision has been extended. It includes booster classes, speech and language, dyslexia and behaviour support and hearing impairment. It has been extended and is now more carefully targeted to meet individual and group needs. It is however too soon for these developments to have had a major impact on pupils’

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The effectiveness of provision

Progress since the last inspection on the areas for improvement:

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The effectiveness of provision

 improving the provision for and management of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities to achieve high quality outcomes – good

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The effectiveness of provision

 raising the quality of teaching and learning from satisfactory to good or better – good.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Much of the good improvement in leadership and management has been referred to under other headings above. Improvements are currently driven by the headteacher and recently appointed deputy headteacher. Governors are now much more aware of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. Indeed, they are proving innovative in creating opportunities for further improvement through initiatives such as the forthcoming joint meeting with governors from the feeder infant school and children’s centre.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Leaders are taking robust action through performance management to raise the quality of teaching further. A priority is to increase the number of senior leaders. Actions so far have demonstrated that there exists some capacity to improve the school, but evaluation has not yet taken place to demonstrate the effectiveness of these improvements. A further barrier to quicker improvement is that a number of teachers are leaving the school over the next two terms.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

There has been satisfactory progress in developing the expertise of subject leaders so that they have a secure understanding of standards in their subject areas and can be held accountable for their responsibilities. Subject leaders in English and mathematics have had access to specific training and as a consequence are developing greater understanding of standards in their areas. They are starting to use the new assessment and tracking systems to identify strengths and weaknesses in pupils’ progress and the implications of these for teaching and learning, for example in improving target setting. They have, though, not yet had enough opportunities for direct observation in classes to enable them to monitor and evaluate the impact of developments on the quality of teaching and on pupils’ progress.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Progress since the last inspection on the areas for improvement: Page 5  implementing a rigorous programme of monitoring and evaluation to ensure leaders fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school – good.

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External support

There has been good external support for the school. The core issue from the inspection was the quality of provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. In response to this, the local authority has worked well with the school to improve special needs provision and management. It has provided training for the staff on individual education plans and those in use by the school have improved. The local authority’s statement of action includes specific targets and details of support but has not yet been assessed by Ofsted.

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External support

London Challenge has been instrumental in linking the school to one school in a nearby borough for management support and another school in the borough that has similar issues and priorities. These partnerships are proving successful in, for example, sharing specialist staff and resources.

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Priorities for further improvement

 Evaluate the impact of recent improvements to ensure that the intended outcomes are being achieved.

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Priorities for further improvement

 Develop the capacity of staff to have the knowledge, skills and opportunities to monitor their area of responsibility in order to improve the consistency of planning, teaching and assessment.

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