Setting

Mr Rob Hart Oakfield Junior School Bell Lane Fetcham Surrey KT22 9ND

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Oakfield Junior School

Following my visit to your school on 17 and 18 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 Oakfield 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 Oakfield Junior School

Progress since being subject to special measures – good.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Oakfield Junior School

Newly Qualified Teachers may be appointed.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Oakfield Junior School

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

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Oakfield 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 Surrey.

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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 Page 2

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Evidence

The inspector observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, staff, groups of pupils, the chair of governors and other members of the governing body, representatives from the local authority and the headteacher from the local partner school.

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Context

There is a new senior leadership team in place consisting of the headteacher, one deputy headteacher, two senior teachers and the head of special educational needs and/or disabilities. The local authority has appointed an additional governor to support the school’s governing body to develop an appropriate challenging approach to hold the school to account for its performance. The school is developing its partnership with a local outstanding school.

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

The school is predicting a rise in attainment for English and mathematics in national tests in 2010. The school is set to maintain its level of attainment in science. In mathematics and reading, the school is set to exceed the targets for the proportion of pupils achieving high grades. The school is also on track to achieve its Level 4 and above targets. This represents good improvement compared to the 2009 test results. Pupils’ levels of attainment in writing have also improved; current data suggest the school is set to achieve both Level 4 and Level 5 targets. The good improvements are due to better pupil assessment and improved teaching. The school is now able to implement effective learning strategies and to provide focused teaching and support to pupils, especially those who are underachieving.

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

Pupils make good progress in their learning in half the lessons observed. In these lessons, there is good use of peer and self-assessment to enable pupils to know how to improve their performance. Year 6 pupils demonstrated a good level of understanding of their attainment targets. The most able pupils are set suitably challenging tasks and are encouraged to use advanced vocabulary well. The inspector saw the good development of pupils’ oracy and evaluation skills in a lesson where the topic was water filtration. In these lessons pupils are given good opportunities to work independently. They also work effectively in groups and support their peers well. Pupils’ pace of learning is slower when there is insufficient time to finish their work or when they are not suitably challenged by activities set. Page 3 Judgement

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

Progress since the last inspection:  Raise achievement and standards in writing and mathematics by using assessment information to plan work that continually builds on pupils’ prior learning and accurately matches their different learning needs (area for improvement) – good .

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school and demonstrate respect for each other. The level of pupils’ attendance has remained high. Pupils have noticed the change in the quality of lessons in mathematics and English; one student commented, ‘These lessons are fun now… I really like the guided reading time in English.’ Pupils feel there is now a good choice of after-school clubs. Pupils remarked that they are now being stretched to do well in lessons.

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The effectiveness of provision

The quality of teaching in lessons has improved since the last inspection. Half the lessons observed were good. No inadequate lessons were observed. The use of ‘assessing pupils’ progress’ (APP) is established in all lessons, although the degree to which it is used to enable pupils to learn well is variable. Teachers’ planning of lessons is consistent, with every teacher using ‘success criteria’ to enable pupils to know what they will learn. In the more effective lessons, teachers use assessment methods effectively to determine the appropriate levels of activities for each pupil. The pace of these lessons kept pupils motivated and on task. Relevant extension exercises were set for pupils who completed their work early. In these lessons, marking of work is detailed and informative to enable pupils to have a good understanding of what they have achieved and how they could improve their work. Teachers in these lessons encourage students to evaluate their levels of

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The effectiveness of provision

achievement well. However, not all lessons enabled students to learn well. In the weaker lessons teachers demonstrated a sound understanding of pupils’ differing levels of achievement but did not use this information to inject the right pace or challenge to enable pupils to learn well. In a few lessons observed there were insufficient checks on learning by teachers to ensure pupils were working at an appropriate pace; consequently their rates of progress slowed and pupils did not complete the tasks set.

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The effectiveness of provision

Much good work has been undertaken to improve the curriculum in both mathematics and English. Setting is used well to enable pupils to gain the appropriate levels of teacher challenge or support. In mathematics many new initiatives have resulted in improved outcomes for pupils. These include ‘SNAP’ support, where pupils are taken out of lessons for short periods of time, booster programmes and one-to-one support for pupils early in the term. In English, the Page 4 guided reading scheme, which is part of the guided learning initiative, is working well. Pupils rotate between individual quiet reading, reading in a group or working on comprehension exercises. The school’s data indicate that between October 2009 and January 2010 a large majority of pupils improved their standard of reading by one National Curriculum sub-level.

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The effectiveness of provision

A range of intervention strategies, to target pupils who should be doing better, are being coordinated well to ensure as many pupils as possible, especially in Year 6, receive the correct support. Pupils feel they are supported well by their teachers and that they have many opportunities to improve their performance both during and after lessons.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The headteacher is working hard to unite the staff and set a clear agenda for improvement. However, because the newly formed senior leadership team does not have clearly identified roles and responsibilities, there is lack of understanding of who is leading on each of the school’s priorities. The school improvement plan accurately identifies the key areas requiring action, and monitoring of the school’s performance by leaders and managers is undertaken well. Subject leaders have put in place many effective measures to enable the school to demonstrate a marked improvement in pupil attainment in English and mathematics. Governors have received appropriate training on pupil performance data to enable them to increase their level of challenge. The targets set for pupil attainment are realistic, although not always challenging. The school is set to achieve most of its targets this year. Good progress has been made in improving the standard of teaching within the

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

school. Leaders have worked hard to secure a larger proportion of good lessons and to eliminate inadequate teaching. However, the school recognises that the mechanisms to improve the individual teachers’ practice needs to be more sharply focused. Support for teachers to develop the new whole-school assessment procedures has enabled them to have an increased level of confidence in using these new methods.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Progress since the last inspection on the areas for improvement:  Improve leadership and management by - ensuring that improvement planning clearly identifies and prioritises actions to raise achievement and standards in writing and mathematics, that are then monitored and measured for their success - rigorously monitoring the quality of teaching and learning, with a strong focus on the progress pupils are making – good . Page 5

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External support

The school has received effective and appropriate local authority support to improve teaching and assessment in mathematics and literacy and to strengthen leadership and management in the school. This support has contributed extremely well to the school’s predicted improved outcomes. The local authority’s statement of action has enabled the school to bring about good improvement, especially in the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and assessment. Local authority reviews of the school’s performance are being undertaken regularly. The local authority’s senior consultant is working effectively with the school and is supporting senior leaders extremely well. The work with the partner school has yet to commence in earnest, although the headteacher of the partner school has provided good staff development and clearly identified the support that will be offered through the partnership.

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Priorities for further improvement

 Clarify the roles of the senior leadership team to ensure there are clear responsibilities and accountability for the school’s actions.

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