Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 404040 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Miss S Porter Headteacher Queenswell Infant & Nursery School Sweets Way Whetstone London N20 0NQ

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development

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff, during my visits on 8 December and 9 December 2009. Please also extend my thanks to the parents and pupils to whom I spoke.

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development

As outlined in my initial letter, the visit had a particular focus on how the school’s work with parents and carers affects a range of outcomes for pupils.

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development

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.

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development

The evidence used to inform the judgements included interviews with parents, staff and pupils, scrutiny of relevant documentation, and observations of the school at work.

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development

The overall effectiveness of the school’s engagement with parents and carers is outstanding.

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The impact of parental involvement on outcomes

The impact of parental involvement on outcomes is outstanding.

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The impact of parental involvement on outcomes

 You provide a great deal of useful information to parents and carers before and during their children’s time in the school, including weekly newsletters, regular events letters and a comprehensive welcome pack.  Consultation evenings provide parents, who attend in large numbers, with a clear understanding of their children’s progress and how they should improve. Other events, including open days and curriculum evenings, are similarly well attended.  The flow of information from school to home is very strong. It encompasses letters, text messages and telephone calls. Parents feel they can contact the school easily and receive prompt helpful responses.  Pupils are monitored closely by the school and parents are quickly informed of any problems with attendance, behaviour, effort or attainment. Similarly, where things are going well, the school is quick to congratulate with stickers, conversations and, recently, tea parties.

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The impact of parental involvement on outcomes

Parents talk warmly about the effect this has on their children’s achievement.  Day-to-day procedures for promoting attendance and punctuality are very thorough. Fixed penalty notices are reducing persistent absence and the ‘late gate’ encourages punctuality by monitoring and communicating the school’s expectations to parents and their children.  The well-organised school website engages parents in the routines of the school. A new managed learning environment (MLE), to be launched in January, has potential to engage parents further. Clearly this development will not be as useful for families without ready access to computers.

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The impact of the involvement of parents on the quality of provision

The impact of the involvement of parents on the quality of provision is outstanding.

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The impact of the involvement of parents on the quality of provision

 Parent-governors and the school have established a system of parents’ representatives with a specific role in engaging the parents of each class and feeding back to you in monthly meetings. Other parents are consulted by questionnaire and informally. The school can demonstrate several examples of feedback improving provision.  Home-learning booklets provide parents and their children with daily reading tasks and longer-term projects. Parents report that these tasks are appropriate and they enjoy working with their children on them.  There are numerous examples of parents contributing their expertise or time to the school to enhance the curriculum. These include regular contributions from well-inducted parent volunteers and one-off specialist talks.  With over 40 languages spoken in the school, an effective drive has engaged family members in cultural education by story telling in their home language. This is undertaken by groups of male and female

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The impact of the involvement of parents on inclusion

The impact of the involvement of parents on inclusion is outstanding.

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The impact of the involvement of parents on inclusion

 This is a very inclusive school. Parents and carers of potentially vulnerable pupils are supported exceptionally well by pastoral, academic and special educational needs teams. They speak enthusiastically about the way their children are integrated into school life and helped to achieve their best. This has resulted in life-changing experiences for some parents who are very pleased about the impact of the school’s work on their children.

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parents

The impact of leadership and management on the involvement of parents is outstanding.

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parents

 Leaders and managers have parental partnerships as an essential part in their work. The working with parent and carers policy is explicit about the school’s engagement with its parents.  The vital role of parents and carers is mentioned positively throughout the school improvement plan. Parents’ contributions underpin everything the school does. This has resulted in very strong parental satisfaction.  Governors share your view of the importance of parental involvement and parent-governors are actively involved in shaping the school’s work.  The Friends of Queenswell raise a great deal of money for the school. This group is not used as a resource for evaluating the work of the school.  The school’s very well embedded and inclusive approach is very successful in engaging all parents and carers, including those who are traditionally ‘hard to reach’. This school is very welcoming for parents.  Parents could find little fault with the school’s communication. Any

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parents

concerns or complaints are dealt with very well through informal and other channels. Customer service is a real strength of the school.

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An area for improvement, which we discussed, is:

 preparing for the introduction of the MLE by auditing computer access and providing targeted access in school for those who do not have computers at home.

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An area for improvement, which we discussed, is:

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop the impact of the work of parents and carers in the school.

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An area for improvement, which we discussed, is:

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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