Town End Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding of mathematical reasoning by:
  • embedding, extending and sharing the effective practice that is found in Years 5 and 6
  • ensuring that teachers provide regular and frequent opportunities for pupils to use and develop mathematical reasoning
  • closely monitoring the quality and impact of teaching.
• Improve the presentation of pupils’ written work by ensuring that there are consistent expectations throughout the school.
• Improve outcomes in writing by ensuring that writing tasks are accurately matched to the different abilities of pupils.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders and governors engaged parents and pupils in developing the school’s vision and values. These values are consistently applied in the day-to-day work of the school.
• Leaders’ evaluations of the school’s strengths and areas for development are very accurate. From their evaluations, leaders have planned in detail how they will overcome barriers to progress. As a result, leaders have driven improvements in reading and writing.
• The school’s curriculum is very broad and includes a wide range of enrichment opportunities. Pupils have had the chance to work with professional artists using a variety of materials and mediums. They have a book club and have opportunities to learn sign language and take Japanese lessons. They take part in a wide range of sports including sports that have been adjusted to include pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities.
• Leaders collaborate with leaders of other schools, including through the 5 Pits Partnership, of which the headteacher is a co-chair, to provide training for teachers. As a result, teachers from Town End Junior School have worked with other teachers to ensure that their assessments of pupils’ attainment are accurate.
• The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is a strength of the school. Leaders have ensured that the curriculum provides many opportunities for pupils to broaden their knowledge and understanding. For example, all pupils are given the opportunity to learn how to play a musical instrument and the school enables pupils to take instruments home to help them learn. Pupils develop their understanding of different cultures and have had pen-pals across the world, in countries including Qatar and India.
• Leaders rigorously monitor pupils’ progress, especially for the most vulnerable groups. The progress of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is tracked through a variety of different methods including drop-in observations of individual pupils by the special educational needs coordinator. Parents and pupils are included in planning support or intervention and later evaluating the impact of actions through regular meetings.
• Leaders ensure that the pupil premium grant is spent effectively by monitoring the impact of actions to overcome barriers to pupils’ learning. Leaders closely monitor the impact of the PE and sports premium by evaluating levels of pupils’ participation and the school’s capacity to offer a rich sports curriculum. As a result of their work, the school has achieved the Gold Sports Mark because of the high level of pupil engagement, including the inclusion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities.
• Leaders identified that the proportion of most-able pupils achieving the higher standard in mathematics was below the national average. However, they have not acted quickly enough to ensure that improvements in the quality of teaching were embedded across all year groups and, consequently, many pupils in lower key stage 2 have not had sufficient opportunities to develop their mathematical reasoning skills.

Governance of the school

• The governors of the school are skilled in challenging school leaders about the quality of education and the performance of the school. They ask probing questions regarding the progress that pupils make in school and how leaders will make improvements. Governors’ visits to the school frequently focus on an area of the school’s improvement plan to evaluate the progress that the school is making.
• The governors have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Governors have direct oversight of safeguarding, the impact of the pupil premium and sports premium and of the progress of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. They access appropriate training to ensure that they can fulfil their roles.
• Governors ensure that the performance management of the headteacher is carried out effectively and have appropriate oversight of the school’s finances.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Safeguarding training provided for staff is relevant and up to date. Staff have a secure understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities, including the prevention of radicalisation and local priorities, for example, awareness of right-wing extremism. Staff know what their statutory duties are and how to carry them out.
• Leaders have developed a culture of vigilance and pupils’ welfare is actively promoted throughout the curriculum. Many opportunities are provided for pupils to learn how to stay safe. This includes work in personal, social and health education (PSHE) that focuses on healthy relationships and staying safe online. As a result, pupils are able to recognise and manage risk and say that they feel safe.
• The designated safeguarding lead is knowledgeable and discharges the duties of the school in relation to pupils with a child protection plan. Staff receive relevant training which ensures that they are confident in reporting any concerns they may have about a pupil’s welfare.
• The school works effectively with parents to ensure pupils’ safety. For example, a minority of parents expressed concerns regarding the supervision of pupils at home time and the beginning of the school day. Leaders took action to work with parents and carers to keep pupils safe at these times. The school bus timetable now ensures that pupils are supervised when they arrive at school by bus. In addition, the school has a detailed record of the agreements reached with parents and carers regarding the collection arrangements for pupils at the end of the school day and are taking appropriate actions to ensure that pupils are safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Many teachers’ subject knowledge in writing is strong. Pupils’ use of grammar, spelling and punctuation is increasingly complex and pupils develop the ability to convey information in a variety of forms appropriate to their age and ability.
• The teaching of reading is consistent and effective. Many pupils can describe a wide range of strategies they have learned to help them read. The texts they read are carefully managed to challenge them appropriately and many are reading at or above expected levels.
• Teachers effectively ensure that a high proportion of pupils achieve fluency in mathematics and reach the standard expected at the end of Year 6.
• Teachers consistently set clear targets for pupils and support pupils to assess their own progress. Therefore, pupils know what they need to do to improve their work. They can track the skills that they have securely demonstrated and the ones that they need to become more confident with.
• Teachers effectively include numeracy and literacy in other subjects across the curriculum. For example, a topic focused on natural disasters included art, statistics and report writing as well as the geography and geology required to understand the working and impact of volcanoes.
• Teaching assistants are used effectively throughout lessons. They work in a variety of ways. Their role is tailored to the requirements of the pupils and the topic being taught, with a focus on supporting those pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. This enables all pupils to work together and make strong progress.
• Teachers do not consistently ensure, across all year groups, that writing tasks are sufficiently well matched to the needs and abilities of pupils. As a result, for a small minority of pupils, progress in writing is inconsistent.
• The teaching of reasoning in mathematics is not effectively embedded throughout the school. In those cohorts where reasoning has not been a focus, the most able pupils are not deepening their understanding sufficiently to enable them to reach the higher standard in mathematics.
• In a minority of books, pupils do not present their work in mathematics and writing to a high standard. For example, they do not use joined writing in a written exercise or use a ruler appropriately when drawing a rectangle. This slows down the development of effective presentation skills required by the end of key stage 2.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils are willing and able to offer each other considerable support in their learning. For example, they will give clear feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of each other’s work. Many pupils, when supporting others, ask challenging questions that help others deepen their understanding.
• Pupils demonstrate very strong teamworking skills. For example, when teams were identifying similarities and differences between Sikhism and Christianity, pupils suggested how to arrange characteristics of the two religions and led discussions to decide whether they matched or not.
• Pupils treat each other and staff with courtesy and respect. The management of behaviour promotes fundamental British values and concepts of fairness, tolerance and respect.
• Older pupils are given a wide range of responsibilities that they take very seriously, for example election to the role of school councillor, being chosen as a prefect or becoming a reading pal. This contributes to their social, emotional and moral development.
• Pupils have consistently positive attitudes to school. Many pupils said that they enjoyed working hard, ‘Hard work can be fun’, ‘We have to work hard… teachers challenge us… we like to get better.’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Teachers and support staff have encouraged pupils to not tolerate bullying or prejudicial behaviour. As a result, incidents are very rare, and when they occur they are swiftly dealt with.
• The school’s behaviour policy is applied consistently across the school. As a result, pupils manage their behaviour well in lessons and during social times. The incidents of poor behaviour are very low and have halved over the last three years. There has been one fixed-term exclusion and no permanent exclusions this year and only three fixed-term exclusions in the past five years.
• Pupils’ attendance is in line with the national average and the percentage who are persistently absent, which is very low, continues to improve. Determined leadership has secured substantial improvements in attendance, employing imaginative and robust measures. No groups are disadvantaged by low attendance and individuals with previously poor attendance show substantial improvements over time.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils’ attainment at the end of key stage 2 in 2017 was in line with the national averages for reading and above the national averages for writing.
• The percentage of pupils attaining the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined was substantially higher than the national average.
• Work in pupils’ books shows that pupils in all year groups make good progress in reading and writing. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 also make good progress in mathematics.
• Most pupils currently in the school who have SEN and/or disabilities make consistently good progress. Barriers to learning have been identified and overcome through the provision of appropriate resources. Professional development and training have enabled staff to ensure that pupils receive good-quality support.
• A high proportion of disadvantaged pupils currently in the school are making progress in line with other pupils in the school. This is because leaders and teachers know the barriers to learning for each pupil and are providing targeted support to overcome them.
• The most able pupils make good progress in reading and writing. Teachers have high expectations and a very clear understanding of the knowledge and skills required for pupils to attain the higher standard in reading and greater depth in writing.
• Pupils make sufficient progress in mathematics to achieve the standard expected at the end of each year. Pupils do not consistently make progress to the higher standard in line with national expectations in Years 3 and 4. This is because pupils do not have sufficient opportunity to develop their mathematical reasoning skills.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 112639 Derbyshire 10047398 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Junior School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 185 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Barrie Green Lisa White Telephone number 01773 872 306 Website Email address www.townend.derbyshire.sch.uk headteacher@townend.derbyshire.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 14–15 November 2013

Information about this school

• Town End Junior School is an average-size junior school.
• Nearly all pupils have English as their first language.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is now average having risen from well below the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set out the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in nine lessons, some of which were visited jointly with a senior leader. During visits to lessons, inspectors sampled pupils’ books and talked with pupils to evaluate the quality of their learning. Inspectors also made short visits to lessons throughout the school.
• Inspectors observed the behaviour of pupils at breaktime, lunchtime and as pupils moved around the school.
• Inspectors held a number of meetings with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, and governors, including the vice-chair of the governing body. The lead inspector also held separate telephone conversations with a representative of the local authority and with the chair of the governing body.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils from all year groups in meetings, in lessons and around the school at breaktime and lunchtime.
• During the first day of the inspection, pupils from Years 5 and 6 were on a residential visit to an outdoor pursuits centre. They returned on day 2 of the inspection.
• The inspection team looked at a wide range of the school’s documentation, including the school’s evaluation of its own performance and its plan for improvement. They considered data on pupils’ attainment and progress, attendance and bullying. They looked at behaviour records, safeguarding procedures, and minutes of governing body meetings. They considered records of statutory moderation from 2017.
• Inspectors took account of 42 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, and responses from parents to the Ofsted free-text service. Inspectors considered 13 responses to the online questionnaire for staff. There were no responses to the questionnaire for pupils.

Inspection team

Clive Worrall, lead inspector Sarah Fielding

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector