Colneis Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching in mathematics by:
  • increasing the monitoring of teaching, to gain a thorough overview of the strengths and weaknesses of staff, and providing further training for those who need it most
  • gaining greater consistency, so that all teaching matches the most effective
  • ensuring that the strategies introduced recently to improve mathematics become fully embedded, and evaluating the impact this has on improving pupils’ learning and progress
  • enabling the most able pupils who understand what to do to promptly get on with their work.
• Improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • accurately evaluating the school’s work and using this information to sharpen the school’s improvement plans
  • providing further training to enable middle leaders to play a greater role in monitoring pupils’ achievement and welfare
  • holding leaders of subjects and year groups fully accountable for the standards achieved by the pupils in their care
  • adding further rigour to the analysis of attendance and behaviour records to spot patterns and trends, and enabling staff to intervene early to make improvements.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders and governors have the same vision and high ambitions for the school. The established federation with the local infant school enables them to share their leadership skills, knowledge and experience across both schools. Good liaison ensures that pupils joining this school in Year 3 are fully prepared for learning in key stage 2.
• Leaders provide pupils with a rich, stimulating environment in which to learn. The school’s caring and supportive ethos fosters good relations with pupils and with their parents. Most of the parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, or by text during the inspection, were overwhelmingly supportive of the school’s work.
• Senior leaders set the tone for learning. They have high expectations of pupils and of staff. Relations among staff and with pupils are very good. Leaders ensure that staff work collectively as a team to meet pupils’ different needs and interests.
• Leaders know the school’s strengths and most of its weaknesses, but their evaluation of the school’s effectiveness is too generous. They feel the school is outstanding. Inspectors found little evidence to support this view. Some inconsistencies in teaching and the underperformance of pupils in mathematics have not been carefully considered by leaders.
• Leaders feel that this underperformance was mainly due to the greater demands of the new mathematics curriculum. Their analysis has identified that that not all of the building blocks had been put in place earlier on in Year 5 to ensure that, by the end of the key stage, pupils were sufficiently prepared for last year’s test. They have responded swiftly to this dip in performance and put in place plans for improvement.
• Procedures to oversee pupils’ progress and coordinate additional support are systematic. Regular learning walks and drop-ins enable leaders to gain a broad overview of the quality of teaching. They do fewer formal observations of lessons. This prevents them from identifying accurately the strengths and weaknesses of each teacher, or tailoring personalised support for those who need to increase their effectiveness.
• Good leadership of literacy ensures that pupils’ reading and writing across all year groups are well developed. Not all leaders of subjects and year groups, however, understand fully their monitoring roles. Time allocated to them for management duties is not always used well enough. Monitoring records show that they do not rigorously check the impact of teaching on pupils’ progress or analyse patterns of behaviour and attendance.
• Newly qualified staff feel well supported. They have mentors to support them and are given time to attend further training to develop their practice.
• A broad and balanced curriculum enables pupils to attain well in literacy and numeracy. Pupils value highly the wide range of opportunities in science, humanities, French, physical education, music and the arts.
• Tolerance and respect for others permeate school life. Pupils are taught about people’s different backgrounds, faiths and beliefs. They learn about democracy and the rule of law through the work of the school council, the local youth forum and by engaging in local community events.

Governance of the school

• Experienced and effective governors, including some from senior educational backgrounds, oversee the school’s development well. They are professional, organised and effective. They make regular visits to observe pupils and staff at work, and report their findings at governors’ meetings.
• Governors feel that they receive enough information from the headteacher to enable them to monitor the school’s work and provide suitable support and challenge.
• Finances are managed effectively. Governors ensure that additional funding is suitably targeted to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Careful use of the pupil premium is having a significant impact on the outcomes achieved by disadvantaged pupils. Gaps in attainment are diminishing and assessments show that they make at least similar progress to other pupils.
• They ensure that the physical education and sport premium is spent wisely to enhance pupils’ physical education and to give pupils regular experience of participating in competitive sport.
• Governors oversee the management of the performance of teachers, so that only those deserving pay awards get them.
• Governors ensure that all the necessary checks are made when recruiting adults to work with children.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Safeguarding is prioritised. The single central record is maintained meticulously.
• Off-site visits are assessed for risk systematically to keep pupils safe.
• A team of designated leads for child protection ensure that safeguarding procedures are followed, and records of incidents and concerns are fully maintained. Working relations with a range of support agencies are well established.
• Good links forged between the school and pupils’ homes by the family support worker enable staff to respond promptly to any safeguarding matters.
• Pupils are shown how to look after one another and to keep themselves safe in school and when using social media.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Overall, teaching is good. Teachers and support staff work well together to make learning interesting and enjoyable, and provide additional help for pupils who need it. Their coordinated work ensures that classrooms are busy, purposeful and productive.
• Good relations are forged between pupils and staff. Behaviour is managed effectively. Most teachers engage pupils well by asking them to talk together before answering, or showing their answers on personal whiteboards.
• In a range of subjects, teachers use their detailed subject knowledge and understanding of pupils’ prior learning to plan activities that quickly capture their interest. The majority of teachers make good use of interactive whiteboards to share with pupils what they want them to learn and to demonstrate what they want them to do. They plan regular opportunities for pupils to work by themselves and together in groups to consolidate their learning.
• On arrival in Year 3, pupils’ reading skills are already well developed. Staff build on this through daily guided reading and regular opportunities to read for pleasure. Pupils respond enthusiastically to the weekly ‘golden ticket award’ to reward those who are reading regularly in their own time.
• Writing is taught exceptionally well. Teachers use their excellent subject knowledge and a wide range of teaching skills to plan tasks that capture pupils’ interest and enthusiasm, and teach them how to write well. For example, in a Year 5 class, pupils were asked to show on the interactive whiteboard how they would improve statements by adding punctuation, before returning to their desks to correct and enhance their own work. Their writing had already been marked to illustrate the sections they needed to improve upon. Marking included personal targets for them to enhance their writing.
• In a Year 6 lesson, pupils worked together in groups to research information about the Battle of Britain. They moved around the class to gather information from a range of sources, overseen by a pupil on each desk acting as an ‘expert’ to guide others’ learning. Pupils were set tight timescales to process their notes and then present their findings in writing. High expectations and excellent planning and organisation ensured that pupils made rapid progress.
• In classes, pupils’ books show good-quality writing in a range of styles, and explicit teaching of handwriting, spelling and grammar. In these classes, the school’s marking policy is followed to provide pupils with good feedback about improving their work. Pupils are given time to follow this up and correct their errors. Teachers encourage pupils to apply success criteria to help them structure their writing, and use these criteria to evaluate the quality of their own and others’ work.
• There is some inconsistency in the teaching of mathematics across and within all year groups. It is better in most Year 5 and 6 classes, where teachers’ subject knowledge is much more secure. New learning is introduced step by step. Pupils are given regular opportunities to practise and apply their reasoning skills and solve problems. Regular checks are made to see if pupils fully understand before moving to the next stage.
• Some teachers lack the subject knowledge to help pupils develop a thorough mathematical understanding. Learning is not planned well, so tasks are too easy for some and too challenging for others. Pupils’ misconceptions are not always corrected. The most able pupils spend too long on the carpet listening to instructions, even though they understand what to do next. At times, pupils’ interest wanes and a few begin to fidget or misbehave.
• Regular assessments are recorded systematically to illustrate pupils’ progress. Books are marked regularly, but not all teachers challenge poor-quality presentation of pupils’ work.
• Inspectors’ observations found that teaching in some foundation subjects inspires pupils to learn. For example, in art, after a good demonstration of blending colours by the teacher, pupils set up their equipment quickly and eagerly, so that they could get on with the painting task. Specialist instruction in weekly swimming lessons enables pupils to develop their confidence in water and practise and improve their strokes in a safe environment.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

 Poor presentation not being challenged in marking  Books show some task over time need more challenge – bar chart info too

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. simple, area of shapes too easy
• Parents feel that staff go the extra mile to get to know each child and meet their  Not all teachers checking the quality and quantity of work in lessons to confirm needs. The vast majority of those who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, pupils are learning well enough Parent View, would recommend the school to others. Comments in texts sent to inspectors included ‘I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to know that my child is safe, secure and in a caring environment’ and ‘Colneis provides a very safe and nurturing environment in which my child has flourished.’
• Daily assemblies promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding well. Pupils sing and pray together, celebrate the achievements of others and learn about people from different cultures and backgrounds.
• Pupils say that the school is a safe, friendly place to be. When asked what they would do to make the school even better, they said that ‘they wouldn’t change that much’, confirming their enjoyment of school.
• Leaders do all they can to ensure that pupils attend regularly. Overall attendance is in line with the national average. Absence authorised by parents is above average.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Inspectors found pupils to be respectful, courteous and polite.
• A minority of parents’ texts sent during the inspection raised concerns about behaviour in lessons. Inspectors investigated this fully. Pupils told inspectors that behaviour in lessons is usually good. They feel that, at times, one or two pupils can spoil things by disturbing their learning, but most teachers will sort this out.
• Inspectors found that, in a small minority of lessons where teaching failed to capture or retain pupils’ interest, a few of them disengaged from learning. Their poor attitudes towards learning slowed their own progress, but did not disrupt the learning of others.
• Inspectors found that, at breaks and lunchtimes, play areas are busy, playful and active. Pupils meet together in friendship groups around school. When asked about bullying, pupils told inspectors that it rarely happens. When it does, mostly in disputes when playing football outside, they can report it to any teacher who will help them to stop it.
• The school’s own records show very few incidents of poor behaviour, bullying or racist incidents. Records are maintained in detail. However, this information is not routinely analysed to identify the causes of pupil absence or patterns in misbehaviour, so that preventative action can be taken.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Standards achieved by the end of key stage 2 are consistently high. Overall, results have been above average for the past three years. Last year, a higher-than-average proportion of Year 6 pupils attained the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Also, a higher-than-average proportion of the most able pupils exceeded expectations in reading and writing. Based on their starting points, this represents good progress.
• Literacy is a strength of the school. A higher-than-average proportion of pupils met expectations in the national tests for spelling, grammar and punctuation. Standards in writing are exceptionally high. The proportion of most-able pupils in Year 6 exceeding expectations last year was double the national average.
• Until recently, standards achieved in mathematics have also been consistently high. However, the above-average results achieved by pupils in Year 6 last year masked some underachievement. Based on their starting points, not all pupils made the progress expected of them. The proportion of most-able pupils in Year 6 exceeding expectations was above average.
• Leaders’ analysis of last year’s results shows that teachers need to improve their teaching of problem-solving and reasoning skills. To achieve this, leaders have invested in staff training and new resources. Lead teachers have attended national training in promoting pupils’ mastery of mathematics. A consultant is providing ongoing training to help staff improve their teaching. In staff meetings, teachers are encouraged to share their effective practice with others. More time is needed to ensure that these strategies become fully embedded.
• Outcomes in science were broadly average last year. To improve this, leaders have introduced science weeks to develop pupils’ scientific understanding, stimulate their wider interest and raise their overall achievement.
• Disadvantaged pupils achieve as well as others because they are known well and every action is taken to support their learning and welfare. Last year, disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 made more progress than other pupils in the school nationally in reading and mathematics.
• The small proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. Teachers and support staff get to know them well and provide good support for them. The school’s nurture room is used effectively to ensure that their social and emotional needs are met and that they are suitably prepared for learning. Teaching assistants are deployed effectively to support their learning in lessons and during support sessions.
• Pupils told inspectors that, currently, they feel that they are making good progress in reading and writing. In mathematics, they want more help with their times tables, more support in small groups in their classes and clearer explanations. The most able pupils would like greater challenge in all lessons.
• Current assessment data shows that the large majority of pupils across all year groups are making the progress expected of them. This includes disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders feel that, based on their own monitoring, most pupils in Year 6 are progressing well and should attain the school’s predicted outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics later this year.
• Inspectors’ observations and their scrutiny of pupils’ work confirmed that they are generally making good progress. Leaders’ actions to improve the teaching of mathematics need to become fully embedded to ensure that the school’s achievement targets are met this year.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 124624 Suffolk 10023487 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Junior School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 352 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Celia Davies Jane Reed Telephone number 01394 284 052 Website Email address www.colneisjunior.co.uk/ colneisoffice@fairfieldandcolneis.co.uk Date of previous inspection 15–16 March 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is federated with Fairfield Infant school. In 2015, the schools combined to form one governing body. The headteacher and other senior leaders lead and manage both schools.
• The junior school is larger than average.
• The majority of pupils are White British. Very few are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, including those with a statement of educational needs or an education, health and care plan, is below average.
• The school met the government’s floor targets (the minimum targets that schools are expected to achieve) in 2016.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in 13 lessons. The also carried out a learning walk to observe pupils’ learning in foundation subjects and to observe the quality of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education.
• They held meetings with senior and middle leaders, two newly qualified teachers, five members of the governing body and a group of pupils.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work. They looked at safeguarding and child protection policy and procedures, risk assessments, self-evaluation and improvement planning, minutes of governors’ meetings, records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance and other information provided by senior leaders.
• Inspectors scrutinised pupils’ work in lessons. They considered the 73 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 47 free texts sent by parents and carers. No responses were received from pupils or from staff.

Inspection team

John Mitcheson, lead inspector Sally Nutman Angela Savill Ashley Best-White Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector