Alverstoke Church of England Aided Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Accelerate rates of progress for the most able pupils, especially in mathematics, by using assessment information meticulously to shape the development of deeper reasoning, so that more pupils achieve a greater depth of learning.
• Ensure that the quality of teaching consistently matches the beacons of excellence already evident within the school, by ensuring that best practice is shared effectively.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The headteacher leads his team with absolute clarity towards providing the best possible quality of care and education for all pupils. Staff and governors work tirelessly to improve the school’s effectiveness. As a result, teachers and parents recognise this school as one that ‘doesn’t sit still’ but continually strives to become even better.
• The headteacher and deputy headteacher work very effectively together to motivate and support all of the staff. They evaluate accurately the school’s strengths and seek to address the priorities they identify for future development. As a result, a culture of high aspiration pervades the school.
• Staff are reflective about their skills, and strive to improve their practice. They participate in frequent and useful training linked closely to school priorities and individual need. Pupils reflect that they are ‘proud of the staff’, and recognise how staff help them to do their very best.
• Leaders and governors manage staff performance rigorously, with a constant focus on achieving the best possible outcomes for pupils. Staff rise to the challenge and expect to be held to account for the difference that their work is making to pupils’ futures. Consequently, the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes continue to improve.
• Pupils enjoy a rich and thoughtfully developed curriculum that meets their academic and pastoral needs well. Their learning across a broad range of subjects is integrated seamlessly alongside their English and mathematics work. Pupils enjoy their work in lessons, which helps them to make good progress, both academically and emotionally.
• Staff make use of every opportunity to promote learning throughout the day. At lunchtimes, pupils engage in purposeful activity and practise their social skills. Pupils enthuse about the many different extra-curricular clubs and events that enrich their learning, such as arts, sports and drama clubs, as well as catch-up support for mathematics. These help them to be confident, well-rounded and active learners.
• Leaders use pupil premium funding and sports premium funding extremely well. Governors check carefully to make sure it is making a difference. Disadvantaged pupils attend school regularly and achieve well, because barriers to learning are removed or reduced. A physical education specialist teacher works alongside class teachers to ensure that pupils learn effectively and staff develop their teaching expertise. This supports the sustainability of high-quality sports provision for the future.
• Staff, governors and pupils exude the Christian ethos that is central to the life of the school. This supports the development of pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural skills effectively. Pupils understand the key attributes of being a citizen in modern Britain, and demonstrate them through their actions on a daily basis.

Governance of the school

• Governors play an active role in supporting the school. Their experience and expertise equips them well for the role. They demonstrate a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and priorities, and share leaders’ aspirations to make the school even better.
• Governors are a visible part of the life of the school. They visit regularly and work openly with staff, asking thoughtful and challenging questions to hold leaders to account and ensure their own understanding. They use a range of evidence carefully to support them in their roles.
• Governors undertake a range of training to ensure that they are suitably knowledgeable. Most recently, they undertook training in relation to new pupil-performance information. They understand and fulfil their responsibilities, and check regularly that policies and processes are fit for purpose. This supports the safeguarding culture that is evident throughout the school.

Safeguarding

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Across the school, pupils are motivated and keen to learn. They work well with each other and with other adults who support them in lessons. Pupils are increasingly independent in their learning, using resources and help from each other to move on when they ‘get stuck’.
• Where teaching is most effective, pupils are highly engaged and active participants in their learning. Pupils make rapid progress over time because they drive their own learning on. Teaching is matched precisely to developing pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding across the broad range of the curriculum.
• Teachers use their secure subject knowledge to plan lessons effectively. They use their understanding of what pupils can do to match future learning activities carefully to different pupils’ starting points. Pupils access a wide range of useful resources during lessons, which help them to access their work and make consistently good progress over time.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make rapid progress, because teachers plan their learning particularly carefully. Other adults who work with these pupils in school are highly skilled and knowledgeable. This enables them to provide effective support and care which help these pupils to flourish and achieve well.
• Teachers assess pupils’ learning consistently and accurately, validating their judgements with each other and with colleagues in other schools. Teachers use what they learn to identify and plan for the next steps in learning for different pupils in their classes. Leaders review assessment information carefully to identify pupils who are not doing as well as they should, and put steps in place to accelerate their progress.
• While teaching is consistently good across the school, it does not always match the highest standards evident within the school. Leaders recognise this and are using training and coaching effectively to support all staff in strengthening their practice further. Staff value how this helps them to develop their skills even more.
• Pupils rise to the high levels of challenge from their teachers in their written work. At times, pupils’ technical accuracy reduces, so that the overall quality of their work is not as good as it could be. This prevents some of the most able pupils from working at the greater depth of which they are capable.
• In mathematics, opportunities for the most able pupils to develop their reasoning skills are not developed sufficiently well. Pupils do not routinely use what they know to help them deduce what they do not know. As a result, they are not challenged consistently to make rapid progress from their higher than average starting points.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding. Pupils and parents overwhelmingly recognise that the school is a safe and nurturing place to be. As one pupil said, ‘I love my school, it makes me happy.’
• Pupils learn how to communicate sensitively and thoughtfully with each other about important issues and values. The diverse curriculum helps them to practise listening to each other and to consider each other’s views. This enables pupils to feel safe and respected. As a result, bullying incidents are rare, but are managed well if they occur.
• Leaders ensure that pupils’ transition into the school in Year 3 and preparation to move on to secondary school at the end of Year 6 are managed extremely well. Staff work closely with colleagues from local infant and secondary schools to share important information that helps pupils with additional needs to be supported effectively, so that any worries are minimised and the handover is smooth. This enables pupils to flourish.
• Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, both in and out of school. They know what to do if they have any worries, and trust staff to listen to and help them with any concerns they may have. Pupils understand potential risks, including those associated with the internet and social media, and manage them appropriately.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Almost without exception, pupils are courteous, respectful and considerate to each other and to the adults that work alongside them. They are friendly and welcoming, and talk proudly and with confidence about their school. Pupils, parents and staff talk proudly about the happy atmosphere that results from these positive attitudes to learning.
• Pupils manage their behaviour extremely well in lessons and around the school. In class, pupils work effectively together, and remain focused when working independently of the adults in the room. On the rare occasion that a pupil’s behaviour does not meet teachers’ high expectations, effective strategies support the pupil in reflecting on their actions and identifying how to ‘get it right’ the next time.
• All groups of pupils attend school regularly, with absence rates well below the national average for primary schools. The proportion of pupils who are persistent absentees has reduced significantly and is now very low. This is because leaders monitor attendance very carefully, and take prompt and effective action where the attendance of an individual pupil needs to improve.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils arrive at the school with starting points that are well above the national average. By the end of Year 6, the proportion achieving at least age-related expectations in reading, writing and mathematics is still well above average.
• Pupils who are disadvantaged or who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make very good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Disadvantaged pupils who left the school in 2016 achieved standards that were at least as good as other pupils nationally. Pupils currently in the school are making similarly rapid progress, because of the effective support they receive.
• Since the last inspection, leaders have taken decisive action to accelerate the progress of pupils who finished key stage 1 with average levels of attainment. These pupils are now making better progress than they did in the past.
• The proportion of pupils who are on track to achieve a greater depth of learning in reading, writing and mathematics is increasing. Pupils’ progress across these three subject areas is accelerating as the year goes on. A large percentage of pupils are already achieving at least the expected end-of-year standards in reading and mathematics for their age.
• Leaders recognise that pupils did not make good enough progress in reading by the end of Year 6 last year. Staff have reviewed and improved how reading is taught across the school. As a result, pupils across the school are now making very good progress in reading.
• Last year, pupils finishing key stage 2 made very good progress in writing. While pupils currently in the school are achieving well in their writing, they are not making consistently strong progress from their typically high starting points, because their technical accuracy is not consistently strong.
• Although progress is improving in reading, writing and mathematics over the course of the year, it is not doing so consistently across subjects and year groups. In particular, pupils with high prior attainment are not currently making as strong progress as those with lower starting points. Consequently, the proportion of most-able pupils who are on track to achieve a greater depth of learning is not currently as high as it could be.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 116392 Hampshire 10024636 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 Voluntary aided 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 306 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Mrs Judith Turnbull Mr Graham Cutter Telephone number 02392 580450 Website Email address www.alverstoke-jun.hants.sch.uk admin@alverstoke-jun.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 11–12 December 2012

Information about this school

• This is a larger than average voluntary aided junior school. It has two classes in each year group, except Year 4, where there are three classes. Pupils arrive at the school with prior attainment which is typically well above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below the national average. There is an average percentage of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan.
• The school has a lower than average percentage of pupils who are eligible for free school meals. A very small proportion of pupils are from minority ethnic groups and only a very small fraction of pupils speak English as an additional language. Almost a fifth of pupils are from service families.
• The headteacher and chair of the governing body were not in post at the time of the last inspection. All of the senior leadership team are relatively new in post, having all been appointed to their current posts within the past two years.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which identify the minimum expected standards for pupils to achieve by the end of key stage 2. It is not classed as a coasting school.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• When the school received its most recent statutory inspection of Anglican and Methodist schools (SIAMS), it was judged to be outstanding for its distinctiveness and effectiveness as a Church of England school.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited all classes, most jointly with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, to look at learning across a range of subjects and to talk to pupils about their learning. An inspector visited a collective worship event, and observed extra-curricular opportunities around the site before school and at lunchtimes.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and other school leaders, and with groups of pupils, teachers and governors. The lead inspector spoke to a representative from the local authority and from the diocese on the telephone. Inspectors also spoke to pupils and parents informally on the playground.
• Inspectors looked at a range of work from a number of pupils in Year 3 and Year 5, along with school leaders. They also looked at pupils’ work while visiting lessons.
• Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation and school improvement plan, safeguarding and behaviour processes and records, performance and attendance information for current pupils, and a number of school policies as part of the school website.
• Inspectors took into account 96 responses to the Parent View online questionnaire, including 80 free-text responses. They also considered questionnaire responses from 46 pupils and 10 members of staff, alongside a letter and an email received from parents, and two emails and a letter from members of the governing body.

Inspection team

Kathryn Moles, lead inspector Christine Bulmer Cassie Buchanan Becky Greenhalgh Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector