Lee-on-the-Solent Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching so that pupils throughout the school make strong progress, in particular in writing, by ensuring that all teachers:
  • accurately assess what pupils know, understand and can do and use this information to match learning activities to pupils’ needs
  • embed effective strategies to support the progress of disadvantaged pupils across the school
  • deepen and extend pupils’ thinking so that they work hard and more reach the high standards that many are capable of achieving
  • apply the new methods they are shown consistently to improve their teaching.
• Secure effective leadership and management at all levels across the school by:
  • making rigorous use of information about pupils’ progress from their starting points to improve the quality of teaching and raise standards
  • developing subject leadership to raise the standards that pupils achieve across subjects.
• Improve pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare by ensuring that adults guide pupils well, so they take pride in their behaviour around the school. An external review of the school’s use of pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management can be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Over time, leaders’ and governors’ work has not secured high standards in the school. Pupils’ behaviour and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment are variable. Pupils do not achieve as well as they should by the end of key stage 2.
• Since the headteacher joined the school in April 2017, senior leaders and governors have a more accurate view of the school’s performance than in the past. Their clear plans about how to secure rapid improvement are shared and understood by everyone working in the school. However, some subject leaders’ plans do not guide their work sufficiently.
• There have been notable changes of staff at all levels across the school in recent years. Consequently, previous training to develop teachers’ skills and effectiveness has had a limited effect. There is now a more stable staff team. The headteacher has acted swiftly to introduce clear targets that hold staff to account for the difference their work makes to pupils’ learning. Staff know what they need to do to improve their skills, and are now supported well by helpful feedback and training.
• Leaders have made useful changes to the way in which pupils’ learning is assessed and monitored. This helps leaders and governors to be better informed than they were in the past about how well pupils are achieving. However, leaders do not currently track or review pupils’ progress incisively enough to secure rapid improvement.
• Leaders ensure that the funding available to support pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is used to provide an appropriate level of care and support. However, they do not currently check systematically to evaluate and improve this work.
• Leaders do not target their use of pupil premium funding well enough. They do not keep a sharp enough eye on disadvantaged pupils’ progress and adjust support quickly. The newly appointed pupil premium champion has not yet implemented recent plans to raise standards. However, leaders’ actions ably support these pupils to develop stronger learning attitudes, attend well and participate in all aspects of school life.
• Leaders have not ensured that the curriculum develops all the skills that pupils will need when they go on to secondary school. In some classes, many of the foundation subjects receive little attention and standards are low. However, in music, where teaching inspires, pupils appreciate opportunities to listen to, review and evaluate music or learn to play instruments. In other lessons, pupils also learn about tolerance for different faiths and types of relationships and reflect well on the consequence of actions when studying, for example, pollution, deforestation or tourism.
• Leaders of English and mathematics have a clear understanding of the actions required to improve pupils’ progress in these subjects. They work effectively with the wider staff to raise their expectations and to develop subject knowledge and teaching skills. There is evidence that their work is helping pupils to write and to use mathematical reasoning more proficiently and confidently than in the past. All staff value the recent guidance provided by the local authority to strengthen teaching.
• Additional government funding for sport is used effectively to increase provision for physical education. Specialists work well with teachers to increase their confidence and skills, leading to improved outcomes for pupils. Pupils appreciate the clubs on offer, which help them to develop talents such as cheerleading.
• Pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values is being well developed. Older pupils are able to discuss democracy. Pupils vote for those who wish to take on roles such as house captains or make written applications to become librarians. Some speak about their future career aspirations with pride.
• Most staff have every confidence in their new headteacher and are proud to work at the school. There is an emerging shared determination to provide the best for pupils. Staff appreciate their recent training, and middle leaders feel valued and more included in improvement planning than they did in the past.

Governance of the school

• Governors acknowledge that in the past the governing body did not take effective action to tackle the decline in standards and weak progress. There is now a strong culture of ambition. New governors have acted quickly to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems so that they have a clear understanding of the school’s priorities. They visit the school regularly to check on the impact of leaders’ work.
• Governors do not hold leaders rigorously to account over pupils’ achievement or their use of funding to support disadvantaged pupils. Their work to strengthen this aspect of governance is ongoing.
• Governors undertake useful training, so that they are suitably skilled and informed. They quickly use what they learn to help raise standards, for example by ensuring that performance management systems for staff, including the headteacher, promote school improvement appropriately.
• Governors ensure that finances are spent wisely and have secured aspects of improved site safety. However, despite declaring their financial information at meetings, they have not ensured that this information has been published on the school’s website as required. Governors are currently reviewing their clerking and communication systems, in order to strengthen them. They are taking decisive steps to address some parents’ concerns regarding current weaknesses in pupils’ behaviour in school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Governors, leaders and staff are united in a commitment to keep pupils safe. The new headteacher has taken decisive action to review safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure that they support pupils to minimise their risk of harm. Staff have clear reporting structures and are vigilant in their approach.
• Leaders are clearly committed to ensuring that high-quality training helps all pupils to thrive. School leaders work tirelessly with external agencies to ensure that staff are trained appropriately, in particular those who respond to the complex needs that a few pupils have. Leaders keep safeguarding under close review and continually make adjustments to improve their arrangements further.
• Leaders provide useful information to parents, which helps them keep their children safe. For example, pupils and their parents are encouraged to recognise risks when using the internet.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Wide variations in the quality of teaching hinder pupils’ learning in English and mathematics. Teaching is not building quickly enough on what pupils have already learned. As a result, too many pupils across the school do not achieve as well as they should.
• Teachers do not assess what their pupils can do with sufficient accuracy. Consequently, they sometimes give pupils tasks which are too easy or too difficult. The most able pupils are regularly given work that does not challenge them to analyse and reason. A recently introduced assessment system is helping to improve teachers’ ability to judge the quality of pupils’ work, subject knowledge and understanding.
• Teachers have recently received additional training in the teaching of writing. This has led to some noticeable improvements. For example, pupils are able to discuss their writing with each other and redraft and edit their work to improve it. Some work hard to use emotive language to persuade an audience when crafting letters. However, assessment is not effective in all classes, so some pupils repeat simple errors.
• The quality of teaching of mathematics is inconsistent. In some classes, pupils are challenged to analyse and use reasoning to improve their understanding of mathematics. Staff demand that pupils apply their skills to solving problems and grappling with the steps they need to take. Consequently, pupils enjoy their work and make good progress. However, this approach is not used so well in other classes.
• Teachers in all year groups focus on improving the fluency of pupils’ mental arithmetic and written number work, and this is strengthening these aspects of mathematics. However, teachers do not routinely identify when pupils are ready to move onto deeper learning, so progress, particularly of the most able, is impeded.
• Some teachers plan work which develops pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding well. For example, when studying fair trade, pupils contemplate injustice and the imbalance of power. Pupils speak knowledgeably about equality when considering pay and working conditions or studying apartheid. The school’s fundraising and charity work sensitively supports pupils’ cultural development. However, leaders do not check that pupils’ skills are thoroughly developed across the school.
• The quality of teaching of science and foundation subjects is too variable. Skills are not systematically developed and, in some year groups, coverage is thin and standards are low. For example, teaching often supports pupils to recall facts, but it fails to teach pupils to enquire, ask and answer questions about the world and interpret their findings.
• There is some strong teaching in the school, and pupils make good progress when this is the case. Some teachers have secure subject knowledge, so they are more skilled at identifying gaps in pupils’ learning and shaping tasks to quickly address pupils’ misconceptions. They promptly give pupils feedback and keep a close eye on productivity. Others demand consistent application of subject-specific vocabulary, such as in mathematics, and reshape pupils’ ideas so that they are more precise when explaining their thinking. However, this quality of teaching is not consistent across the school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Pupils reported that there are some instances of bullying. This is reinforced by parents who said that their children have experienced bullying in the past. Pupils said that when they report incidents they are usually dealt with well by teachers and leaders. They appreciate systems such as ‘TED’ (tell, explain, describe), which they said help problems to be resolved more quickly than in the past.
• Some pupils develop their emotional well-being and resilience when contemplating bereavement or overcoming anxiety and frustration. On other occasions, pupils are supported well to consider risks near the beach or on the roads. However, the curriculum is not yet well designed to enable the majority of pupils to benefit from this incisive welfare.
• Leaders place an emphasis on providing a safe and caring environment for all pupils. They are generally successful. As a result of the actions leaders have taken, a number of pupils who have significant challenges in their lives are beginning to participate successfully in school life.
• There is a wide range of pastoral support in place for pupils when they need it. This includes a lunchtime buddy club and a variety of interventions and therapies available to vulnerable pupils who need particular, targeted support.
• All pastoral care leaders are diligent in their work. Parents, pupils and staff reported that pupils’ personal development is improving gradually. There are a significant number of pupils who have social, emotional and mental health needs. Provision for these pupils is evaluated regularly by all those involved in their care.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Pupils’ attitudes to learning link closely to the quality of teaching they experience. When teaching meets their needs closely, pupils respond positively and are keen to do well. When teaching is less effective, pupils are less enthusiastic. Some become disengaged and their attention drifts away from the tasks they have been given. Incidents of low-level disruption, which slow the pace of learning in the classroom, are reducing rapidly.
• The vast majority of pupils conduct themselves in a calm and sensible manner as they move around the school site. They are generally polite and work together well. However, at breaks and lunchtimes, a minority of pupils are over-boisterous and other pupils are affected by this.
• Historically, poor behaviour has been a concern for pupils, parents and staff. Leaders have reviewed the way in which behaviour is addressed and introduced new plans to improve it. Pupils now respond increasingly well to higher expectations and a strong safety net of support. They appreciate the school’s new reward systems, which they can share with parents.
• Leaders reported that exclusions and incidents of poor behaviour are reducing, but remain high. A few pupils exhibit complex behaviours that cause concern. Leaders tenaciously seek advice and adapt their work, to try to resolve these challenges swiftly.
• Most pupils attend school regularly. Rates of attendance overall are broadly in line with those seen nationally. Disadvantaged pupils attend well. This reflects the effective work that staff do with pupils and their families who, at times, face overwhelming difficulties. Parents appreciate the useful support and guidance they are able to access through the school.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Inconsistencies in historic teaching mean that most pupils do not make strong progress or achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics by the time they leave the school.
• In 2017, the proportion of pupils in Year 6 who reached the expected standard in reading and mathematics was broadly average. Too few pupils reached the same standard in writing. The most able pupils did not achieve as well as they should have, particularly in reading and writing.
• Disadvantaged pupils attained below expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6 last year. They made weaker progress than their classmates, and the differences between their attainment and that of other pupils nationally increased.
• Some pupils currently in the school still follow the pattern of weaker progress seen in the past. Standards for these pupils in reading, writing and mathematics are lower in some classes. This reflects that teaching is not consistently strong across the school.
• Progress is often too slow because teachers are not assessing pupils accurately and then setting suitably challenging work. There are examples of pupils making good progress from their starting points and reaching high standards, but these examples are far from universal.
• Some disadvantaged pupils in the school continue to make slower progress in some classes and, more generally, in writing. This is because, despite the well-targeted pastoral support, teachers do not address these pupils’ learning needs effectively.
• Too few of the most able pupils currently attain well. Sometimes, when teachers provide them with stimulating work that challenges them, they show what they can do. However, they are sometimes asked to complete tasks which are too easy for them. Consequently, their progress is more limited. At other times, they do not show enough resilience to attempt hard work, and gaps in their understanding have not been addressed well enough in the past. This makes it harder for them to catch up quickly.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are well cared for, but their academic progress is not monitored sufficiently carefully. Not enough pupils benefit from a clear oversight of their progress and, as a result, some do not catch up as quickly as they need to, particularly in writing.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 116164 Hampshire 10045774 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 362 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Christopher Lloyd Darren Nickerson 02392 550551 www.lee-on-the-solent-jun.hants.sch.uk adminoffice@lee-on-the-solent-jun.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 29–30 April 2014

Information about this school

• This is a larger than average-sized junior school.
• Since the previous inspection, there has been a significant change in the governing body. The current headteacher was appointed in April 2017 and the assistant headteacher took up post in January 2018.
• There has been significant staff turbulence since the last inspection. Many teachers have joined the school recently. The majority of middle leaders are new to their roles.
• A lower-than-average proportion of pupils who attend the school are from an ethnic minority background.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is in line with that seen nationally.
• The school meets the current government floor standards.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with the headteacher, the assistant headteacher and other leaders with significant responsibilities. The lead inspector also met with five governors and with a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors visited 23 lessons or part lessons, four of which were visited with the headteacher.
• Inspectors listened to three pupils in Year 3 read and met with groups of pupils to talk about their views of the books they were reading. Inspectors looked at work in pupils’ books and discussed pupils’ progress and attainment with leaders.
• Inspectors spoke to pupils informally and met with eight pupils to discuss their views about safety and the wider curriculum. They took account of the 78 views represented in Ofsted’s online survey.
• Parents’ views were taken into account through face-to-face informal discussions. Inspectors considered 62 responses to the online survey, Parent View, including 60 free-text comments.
• Inspectors took account of 34 survey responses submitted by staff.
• Inspectors checked records and documentation relating to safeguarding, behaviour, attendance, staff appraisals and records of monitoring and improvement. They observed pupils in the playground, at lunchtime and around the school.
• Inspectors reviewed the checks made on staff about their suitability to work with children.

Inspection team

Susan Aspland, lead inspector Becky Greenhalgh Krista Dawkins

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector