Orchard Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that there is opportunity for all pupils to deepen their mathematics understanding before moving on to more complex work.

• Ensure that all pupils, particularly those with just below average starting points in writing and mathematics, are supported well to learn effectively across all areas of the curriculum.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher has worked determinedly since the last inspection to ensure that teaching and learning across the school have improved to be good. He has built an effective leadership team that sets high expectations for pupils’ achievement while providing appropriate professional development opportunities for staff.

• Leaders have an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They have responded well to actions for improvement identified in the last inspection report. They carefully consider plans for development, and accurately identify aspects needing further improvement or consolidation. Leaders rigorously review the changes they make, to ensure their effectiveness.
• The school’s broad and balanced curriculum is carefully overseen by the foundation subject leader. Topics fully engage pupils’ interest and motivate them to learn well, including through a wide variety of links between subjects.
• Science is a strength in the school linked to the coordinator’s inspirational leadership. The programme is carefully planned, making good use of resources and expertise from the wider community. For example, pupils’ work on diet led to a salad they had developed being served in a local café.
• The school has a tradition of sporting success and the effective use of the sports premium funding supports this well. Leaders ensure that the funding supports appropriate staff training and helpful professional coaching for pupils. Leaders carefully track the participation of all pupils in physical activity, to ensure encouragement for those who lack confidence. They respond to the pupils’ interests well, including by setting up extra-curricular activities requested by them.
• Leaders make effective use of pupil premium funding. Leaders’ careful monitoring of the progress of disadvantaged pupils shows that the funding is being used effectively to have a positive impact on pupils’ rates of progress.
• The school has an effective relationship with the local authority, which has provided useful and timely support and guidance to leaders since the last inspection. Priorities have been driven by the school and leaders have engaged well with partners to eradicate inconsistencies in the quality of teaching.
• The staff at Orchard are highly motivated and talk warmly about the school and the pupils. Their development is supported well through targeted training and robust performance management. This has contributed well to the improvement in teaching. Coaching and mentoring are made readily available for teaching staff, who welcome the opportunity to develop further skills.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. An extensive range of educational visits and visitors to the school enrich their experiences. Pupils take part enthusiastically in elections for the school council and learn well about democracy through relevant topic work. They become aware of different faiths through studying different cultures and festivals. As a result, pupils are prepared well for life in modern Britain.
• Leaders use additional funding well to support pupils who have a range of special educational needs and/or disabilities. This includes the employment of skilled learning support assistants who work effectively with individual pupils to support their varying needs. The special educational needs coordinator has a good understanding of the support that pupils need and works closely with the leadership team to ensure that this is provided. This has been particularly effective in supporting pupils’ writing.
• Parents are positive about the school and say all staff are welcoming and approachable. Parents are quick to mention the smooth transition from infant school and appreciate the school’s high expectations of their children. All staff ensure that parents’ concerns are responded to quickly and satisfactory solutions are found.

Governance of the school

• The governors are committed to, ambitious for and rightfully proud of their school. Governance is effective and the governing body has made a good contribution to helping the school improve since the last inspection. Following reconstitution, the governing body is focused on the school’s continuing improvement, and provides effective support and challenge to leaders. Governors know the school well because they visit often and receive detailed reports from a variety of staff with leadership responsibilities. Governors recognise where the school can improve further.
• Governors ensure that the school’s resources are used effectively and have a very clear understanding of pupils’ performance in comparison to national standards. Governors have a detailed knowledge of how well additional funding is used to promote the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They scrutinise the impact of this spending closely.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Safeguarding is a high priority among governors and all staff. Governors’ monitoring of safeguarding is rigorous. Records of safeguarding are detailed and show that leaders take appropriate actions to keep pupils safe.

• Recruitment checks made on staff and other adults working in the school are rigorous. Furthermore, the headteacher ensures that all staff are provided with regular training about how to safeguard and protect pupils. Staff are confident in identifying risks and reporting any concerns that may arise. All staff, including lunchtime supervisors, receive high-quality training on recognising any potential signs of risk. They know what to do should they have any concerns. Governors are well trained in safer recruitment and monitor policies and procedures to ensure that they are implemented effectively.
• The culture of the school is caring, supportive and ensures that pupils are safe. Leaders ensure that pupils understand their role in ensuring their own safety. For example, internet safety is given a high priority in the school’s curriculum and pupils are able to explain clearly how to keep themselves safe online.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching is good across the school and most pupils achieve particularly well. Pupils can identify where they are successful in their learning and are proud of the progress that they make. Teachers ensure that challenge is provided consistently for the most able pupils.
• The quality of pupils’ writing is a strength of the school. Leaders and teachers have responded well to the last inspection report and have driven improvements throughout the school so that pupils make good progress from their individual starting points. For example, in Year 6, the most able writers have produced mature and evocative writing based on their understanding of how Macbeth felt: ‘Dark clouds begin to swallow the sky; my hands sweat with anxiety and my heart beat rapidly increases.’
• Well-presented topic work reflects the pupils’ pride in their achievements. Displays around the school show high-quality art work and computing skills. However, for a few pupils, typically those with just below average starting points, teachers do not consistently provide topic tasks linked to writing and mathematics which are closely matched to pupils’ abilities.
• Teachers support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities well, through specific activities tailored to their needs. Learning support assistants and teachers are careful to ensure that these pupils are fully included in the learning of their class.
• Relationships between staff and pupils are consistently good. Pupils enjoy their learning and are keen to discuss it with adults and their peers. Good teaching and the effective support of learning support assistants ensure that pupils concentrate fully on their learning and achieve well.
• Teachers ensure that the most able pupils are challenged well in mathematics. During the inspection, pupils were seen to enjoy linking their knowledge of large numbers and estimation to provide reasoned answers. However, at times, staff attempt to move pupils’ learning in mathematics on before some pupils’ basic understanding of the concept involved is secure. At times, this slows pupils’ progress.
• Teachers have secure subject knowledge across all areas of the curriculum, leading to their skilful use of questions to promote pupils’ good learning. For example, pupils’ art sketchbooks showed that they had been encouraged to experiment with, and explore, a wide range of ideas and media to develop good-quality results. Pupils proudly pointed out their final pieces in the well-presented classroom displays.
• Teachers’ effective feedback to pupils on their work supports pupils well to improve their work and develop their ideas further. Pupils could identify where they had edited their work to make improvements.
• Teachers assess pupils’ progress accurately. They use this information well to plan exciting, sharply focused lessons that promote most pupils’ learning effectively. Parents are given accurate information about how well their child is progressing and attaining. However, as reporting to parents is not always clear, an improved system is in development.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils are confident and have a well-developed understanding of right and wrong both in school and in the wider community. The school’s values are promoted well, through displays around the school and regular reflection in assemblies. Pupils are given many helpful opportunities to reflect on their actions and their responsibilities.
• Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe in school, in the community and online. Pupils are kind and caring and are quick to look after others or include someone who they think has been left out. They enjoy learning about how to keep themselves healthy and have a well-developed understanding of the importance of a good diet and regular exercise.
• The headteacher is passionate about supporting pupils when they need personal help. Trained emotional support assistants deliver timely structured programmes of support to individual pupils, and offer more informal help when necessary. Pupils know they can speak to a range of adults if they have concerns and many value ‘the den’, an area set aside at lunchtimes and breaktimes.
• Pupils’ attitudes to all aspects of learning are positive. They show stamina and resilience when tackling difficult tasks. Pupils are supportive of each other in lessons and in the playground. They sensitively listen to and help each other.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. The atmosphere in the school is orderly and pupils move around in a purposeful manner. Pupils are respectful of others and are quick to offer help to those who do not know the school as well.
• In classes, pupils respond quickly to instructions and show engagement in their learning. Rare occurrences of low-level disruption are managed well by staff. At break times pupils play happily together.
• Attendance is monitored effectively by members of the office staff and absences are followed up quickly. As a result, attendance is good for most pupils and there is an improving picture for pupils whose attendance was previously below average.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• The school’s exciting curriculum, combined with good teaching, results in pupils making consistently strong progress across a range of subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics and science. This ensures that they are prepared well for secondary school.

• In 2016, pupils’ attainment in the end of key stage 2 assessments was in line with or better than the national average in reading, writing and mathematics. However, the progress of middle-attaining pupils was significantly less than the national average. The leadership team has taken effective action to address this including by ensuring that teachers’ expectations are high and learning is consistently challenging. It has also improved transition arrangements between pupils’ infant schools and Year 3.
• Pupils’ writing has improved since the last inspection and pupils now achieve in line with what is expected of their peers nationally who have similar starting points. A higher proportion than that found nationally achieve at greater depth than is expected for their age.
• Pupils make good progress in reading. Year 3 readers seen during the inspection demonstrated good comprehension skills and the most able confidently extracted knowledge from the text they were studying. The well-stocked library further encourages pupils to read for pleasure, supporting the rise in pupils’ reading outcomes well.
• Disadvantaged pupils make better progress in writing and reading than other pupils with similar starting points. Their progress in mathematics is improving and disadvantaged pupils are catching up with others rapidly.
• Small-group teaching effectively supports pupils who have fallen behind their peers and gives pupils the opportunity to revisit concepts and consolidate their leaning. This has led to an improvement in outcomes for mathematics and English. However, sometimes staff do not ensure that all pupils have a deep understanding of basic mathematical concepts before moving on to processes that are more complex.
• The most able pupils are challenged well and as a result make good progress from their starting points. They talk enthusiastically about what they are learning and apply their developed understanding well to different areas of the curriculum.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115988 Hampshire 10024531 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 Maintained 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 405 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Nikki Brigg Chris Parker Telephone number 023 8084 3162 Website Email address www.orchardjunior.com adminoffice@orchard-jun.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 10–11 December 2014

Information about this school

• The school is a larger than average primary school.

• The vast majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average. The proportion who have an educational, health and care plan or a statement of special educational needs is below average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium funding is below the national average.
• The school met the government’s current floor standards in 2016, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed lessons throughout the school jointly with the headteacher and deputy headteacher.

• In addition, the inspectors made a number of short visits to classrooms and watched sessions where pupils were taught in small groups.
• Meetings were held with the leadership team and middle leaders, with three members of the governing body and with representatives of the local authority.
• A range of documents were scrutinised, including the school’s own information about pupils’ learning and progress, planning and monitoring documents, minutes of governing body meetings, the school’s development plan, records relating to behaviour and attendance, and safeguarding information.
• The inspectors took account of the 91 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. They also met informally with parents. Inspectors took account of 75 responses to Ofsted’s pupils’ questionnaire and 21 responses to the staff questionnaire. Inspectors also spoke with staff and took account of their views.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and met with groups of pupils to take account of their views.

Inspection team

Tracy Good, lead inspector Deirdre Crutchley Kevin Burrell

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector