Peel Common Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that teaching becomes consistently effective across the school by ensuring that:
  • teachers plan work that enables pupils to build rapidly on their prior learning
  • pupils, especially the most able, are challenged to make strong progress.
• Improve the proportion of pupils achieving age-related expectations and a greater depth of learning in reading, writing and mathematics by ensuring that all groups of pupils make good progress from their starting points.
• Embed and refine newly introduced systems and processes, so that leaders at all levels can be clear about how effectively their actions are leading to better teaching and more rapid pupil progress.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Since the last inspection, the quality of provision in the school has not developed significantly. Leaders’ actions to address the priorities identified at the last inspection have not led to rapid and sustained improvement. The quality of teaching continues to be inconsistent and, consequently, pupils do not achieve as well as they should. Improvements to pupils’ behaviour and attendance have been relatively recent.
• Pupils experience an adequately broad curriculum which helps them prepare for their next steps in learning. Topic work provides useful opportunities for pupils to practise using their literacy and numeracy skills in a range of contexts. Some aspects of the wider curriculum are integrated well into topics, but others are more disjointed. Pupils’ opportunities across the wider curriculum are currently restricted by the school’s emphasis on improving standards in English and mathematics.
• Leaders utilise opportunities to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding. Work in personal, social, health and economic education and religious education lessons is supported by themed assemblies. Pupils demonstrate an understanding of tolerance, but their awareness of democracy as a fundamental British value is less clear. Leaders know where gaps in provision exist and have plans in place to address them.
• Leaders do not currently have systems in place to track the progress of pupils not yet achieving age-related expectations. As such, they cannot readily identify which pupils are making the necessary rapid progress that will enable them to catch up with their peers, and which pupils need further additional help.
• Leaders use additional funding effectively to provide support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) works closely with the home-school link worker. Together, they provide useful help for pupils whose social, emotional and mental health needs make it difficult for them to engage with learning. The SENCo coordinates useful extra help for pupils with specific learning needs. This helps these pupils to make rapid progress with specific skills that enable them to access their wider learning.
• Leaders understand the barriers that affect rates of progress for all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils. They use funding in a range of ways to ensure that pupils attend regularly and engage with their learning. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils achieve increasingly well over time in reading, writing and mathematics, with some reaching standards similar to, or above, other pupils nationally. Leaders have identified the next steps that will enable those disadvantaged pupils who do not currently achieve as well to make more rapid progress.
• Since arriving at the school, the interim headteacher and deputy headteacher have made a noticeable difference. They have secured the confidence of pupils, staff, governors and parents. They have high aspirations and are taking the necessary steps to improve the school. They recognise that it is too early to be confident that the changes they have made are completely established or have secured the necessary improvements to the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes.
• Leaders use the sports premium well to promote and sustain the quality of sports provision in the school. Staff confidence and expertise have improved as a result of a clear and effective training programme. More pupils now access the increasing number and range of extra-curricular clubs, such as cricket, cheerleading, athletics and football, than was the case in the past. The ‘fit4life’ club promotes healthy lifestyle choices and the sports leaders programme encourages links with the nearby infant school, which supports pupils’ transition at the end of key stage 1.
• Leaders identify accurately the key aspects of teaching that need to become more consistent so that learning becomes more rapid. They support staff well in sharing expertise and developing their skills, checking regularly and carefully to see what difference this training makes. This is beginning to lead to improvements in teaching and learning across the school.
• Staff at all levels are held increasingly to account for the difference their work makes to pupils’ achievement. Governors recognise how teachers’ growing understanding of performance information is helping this to happen effectively.

Governance of the school

• Governors recognise that they have not held leaders to account effectively in the past, and that the school has made limited progress since the last inspection. They recognise the school’s recent improvements and hold leaders increasingly to account for the impact of their actions. They work openly with senior leaders, and support the school actively, visiting regularly to check for themselves what leaders tell them.
• Governors understand their statutory responsibilities and undertake them with diligence. They are proactive in seeking further training that increases their effectiveness, sometimes working alongside staff. Their improvement planning links closely with the school improvement plan.
• Governors understand the importance of securing high-quality leadership moving forward. They are uncompromising in their work to secure a permanent headteacher with appropriately high expectations and the capacity to realise them.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff and governors have a shared focus which puts the welfare of pupils at its centre. They participate in useful training which ensures that they understand their responsibilities, and they undertake them diligently. They know pupils well and remain vigilant to individual needs.
• Leaders and governors have taken recent action to further improve the quality of the physical environment and the security of the site. Parents and pupils have responded appreciatively, saying that their children feel increasingly happy and safe.
• Recruitment checks and vetting of volunteers ensure that risks to pupils from adults are minimised. Effective systems are in place for recording and acting on any concerns relating to a pupil’s welfare. Support from outside school is used well to help children and families in challenging circumstances.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Pupils make erratic progress over time because the quality of teaching they experience is variable. Teaching is more effective in the upper part of the school than is routinely the case across Years 3 and 4.
• Teachers work together to share their expertise and plan a consistent approach to learning across each year group. However, they do not always adapt this planning to match closely what the pupils in their classes have learned previously. This reduces the pace of learning, because pupils do not build rapidly from their individual starting points.
• Learning is not always challenging enough, particularly for the most able pupils. Some pupils described this as ‘frustrating’, with one telling an inspector they ‘often run out of things to do’. Work is not pitched at a high enough level to enable pupils to make strong progress, particularly from high starting points.
• Teachers do not regularly check during lessons how well pupils understand what they are learning. As a result, extra support or challenge are not introduced in a timely way, so their impact is reduced. Teachers use the school’s clear marking policy to provide feedback to pupils about their work, but this is not used consistently well to help pupils make progress.
• Teachers establish positive relationships that encourage pupils to engage actively in their learning. In most lessons, pupils behave well and work well together. However, when learning does not engage or challenge pupils sufficiently, they lose focus and their behaviour can deteriorate.
• Pupils’ learning in lessons is supported well by the appropriate use of homework. Teachers use a mixture of homework tasks to help pupils practise key skills they have learned in lessons and to explore the wider curriculum. Pupils understand how homework helps them learn, and they particularly enjoy the more creative tasks.
• Where teaching is most effective, lesson activities are matched closely to pupils’ different starting points and prior learning. Teachers check regularly what pupils know and understand, and use what they learn to adapt activities during the lesson. As a result, pupils are highly engaged and make good progress.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Staff show high levels of commitment towards ensuring that pupils’ wider needs are met. A recent survey carried out by governors showed that parents are confident that their children are safe and well cared for, and parents spoken to by inspectors confirmed this view.
• Leaders have recently introduced ‘pride’ values to the school, which recognise where pupils demonstrate the key skills and attributes that will enable them to be successful members of their community. Staff celebrate pupils’ achievement of these values in assemblies and through awarding certificates which are displayed in the hall and the reception area.
• Pupils who find aspects of mainstream school challenging are cared for very well. The SENCo and home-school link worker work closely with pupils and their families to ensure that provision meets individual needs well. Staff work sensitively with pupils, while retaining high expectations which are focused on learning. The nurture room provides safe and useful support for pupils who need time away from their classrooms.
• Leaders make effective use of alternative provision when individual pupils need support beyond that which can be provided in the school. A very small number of pupils engage with this extra support as required, which helps them to remain engaged with education.
• Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe, including when using the internet. A few pupils said that they were concerned about bullying or about a small number of pupils who are not always well behaved or kind. They recognised that adults act swiftly to deal with any issues that arise.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Governors reflected on the positive difference the new behaviour policy, which has a clear focus on recognising and rewarding good behaviour, has made. This is evident in the calm atmosphere around the school and in the respectful way that pupils treat the physical environment. School records show that the number of behavioural incidents and fixed-term exclusions have reduced dramatically.
• Pupils attend school regularly. Attendance figures have improved and are now broadly in line with the national average. Leaders have established effective systems for monitoring attendance, including for any pupils who attend alternative provision. All staff play their part in taking action when the attendance of an individual pupil dips below what would be expected.
• Pupils generally behave well in lessons and around the school during social times. Inspectors observed pupils behaving calmly and courteously and working cooperatively together during lessons. Where an individual pupil struggles to meet the high expectations for their behaviour, adults manage this well and in a way that minimises the impact on their learning and that of others.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils arrive at the school with starting points that are typically average for their age. In 2016, the proportion of pupils in Year 6 who achieved at least age-related expectations in reading, writing and mathematics was just above the national average. Although pupils’ attainment and progress were good in writing and broadly average in mathematics, they were less successful in reading, making less-than-average progress from their starting points.
• Leaders ensure that teachers use assessment systems accurately to identify whether pupils are meeting age-related expectations. They check judgements by working alongside the local authority and colleagues in the local area. As a result, teachers can confidently identify how well pupils are achieving and what their individual next steps in learning are.
• Where achievement was weaker in the past, such as in reading, progress and attainment have improved across all year groups. However, where achievement in writing was previously stronger, results have not been sustained. The percentage of pupils achieving at least age-related expectations in writing in Years 3, 4 and 6 is well below what might be expected, based on pupils’ starting points.
• The most able pupils do not make rapid progress from their typically high starting points. In some year groups and subjects, only around half of the most able pupils achieve a greater depth of learning. Their rates of progress are higher across reading, writing and mathematics in Year 5. They also make more rapid progress in mathematics in Year 6, in reading and mathematics in Year 3 and in writing in Year 4.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make very rapid gains in specific skill areas over a short period of time. Leaders are less clear whether this rate of progress is consistently strong across the whole of these pupils’ learning in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Disadvantaged pupils are making variable progress across subjects. Their achievement is improving more rapidly than for others in school, except in Year 6. Disadvantaged pupils do not currently achieve consistently in line with others nationally in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The proportions of pupils achieving age-related expectations and a greater depth of learning are increasing across a number of subjects and year groups. For example, more pupils are meeting or exceeding age-related expectations in reading in all year groups than might typically be seen nationally. Similar patterns are seen in mathematics in most year groups and in writing in Year 5.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 116175 Hampshire 10024512 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 219 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Mrs Glynis Alexander Mr Andrew Clarke (interim) Telephone number 01329 281 206 Website Email address www.peelcommonjuniorschool.co.uk adminoffice@peelcommon-jun.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection January 2015

Information about this school

• Peel Common Junior School is an average-sized junior school which serves the Rowner area of Gosport. There are eight classes in total across the four year groups. Approximately a quarter of the pupils are from service families.
• The proportion of pupils who are supported by the pupil premium is around the national average, as is the percentage of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is just above what is typical nationally.
• The school currently has an interim headteacher, who took up his post in January 2017. A different interim headteacher was in post during the autumn term of 2016, after the previous headteacher left the school. The deputy headteacher joined the school in September 2016.
• The school runs its own breakfast club, which has spaces for 24 pupils. Some pupils attend an independently run after-school club at the neighbouring infant school.
• Where appropriate, a small number of pupils access alternative provision from the Lennox Centre to support their behavioural needs.
• In 2016, the school met the government’s floor standards for what pupils are expected to achieve by the end of key stage 2.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited classes in Years 3, 4 and 5 to look at learning and talk to pupils about their work. Some of these visits were carried out with the interim headteacher or the deputy headteacher. Inspectors did not visit Year 6 lessons, as pupils were participating in their tests at the end of key stage 2.
• Inspectors met with the interim headteacher, deputy headteacher, other school leaders and representative groups of staff, pupils and governors. The lead inspector spoke to two representatives of the local authority on the telephone, and to a representative of the Lennox Centre. Inspectors also spoke to pupils and parents informally over the course of the inspection.
• Alongside school leaders, inspectors looked at samples of pupils’ work from across the curriculum in Years 4 and 6.
• Inspectors reviewed a broad range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans, documents on the school website and information about the quality of teaching and current pupils’ learning and progress. Safeguarding arrangements and records, including the central record of recruitment checks, were also scrutinised.
• Inspectors considered 32 responses to the Parent View online questionnaire, including five free-text responses. They also took into account 42 responses to a similar questionnaire which governors had used recently to gather parents’ views.
• Inspectors also reviewed 33 responses to the pupil survey and 29 staff questionnaire submissions.

Inspection team

Kathryn Moles, lead inspector Alan Jenner Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector