Talavera Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Enhance pupils’ learning even further by ensuring that planning for the development of their subject knowledge is equally well developed in every subject across the curriculum.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The headteacher, in collaboration with her leadership team, has led the school with determination, tenacity and moral purpose. She ensures that every pupil at Talavera Junior School makes rapid progress in the development of their skills, understanding and knowledge across the curriculum. The school’s vision that ‘every minute counts’ is enacted in practice throughout the curriculum.
• Leaders at all levels, including governors, are highly ambitious for the academic and social success of all pupils from the moment they begin school. This vision of success is shared by all members of staff. Consequently, pupils have high aspirations for their future and understand the fundamental importance of a high-quality education.
• Through strong systems and arrangements, leaders ensure that all pupils receive high- quality pastoral support and care. Leaders ensure that there are no social or emotional barriers to pupils’ achievements. As a result, pupils enjoy coming to school and engage very well in lessons.
• Evaluation and review processes are accurate. Leaders have embedded an impressive cycle of continuous professional development that is rooted in expert research. Collaborative working with subject expert groups with the local authority and nationally ensures that good practice is widely shared across the school. Consequently, swift action is taken through team teaching and expert interventions to address any relative weaknesses in approaches to teaching and learning.
• Effective leadership pervades the school at every level. Teachers are strong leaders of learning within their classrooms. Pupils develop strong skills of reflection and critical evaluation to enable them to lead their own learning.
• Leadership of English is particularly strong. Through high-quality training, teachers and teaching assistants develop highly effective approaches to the teaching of reading, writing and spelling. The English curriculum is underpinned by a breadth of high-quality texts which both engage and extend pupils’ understanding. For example, Year 5 pupils develop their understanding of how male and female stereotypes are constructed through reading Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Sleeper and the Spindle’.
• Leadership of mathematics is highly effective. The mathematics curriculum embeds challenge for all pupils irrespective of their different starting points. Pupils develop strong skills, understanding and knowledge. As a result, pupils’ mathematical outcomes are extremely strong at the end of key stage 2.
• Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development is outstanding. The SMSC programme underpins the entire curriculum. Through carefully structured induction programmes when pupils begin school, leaders devise strategies and approaches to support pupils’ understanding and awareness of their rights as children. Pupils also experience the many cultural opportunities afforded by Aldershot and the county of Hampshire. For example, all pupils attend the Aldershot Film Festival.
• The curriculum is highly ambitious, innovative and inclusive. Pupils study a range of subjects that enrich pupils’ understanding of the world they inhabit. For example, pupils in Year 3 study how people lived in the surrounding area during the Iron Age. In Year 5 inspectors observed pupils discussing the concept of individual liberty and what it meant for them.
• Pupils learn in a speech and language rich environment. Pupils develop a very strong vocabulary with which to articulate their understanding, skills and knowledge. Parents can access a wealth of information about pupils’ learning on the school’s website. Parents are also regular visitors to the school. For example, parents support the celebration of the Nepali and Fijian communities alongside traditional British festivals at the school.
• The overwhelming majority of parents are very positive about the school and the support it provides. In conversations with inspectors, parents spoke very positively about their children’s progress at the school. Parents’ comments in Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, noted how ‘happy’ pupils are and how the headteacher ‘goes the extra mile’. One parent’s comment that the school was ‘brilliant’ and ‘could not be faulted’ was echoed by many others.
• Support for pupils with SEND is highly effective. Leaders ensure that these pupils access the curriculum effectively and successfully. As a result, pupils with SEND make rapid progress from their different starting points. Teaching assistants work very closely with teachers to ensure that these pupils have both the tools and skills to achieve in a range of subjects across the curriculum. Leaders monitor and track the progress of pupils with SEND very effectively. Highly effective reviews of pupils’ academic and social and emotional achievements are conducted with pupils, parents, teachers, teaching assistants and leaders.
• Leaders use the pupil premium funding extremely well to provide pupils with bespoke support. Leaders, teachers and teaching assistants evaluate the needs of individual disadvantaged pupils with insight and expertise to adjust what is offered and ensure that pupils attain well right across the curriculum.
• Leadership of subjects other than in the core areas is strong. Subject leaders and year leaders told inspectors that ‘this is a driven school’ and ‘if there is something that we are not very good at, we ask for support and get it.’ Each subject has a well-structured curriculum through which pupils develop subject-specific knowledge alongside cross- curricular reading and writing skills. Nevertheless, some planning for the development of pupils’ knowledge over time in subjects lacks the precision of the best seen in areas such as history and music.

Governance of the school

• The team of governors brings a wealth of expertise to the school. Governors use their skills very well to challenge and support the school in equal measure.
• All governors make regular visits to the school. They gather information about the school, making clear links to the school development plan. As a result, they ask highly pertinent and challenging questions of leaders and support the school’s continuous improvement very well.
• Governors share senior leaders’ high expectations and aspirations for the academic and social and emotional well-being of every single pupil. They work closely with parents to ensure that pupils feel fully included in the life of the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Governors and leaders are rigorous in ensuring that all safeguarding arrangements meet statutory requirements.
• Pupils feel safe. A very strong culture of safeguarding is at the heart of the daily life in the school. Pupils’ physical and emotional safety is the highest priority for all staff. Consequently, pupils feel very well cared for. Parents unanimously agree that pupils are safe at the school.
• Leaders have embedded scrupulous safer recruitment practices. All staff have regular child protection training. Safeguarding is a standing agenda item at every meeting, including governors’ meetings.
• Leaders are tenacious in ensuring that the needs of vulnerable pupils are addressed swiftly and appropriately. Nothing is left to chance in ensuring that pupils are safe and well cared for both in school and beyond.
• Staff provide exceptional support for vulnerable pupils in a very nurturing environment, enabling them to make excellent progress. For example, a range of clubs is in place to support pupils’ social and emotional needs. Pupils whose parents are deployed in the army overseas receive exceptional support, such as from the camouflage club. Pupils who provide physical and emotional care for a member of their family have many opportunities to express their feelings in the young carers club at lunchtimes.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• High expectations and aspirations underpin high-quality teaching and learning in every year group and in a wide range of subjects, including English and mathematics. Classrooms are harmonious, stimulating learning environments where pupils are eager to learn. Teachers ensure that pupils develop strong independent learning skills, enabling them to ask challenging questions about a range of subjects. For example, an inspector observed Year 6 pupils formulating sophisticated questions about the causes of the end of the Mayan civilisation that drew very well on their prior learning.
• Pupils have very strong relationships with their teachers and teaching assistants. These harmonious relationships enable pupils to access learning in a fun and creative way. Consequently, pupils make rapid progress from their different starting points across the curriculum.
• Teachers plan reading lessons with exceptional care and attention to the critical skills, knowledge and understanding that pupils need to develop. Through the study of high- quality texts, pupils make rapid progress in their understanding of how writers use language to convey ideas. Pupils talk articulately about books and express their sophisticated understanding in writing well.
• Through the study of a breadth of texts, including picture books, pupils explore their emotional responses to characters, settings and themes with perception and understanding. The reading curriculum reinforces and strengthens pupils’ empathy for the experiences of others. Empathic writing, where pupils write in the form of a character from the text, is threaded throughout their study of texts. As a result, pupils enjoy reading and are able to articulate their ideas very well.
• Teachers use high-quality texts to support pupils’ writing skills very well. Pupils study how grammar and word choices shape the impact of a text on a reader. Pupils use their grammatical knowledge skilfully to improve their own writing. Pupils also extend their vocabulary extremely well through reading a breadth of texts and apply thoughtful language choices to their own writing. As a consequence, pupils make rapid progress in writing in all year groups.
• The teaching of mathematics is extremely strong. Teachers plan with clear understanding of the needs of pupils. High expectations are embedded in planning, teaching and assessment. Through carefully structured activities, pupils develop strong fluency and reasoning skills.
• Pupils enjoy learning mathematics. Teachers use innovative approaches to stimulate pupils’ enthusiasm for numbers and equations. For example, through the use of picture books, pupils developed strong understanding of the role of mathematics in situations such as calculating the sizes of boots for giants in Raymond Briggs’ ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’. Year 6 pupils explored the mathematician Fibonacci’s ideas with enhanced understanding from a picture book.
• Teachers have very secure subject knowledge, which ensures that lessons develop pupils’ understanding, knowledge and skills sequentially. For example, the teaching of spelling builds systematically on pupils’ understanding of word patterns enabling pupils to improve their spelling.
• Teaching assistants support pupils’ progress very well. They use targeted questioning, prompts and explanations highly effectively to ensure that pupils can access the curriculum successfully.
• Assessment is used extremely well to improve pupils’ learning. Feedback to pupils in a range of forms enables pupils to understand how to improve. Pupils receive highly effective guidance to make rapid progress.
• There are very strong systems to support pupils who may be at risk of falling behind others. Additional high-quality support for pupils with spelling and reading ensures that they are able to access the curriculum equitably and successfully.
• School staff are highly committed to ensuring that every single pupil makes strong progress across the curriculum. They know the learning needs of their pupils exceptionally well. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils make rapid progress and enjoy coming to school.
• Pupils with SEND make strong progress across the curriculum due to tailored approaches that meet their needs. Pupils receive additional support to ensure that they are able to access the curriculum and make strong progress.
• The school assessment and tracking system is robust, including through working with external partners to check that the school’s views are accurate. Through very good pupil progress meetings, information about pupils is shared and evaluated. Pertinent interventions are identified where necessary to ensure that no pupil falls behind.
• The teaching of some subjects in the wider curriculum is exceptional. An inspector observed Year 6 pupils who had made excellent progress over time in music through skilfully planned activities that enabled them all to develop their skills. However, a few subjects, such as French, have not developed as strongly so that pupils make rapid progress.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils told inspectors how much they loved coming to school. They spoke very positively about the difference the school has made to their learning and their friendships.
• Pupils have excellent attitudes towards learning. They are punctual to class and are enthused by their learning. Older pupils act as role models, taking on extra responsibilities such as prefects.
• The curriculum prepares pupils very well for life in 21st century Britain. Pupils are respectful, tolerant and embrace the importance of free speech. They engage in democracy through elections for the school council.
• The school develops pupils’ understanding and tolerance for different cultures and faiths. Pupils and parents spoke very appreciatively to inspectors about the opportunities afforded by the school to share cultural celebrations such as Fiji day in October. An inspector observed Year 5 pupils discussing and writing about their personal views concerning the beginning of creation, ranging from scientific to Hindu, Buddhist and Christian teachings, with great thoughtfulness.
• The school’s core values of respect, courage, determination and friendship are embedded throughout the curriculum and school life. Pupils told inspectors about the strong focus on friendship at the school. Leaders have established very strong systems to ensure that pupils new to the school receive excellent pastoral support.
• Leaders address complex issues, such as the importance of staying safe when on the internet, in an age-appropriate way. Assemblies, activities and lessons address a range of personal, social and health education issues very effectively.
• The school provides a very nurturing setting, which enables pupils to become strong learners. They feel safe and happy in their school and know that they can confide in an adult if they have any issue and that it will be resolved.
• Pupils gain a very strong understanding of the importance of physical health and the environment through being encouraged to walk to school. Pupils respond with great enthusiasm to the rewards offered by the school for walking regularly to school. Many pupils showed their badges with pride to inspectors.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Staff set very high examples of behaviour. Pupils follow these excellent role models, resulting in exemplary behaviour both in the classroom and around the school.
• Pupils’ attendance is consistently above the national average. No group of pupils is disadvantaged by low attendance. School leaders and staff continuously reinforce the critical link between achievement and attendance at school.
• Pupils with complex needs receive excellent, bespoke support across all aspects of the school day. Staff use the school behaviour policy well, ensuring that pupils understand the positive consequences of good behaviour.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils’ reading skills are extremely well developed in every year group. Pupils frequently read for pleasure and listen to class readers with enthusiasm and focus. In 2018, the progress pupils had made by the end of key stage 2 was significantly above the national average.
• Pupils make strong progress from their different starting points in the great majority subjects. In 2018, the proportions of pupils who attained the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics were significantly above national averages at key stage 2. Current pupils make very strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics in all year groups.
• Pupils have achieved very high standards in science over the past three years. Pupils currently in school are developing strong investigative skills in their science lessons.
• Pupils with SEND receive tailored support that enables them to access the curriculum successfully. As a result, these pupils make rapid progress across the curriculum.
• Leaders monitor the impact of pupil premium funding closely to ensure that pupils do not fall behind. It has a significant impact through the many approaches tailored to meet the specific needs of individual pupils. Consequently, pupils make rapid progress and attain well across the curriculum.
• The most able pupils are challenged appropriately throughout the curriculum. As a result, they make strong progress in most subjects. Teachers extend pupils’ thinking about a range of subjects very effectively. As a result, the proportions of pupils who achieved the higher standard at key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics were significantly above the national averages in 2018.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 116149 Hampshire 10054142 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 337 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Carol Nicholls Amanda Webb 01252 322156 www.talaverajunior.co.uk office@talaverajunior.co.uk Date of previous inspection 23 January 2018

Information about this school

• The school is larger than an average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged and supported by pupil premium funding is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who are supported by the service premium funding is significantly above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is below the national average. The proportion of pupils with education, health and care plans is below average.
• The majority of pupils are from a range of ethnic minorities. The proportion of White British pupils is below the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors made visits to classrooms, some jointly with the headteacher, to observe learning and to talk to pupils about their work.
• Inspectors met formally with the headteacher and other leaders, including the special educational needs coordinator.
• Formal meetings were held with four governors, including the chair of the governing body, 16 pupils and the school council.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and discussed reading with pupils across the school.
• Inspectors scrutinised pupils’ work across all subjects and year groups to determine the accuracy of leaders’ and teachers’ assessments and whether pupils’ strong progress is being maintained.
• The lead inspector checked the school’s documentation regarding: the school’s approach and systems for safeguarding pupils; pupils’ behaviour and attendance; and the quality of teaching and learning. She also considered the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans.
• Inspectors considered 273 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including 62 free-text comments and the views of parents at the beginning of the school day. Inspectors also took account of 26 responses to the Ofsted staff survey and 31 responses to the Ofsted pupil survey.

Inspection team

Susan Aykin, lead inspector Linda Jacobs Deborah Gordon

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector