Wallisdean Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching and raise achievement throughout the school by ensuring that teachers:
  • have consistently high expectations of what pupils can achieve, including the most able
  • provide more opportunities for pupils to write independently at length across a range of subjects, especially in Years 3 and 4
  • check pupils’ learning carefully so that they move them on quickly to more challenging tasks, especially in mathematics
  • provide reading activities that enable pupils to develop the skills they need to achieve well in demanding tasks, especially in Year 6.
  • Strengthen leadership and governance by: refining the system for tracking pupils’ achievement to have a sharper focus on the progress they make providing governors with clear information about how well different groups of pupils are progressing developing the curriculum to improve pupils’ attainment in the full range of subjects.
  • Improve pupils’ attitudes to learning by ensuring that teachers provide clear guidance about how to succeed when working independently, especially when pupils become ‘stuck’.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• This school is improving rapidly. It has gone through an unsettled period in the last two years, during which outcomes at the end of key stage 2 fell sharply. When the previous headteacher left in 2016, the school federated with the outstanding infant school that shares the same grounds. The headteacher of the infant school became the executive headteacher of the federation of the two schools. The chair of governors understandably stated that ‘this is the best thing that has ever happened [to the school]’. Strong support, guidance and challenge from the local authority have contributed to the school’s rapid improvement.
• The executive headteacher and deputy headteacher have united the school through a clear vision to provide the best possible education for the pupils. They have wasted no time in eradicating inadequate behaviour. Pupils now arrive at school ready to learn.
• Senior leaders’ actions to improve the quality of teaching have also been successful. Teaching is now better and more consistent and teachers all strive to improve. Recently introduced performance management arrangements support this drive for improvement because teachers embrace their accountability for the outcomes that their pupils achieve.
• Teachers are provided with effective professional development tailored to their needs and stage of development. Newly qualified teachers receive strong support and speak with great enthusiasm about the school, and the privilege they feel in working there.
• Senior leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school well and have identified accurately the most urgent areas for improvement. Information about the school’s performance is accurate because leaders ensure that it is checked carefully. This includes information about pupils’ attainment. For example, colleagues from other schools and the local authority check on teachers’ assessments of pupils’ writing. Until very recently, this information had been too focused on levels of attainment and not on the progress pupils make.
• Middle leaders are on a journey of improvement. Several are new to their role but are being supported well by senior leaders and through external expertise, including from the local authority. They receive the right training and support to help them grow in confidence in their new roles.
• Leaders make effective use of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils. They have identified the barriers to learning that these pupils face and spent the money wisely to help overcome them. Disadvantaged pupils typically achieve as well as others in the school. Their attendance has improved markedly.
• The additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is put to good use. It enables these pupils to receive a good balance of support and challenge to help them make progress. Pupils who learned in a separate unit for pupils who have hearing impairment and those who have speech and language needs are now fully included in mainstream classes because leaders have invested these additional funds in providing the right level of support to enable these pupils to learn well.
• The physical education and sports premium is used effectively, including in providing opportunities to join in sports clubs after school. Leaders plan the spending and evaluate its impact carefully. Levels of attainment and participation are high in most year groups.
• The curriculum is centred on mathematics, reading and writing, where leaders have rightly focused on developing pupils’ basic skills. It is not as broad as it should be. Pupils have limited opportunities to learn about other subjects in depth, especially science. However, the curriculum is enriched with visits to interesting places such as Fishbourne Roman Palace, Butser Ancient Farm and Winchester Science Centre.

Governance of the school

• The governance of the school has improved markedly since the school became a federation. The chair of governors of the federation’s governing body has considerable experience in education and was the chair of the outstanding infant school’s governing body.
• Governors who were in place before the school federated recognise that they did not check carefully enough what leaders had told them. They did not know enough about the school for themselves. Lessons have been learned and governors now visit the school more often to ensure that key aspects of the school’s work are being carried out properly, including safeguarding pupils.
• Governors have received strong support and training from the local authority. They are now better equipped for their role and are much more effective in challenging leaders and holding them to account.
• Governors have a broadly accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, including the levels of attainment pupils reach. However, leaders do not provide governors with enough information about pupils’ progress, including the progress of different groups.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

• Pupils are safe in school because leaders have created a culture where everyone understands and fulfils their role in keeping pupils safe. Pupils’ safety and well-being are high priorities for the school. Almost all parents agree that pupils are safe in school. One parent wrote, ‘[My daughter] feels safe here and is not only learning academically, she is learning great morals and ethics too.’
• Staff are trained thoroughly and kept up to date with any new information about children protection matters.
• There are clear policies, procedures and checks in place, including those to make sure that only suitable adults are allowed to work with pupils.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching is improving strongly and some major weaknesses have been eradicated. However, the quality of teaching across the school is variable. In some classes, teachers’ assessments of what pupils know and can do are not accurate enough for teachers to pitch work at the right level to challenge pupils, especially the most able pupils.
• Expectations of what pupils can achieve are, at times, too low. Some teachers do not check how well pupils are achieving during lessons, nor move them on in their learning quickly enough when they show that they have understood. When this happens, especially in mathematics, pupils spend time doing work that is too easy for them and some lose interest.
• Where teaching is most effective, teachers and support staff provide a good balance of support and challenge, and this enables pupils to develop independence and make good progress. In all classes, there are displays to provide pupils with reminders of key spellings or number facts, which encourage pupils to be resourceful and independent. However, in some lessons, pupils are over-reliant on adults to help them when they become stuck, or have finished an activity. In these lessons, pupils are not clear about how to check the accuracy of their work, nor how to find support when an adult is not immediately available. This slows the pace of learning.
• Teachers in the lower half of the school do not give pupils enough opportunities to apply their skills and write independently at length. This results in slower progress in writing. Where pupils have these opportunities, they make much faster progress and achieve more highly.
• Teaching has improved considerably in the past year. This is because leaders have taken strong and effective actions to address weaknesses in teaching that hindered pupils’ progress. Leaders have provided staff, including newly qualified teachers, with a wide range of training to improve their skills. This has strengthened teachers’ subject knowledge and helped them to understand how to use time in class more effectively.
• Teachers provide a varied diet of reading to develop pupils’ skills and enjoyment. One pupil explained how reading improves her imagination and ‘makes you more calm’. Lessons provide pupils with opportunities to read various kinds of texts and deepen pupils’ understanding of books. An inspector saw one Year 3 class completely absorbed in a number of different activities drawn from a newspaper for children. In another lesson, a teacher skilfully helped older pupils to appreciate the concept of inference and understand the need to read ‘between the lines’.
• Teaching in all classes is built on a foundation of positive, respectful relationships between adults and pupils. Classrooms are happy, calm, purposeful places. Pupils know that they are expected to behave well and work hard and they mostly rise to these expectations.
• Teaching assistants provide effective support, both to individual pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, and to groups of pupils in class. Where they are used most successfully, they offer pupils the right level of support and the confidence to ‘have a go’. Occasionally, they offer too much help, which prevents pupils from working things out for themselves.
• Teachers set homework in line with the school’s policy. Pupils are given tasks to consolidate their learning in English and mathematics and older pupils are also set extended activities through learning projects, which expand their skills and understanding. A large majority of parents who made their views known during the inspection believe that their child receives appropriate homework for their age.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Leaders place the safety and well-being of pupils at the heart of the school’s mission. Pupils enjoy coming to school and feel safe.
• Welfare arrangements are strong. Staff fulfil their responsibility to take care of pupils and report any concerns promptly. Leaders diligently follow up any concerns that staff raise. Senior leaders engage regularly with external agencies to provide additional support for potentially vulnerable pupils and their families. They are tenacious in ensuring that these pupils are kept safe and receive the right support.
• Pupils learn to stay safe in a range of situations. They appreciate learning about road safety, ‘stranger danger’ and what to do in the event of a fire. Pupils are keenly aware of the dangers online and learn how to avoid them. Leaders provide helpful sessions for parents to keep them up to date with the latest advice and support on keeping their children safe online.
• Bullying occasionally happens in the school, but pupils say that staff are quick to sort it out. A small minority of parents said that bullying is a problem at the school, but inspectors found no evidence to support this view.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is well catered for. They learn to appreciate diversity and show tolerance of others.
• Most pupils have positive attitudes to learning and work hard to do their best. However, at times, usually when work is too easy or too hard for them, pupils’ interest wanes and they drift off task, start to chatter and lose concentration.
• Some of the wooden seating and play equipment in the school grounds are becoming worn and unsafe for pupils. This equipment is cordoned off and unavailable for pupils to use. Senior leaders and governors are fully aware of this and have plans in place to improve things.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Pupils behave well in lessons, but behaviour around the school and on the playground is more inconsistent and, at times, too boisterous. For example, older pupils run along the corridors when they are not supervised and occasionally they play too roughly at playtimes. This lively behaviour leaves a minority of younger pupils feeling uncomfortable.
• The quality of presentation in pupils’ books is variable. While some pupils take pride in their work, others take much less care and their work is of a more inconsistent standard.
• The new behaviour policy has had an immediate positive impact. Pupils understand that there are consequences for unacceptable actions as well as rewards for when they behave well. In recent years, rates of exclusion have been above those seen nationally, but so far this year there have been none.
• In 2016, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils and some pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities was too low. Leaders have worked hard to engage with parents to emphasise the importance of regular attendance at school. Levels of attendance are now much higher. The attendance of all groups of pupils is at least in line with national figures.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Outcomes for pupils in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 were significantly above those seen nationally in 2015. In 2016, outcomes fell sharply. Levels of attainment were well below national figures and rates of progress were too slow. Not enough pupils reached the higher standards. Progress and attainment in mathematics were particularly weak. Levels of attainment improved in 2017, but were still well below national figures.
• Pupils currently in the school are now once again making much better progress, especially in reading and mathematics. Pupils in Year 6 have still not made enough progress from their generally high starting points at the end of key stage 1, because of weak teaching in the past. However, they have made faster progress in the past year. Pupils in all other year groups are typically working at least at the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics. A greater proportion than previously are also working beyond these standards.
• Progress in other subjects is weaker. Work in books shows that expectations and standards are too low. Some subjects in the wider curriculum, including science, are not taught in sufficient depth to improve pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
• Disadvantaged pupils, in almost all year groups, achieve broadly in line with other pupils and make the same progress. At the end of key stage 2 in 2017, they outperformed other pupils in the school, although they achieved less well than other pupils nationally.
• Recent changes in the provision for those in the resource for pupils who have hearing impairment and those who have special educational needs in speech and language have made a significant improvement to outcomes for these pupils. Pupils are now involved much more in mainstream lessons and make much faster progress. Leaders rightly attribute these improvements to the growth in pupils’ self-confidence and self-esteem and the quality of support they receive. All staff now embrace their responsibility to ensure that pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, including those in the resource provision, make good progress.
• Over the past two years, girls have outperformed boys in reading and mathematics. However, improvements in the quality of teaching have enabled boys across the school to make better progress and achieve broadly in line with girls.
• Pupils read well. They become increasingly confident, fluent readers who enjoy a variety of books. However, older pupils do not gain enough experience of the more challenging reading activities to develop the skills they need to achieve well in really difficult tasks. This is reflected in past weakness in results in the key stage 2 tests.
• Inspectors found clear evidence that the improvements in outcomes seen since the new executive headteacher joined the school are substantial and secure. They are based on the strong impact of leadership in improving teaching and behaviour.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115889 Hampshire 10037830 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 213 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mr Barry Harwood Executive Headteacher Mrs Sandra Cammish Telephone number 01329 232571 Website Email address

www.wallisdeanjuniors.co.uk adminoffice@wallisdean-jnr.hants.sch.uk

Date of previous inspection 11–12 December 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school federated with Wallisdean Infant School in April 2017. There is a single governing body that oversees the work of both schools. The executive headteacher was previously the headteacher of the infant school. She started on a temporary, interim basis in September 2016, before taking up post permanently in April 2017.
• The school has a specially resourced provision for six pupils who have hearing impairment or significant speech and language needs. All of these pupils are taught in mainstream classes.
• This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school, but is growing in size.
• The great majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds. The largest proportions of other pupils are of Pakistani, Indian or other Asian heritages.
• The proportion of pupils for whom English is an additional language is well below that seen nationally.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is higher than that seen nationally. The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is well above the national average.
• The school did not meet the floor standards in 2016 and 2017, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes at least once. Almost all of these were joint observations with senior leaders.
• Inspectors held meetings with pupils from Years 3 to 6 and listened to several children read. They spoke to pupils in lessons, during playtimes and around the school.
• Inspectors met with senior leaders to discuss their evaluation of the school, outcomes for pupils and other aspects of the school’s performance. The lead inspector met with the chair of governors and two other governors. He also met two representatives of the local authority.
• Inspectors met with a range of other school leaders, including the special educational need coordinator.
• Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation and school improvement plan, safeguarding and behaviour records, performance and attendance information for current pupils, and a number of school policies, including those on the school website.
• Inspectors carried out a detailed scrutiny of pupils’ books in all year groups and all ability ranges.
• Inspectors considered 19 responses to the Parent View online questionnaire, including 14 free-text responses. An inspector met with parents at the school gate at the start of the day. The lead inspector had a telephone conversation with a parent who had asked to speak to an inspector. Inspectors also considered questionnaire responses from 19 members of staff and from 120 pupils.

Inspection team

Bruce Waelend, lead inspector Barbara Carr

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector