Jubilee Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to raise the proportion of pupils reaching the highest levels of attainment by looking for even more opportunities to challenge pupils further, making even greater use of their desire to learn.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The headteacher, senior leaders and governors have a compelling vision for an inclusive, nurturing school with high standards, based on a Christian ethos. Staff share this vision and, as a result, a culture of support and caring for individual pupils to promote their learning permeates the school.
• The headteacher has built a vibrant and inspiring learning community over the three years the school has been open. Ably supported by trust members and the governors, she has shown determination and resilience in the face of delays to the development of the school site and restrictions on the number of pupils who can join the school in Reception Year.
• Virtually all parents are supportive of the school. The vast majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, would recommend the school to another parent. Parents are particularly complimentary about the school’s commitment to their children’s well-being and the progress they make. One parent spoke for many when she said, ‘Staff put the children first and really develop their confidence.’ Another said, ‘This wasn’t my first choice, but when I came I fell in love with it.’
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), who is also the family liaison officer, provides appropriate, compassionate and effective support for a wide and diverse range of pupils. Funding to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used well. The SENCo identifies and implements suitable provision so that these pupils make very good progress. The SENCo rigorously checks the impact of strategies used and, where necessary, changes the response until the pupil makes the desired progress. This demonstrates strong leadership.
• Leaders keep a close check on the progress of each pupil in the school. The pupil premium funding is spent well. Disadvantaged pupils benefit from well-targeted support that enables them to catch up from lower starting points. Most disadvantaged pupils make good progress.
• Leaders have an accurate view of what they need to improve to meet their high expectations. They have improved the quality of teaching across the school. Teachers who are new to the profession are supported extremely well. Staff value leaders’ commitment to their ongoing professional development. The school has rigorous and highly effective systems for managing the performance of teachers.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced, inclusive and enriched due to the extensive range of activities the school offers. Visits, such as recent trips to an aquarium, a local farm and smugglers’ caves, complement classroom studies. Visitors enliven the pupils’ studies, such as the musician who runs weekly singing and music lessons, the ‘minibeast man’ and an expert on fossils during science week. The weekly ‘Jubilee University’ provides a carousel of dance, arts and crafts, drama, healthy living and exercise. Parents were thrilled with the presentations by their children at the end of the recent ‘week of wonder’, or ‘wow week’ as it was called. Spanish is taught throughout the school and signs all around the school are in Spanish. As part of the school’s ‘Big Teach’, every pupil chooses a topic to teach to their classmates. Recent examples include: a slide show on deadly predators, demonstrating cooking, and using Lego to make models.
• Leaders use the primary school sports funding imaginatively by employing sports coaches at lunchtime to provide a range of games and activities to develop pupils’ skills. Coupled with improved staff training in physical education, the sports funding has had a positive impact on pupils’ participation, enjoyment and well-being.
• Leaders promote equality avidly. Differences are frequently celebrated through assemblies focused on diversity, everyday activities and supportive relationships throughout the school. Pupils’ spiritual, moral and social education is a strength of the school.
• Shortly after the start of the autumn term, two teachers new to the school were not meeting the high standards expected. The headteacher and governors acted rapidly and decisively and the teachers left the school. The headteacher, assistant headteacher and highly skilled and experienced teaching assistants stepped in to teach and support the classes until replacement teachers were in place, so that pupils did not fall behind.

Governance of the school

• Governors are dedicated and highly effective. Last year, as a new and relatively inexperienced governing body seeking to learn and improve, governors commissioned an independent review to evaluate their effectiveness and identify areas for further improvement. The review found many strengths and offered some advice, which governors noted. The chair of the governing body ensures that governors follow the subsequent action plan closely. As a result, their challenge to the school is even stronger.
• Governors are uncompromising in their ambition for the best education for the pupils at Jubilee Primary School. They supported the headteacher’s decision to change staff in the autumn term fully, despite the inevitable turbulence.
• Governors visit the school regularly, are well informed and have an accurate understanding of its strengths and also those areas that need to be further developed as the school grows. They have made secure arrangements for handover to the interim headteacher, who is already in post, after the departure of the founding headteacher this summer.
• The governing body is held to account robustly by members of the Jubilee Primary School Trust. It ensures that governors and leaders uphold the school’s distinctive vision, of a values-based, Christian faith, ethos. The impetus for the free school grew out of the local Jubilee Church’s ambition to be a resource for the whole community. Members of the trust have clear strategic plans for development, as the school grows.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school is a nurturing, caring environment in which every pupil is valued and cared for. Staff have very positive relationships with pupils and know them well. This means that staff are alert to any changes in pupils that may indicate a concern. Pupils feel safe in school. They are confident in knowing there is always a trusted adult they can speak to in school if they are worried about something.
• Safeguarding records are up to date and referrals are followed up promptly and well documented. The school’s leaders work closely with parents and other agencies to help pupils receive the support they need.
• Staff have received appropriate training for their roles and responsibilities and know what to do if they have a concern.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teaching is highly effective. Teachers have high aspirations and expectations of their pupils and create a positive climate. Relationships are strong and pupils really enjoy learning. Pupils work well together and particularly enjoy the opportunities given to discuss activities and share ideas.
• Teachers and teaching assistants have strong subject knowledge. They use this well to develop pupils’ skills and understanding. Teaching assistants are skilled contributors to pupils’ learning in phonics because they have received effective training. For example, in phonics lessons in Year 1, teaching assistants checked pupils’ understanding to adjust their teaching and to challenge pupils. Consequently, pupils achieve very well.
• During lessons, teachers check pupils’ understanding and respond to their needs, providing additional support or challenge as required. Teachers give immediate feedback to pupils about their learning and are quick to pick up and address any misunderstandings. Teachers also give helpful written feedback to pupils about their work. In accordance with leaders’ expectations, teachers indicate where pupils have been successful and set out their next learning steps. This consistency makes an effective contribution to pupils’ excellent progress.
• Pupils’ achievements are reviewed regularly to check how well they are progressing towards the standards expected of their age. Where pupils are found to be falling behind, the SENCo sets out to identify the barriers to the pupils’ learning. The SENCo oversees a programme designed to close the learning gaps of low-attaining pupils and meet the individual requirements of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This carefully graded provision enables pupils who have fallen behind to catch up, and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities to progress well from their starting points.
• The introduction of a highly structured programme for teaching phonics has led to improving standards in both phonics and reading.
• Teachers ensure that the broad curriculum provides ample opportunities for pupils to practise their writing, for example in science.
• Mathematics is taught very effectively. Pupils’ books show that the work provided is appropriately challenging and that pupils make rapid progress. Pupils are expected to explain their thinking and rationale from an early age. Teachers make sure that pupils thoroughly understand a concept by setting increasingly challenging problems. Resources are used very well in lessons and carefully matched to pupils’ needs.
• All classrooms and school corridors are adorned with a rich variety of stimuli and photographs of pupils absorbed in their learning.
• During the year, turnover of staff led to some variable classroom teaching. However, a range of extra provision ensured that pupils were able to achieve highly. The current, stable, teaching workforce has the capacity for further improvement.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Leaders have created a happy and secure environment and pupils love coming to school. Many parents commented on how happy their children are at school. One parent spoke for many when they said: ‘Here my son is looked after in a very personal and kind way, he is progressing really well and making friends. I feel like everyone knows my child and is always ready to help.’
• Staff have established strong relationships with pupils and families. This helps pupils to feel safe and trust staff. Pupils are confident that any adult at the school will listen to them and help them if they are ever worried about anything. They say that instances of bullying are rare and staff act swiftly to resolve any issues.
• The systematic programme of activities to help pupils learn about staying safe, including when online, means that pupils are confident about how to keep themselves safe. They were adamant they know how to respond to anything suspicious and described a recent example where an alert pupil had reported something to adults.
• Leaders encourage pupils to openly discuss matters which might be troubling them, such as recent tragedies reported in the news. The ‘Big Think’ is an opportunity for pupils to share their thoughts in a trusting and secure environment.
• Pupils are proud of their elected school leaders. They built on their experience of democracy to hold a mock general election, and expressed the importance of voting, once they had considered the candidates’ manifestos carefully. (The two candidates were teddy bears.)

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils are exceptionally motivated and keen to learn. They display exemplary behaviour in lessons and around the school. In lessons, they move from one activity to the next swiftly and settle to learn eagerly.
• Incidents of poor behaviour are rare. Leaders ensure that there are plenty of activities and high levels of supervision at playtimes. At lunchtime, sports coaches organise games such as rounders, or hockey, and practise skills such as throwing and catching. These activities help to improve pupils’ confidence and build relationships well. Staff keep a watchful eye to ensure that all pupils are encouraged to participate.
• Attendance is above national levels and improving.
• Parents say that their children bring the school’s values and high expectations for behaviour home with them. One parent described how her seven-year-old child explained to her teenage brother the importance of listening to other people. Another overheard her six-year-old describing the benefits of ‘no hands play’ to her cousins.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils achieve highly and make substantial progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics. This is due to the high expectations established by the headteacher, exceptional support for pupils’ well-being and learning needs and strong teaching.
• The proportion of children who achieved a good level of development in the early years was above the national average last year and on course to be well above this year. Children make rapid progress from their varied starting points and the most able join Year 1 for some of their learning.
• Phonics is very well taught. In 2016, almost all pupils achieved the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check and this year the proportion is well above national levels.
• The small number of pupils who completed key stage 1 in 2016 means that it is not possible to make meaningful comparisons with national results. The work produced by these Year 3 pupils shows they meet the appropriate challenge currently provided. During a mathematics lesson on capacity, they were grappling with different intervals to read scales accurately.
• Work in books and the school’s performance information show that a very high proportion of current Year 2 pupils are making good progress towards meeting age-expected standards. Some most able pupils are set to achieve at the higher levels, known as ‘greater depth’, and many are working towards that standard. The current Year 2 cohort left Reception Year with a lower proportion achieving a good level of development, so this represents strong progress through key stage 1.
• School information and work in pupils’ books show that pupils make excellent progress in a wide range of subjects in addition to English and mathematics. The systematic approach to tracking pupils’ progress means that effective additional support and challenge are quickly allocated, when required. This ensures that pupils do not fall behind.
• The progress of disadvantaged pupils is at least as good as that of their peers. Some, including the most able, are progressing faster, which is helping them catch up from lower starting points. Although some most able disadvantaged pupils are achieving standards above those expected for their age, none yet attains greater depth.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make very good progress socially, emotionally and academically from their varied starting points. Additional effective support enables these pupils to make rapid gains because it caters precisely for their individual needs and links very well to work in class. The impact of the excellent support provided by teaching assistants under the determined leadership of the SENCo improves pupils’ self-belief and the progress they make.
• Pupils who speak English as an additional language make strong progress and achieve highly or are catching up rapidly. This is because the school’s careful attention and intervention to support the needs of individual pupils have a profound impact on their progress.
• Progress in pupils’ reading is strong. Consistent application of a reading scheme, combined with targeted support where needed, is helping pupils to develop their confidence and fluency to read a range of texts.
• Pupils’ written work has improved and writing across the curriculum is a strength. Over time, pupils develop greater stamina for writing, make more adventurous vocabulary choices and write increasing complex sentences. Pupils are encouraged to recall stories to help them build their language for storytelling. This has benefited disadvantaged pupils particularly well.
• In mathematics, pupils’ basic arithmetic skills are secure. Pupils have opportunities to apply these skills in problem-solving and reasoning from Reception Year.
• Pupils in Years 2 and 3 class experienced some weaker teaching at the start of the year. However, the strong foundations and robust learning habits acquired during their previous two years in the school enabled the pupils to maintain steady improvement. Alert leaders were quick to spot the problem and the teacher was replaced. Meanwhile, the assistant headteacher, the SENCo and teaching assistants supported the pupils’ learning, and once the current teacher was in post, improvement was instant. The prevailing culture, which promotes determination when faced with challenges, and the efforts of a highly committed, unified staff, ensured that individual pupils were able to make strong progress over the course of the year. Therefore, outcomes across the school are outstanding.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Children in the early years get an excellent start to their schooling. The early years provision is overseen by the headteacher, who brings strong expertise and a clear vision for a multi-sensory environment which promotes effective learning. There is a strong emphasis on providing care and nurture as well as challenge and ambition. Staff have established consistent routines which enhance all aspects of the children’s experiences at school.
• Children join Reception with a wide range of skills and abilities. Overall, their starting points are a little below those typical for their age. Nearly all pupils currently in Reception are set to achieve a good level of development at the end of the year. This represents considerable progress. The small number of children who have not yet met all of the learning goals have additional barriers and needs which are being supported well.
• High expectations and precise attention to the developmental stage of every child mean that staff know how to support each child’s learning, so that all do well. Disadvantaged children also benefit from highly tailored intervention supported by pupil premium funding. Work in books shows children’s achievement accelerating through the year, so that they are well prepared for transition to Year 1.
• Both the classroom and large outside areas are stimulating and well organised. Pupils are clear as to what to do due to strategies such as learning prompts hanging from lines above activity tables, which children use independently. The children were inspired by a recent visit to an aquarium to support their ‘under the sea’ theme. During the inspection, children were highly focused, making models of crabs, puffer fish and submarines. They concentrated well and consulted prompts when necessary, while also showing creativity. The emphasis on ‘design, create, and reflect’ throughout the year has provided challenge, as well as promoting children’s confidence and skills.
• Leaders, teachers and support staff expect children to link playing and exploring to prior learning. A boy painting a large whale in the outside area spoke enthusiastically about what he had learned at the aquarium and then excitedly drew on numeracy skills to measure the length of his painting. Staff ensure that children develop different skills effectively. A group of girls who frequently like to write about their experiences and ideas were being encouraged to also use building blocks to show the fish tank they were planning. Children use their phonics knowledge securely to write recipe lists for the aquarium café. Many children reread what they have written and self-correct when they realise their spelling of the word does not sound right.
• Teachers and highly trained and skilled teaching assistants have high expectations of children and ensure they make appropriate learning choices. Adults also strongly promote children’s emotional well-being and help them build effective relationships. Adults use dialogue and questioning to draw out what children know and deepen their understanding. As a result, children are articulate and talk confidently about what they are doing.
• Adults are highly vigilant and ensure safeguarding procedures are followed rigorously. Children are taught how to keep themselves safe and what to do if they are ever worried. Children were keen to show the inspector their work, but first looked for the school’s blue lanyard, which showed them the adult visitor was safe to talk to.
• Children are exceptionally well behaved and demonstrate perseverance and resilience. They share well with each other. The school’s ethos of mutual respect and consideration is evident.
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the provision and the ‘incredible progress’ their children are making. They appreciate the ‘excellent communication’ and weekly open-door mornings where they join the class to see their children learning. One parent explained how delighted she was to hear her child progress so rapidly, when the family does not speak English at home.
• At the beginning of the academic year, the teaching fell short of the leaders’ expectations. This resulted in a change of teacher. Parents reported that this transition was explained clearly by the headteacher and they appreciated her determination to ensure their children received the best teaching. Support by senior leaders and teaching assistants within the already established high-quality provision enabled children to settle well and make strong progress, particularly once the current teacher took over the class.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141025 Kent 10032822 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy free school 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 118 Appropriate authority The governing body and academy trust Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Bryan Fitzgerald Anne Allen 01622 808873 www.jubileeprimaryschool.org.uk office@jubileeprimaryschool.org.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Jubilee Primary School is a new free school. It opened in September 2014 with one mixed class with Reception children and Year 1 pupils. The following year it increased by two Reception classes, and, due to planning constraints, it took one Reception class in 2016. At the time of the inspection, the school had pupils in Reception Year and Years 1, 2 and 3.
• The school is currently smaller than the average-sized primary school. The school plans to admit two classes per year.
• The school was founded by members of the local Jubilee Church and is overseen by the Jubilee Primary School Trust. Many volunteers from the church support the school.
• The school is housed in refurbished accommodation, currently undergoing further development.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is in line with the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who receive support for special educational needs and/or disabilities is broadly in line with the national average.
• The school’s work is not eligible for comparison with the government’s floor standards as it does not have pupils in Year 6.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• The headteacher is leaving the school at the end of the year. The interim headteacher joined the school as an assistant headteacher in November 2016.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed teaching and learning in seven lessons and parts of lessons, all carried out jointly with school leaders. The inspector scrutinised work in pupils’ books.
• Meetings were held with senior staff, teachers, members of the governing body and representatives of the trust. Nine staff completed the staff questionnaire and these responses were taken into account.
• The inspector took into account parents’ views through the 57 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, one email and through informal conversations at the beginning of the school day.
• Pupils’ views were gathered through meetings with different groups of pupils and through informal conversations at playtime. The inspectors also viewed 45 online responses to the pupil survey.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of the school’s documentation including: the school’s information on pupils’ progress; the school improvement plan; the school’s own evaluations; minutes of governors’ meetings; and safeguarding documentation.

Inspection team

Theresa Phillips, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector