Temple Grove Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Implement a robust wider curriculum which offers all pupils the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills that will prepare them well for the next stage of their education.
• Raise standards in writing across the school, especially for boys and the most able pupils, by:
  • ensuring consistently high expectations of presentation, punctuation, spelling and grammar
  • providing opportunities for pupils to develop and extend their writing skills across the curriculum.
• Ensure that teaching systematically challenges misconceptions and extends thinking.
• Take appropriate steps to raise attendance of individuals and groups of pupils who do not attend school regularly enough.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The curriculum is too narrow. It lacks the richness and depth needed to inspire, stretch and challenge pupils. Pupils are not given enough opportunities to investigate and formulate scientific reasoning, develop skills in history and geography and to deepen their thinking in other curriculum areas. Work is often unfinished and lacks care. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to develop their writing skills in a range of contexts and subjects.
• Many curriculum subject leaders have not had enough impact on improving standards across the school. They are aware of what needs to be done, but have not yet implemented these improvements consistently or sufficiently enough to ensure that all teachers are teaching what is needed, or that pupils are making enough progress.
• There are some strengths in the curriculum. It is enhanced by the wide range of after-school clubs on offer to pupils, from cooking to tap dancing. The choir has enjoyed considerable success, for example singing at the O2. The sports premium funding has been used effectively to increase the range of sports on offer and the numbers of pupils participating.
• The headteacher and her new team of assistant headteachers clearly want to achieve the best for their pupils. Their hard work and ambition is starting to have an effect in raising standards. Their efforts have been hampered by frequent staff changes and a need to secure consistently good teaching, which has affected progress. However, leaders know where teaching is most successful and have put appropriate support and training in place for those remaining teachers who need to improve their practice.
• The leader responsible for the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities knows the pupils in her care well. Staff have been well trained to support a wide range of needs effectively. They share this expertise around the school so that all pupils benefit. For example, children in the early years who have speech difficulties receive good-quality support from a specialist based in Year 2. Parents appreciate the high levels of care and support provided for their children, which enables them to flourish.
• Leaders have put in place some initiatives that are beginning to have an impact on raising standards. For example, a project has been in place to improve teaching in mathematics, while another is raising enjoyment of reading throughout the school.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their understanding of British values are promoted well through regular assemblies. The school core values of ‘aspire, respect, responsibility, creativity, resilience and thoughtfulness’ further help develop pupils’ understanding. Pupils are thrilled when they are nominated for demonstrating the ‘value of the term’ and look forward to having their postcard recognising this achievement arriving home in the post.

Governance of the school

• Governors know the school well. They balance the information they receive from the headteacher’s report with external data and information. They use this information to hold leaders to account through informed and purposeful questioning.
• The governor-led pupil premium working group is effective in ensuring that the pupil premium grant is spent in ways that best benefit disadvantaged pupils and that it is having the best impact on their attainment and progress.
• Governors have clear and effective oversight of their statutory duties. The safeguarding governor checks that policies and procedures are fit for purpose. Governors show due diligence in ensuring that finances are spent wisely.
• Directors of the trust bring considerable expertise to the governance structure. As the two bodies have grown there has evolved an appropriately clear strategic delineation between the two boards. Directors are ambitious for the future of the trust and aware of how the planned expansion could provide valuable opportunities for school-to-school support.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Appropriate checks are carried out on new staff and volunteers when they join the school. Staff receive regular training and know what to do if they have concerns.
• Leaders are aware of the importance of teaching pupils to be safe online. For example, during the inspection some of the older pupils engaged thoughtfully and knowledgably with a visitor leading an assembly about e-safety.
• An extensive school welfare team liaises closely with families and other professionals to ensure that the most vulnerable pupils are well cared for. Staff are tenacious in following up referrals and ensuring that pupils and their families get the support they need. As a result, pupils are kept safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching is not yet consistently good throughout the school and across subjects. Therefore, not enough pupils are making good progress.
• Teachers have variable levels of subject knowledge. This means that they do not consistently provide pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need across the curriculum.
• Pupils’ books show that misconceptions are frequently unresolved. As a result, some pupils remain confused about important aspects of the curriculum.
• Lessons are not sufficiently challenging for pupils, particularly the most able. Teachers do not take into account what pupils can already do, and consequently sometimes lessons are too easy. This means that the most able pupils in particular do not have enough opportunities to extend their learning. Consequently, some most-able pupils are not exceeding the standards expected for their age.
• Pupils’ books and assessment information show that progress in writing is not yet good across the school. Where teaching is good, pupils can use rich vocabulary choices to write evocatively and with imagination and flair. For example, in a Year 2 writing lesson creating a ‘story mountain’, pupils used words such as ‘eerie’ and ‘cautiously’. They used similes effectively to enliven their writing, which they shared proudly with the class.
• However, expectations of basic punctuation, such as capital letters and full stops, and standards of presentation and spelling are not high enough across the school. This stops pupils from attaining age-related expectations.
• Pupils’ books show that there are not enough opportunities to develop mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills, particularly in key stage 2. However, practical activities, such as playing ‘treasure battle’ in Year 5, are used effectively to help pupils to understand and use mathematical concepts such as coordinates.
• Where teaching is most effective, such as a music lesson in which pupils reproduced and echoed a rhythm, pupils enjoy their learning, participate enthusiastically and develop their skills.
• During the inspection, Year 1 pupils participated enthusiastically during phonics lessons. Pupils learn to break words down into their various component parts and become familiar with words that are irregular. They practise their phonics skills in other lessons, such as where they were writing a list and used the opportunity to develop key phonetical principles. However, boys do not attain as well as girls in phonics.
• Teaching assistants are used well and enable pupils to succeed. This was seen in Year 2 where they supported pupils in sounding out advanced vocabulary, selecting adjectives and sentence starters, and developing an understanding of sentence structure.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils feel safe at school and told inspectors, ‘You can go to lots of people in school if you have concerns.’ They find their teachers ‘supportive and helpful’.
• Pupils say that bullying does not occur, ‘not any more’. They are confident that should there be a problem it would be resolved quickly by staff.
• Pupils learn about healthy lifestyles. For example, they know about the need for vitamin D, and that you can get that ‘from sunshine’.
• Breakfast club offers a chance for pupils to further their personal development with breakfast choices – crumpets are a favourite – and the opportunity to play board games and snooker with friends and staff.
• Pupils relish the opportunity to take on roles and responsibilities around the school. They are proud to represent their class within the school council, to help out around the school, or to have completed the application process and be selected as a ‘chick’ role model in Years 3 and 4, or an ‘eagle’ in Years 5 and 6.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils move around the school in a calm and orderly manner. They are polite and friendly, both to adults and their peers. Pupils enjoy the social aspects of lunch and playtimes, chatting happily to each other and playing a wide range of games.
• Pupils generally behave well in lessons. They listen respectfully to each other and to their teachers. In the few instances where behaviour is not good it is linked to teaching that is not good.
• Leaders have introduced a behaviour system which the pupils understand and enjoy. They are highly motivated to earn points, and excited by the wide range of rewards that these points can generate.
• Behaviour logs show that behaviour has improved significantly. There have been no exclusions this year. Parents who spoke to inspectors recognised the improvements that have taken place and a very high percentage of parents who responded to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View, felt that behaviour was well managed.
• Leaders are taking every possible action to try to improve attendance. Attendance is improving slowly but disadvantaged pupils still do not attend school regularly enough.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Current progress in reading, writing and mathematics is variable. Pupils in Year 6 are achieving better than those in other year groups. Recent improvements to teaching in key stage 1 have led to accelerated progress, particularly in Year 2. However, for some pupils, teaching has not enabled them to achieve well over time.
• Progress across the wider curriculum is variable across year groups and subjects. Pupils are not provided with the breadth of experience necessary to enable them to achieve well in all curriculum areas.
• Last year, the number of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check was below the national average. The percentage of boys attaining the expected standard has decreased for the last three years.
• The most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, are not making good enough progress in reading, writing and mathematics in some year groups to reach the higher levels. Last year, the proportion of pupils exceeding the expectations for their age in key stage 1 and 2 was below the national average in reading, writing and mathematics. Teaching is not sufficiently challenging for the most able pupils.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making variable progress from their starting points. Progress can be seen within their small-step personal plans, but the complexity of their needs and small numbers mean that this progress is not always seen on the school tracking systems.
• In 2016, the proportions of pupils reaching the standards expected for their age in key stage 1 were similar to the national averages in reading, and mathematics. Proportions reaching the expected standard in writing were below national averages. Boys attained less well than girls in writing in relation to national averages.
• Last year, proportions of pupils reaching the standards expected for their age in key stage 2 were above national averages in reading and mathematics and similar to national averages in writing. Boys attained less well than girls in writing in relation to national averages.
• In almost all year groups, disadvantaged pupils’ progress from their starting points in English and mathematics is similar to that of their classmates. The pupil premium funding has been used effectively to help them catch up.
• In most year groups, pupils who speak English as an additional language make more rapid progress from their starting points than their classmates in English and mathematics.

Early years provision Good

• Early years provision is good because the environment and experiences provided for children support them in making good progress from their starting points across the curriculum.
• Last year, the proportion of children that achieved a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile was above the national figure.
• Parents told inspectors that the liaison with staff before their children start at Nursery helps their children to settle well and ensures that staff are aware of any additional needs. Parents are made to feel welcome in the Nursery as they drop their children off.
• The attractive and well-resourced environment inside and out engages children. Staff encourage the children to explore. They use careful questioning to help children develop their thinking.
• Teacher-led sessions are used well to teach the children specific skills. During a mathematics session in Reception, for example, children learned to understand the term ‘equal’, using the term accurately during an activity counting and comparing the numbers of cows in each field in a farmyard picture.
• Opportunities to develop children’s social skills are used effectively. During snacktime in the Nursery children chatted happily with each other and adults while sharing their milk. Children have good relationships with each other and staff.
• Disadvantaged children, including the most able disadvantaged, make good progress from their starting points because the early years pupil premium grant is well used to support individual needs.
• Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities have their particular needs identified quickly and met effectively.
• The new early years leader has recognised the need to increase parental involvement in the early years. While some parents contribute to the ‘wow’ moments and online learning-journey system these contributions are not as regular and fulsome as she would like.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 139052 Kent 10024500 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 sponsor-led 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 257 Appropriate authority Academy trust Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Caroline Preston-Bell Sam Linton 01892 520562 www.templegroveacademy.com office@templegroveacademy.com Date of previous inspection 4–5 February 2015

Information about this school

• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• The school meets the current government floor standards which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school opened as Temple Grove Academy in January 2013, led by the executive headteacher of Loughborough Federation, after the previous school was placed in special measures. The current permanent headteacher was appointed in November 2013.
• Temple Grove Academy is sponsored by Temple Grove Academy Trust. The Trust is in the process of expanding to include Dormansland Primary School in Surrey.
• There has been a high degree of staff turnover. The deputy headteacher left in early 2017 and has been replaced by assistant headteachers, one of whom is sharing the literacy lead across the school. Many other leaders are new to post.
• Temple Grove Academy is a smaller-than-average primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average.
• The very large majority of pupils are White British and others come from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. The small minority of pupils who speak English as an additional language is in line with the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is in line with the national average. Few pupils have an education, health and care plan.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited lessons in all classes, spoke to pupils, heard them read and looked at work in their exercise books. Some learning walks were conducted jointly with senior leaders.
• Inspectors observed pupils during breakfast club, at after-school clubs, and attended two assemblies.
• Meetings were held with senior leaders, middle leaders, teachers, groups of pupils, four members of the governing body and three representatives of the academy trust.
• Inspectors spoke to parents on the playground, and took into account 127 responses, including eight written comments, to the online questionnaire (Parent View). Inspectors also considered 26 responses to the staff questionnaire and 40 responses to the pupil survey.
• A range of documents were looked at, including the school’s information about pupils’ achievement, and records concerning pupils’ attendance, behaviour and safety.

Inspection team

Deborah Gordon, lead inspector Sue Reid Linda Phillips

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector