Walsh CofE Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Increase the effectiveness of leaders, including governors, by ensuring that:
  • subject leaders develop the skills needed to improve teaching, learning and assessment
  • the curriculum is reviewed so that it has a stronger focus on the progressive development of pupils’ knowledge and skills
  • senior leaders review and adapt pupil premium spending to make sure that disadvantaged pupils make good progress
  • governors more rigorously hold school leaders to account for the impact of pupil premium funding on pupils’ progress and outcomes.
• Eradicate the variability in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in order to improve pupils’ outcomes by:
  • using assessment to plan learning opportunities to meet the needs of all groups of pupils, including those who have SEN and/or disabilities and the disadvantaged
  • raising teachers’ expectations of all groups of pupils so that they make strong progress. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leadership has been turbulent over the past year. After the resignation of the previous headteacher in autumn 2017, the governors and the local authority were quick to act. The headteacher from the local secondary school was appointed as executive headteacher and an acting head of school was enlisted. These changes had a positive impact on provision. Leaders rightly initially focused on improving pupils’ behaviour.
• New leaders quickly recognised that pupils’ outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics were not good enough. They made improving outcomes in basic skills their priority and introduced new strategies, including additional assessments, which resulted in pupils making better progress in these areas.
• However, leaders’ actions have not yet had enough time to bring about consistency in the quality of teaching, learning or assessment. Variability is evident across year groups and in different curriculum subjects. Consequently, too few pupils currently make good progress from their different starting points.
• The newly appointed substantive head of school, who started in September 2018, demonstrates high aspirations for staff and pupils. She has quickly established an accurate view of the strengths of the school and understands the priorities for further development. She is committed to improving teaching in all classes and strengthening progress across the school.
• Subject leadership is in the early stages of development and leaders new to their roles have not had enough time to impact on teaching, learning and assessment. As a result, there is too much variation in pupils’ progress and the level of challenge in lessons is sometimes not high enough.
• Leaders responsible for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, including in the specialist resource provision, have a wealth of useful knowledge and skills. During recent leadership changes, there was a shift of emphasis in their role. However, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are starting to make better progress.
• Leaders have developed stronger links with parents and carers, who really appreciate how well the school cares for their children. Parents typically comment that they feel welcome in school, know that pupils feel safe and that recent changes in behaviour policy have been highly effective. One parent said, ‘Behaviour at the school has been tackled and clear expectations and actions taken on lateness and absenteeism have made a vast difference.’
• Leaders, including governors, recognise that they have not evaluated their use of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils rigorously enough. They have been successful in ensuring that disadvantaged pupils attend school as regularly as their peers but know that differences still persist in terms of pupils’ progress and attainment. They have prioritised these areas for improvement.
• Leaders’ use of additional physical education and sport funding is effective. Pupils enjoy a wide range of sporting activities. Pupils appreciate the opportunity to attend sports clubs, which promote their active involvement in physical education and help them to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is promoted effectively. British values and emerging concerns raised by pupils inform this provision and ensure that pupils have opportunities to gain a well-rounded view of the world.
• The curriculum broadly meets the needs of the pupils and matches their interests and experiences. Extra-curricular opportunities provide pupils with a varied range of enrichment activities. The school is aware that the curriculum needs a stronger focus on the progressive development of pupils’ knowledge and skills and has started to review the content.
• The local authority has provided effective support and challenge to the school. They have brokered support from the local secondary school and local primary teaching school over the past year.

Governance of the school

• Governors have steered the school through a difficult year. Working with the local authority, they have put in place a senior leadership team that has started to tackle underachievement within the school.
• Governors are knowledgeable about many aspects of the school and bring a wealth of expertise to their role. They have the skills to make the required improvements to the overall quality of education.
• Minutes of meetings show that the governors provide the executive headteacher with some challenge. However, further rigour is needed when holding leaders to account for the impact on pupils of the pupil premium spending.
• Governors effectively fulfil their statutory safeguarding duties.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a well-defined culture of safeguarding across the school. Staff have a clear understanding of what to do, and what to be aware of, to ensure that pupils are kept safe.
• Leaders ensure that staff receive appropriate training in child protection and understand what to do if they suspect that a child may be at risk of harm, including from radicalisation.
• The school site is well maintained and secure. It provides a safe and nurturing place for pupils.
• The curriculum enables pupils to have a secure knowledge of how to keep themselves and others safe, including when on online, at home and outside school in the wider community.
• Child protection and pupil records are reviewed and checked on a regular basis. A new online system has recently been introduced to capture the timeline of events systematically.
• Well-targeted support, challenge and assistance are provided to families, including those that require help with attendance issues.
• Parents who responded to the online survey were very positive about safeguarding at Walsh Church of England Junior School. They know their children are safe at school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not consistently good across year groups or subjects. Although improvements are emerging, teachers do not routinely plan work that correctly meets the needs of pupils across subjects. Some adults’ expectations of pupils are too low. They do not take sufficient account of what pupils already know and can do. This means that pupils’ prior learning, existing skills and knowledge are not built upon effectively.
• Teachers and teaching assistants have strong relationships with their pupils and manage their behaviour positively. This ensures a secure learning environment where pupils feel confident to participate in learning. Classrooms are calm and orderly, and this enables pupils to concentrate and focus. Pupils know that they are expected to behave well, and they mostly rise to these expectations.
• Teaching of mathematics is variable. Sometimes, teachers do not use assessment to accurately pitch work to the ability of the pupils. The most able pupils are not consistently challenged, and there are not enough opportunities for pupils to extend their learning through investigative and problem-solving work.
• Pupils are gaining in confidence in reading. Pupils who read to inspectors were fluent, read with expression and they applied taught strategies successfully to tackle unfamiliar words. The promotion of reading is high on the school’s agenda. Pupils are motivated and enjoy talking about books.
• Some teachers and teaching assistants ask a range of challenging questions to extend pupils’ learning. In these instances, pupils are encouraged to find answers for themselves. Consequently, pupils gain in independence and are not overly reliant on adult support.
• Specialist teaching of science for older pupils, at the local secondary school, is a strength. Due to excellent subject knowledge, the use of probing questions and high expectations, pupils make rapid progress in this subject.
• Teachers make some helpful links across the curriculum. For example, inspectors observed pupils applying mathematical skills and knowledge to their investigation work in science.
• The teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar has been a focus for the school. Because of this focus, pupils’ ability in using a wider range of these skills is improving.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils, both in classes and in the specialist resource base, feel very safe and secure. This is because staff are approachable, always willing to listen and help.
• Effective use of the physical education and sport premium funding means that pupils have increased access to a range of sporting activities after the school day. This supports pupils in learning how to keep themselves fit and healthy.
• Pupils say that there is very little bullying of any kind. They are confident that adults would always listen and intervene to put a stop to any unkind behaviour.
• The school provides limited opportunities for pupils to take on roles of responsibility. Pupils are keen to take on these types of position.
• Leaders ensure that pupils understand how to keep themselves safe from harm, including when they are using the internet.
• The school provides good support for families at the beginning and end of the school day with a breakfast club and a range of after-school clubs.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• A new behaviour policy, procedures and systems were introduced in January 2018. They have helped reduce incidents of poor behaviour. Pupils are now respectful of one another, polite and courteous with staff, and welcome visitors in an open and friendly manner. Due to the new systems, exclusions have been greatly reduced.
• Attendance and punctuality have improved because leaders do everything they can to support families in bringing children to school regularly and on time. Historically, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils was lower than that of other pupils in the school. Leaders’ work to improve this has been successful, and the attendance of this group is now similar to others.
• Pupils know what is expected of them in terms of how they behave in lessons and as they move in and around the school. They say that teachers are fair and that any consequences for poor behaviour are consistently applied.
• Pupils do not always take as much pride in their work as they could. Because of this, presentation is not always as good as it could be.
• Pupils’ behaviour in lessons, in classes and in the specialist resource base is good. Only when teaching is less engaging and effective does pupils’ concentration wane and they become distracted. Even then, this does not lead to behaviour that causes disruption.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2017, the proportion of pupils reaching expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 was well below the national average. Very few pupils reached a greater depth of learning in each subject. Pupils’ progress in mathematics in key stage 2 was well below average. As a result, too few pupils were prepared effectively for the demands of key stage 3.
• Initial indications show that attainment, especially in grammar, punctuation and spelling, improved in 2018, due to more effective focused teaching. Although new leaders have halted the decline in standards, there remains some variability in outcomes for those pupils currently in the school.
• The school has recently focused on developing the key skills of learning times tables in mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling skills in English. This work has had a positive impact on standards in these areas.
• Current pupils’ books show inconsistency in their progress over time. Teachers’ assessment sometimes lacks accuracy and, therefore, planning for pupils’ learning is not consistently well matched to their needs. Consequently, in some year groups and in some subjects across the curriculum, pupils’ outcomes are not consistently good.
• Evidence in pupils’ books and work in lessons demonstrate that the most able pupils do not make good progress over time. Inconsistencies in teaching and learning, including a lack of challenge and expectation, mean that they are not stretched in their thinking. They are not sufficiently challenged to reach the higher standards of which they are capable.
• Overall, outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are improving, albeit with some variation across subjects and year groups. However, their progress is not yet good enough for them to make up for their lack of achievement in the past.
• Pupils develop skills and understanding in a range of subjects, including geography and science. Where the school uses the expertise of science teachers from the local secondary school in Years 5 and 6, progress is strong. However, inconsistencies in teaching across year groups and subjects mean that outcomes vary, and some pupils do not achieve as well as they could do in the wider curriculum.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, including in the school’s specialist resource provision, are starting to make better progress from their varying starting points. Leaders use a range of assessment information to capture pupils’ progress, no matter how small the steps may be. Despite this, pupils’ attainment remains below average. More work is needed to ensure that they catch up with where they should be.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 125156 Surrey 10059279 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 Voluntary controlled 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 240 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Executive headteacher Head of school Telephone number Website Email address Miranda Harrison Agnes Bailey Gillian West 01252 329525 www.walsh-junior.surrey.sch.uk head@walsh-junior.surrey.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 8–9 January 2015

Information about this school

• Walsh Church of England Controlled Junior School is smaller than the average-sized junior school and has two classes in each year.
• A Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) was carried out by Guildford Diocese in July 2016.
• The vast majority of pupils are White British. Very few pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above average.
• The school has an additional specialist resource base, known as the learning support centre, to support pupils with a range of learning needs. Some of their needs are complex and include autism spectrum conditions, moderate learning difficulties and behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. All the pupils have education, health and care plans. There are places for 14 pupils.
• Following the resignation of the previous headteacher, the headteacher of Ash Manor (a local secondary school) was appointed to be executive headteacher in January 2018. A new head of school started in post on 1 September 2018. In addition, new middle leaders and teachers have been appointed since the last inspection. Members of the governing body have also changed.
• Support from a local teaching school has also been brokered by the local authority.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited a wide range of lessons across the school, looking extensively at pupils’ work in all lessons. Visits to lessons were also made with the executive headteacher, head of school and deputy headteacher.
• The lead inspector visited Year 5 and 6 pupils in a science lesson at the local secondary school.
• Alongside school leaders, inspectors reviewed pupils’ assessment information and pupils’ work in books. Information about the quality of teaching, and documents pertaining to safety and behaviour, and safeguarding were also scrutinised.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils in lessons, at breaktimes and lunchtimes, and met with groups of pupils separately. No pupils completed the Ofsted online questionnaire.
• Meetings were held with the executive headteacher, head of school and deputy headteacher, middle leaders, and governors. In addition, a meeting was held with a representative from the local authority. Informal discussions also took place with a number of parents on the playground prior to the start of the school day.
• Inspectors took account of 37 parental responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View.
• The views of staff were taken into account through formal and informal discussions.

Inspection team

Felix Rayner, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Linda Jacobs

Ofsted Inspector