Durrington Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve leadership and management by ensuring that:
  • middle leaders focus on the progress and attainment of all groups of pupils when
  • looking at pupils’ work leaders of the resource-based provision clearly assess pupils’ attainment on entry and precisely record pupils’ subsequent progress
  • the website is updated to include information regarding the pupil premium strategy in accordance with the Department for Education requirements.
• Improve the progress of the most able pupils in Years 5 and 6, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, by ensuring that:
  • teachers have higher expectations about what these pupils can achieve in lessons
  • the school takes every opportunity to develop the curriculum to provide more chances for these pupils to extend their learning.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• In just over a year, the co-headteachers have radically improved the school. Attendance has improved, teachers are accurate in assessing pupils’ work and the quality of teaching is now good. These changes have been instrumental in improving pupils’ progress across the school.
• The co-headteachers are highly ambitious for the school. All of the issues identified at the previous inspection have been addressed. This is because leaders have taken advice and support from a range of different agencies to enable them to make the rapid improvements that were needed. The local authority has provided highly effective support, including advice on improving teaching in English and mathematics.
• Staff praise the clear communication that now exists throughout the school. Parents are positive and pupils say that the school ‘just keeps getting better and better’.
• Leaders have been effective in managing the performance of teachers to improve teaching and learning. All teaching that required improvement has been successfully eradicated. Pay increases are awarded when teachers have demonstrated good performance against challenging targets.
• The curriculum has been carefully designed to support pupils’ academic and personal development; it ensures that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain. There are numerous opportunities for pupils to develop their spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness. In science, pupils enjoy finding out about principles such as gravity through ‘hands on’ experiments. Skills in art and design are carefully developed through clay work and charcoal sketching. Pupils enjoy music, especially playing the recorder. Pupils say that they value the broad range of extra-curricular activities that the school provides.
• The curriculum has been carefully adapted in Years 3 and 4 to meet the needs of the most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged. This has a positive impact on their progress. For example, in music they learn how to write musical notation. In design technology, they are challenged to design and draw a supermarket to scale. In art, they learn about the link between geometry and art when drawing polygons in the traditional Islamic way. However, in Years 5 and 6 there are far fewer examples where the curriculum has been adapted to the needs of the most able pupils.
• School leaders, ably assisted by governors, are very diligent in making sure that the school’s pupil premium funding is well used. Governors are provided with clear information that clearly shows that pupil premium pupils are making strong progress. In Years 5 and 6 last year, pupil premium pupils made exceptional progress in writing and mathematics. However, although the school’s website content was only checked a few months ago, it has not been updated to include the new requirements from the Department for Education regarding the pupil premium strategy.
• Leaders use primary sports funding well to promote pupils’ physical well-being. There has been a focus on purchasing resources. Staff training has enabled teachers to offer a greater range of sports and hence enthuse all pupils to take up an activity.
• Those who are subject leaders have rapidly developed their roles in the past year. They have supported teachers to improve. However, subject leaders do not focus sufficiently on the progress of pupils, including different groups of pupils, when looking at pupils’ books. As a result they do not provide sufficient guidance to teachers on the groups of pupils who need to make faster progress.
• Leadership in the resource-based provision is still undergoing a period of transition. Some tasks have not been completed effectively. For example, there is no clear assessment of each pupil’s starting point or clear information regarding the progress that pupils make. The impact of this is that some pupils may be capable of making better progress than they currently do.

Governance of the school

• Governors are highly skilled individuals who are effective in holding senior leaders to account. They have acted swiftly on the recommendations in the review of governance and now have a clear strategic oversight of the school. They have overseen the school’s rapid improvements and have ambitious plans for its future development.
• Governors have an accurate view of the impact of teaching on learning. This is because they have worked with school leaders to create systems that clearly illustrate important information.
• Governors carefully review the school’s financial arrangements, and additional funding is carefully managed for the benefit of pupils.
• Governors manage the performance of staff, including the co-headteachers, rigorously. Decisions on pay increases are based on achieving challenging targets.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The checks regarding the suitability of staff are rigorous and the school maintains an accurate single central record.
• Leaders engage well with parents and a range of agencies to ensure that all pupils in the school feel well supported and safe.
• All staff have had extensive training in safeguarding; they know the signs and symptoms of abuse.
• Staff in the resource-based provision have had additional training to ensure that the pupils in their care are appropriately safeguarded.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The quality of teaching has greatly improved since the previous inspection. Good teaching has led to the strong progress that pupils make in all subjects. Staff instil in pupils a belief that they can achieve well.
• Teachers and teaching assistants work well together in a culture of mutual respect and strong teamwork. Consequently, all staff know what stage individual pupils are at in their learning and what they need to do next.
• The majority of parents consider that teaching is good. They say that their children have a great respect for their teachers. One parent summed up the views of many when they wrote, ‘Our children are taught by amazing teachers who go above and beyond in their teaching and care for our children.’
• Teachers are accurate in assessing pupils’ progress and this enables them to plan learning to build on what pupils already know and can do.
• Staff work well to address the learning needs of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff help pupils to grow in confidence in their abilities and carefully guide their learning.
• Those pupils who are on roll in the resource-based provision usually have their lessons in classes in the main school. Evidence was seen during the inspection of these pupils receiving careful support from learning support assistants. However, because records of progress are not clearly kept it is unclear how well these pupils are progressing.
• A check of pupils’ books shows that in Years 3 and 4 the most able pupils make good progress. However, expectations are not always high enough for the most able in Years 5 and 6. In these year groups, teaching does not fully stretch these pupils to ensure that they are fully challenged.
• Teachers and learning support assistants ensure that all are valued and equal and there is no discrimination at the school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The welfare of pupils is at the heart of the school’s work. Pupils say that they feel able to talk about any problems that are worrying them. They appreciate the full-time pastoral department which operates across both the infant and junior schools.
• Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe, both in school and also when they are outside. They know about the importance of using the internet safely.
• The school has greatly improved attendance, which is now close to national averages for most groups. However, attendance is still a little lower for those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Most pupils understand that they need to attend regularly in order to achieve well.
• Pupils have high aspirations and understand what they need to do to become successful learners. Most are beginning to understand the link between working hard in lessons and achieving their long-term goals.
• The school develops pupils’ self-confidence effectively, including those who are on roll in the resource-based provision. The school ensures that many pupils take on positions of responsibility around the school, such as school councillors and ambassador roles. Pupils were looking forward to the forthcoming residential trip to an outdoor activity centre.
• Those pupils who attend the breakfast and after-school club are very positive about their experiences. They say that the clubs provide them with an enjoyable and healthy start and end to the day.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Older pupils who have been at the school since Year 3 said how much behaviour has improved. They say that this is because staff now have much higher expectations.
• Pupils play well together in the playground and records show that there are few incidents.
• In lessons, low-level disruption of any kind is rare. Pupils settle down quickly and quietly to the tasks that the teachers have set.
• Those pupils who are on roll in the resource-based provision are well supported in lessons. When they do occasionally become distracted from their learning they are encouraged to re-engage quickly so that little learning time is lost.
• Parents agree that the school ensures that pupils are well behaved.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Across the school, pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. They also make good progress in science, sport, history and geography.
• Starting points in Year 3 are now higher than in previous years. This is due to the two co-headteachers, who have ensured that standards have risen in the infant school.
• Pupils in Years 5 and 6 started last year with low starting points. This was because in the past these pupils had received many years of teaching that required improvement. Leaders targeted additional teachers and resources to address the issue; consequently, these pupils made strong progress. However, it was not enough for the Year 6 pupils to fully catch up and therefore published data on attainment regarding the percentage of pupils at and above age-related expectations at the end of Year 6 was lower than the national average.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make strong progress in all year groups. Progress for these pupils in Year 6 last year was exceptional. This was because pupils started the year with very low starting points and through effective teaching were helped to catch up.
• The most able pupils in Year 3 and 4, including those who are also disadvantaged, make strong progress. Pupils are given the opportunity to think creatively and to stretch their skills in English and mathematics. Activities are specially planned to extend these skills. For example, in Year 4 the most able pupils had to design and produce a storybook that would teach a mathematical concept to other pupils. However, there are fewer examples that stretch and challenge pupils’ understanding in Year 5 and 6. Consequently, the most able in these year groups do not make such strong progress.
• Attainment in science is strong and pupils have a good awareness of biology, chemistry and physics. Pupils’ work shows that pupils have the skills to follow instructions, conduct an experiment and think scientifically. In Year 6 last year, pupils displayed their skills in physics when they experimented on how a rollercoaster works.
• A successful focus on the teaching of mathematics has accelerated pupils’ progress rapidly in this subject. Pupils now have strong skills in numeracy. They enjoy reasoning to solve mathematical problems. In Years 3 and 4 nearly half of the pupils are above age-related expectations.
• Pupils’ skills in English are good. In reading, over three quarters of pupils are at or above age-related expectations in all year groups. Pupils write at length in different subjects such as history and geography. They have good skills in poetry and story writing. This is exemplified by Year 5 pupils who, when writing about space, wrote sentences such as ‘There was an insidious silence when we walked over the edge of the crater’.
• Pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium make strong progress across the different year groups. During the last year, the percentage of pupils who are at age-related expectations or above has increased considerably. This is because the school targets the additional funding effectively to ensure that each pupil receives the help they need to make strong progress.
• Inspectors were unable to assess the progress of pupils in the resource-based provision accurately because in the past these pupils’ starting points were not clearly recorded. Subsequent progress of these pupils has not been carefully logged. However, most of the pupils currently on roll only started in the last month. These new pupils are now undergoing a much more rigorous assessment of their starting points.
• Pupils make good progress in their physical education and they stay fit and healthy because of a large range of sporting clubs. They do well in swimming because they make good use of the school’s swimming pool. Pupils are successful at competitive games and have performed well in local tournaments.
• Pupils are well prepared for secondary school. They learn in depth about a range of subjects, including business studies. For example, pupils in Years 5 and 6 last year demonstrated good commercial understanding by designing, producing and marketing a product.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 125952 West Sussex 10012309 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 Community 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 328 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Co-headteachers Telephone number Website Email address John Daughtrey Zoe Wilby 01903 260 761 www.durringtoninfantjunior.co.uk head@dfed.co.uk Date of previous inspection 1−2 May 2014

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about the pupil premium strategy on its website.
• After a period of staffing turbulence, in September 2015 two co-headteachers were appointed to run both this junior school and the on-site infant school. Both schools have recently federated. There is one governing body responsible for both schools.
• At the time of the last inspection the school was a middle school, which means that it educated pupils from Year 3 to Year 7. The school ceased to be a middle school in July 2015.
• Durrington Junior School is much larger than the average primary school.
• The large majority of the pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is higher than that found in most schools.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.
• The proportion of pupils who have disabilities and those who have special educational needs is higher than the national average.
• The school has a resource-based provision called the Special Support Centre for eight pupils between the ages of seven and 11. These pupils have communication difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders. Currently there are seven pupils on roll. Most of the time these pupils are educated in classes with support from specially trained assistants.
• There is a breakfast and after-school club which pupils from both the infant and junior school attend.
• Durrington Infant School was inspected separately at the same time as this inspection.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes. There were 19 lessons and part lessons visited, many of which were observed jointly with senior leaders.
• Meetings were held with three groups of pupils, and inspectors looked at work in books and listened to some pupils reading. Inspectors considered the 37 responses to the online pupil questionnaire. There were also informal discussions with pupils at breaktime regarding what it was like to be a pupil at this school.
• Inspectors took account of 42 responses to the online Parent View questionnaire and also spoke to parents at the end of the school day.
• The views expressed by members of staff in the 27 online questionnaires were considered.
• Inspectors looked at a range of documentation and policies, including the school improvement plan. Information about the performance of the school in comparison with other schools nationally was considered, along with documents about pupils’ current attainment and progress. Documents checking the quality of teaching and learning and records relating to behaviour, attendance, child protection and safeguarding were also examined.

Inspection team

Liz Bowes, lead inspector Jo McSherrie Joyce Lydford

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector