Hanham Abbots Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Increase the effectiveness of school leaders in bringing about sustained school improvement by making sure that:
  • the governing body has the skills and confidence to fully hold school leaders to account for improving the quality of education provided at the school
  • the use of the additional pupil premium funding is carefully evaluated by school leaders so that recent gains made by disadvantaged pupils are sustained
  • the curriculum is further developed so that pupils make greater gains in a range of subjects, including science and humanities.
• Improve the quality of teaching and secure at least good outcomes across the curriculum by ensuring that:
  • leaders consolidate the improvements to the teaching of writing and mathematics so that a greater proportion of pupils reach the higher standards
  • teaching consistently challenges all groups of pupils, including the most and least able, the disadvantaged and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, to make good progress. An external review of governance 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

• Leaders and managers, including governors, have not ensured that consistently good teaching has led to good outcomes since the last inspection.
• The school has been slow to adapt to the changes in the national curriculum brought about in 2016. Consequently, standards have declined and in 2017 the proportion of Year 6 pupils who met the standards expected of them in reading was below average and in writing and in mathematics was significantly below average.
• Leaders have not ensured that recent improvements to the teaching of writing and mathematics have extended across the curriculum. Pupils’ extended writing and application of their problem-solving skills in mathematics, for instance, are not developed well enough in other subjects.
• Systems to hold staff to account for the lack of progress made by pupils have not been effective enough. Consequently, leaders and teachers have not been sufficiently challenged to ensure that pupils of all abilities, but most noticeably the most and least able, disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, make good progress over time.
• Although effective now, the processes for managing the performance of teachers have not led to rapid improvements in the quality of teaching and leadership.
• The impact of extra funding for disadvantaged pupils has not been analysed in sufficient detail to identify actions that will improve their progress. Although the school knows that the funding has had a positive impact on some individual pupils and their families, leaders and governors do not have a clear enough picture of the funding’s impact on the progress that this group makes.
• However, leaders show a determination to improve the school. They recognise that the achievement of pupils is not good enough. The recent actions undertaken by leaders, including targeting additional interventions for vulnerable pupils, are making a difference to raising standards.
• Leaders ensure that effective systems are now in place to identify pupils who are not making good progress. This leads to pupils being targeted for specific support. The quality of support plans for pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, has improved significantly since the appointment of the new inclusion manager.
• School leaders now have a good understanding of the needs of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and also of pupils who are new to speaking English. They use this good understanding to ensure that teachers support these pupils well. As a result, these pupils are currently making better progress across most year groups.
• The sport premium is used well to make sure that pupils engage in a wide range of physical activities. Sports coaching is having an impact on pupils’ attitudes to physical education and there has been an increase in participation in sporting activities.
• Senior leaders recognise the importance of staff development to improving the quality of teaching. Newly appointed and newly qualified teachers are well supported and have the early stages of their career well catered for. Leaders are increasing using expertise within the school and external providers effectively to develop teachers’ skills. This has been effective in improving the overall quality of teaching, particularly in the past year.
• Leaders are improving the content of the curriculum and making sure that the requirements of the national curriculum are now fully met. However, pupils do not reproduce the same standard of work across the curriculum, for example when writing or using their mathematical skills in science. The curriculum for spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is effective in promoting pupils’ understanding of the need for tolerance, respect and care for others.
• The fundamental British values of democracy and the rule of law, tolerance and mutual respect are taught well. Pupils are respectful of others and are encouraged to have a strong set of values and so are well prepared for life in modern Britain. Prejudice is not tolerated and pupils are encouraged to be proud of their own achievements.
• The local authority has provided an appropriate balance of challenge and support for this school.
• Parents are, overall, supportive of the school and receive regular updates about the school and their children’s progress. Some parents voiced concerns, however, one saying: ‘I feel that the school has been lacking a little in direction over the past few years; however, there have been some encouraging signs over the past few months. Looking forward to seeing what the new head brings. I sometimes feel that internal communication is not great with teachers seeming to follow their own path.’

Governance of the school

• Governors have not ensured that the school has continued to provide a good quality of education. They have not held teachers and staff to close enough account for a decline in the quality of teaching and the weak progress made by pupils over time.
• Governors have been supportive of the executive headteacher and school leaders but have not shown that they are able to ask sufficiently challenging questions about information that they receive from them. Consequently, they do not have a comprehensive enough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school.
• They have not been vigilant in ensuring that the additional pupil premium funding has been used well enough to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make good enough progress.
• Governors have not ensured that the school meets the statutory requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff are clear about their responsibilities and what to do if they have a concern about pupils’ welfare. They receive regular training and updates and systems are in place to deal with serious issues, should they arise. Referrals are made in a timely manner and outside agencies are used appropriately.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment has not been good enough since the last inspection. Expectations have not been high enough and so teaching has not led to good progress for pupils.
• Although teaching is improving, it is still too variable. Where teaching is less effective, work in not consistently matched closely enough to the different needs of the pupils and there is an inappropriate level of challenge.
• Teachers do not use the range of information available to them to plan activities which allow pupils from different starting points to make rapid progress. This has slowed the progress made by the least and most able pupils in particular.
• Teaching has done too little to support or encourage talented writers and mathematicians to produce high-quality subject-specific work in subjects in the wider curriculum, such as science, history or geography. As a result, pupils are not using and applying their knowledge and skills most productively in a range of situations or contexts.
• The impact of recent school improvement initiatives is beginning to be evident in the progress of current pupils, particularly in their writing and in mathematics. Teaching across the school is increasingly supporting pupils’ learning, especially in Years 5 and 6.
• The teaching of writing and mathematics in particular has improved considerably over the last year. Pupils’ writing books demonstrate that they develop their vocabulary and grammar well. Most are consistently using clear and well-developed sentence construction and extending the range of punctuation that they use.
• Similarly, in mathematics, teaching is increasingly ensuring that pupils become fluent in number and calculation. However, as yet too few of the most able pupils are prompted to work at greater depth by developing their mathematical reasoning skills to the higher standards.
• The teaching of reading is also improving. Older pupils are able to use their phonic skills to break down unfamiliar words into their sounds then blend them back together with increasing confidence. They told inspectors that they enjoy reading for pleasure but found questions on interpretation difficult, reflecting their weaker comprehension skills.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, as well as those new to learning English, are well supported by teachers and teaching assistants. This helps these pupils engage well in learning alongside their peers.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are growing in self-confidence and say that they enjoy school greatly. They help each other as a matter of course and older pupils are happy to help younger pupils or those with specific difficulties. Peer ‘buddies’ readily work alongside those pupils who are new to learning English or those that have a special educational need.
• Pupils are proud of their school and are eager to take on extra responsibilities. They show respect for other people’s ideas and views and are accepting of other faiths and also those who have no faith.
• Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well through a range of activities that make pupils think deeply about issues and consider different points of view.
• Pupils say that bullying is now rare. This is supported by school records, which show that any such incidents are recorded carefully and followed up appropriately. Pupils are fully aware of the different kinds of bullying and have confidence in staff to resolve any concerns promptly.
• Pupils feel safe and know how to stay safe, including when using the internet. A very large majority of parents believe that their child is happy, safe and well looked after in school.
• Most pupils show good attitudes to their learning, are attentive and listen well.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are polite, respectful and enjoy positive relationships with adults and other pupils. They conduct themselves well around the school and are considerate and sensible during lunch and breaktimes and between lessons.
• Pupils usually behave well in lessons and respond quickly if they have to be reminded to concentrate fully on their learning.
• Pupils say that lessons are sometimes interrupted by other pupils being silly and taking too much of the teacher’s time. They also say that teachers deal with this off-task behaviour well.
• Pupils are punctual to school and overall attendance is in line with that seen nationally. Few pupils are persistently absent.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The school was slow to implement the current national curriculum. This has affected the end of key stage 2 test results and assessments over the last two years. These show that pupils did not attain well in reading and mathematics in 2017 and attained particularly poorly in writing.
• Pupils, including the most and least able, made poor progress in these subjects. In 2017, the progress made by pupils in reading, writing and mathematics was significantly below average. Progress in writing was particularly poor and placed the school in the bottom 7% of schools in the country for progress made in this subject.
• Disadvantaged pupils also made similarly poor progress in 2017. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard or higher in reading, writing and mathematics combined was less than half that seen for other pupils nationally.
• The most able pupils made far less progress than they were capable of in 2017, particularly in writing and mathematics.
• Pupils currently in the school are making stronger progress in reading, writing and mathematics as a result of recent efforts to improve teaching. Work seen by inspectors supports the school’s information that pupils across the school are reaching higher standards and making better progress than in the recent past. Pupils are currently making strong gains in writing and mathematics, particularly in Years 5 and 6.
• The new inclusion manager has transformed provision for disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. The pupil premium funding is now better targeted at ensuring that disadvantaged pupils receive the support they need to succeed. These pupils are starting to gain ground in reading, writing and mathematics, especially in upper key stage 2.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are similarly making stronger gains than in the recent past. The SEN leader has made sure that all staff now have an increasingly clear understanding of the needs of these pupils and has put in place appropriate interventions and support to enable SEN pupils to make faster progress. Assessment information is now used precisely to pinpoint next steps and so accelerate progress.
• The school makes good provision for those pupils who speak English as an additional language. There is now a clear focus on helping these pupils quickly acquire the language understanding required to be successful in their learning. Carefully thought-out individual and group work and support from their peers are boosting the progress of these pupils.
• Standards in mathematics are now rising for the majority of pupils. Most pupils have a secure understanding of number and related facts, including fractions and decimals. The most able pupils show increasing confidence in reasoning and explaining their mathematical thinking. However, teachers are still doing too little to move pupils on to working on more complex and intellectually challenging tasks once a concept has been mastered. This is holding back some pupils from working at greater depth.
• Pupils’ achievement in writing is improving strongly. Work in pupils’ books and observations of their learning show that most show an appetite and willingness to write for a variety of reasons and for different audiences. Narrative and descriptive writing, stories and poems in English books are often sustained, varied and lively. Some pupils, however, still have difficulty in applying their editorial skills for writing, including spelling, punctuation or grammar. This prevents them from communicating their ideas as writers as fluently as they could.
• The curriculum has not been developed well enough to enable pupils to develop a strong foundation in other subjects, including science and the humanities. Teachers’ expectations of mathematics and writing across the curriculum are not yet high enough. As a result, those who produce high-quality work in their English and mathematics books do not reproduce this standard in other subjects. As well as slowing progress, this reduces pupils’ readiness for secondary education.

School details

Unique reference number 109016 Local authority South Gloucestershire Inspection number 10048068 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Junior School category Maintained Age range of pupils Gender of pupils 7 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 367 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Executive headteacher Carl Lander Mike Coyne Telephone number 01454 866576 Website Email address www.hanhamabbotsjunior.org.uk hanhamabbots@hanhamprimaryfederation.org Date of previous inspection 20–21 May 2015

Information about this school

• Hanham Abbots Junior School is part of the Hanham Federation of schools, which includes Samuel White’s Infant School on the adjacent site.
• The two schools are led and managed by an executive headteacher and there are separate headteachers for each of the infants and junior schools. The head of the junior school left in December 2017 and a new headteacher is due to take up post in September 2018.
• A high number of teachers have left and others have joined the school since the previous inspection.
• The proportion of pupils who receive support for their SEN and/or disabilities, at 12.5%, is average.
• An average proportion of pupils are known to be eligible for support by the pupil premium.
• The school meets the current government floor standards.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed pupils’ learning in visits to lessons across the school, most of which were jointly observed with senior leaders.
• Discussions took place with the executive headteacher, senior leadership team, the chair and three other members of the local board and the school improvement adviser from the local authority.
• Inspectors scrutinised a number of documents, including school improvement plans and records relating to behaviour, attendance and safeguarding.
• The inspection team carried out joint scrutiny of the quality of pupils’ work in books with senior leaders.
• Inspectors spoke with groups of pupils to seek their views about the school. The views of other pupils were gathered during lessons and lunchtimes. Inspectors listened to pupils from Years 5 and 6 reading.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, at lunchtimes, breaktimes and around the school.
• Inspectors considered 73 responses to the online survey, Parent View, as well as 74 free-text responses from parents and 16 responses to the online staff survey.

Inspection team

Michael Merchant, lead inspector Wendy D’Arcy Lisa Rowe Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector