Contact: John Clarke, Deputy Director of Children's Services, Tel 01962 846459 [email protected] or

Gerry Price, Strategic School Improvement Manager, Tel 023 8081 6127 [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 A new system for the inspection of schools by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) was introduced from 1 September 2005. This report summarises the outcome of all inspections under the new system up to 31 December 2005, and identifies key features of those schools judged in their inspection to be outstanding.

1.2 This report to the Panel supports Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities). The quality of schools is clearly closely related to the educational achievement of pupils, and those educational achievements fundamentally affect each person's life chances. The purpose of this report is to inform Elected Members of the external validation, provided by Ofsted, of the quality of Hampshire schools.

2 Key features of the new inspection regime

2.1 Schools now receive three or four days notice of an inspection. This is much shorter than in the past. For small primary schools, one inspector spends one day in the school. For a large secondary school, a very small team will spend two or three days in the school.

2.2 The quality of education provided by a school is determined by testing the school's own self-evaluation of its performance against nationally set criteria. This is done through interviews with staff, governors, parents and pupils, and light sampling of the quality of lessons to test the accuracy of the school's views about the quality of teaching and learning.

2.3 Judgements in the key aspects of a school's work are made on a four point scale as follows:

1 Outstanding

2 Good

3 Satisfactory

4 Inadequate

2.4 An overall judgement about the quality of the school is made on the same four point scale. Where a school is judged to be inadequate overall, this will result either in it being served with an improvement notice or being placed in special measures. Separate reports are provide to the Panel on any school falling into either of these two categories.

2.5 Ofsted has made clear that the criteria in the new system are more demanding than previously, a view that is endorsed by those schools that have been inspected. Appendix 1 gives the overall judgement for each of the schools inspected during the autumn term.

3 Outstanding schools

3.1 In the autumn term, 7 schools out of the 53 inspected were judged by Ofsted to be outstanding. The following paragraphs summarise the local school improvement team's views about why these schools are so successful.

3.2 All Saints CE (Aided) Junior School, Fleet. This school was judged to be outstanding in every aspect of its work. This is the result of the outstanding leadership provided by the headteacher, ably supported by a highly effective governing body, which has transformed the school into a genuine learning community. The structures and systems in place in the school provide high quality, continuous professional development. Research into the inhibitors and enhancers of pupil progress is on-going and the outcomes are formally reported at all levels. As a result, very high numbers of pupils make progress well above national expectation. Over 70 extra curricular activities are run for pupils who benefit enormously from this rich provision.

3.3 Compton All Saints CE Primary School, Winchester. A combination of highly skilled teaching and outstanding leadership by head and governors has secured consistently high standards in recent years. The school was one of the first to embrace, fully, the current school workforce reform agenda. The head retired in August 2005 and her successor is already building successfully on the excellent legacy she has inherited.

3.4 Froxfield CE Infant School, Petersfield. Children's achievement is outstanding as a result of the outstanding teaching and curriculum. Leadership is highly committed, decisive and knowledgeable. Partnership between leaders, staff, governors and parents is highly effective, providing a secure environment in which children can flourish. The inspection confirmed the school's own judgement of the areas where there was the potential to improve further, and judges that it has a strong capacity to make these improvements.

3.5 Hamble Primary School. pupils are well cared for, feel safe and enjoy coming to school. They receive a good start in the Foundation Stage and pupils continue to make good progress in their learning through Years 1 to 6. The leadership of the headteacher is good and she is supported well by the governing body and the effective staff team she has built up. The quality of teaching in all years is good. The school is well placed to carry out improvements and to continue making progress.

3.6 King's School, Winchester. This is one of the largest secondary schools in the county and has consistently been a high performing school with good `value-added'. The recently retired head's relentless drive for high academic performance has been matched by the commitment of staff and the whole-hearted support of governors. There is scope for some development of middle managers, and some refinement in the care and support provided for students. The new head's prior identification of these areas for development, as part of the school's outstanding self-evaluation, was key to the overall judgement that the school is outstanding.

3.7 Newtown CE (VA) Primary School, Gosport. The school is judged to be providing high quality care and support. Consistently good teaching throughout the school enables children to make good progress from a low start. Excellent leadership from the headteacher and deputy, a common sense of purpose, self evaluation procedures and partnership with parents, are key factors in the school being judged to provide very good value for money. Although most certainly an outstanding school, the inspectors acknowledged that the school recognises that there is scope for pupils to make even more progress in mathematics.

3.8 Petersfield Infant School. While identifying the scope for improved standards in writing and the need to make tracking of children's progress manageable, the inspectors agreed that this is an outstanding school, with consistently good teaching that enables children to achieve well. Very good provision in the foundation stage and good progress in Years 1 and 2 result in high standards by the time pupils leave school. Excellent provision is made for personal development, and care and support are described as first class. The excellent leadership of the headteacher provides a strong sense of purpose, underpinned by rigorous self-evaluation. The school has an accurate view of itself and its capacity to improve further is very good.

4 Legal implications

4.1 None.

5 Financial implications

5.1 None.

6 Personnel implications

6.1 None.

7 Impact assessment

7.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report. It is evident that variability of quality in school provision has a potentially adverse affect on equality of opportunity for Hampshire learners. Schools are offered strong support and challenge to address weaknesses in their provision.

8 Crime prevention issues

8.1 None.

9 Views of the Local County Councillor

9.1 The views of the local councillors have not been sought in drafting this report.

Recommendations

1 That the Panel receive further reports at its first meeting each term summarising the outcomes of the previous term's inspections.

2 That schools receiving outstanding Ofsted inspection reports be congratulated.

3 That the local county councillors for schools receiving outstanding Ofsted inspection reports be encouraged to visit the school to see, at first hand, the high quality of education being provided.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act

None