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

Richard Mitchell, Strategic School Improvement Manager, Tel 023 92 441471 [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The school was inspected by Ofsted on 2 and 3 May 2006 and was found to
require significant improvement.

1.2 The school was categorised by the local authority (LA) in 2004/05 as in need of substantial improvement but improvement has since been noted and it has been categorised in each of the last two years as satisfactory. In particular, the effective use of English and mathematics consultants and the Primary National Strategy leadership programme had established an increased capacity to improve.

1.3 As a school categorised as satisfactory in January 2006 the LA had already agreed to support the school during 2006/07 through a continuation of the leadership programme and consultant support, together with an enhanced level of challenge and support from the school's attached inspector.

1.4 This report to the panel supports Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities) and the achievement of the 5 outcomes of the Children Act 2004. 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 work being done to effect improvement in the school.

2 Background

2.1 Shirley Nicholas-Bond is headteacher of the school, which has 11.4% of its population entitled to free school meals. The number on roll is 298. The percentage of pupils identified as having special educational needs (SEN) and receiving additional support in the form of School Action or School Action Plus is 28.2%.

3 Inspection findings

3.1 The inspection report has not yet been published but the findings reported at the
oral feedback were:

· the 2005 PANDA data show that the standards achieved by pupils are within the bottom quartile of schools in similar circumstances. Consequently, it is judged that pupils are making insufficient progress

· personal development of pupils is satisfactory

· teaching and learning is inadequate because there is an issue with progress in learning. However, there are signs that there is improvement.

· the curriculum is satisfactory

· care, guidance and support for children is satisfactory

· leadership and management are inadequate and must be judged to be so because standards and progress are inadequate. However, the headteacher's positive influence is clear; the improvement since the last inspection is satisfactory; and the school has the capacity for improvement.

· the school receives good external support

· the school provides unsatisfactory value for money.

3.2 The school has been left with four improvement foci:

· achievement in English and mathematics needs to improve

· the involvement of pupils in learning needs to improve

· assessment of pupil's work needs to be linked better to the level of challenge that teachers set

· the governors and internal managers need to be held more accountable for their work.

3.3 The school will be re-inspected after one year.

4 Actions since the oral feedback

4.1 The School Improvement Manager (SIM) has begun to draft the LA Statement of Action and has shared this early draft with the headteacher and chairman of governors.

4.2 The SIM and the school's attached inspector (AI) are working on the detail of the statement of action and will be sharing this with the full governing body before the half-term break.

4.3 The school will continue to receive the support provided by the leadership programme and the work of the consultants, inspector and the Primary Strategy Consultant Leader will be concentrated on the improvement foci. Additionally, support will be given for the governing body.

4.4 The SIM has set up a strategy group that will monitor the improvement in the focused areas on a half-termly basis.

5 Legal implications

5.1 None

6 Financial implications

6.1 None

7 Personnel implications

7.1 None

8 Impact assessment

8.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact have been identified.

9 Crime Prevention issues

9.1 None

10 Views of the Local County Councillor

10.1 The local County Councillor has been informed of the outcome of this inspection but views were not sought in the drafting of this report.

Recommendation

1 That this report be noted.

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