Anson Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Anson Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 13 March 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings.

The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in March 2015. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Together with your leadership team, you have worked effectively to ensure that good provision and practice are in place to support pupils' learning. The school has good capacity to continue moving forward. You and your governors have a clear vie...w of the school's strengths and areas for development.

Your plans for improvement are based on clear evidence, and are fit for purpose. The school's evaluation of its effectiveness is accurate. Working successfully with your leaders and governors, you have addressed the key priorities for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

For example, you have ensured that pupils are provided with sufficient opportunities to practise and apply their mathematical skills to solve problems. They undertake investigations in a range of subjects, which deepen and extend their knowledge and skills. Encouraged and supported by you and your leaders, teachers share their best practice with good effect.

There is a high level of challenge in lessons. As a result, pupils make good progress. You accept that there is still more to be done to ensure that even higher standards are reached, particularly in writing in key stage 2.

The rich and well-balanced curriculum is carefully matched to pupils' needs, so that they readily develop new interests and skills. For example, provision for science, geography, history, art and music, physical education, sports and school trips has enabled them to become confident and keen learners. The range of extra-curricular clubs promote pupils' interests well.

Popular choices include: football, art, gymnastics, basketball and the film club. Such activities promote pupils' interests and are very popular. The pupils I spoke to said that they like their school.

Many nationalities are represented. Pupils are happy to come and be with their friends. A child in a Reception class explained that she enjoys coming to school and 'likes to make things and read'.

A newly arrived pupil explained that he was helped to feel very welcome by his classmates. These are good examples of the typically thoughtful, generous and positive attitudes which pupils have. Pupils behave very well in lessons and around the school.

They are friendly and polite, and demonstrate the school's values. Safeguarding is effective. Procedures and systems for keeping pupils safe and supporting pupils who require support are thorough.

Staff are conversant with recent safeguarding requirements about, for example, the 'Prevent' duty, child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation and children missing from education. Training is regular. Staff are vigilant, and records are carefully maintained in relation to the checks carried out on adults who work at the school.

A high level of vigilance means that there is a consistent approach to dealing with any referrals. The school works well with outside agencies to ensure that all pupils are kept safe. Children are listened to and feel safe.

Inspection findings ? The first line of enquiry focused on how effectively leaders are raising standards in writing in key stage 2. The most recent information from the assessments of summer 2018 show a dip in performance in this area. To assist in raising standards, you recently appointed a literacy leader.

• Leaders understand the importance of speaking, listening and reading to support the development of writing skills. Building on the strengths of the school, leaders have worked effectively to raise expectations in writing. For example, a greater focus on correct sentence construction has been introduced.

Further work has been done to address inconsistencies in the teaching of writing, for example thorough modelling best practice. ? During our observations of teaching and in our scrutiny of pupils' written work, there were still some inconsistencies. There is still work to be done to raise expectations and reduce variability in the teaching of writing in key stage 2.

• The second line of enquiry focused on how effectively leaders raise standards in mathematics in key stage 1. Information from 2018 shows that pupils did not perform as well in this area as they did in reading and writing. ? Leaders have taken steps which have raised standards in mathematics in key stage 1.

These include a closer focus on the use of counting resources, and using assessment information to identify pupils' prior attainment. In lessons, leaders support teachers by teaching alongside them. Leaders model best practice in effective questioning techniques and help teachers to set higher expectations.

These and other actions have helped to raise the profile and increase the impact of the teaching of mathematics in key stage 1. ? In lessons, teachers' careful questioning enables pupils to think deeply. Pupils are given frequent opportunities to use practical apparatus, and acquire and practise their mathematical vocabulary to solve problems.

In their workbooks, pupils demonstrate their skills well. In discussions in Year 1, for example, most-able pupils explained confidently how to double and halve numbers up to 20. However, the most able pupils could make even stronger progress.

• Although improved, the quality of teaching and learning of mathematics could be improved further, particularly for the most able in key stage 1. Teachers do not have high enough expectations, and do not use assessment systematically to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. ? The final focus of enquiry centred on the performance of the early years foundation stage.

This was because there has been variation in children's performance in recent years. Information shows that the proportion of children reaching a good level of development is below the national average. ? You have recently extended leadership capacity in the early years.

The newly appointed leader is a good role model and has high expectations of children's learning and development. The leader now identifies gaps in children's skills and puts interventions in place to address them. As a result, practice in the early years is improving.

• Children demonstrate their enjoyment of the wide-ranging curriculum and rich resources on offer, indoors and outdoors. They enjoy strong relationships with adults and each other. Adults are quick to take opportunities to teach children new skills, and practise existing ones.

The youngest children make strong progress. Some children enter the school with very low levels of skills and knowledge for their age. In particular, many start school with limited or no language skills in English.

However, they quickly begin to catch up. Overall, however, there is more to be done in the early years to raise expectations and ensure that that the proportion of children who reach a good level of development consistently increases to be, at least, in line with the national average. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the teaching of writing in key stage 2 is strengthened so that standards reached in reading and mathematics are matched in writing ? assessment is used to identify next steps in learning, and expectations in mathematics in key stage 1 are raised, particularly for the most able ? expectations in early years are raised, so that proportion of children reaching a good level of development matches or exceeds the national average.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Brent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Martin Roberts Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I carried out the following activities during the inspection: ? I held meetings with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, assistant headteacher and middle leaders.

• I held discussions with two governors, including the chair of governors and a range of pupils. I also had a discussion with a local authority education adviser. ? I observed teaching and learning in a range of lessons.

• I evaluated pupils' progress by looking at pupils' workbooks and displays. ? I heard several pupils read. ? I considered recent information about pupils' progress.

• I considered the views of 222 pupils through responses to the pupil survey. ? I considered the views of staff through 30 responses to the staff survey. ? I considered parents' views through 36 responses to Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, and held discussions with parents in the playground before school.

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