Chapel End Junior Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Chapel End Junior Academy

Following my visit to the school on 12 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 previous inspection.

You took up your post in November 2018 and have extended and further strengthened school leadership. Leaders have clear responsibilities relevant to the school's priorities. They have accurately determined when key aspects of the curric...ulum have needed development, and they ensure that the right actions are taken so that improvements are made.

The school provides an attractive and well-organised learning environment. Classrooms typically convey pupils' purposeful engagement with their work. Teachers ensure that pupils have access to helpful resources to support their learning.

They promote pupils' perseverance and sense of achievement through the regularly cited phrase 'use what you know to work out what you don't know'. Pupils benefit from their teachers making links between different subjects, for example developing their writing skills in science and mathematics. Leaders are highly mindful of specific circumstances that are barriers to learning for individual pupils.

Leaders give pupils the right help so that they can engage positively with life in school. Pupils have the opportunity to study a wide range of subjects that stimulate their interests and their creativity. They appreciate their education, and attendance and punctuality are high.

You are acutely aware of the changing profile of pupils attending the school, with, for example, increasing proportions joining the school who speak English as an additional language (EAL) as beginners. Leaders make good use of specialist staff and provide training for all teachers and teaching assistants in order to ensure that pupils receive the support they need to be happy and successful at school. The very large majority of pupils who completed a survey for this inspection were very positive about their experience of school.

All pupils agreed that the school encourages them to respect those from other backgrounds and to treat everyone equally. Leaders, including governors, forge valuable communications with parents and carers. Parents have regular opportunities to come into school, for example for English language classes, and for special events such as international evening, where everyone shares traditional foods from different cultures.

Parents attend sessions and activities such as 'learn alongside parents' to hear more about what their child is learning at school and how best to help them at home. The very large majority of parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey, agree that they receive valuable information from the school about their child's progress. Typical comments praised staff for being approachable and for the support they have received if they have any concerns.

Leaders provide staff with the right training, guidance and support so that they can deal confidently and ably with the challenges their work brings. All members of staff who completed the survey for this inspection agreed that they feel well supported working at the school and that leaders are considerate of their well-being. Governors are knowledgeable about the school's strengths and priorities for development.

They ensure that they keep up to date with the school's work through focused visits and regular communication with leaders. They draw well on their experience and training so that they can confidently evaluate the impact of leaders' actions and identify when further improvements are needed. You recognise the importance of maintaining positive links with local providers attended by your future pupils.

You work productively with local schools, for example to organise joint moderation of assessments, and to ensure a smooth and successful transition of pupils to the junior school. You collaborate well with the trust and the local authority to ensure that high standards are maintained, for example in auditing the school's safeguarding arrangements and leadership development. Safeguarding is effective.

Leaders are thoroughly committed to their responsibility to safeguard pupils. You have extended the safeguarding team, with increased numbers of staff trained as designated safeguarding leads. This ensures that there are well-qualified staff on hand across all staff teams, to oversee safeguarding concerns whenever they arise.

Safeguarding records are very well organised. They demonstrate staff's vigilance to signs for concern, their very swift follow up, and their appropriate and persistent contact with outside agencies in order to ensure that pupils get the help they need. The single central record indicates that all required checks are made when staff join the school.

Pupils say they feel safe in school. Staff are highly aware of contemporary risks to pupils' safety, health and well-being, including e-safety, female genital mutilation and radicalisation. Leaders have a very clear oversight of opportunities across the curriculum which enable pupils to recognise how to stay safe when out and about outside school.

Inspection findings ? As a first line of enquiry, we agreed to look at leaders' actions to improve pupils' achievement in mathematics. This is because, in 2018, pupils' progress in mathematics was below the national average, and disadvantaged pupils performed significantly below their peers. ? Leaders have analysed carefully the basis to pupils' underperformance in mathematics and have put in place a number of successful strategies to raise achievement in this area across the school.

They ensure that teachers' confidence with more complex aspects of the mathematics curriculum is growing, with regular training and one-to-one professional development. ? Teachers uphold leaders' expectations so that the quality of assessment in mathematics is high. Leaders ensure that teachers' regular review of pupils' assessments identifies gaps in pupils' learning, for example in the use of calculations.

Further staff training is organised accordingly to ensure these areas are covered with pupils in greater detail. ? The implementation of a chosen scheme has been carefully adapted to match pupils' specific needs, including ready access to helpful resources, and is enhanced by the school's priority to develop pupils' oracy. As a result, pupils' use of technical vocabulary and their reasoning skills have developed rapidly.

Literacy skills are boosted, with pupils writing down their reasoning and having frequent opportunities to apply their learning to written problem-solving. Pupils' work and the school's own assessment information indicate that current pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are making better progress in mathematics in all year groups. ? As a second line of enquiry, we looked at leaders' actions to promote oracy across the school.

You have identified this as a key priority for the school because more pupils join the school needing support with speech and language development. You also want to develop all pupils' oracy to improve their reasoning and confidence in articulating their learning. ? Leaders have implemented a wide range of initiatives and have provided staff with comprehensive training and resources, so that teachers use a variety of successful strategies to develop pupils' oracy.

Teachers provide regular opportunities for pupils to discuss their work with each other. Teachers use skilful questioning to enable pupils to reflect on and improve the quality of their verbal responses. Pupils show that they can clearly express the context of their tasks in lessons related to their prior and future learning.

Pupils respond determinedly to the challenge of using and interpreting more complex texts. ? Leaders have developed a programme of learning that routinely promotes pupils' vocabulary. Pupils give careful thought to their choice of specific words, both in writing and verbally, and so they acquire a more sophisticated vocabulary.

Leaders identify where specialist support is needed to develop pupils' speech and language abilities and put in place effective interventions so that pupils' confidence and expression improves. However, on a few occasions, lower-attaining pupils need support sooner with their reading and understanding of more challenging vocabulary so that they can embark on a task as successfully as others. ? We also agreed to look at actions taken by leaders to improve the standards of pupils' reading.

This is because reading has been a focus for development in recent years. ? Leaders complete detailed assessments of reading skills when pupils start at the school so that those who need extra help are identified promptly. Lower-attaining pupils receive the additional support they need with their use of phonics so that they catch up.

• Leaders ensure that teachers and teaching assistants receive the right training in phonics teaching so that pupils receive the guidance they need in all year groups. Leaders have high expectations and stipulate that pupils have regular opportunities to read aloud in class and that they read every day. Teachers ensure that pupils' reading books are relevant to the particular phonics skills and comprehension skills they need to develop.

• The high profile given to the specially designed homework diaries ensures that pupils use these routinely and read frequently. Pupils demonstrate an appreciation of the value and enjoyment of reading. Pupils from all abilities choose from a wide range of quality fiction and non-fiction texts to pursue their areas of interest.

• The school's priority to raise the quality of reading has led to more pupils attaining the expected and higher standards. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the new systems for the teaching of mathematics are embedded across the school so that all aspects are covered equally well ? lower-ability pupils continue to receive the support they need to access more challenging vocabulary. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body and the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for London Borough of Waltham Forest.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Amanda Carter-Fraser Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you and other school leaders, the deputy director of the multi-academy trust, the school's business manager, the chair of governors and a parent governor. I made reference to a range of school documents, including: the school's self-evaluation and development plan; records relating to safeguarding pupils; achievement information; and subject leaders' action plans and training materials.

I met with a group of pupils representing all year groups, and held conversations with pupils and staff around the school. I listened to pupils read and looked at reading logs. I visited all classrooms accompanied by you or the deputy headteacher.

I looked at pupils' work in their books. I observed pupils' behaviour in classrooms and around the school. I took into account the responses to surveys completed by 95 pupils and 21 members of staff and the responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey, which was completed by 42 parents.