Crownfield Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Crownfield Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 26 June 2018, 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 May 2014. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. In your role as acting headteacher, you have provided a strong steer for the school during a period of turbulence. With advice and support from a national leader of education, you have made changes in a short space of time that have not only steadied th...e school but have also improved the quality of teaching.

After a period when pupils' progress was below average, it is now rising. School leaders have successfully tackled the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. The proportion of pupils working at the higher standards in reading and writing is now broadly in line with national averages.

You have re-written the school's policy on how teachers give pupils feedback to help them improve their work. This has had a positive effect on the progress pupils are now making. Teachers now have more opportunities to observe excellent classroom practice both in school and in other settings.

This has enabled teachers to reflect on their own professional development and improve teaching for pupils. Pupils and parents and carers are supportive of the changes you have made. The morale of staff is high.

Staff understand and support your strategic vision for the school and can see how initiatives contribute to the drive to improve outcomes for pupils. For example, you and the middle leadership team have worked effectively with all staff to achieve consistency in the quality of teaching. As a result, teaching is now securely good across the school.

The school has a strong culture of care. Pupils are extremely polite and well behaved. In lessons, they are engaged in their learning and listen to one another respectfully.

Leaders' work to involve pupils in the assessment of their work has promoted positive attitudes for learning. Governors are supportive of leaders' work to improve teaching and learning. They are confident in using the accurate information that they have about pupils' progress to hold leaders to account.

They have a clear overview of the strengths of the school and areas to develop. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

Records are well kept and reviewed regularly. Robust recruitment checks ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. All staff have received relevant safeguarding training.

This has meant that they are confident in recording concerns and reporting these to the designated safeguarding leads using the school's new system. As a result, information is shared in a timely way to help keep pupils safe. Pupils have a good understanding of how to stay safe while using online technology.

They say that they feel safe in school and that all staff deal with any concerns quickly. In the words of one pupil, 'Bullying used to happen, but not now'. Parents are confident that their children are safe when in school.

Inspection findings ? At the start of the inspection, we agreed to look at four lines of enquiry. The first was to evaluate the actions leaders have taken to improve pupils' progress in reading by the end of key stage 2. This is because their progress has been below the national average.

• Since the change in leadership, a new assessment system has been introduced. This has moved the emphasis from termly testing to regular assessment of pupils' work by class teachers against clear criteria. This has made assessment more accurate and has helped teachers to use the assessment information in a more effective way to plan future learning for pupils.

• The new scheme for teaching reading is already having an impact on pupils' comprehension skills. Pupils enjoy their reading and know why this is important for future life. A pupil said, 'I imagine I am in the book when I am a bit sad.

It can take you away'. Current information from teachers' assessments shows an improvement on last year's figures. ? The second line of enquiry was to look at whether leaders' use of the funding for disadvantaged pupils has been effective in improving their progress so that it is comparable with that of non-disadvantaged pupils nationally.

• Leaders conducted a review and acted quickly on their findings, with changes in the way support for disadvantaged pupils is allocated, funded and evaluated. In particular, the review showed that there had been little measurement of the impact of the funding on pupils' progress. The school is now using its more accurate assessment information to inform leaders, including governors, of the impact funding is having on pupils' progress.

For example, after-school tutoring was deemed not to be having the desired outcomes for pupils. This was stopped and the money was used instead to provide additional in-class support. Funding is also used to provide pupils with access to clubs, school journeys or additional resources.

• Currently, as shown by the school's assessments, the planned support is helping disadvantaged pupils to make stronger progress and their performance is closer to that of other pupils nationally. ? We also looked at the difference in attainment of boys compared with that of girls. Over time, boys' attainment has not matched that of girls, particularly in reading and writing.

• Leaders have rightly focused on resources to engage boys. For example, a project with West Ham Football Club integrated football with reading, writing and mathematics; the impact has been seen in the more positive attitudes to learning from those pupils involved. In lessons seen during the inspection, boys were just as engaged in their learning, confidently responding to teachers' questions.

For example, in a debating session about single-use plastics, boys were sharing some of their well-researched arguments in a logical way. ? However, scrutiny of work in books shows that boys' attainment in writing is below that of girls, as is the presentation of their work. Leaders agree that this is still an area for focus across the school.

• The final line of enquiry was to look at the progress of pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. This was to find out whether the support provided to this group of pupils is effective. ? The leadership of special educational needs is shared with the neighbouring infant school.

This promotes smooth transition between schools for children who have SEN and/or disabilities. Their progress is tracked carefully and a range of information is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the support. Senior leaders adjust provision if it is not found to make an impact on pupils' learning.

• Inspection evidence shows that pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are being supported well and are making strong progress from their starting points. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? continued emphasis is given to raising the standard of boys' reading and writing ? there is a more consistent approach to teaching handwriting and presentation of work in pupils' books. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Havering.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Sara Morgan Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, the acting deputy headteacher, the chair of governors and the team of middle leaders. I met with the local authority link adviser and spoke to the national leader of education who has been supporting the school.

I spoke to pupils in their classrooms. I heard pupils from all year groups read and talked to them about their views of the school. I looked at a sample of pupils' work in books and took account of the school's information about standards and progress.

I reviewed a range of documentation, including the school development plan, the school's self-evaluation, action plans and safeguarding information and records. I took account of 22 staff responses to the staff questionnaire, 24 responses to the online survey, Parent View, and notes from a telephone call from a parent. There were no responses from the pupil questionnaire.

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