Dinglewell Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Dinglewell Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 10 May 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 November 2013.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You became the headteacher of Dinglewell Junior School in November 2014.

You work closely with the deputy headteacher, providing strong leadership for the school. Staff morale is high; they are proud to be members of the school. Dinglewell ...Junior is a happy school and pupils enjoy coming to learn.

In addition, you have a strong working relationship with the headteacher of the collocated infant school. This provides a smooth changeover for pupils and their families when pupils leave the infants to join your school. You ensure that pupils have a rich and exciting curriculum.

Use of visiting experts such as an Egyptologist, a volcanologist and a palaeontologist further enlivens pupils' learning. It also helps them see different possible opportunities for education and employment that they can aspire to when they leave school. You have tackled the points for improvement noted in the previous inspection report effectively.

Pupils' writing has improved. Senior leaders identify at an early stage those groups which are falling behind, particularly pupils supported through pupil premium, ensuring that they catch up quickly. Pupils continue to leave the school reaching the expected standard or higher compared with national figures.

In addition, they make good progress in their studies. Safeguarding is effective. You and the staff work closely with other agencies to secure the safety and well-being of pupils.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding within the school. Staff and governors keep up to date with training. They know what to do to keep pupils safe.

Records relating to the safeguarding of pupils are detailed, well organised and fit for purpose. School leaders and staff know their pupils well. They are effective at identifying specific risks and issues that may have an impact on school life.

Pupils are safe and happy in school. They say that poor behaviour is rare but, when it does happen, staff deal with it quickly and fairly. Pupils feel well cared for by staff in school.

They are taught about potential risks and how to stay safe in different situations, such as how to use the internet safely. Inspection findings. ? For the first line of enquiry, we agreed to look at what the school had done to improve pupils' writing successfully.

We also agreed to see how improvements in writing were helping boys to catch up with girls in their reading. ? Improving the quality of pupils' writing has been a main focus of school leaders across all year groups. Through curriculum planning meetings, staff are identifying pertinent opportunities for pupils to write in all subject areas.

This has been achieved without detriment to the teaching of specific subject knowledge. There has been a greater emphasis on storytelling by staff and pupils and on sharing with each other what they are reading. In addition, strong support from the English coordinator, along with a wide range of high-quality training from experts, has revitalised the teaching and learning of writing and reading.

• Pupils told me how they enjoyed using their imagination when developing their own stories from wordless picture books. Increasingly, staff use a wide range of visually stimulating media to inspire pupils and develop their creative writing skills. Staff carefully model and expose pupils to a wide range of vocabulary through class discussions with pupils about what they are seeing or hearing.

As a result, pupils' vocabulary is being extended, and their joy in developing and interpreting text is increasing. ? In English, as well as whole-school changes to the ways in which it is taught, teachers are encouraged to develop their own ways to enhance pupils' learning. For example, pupils' knowledge of vocabulary is enriched through the 'banish boring words' books.

At the after-school club, through 'biscuits and books', boys are being encouraged and successfully supported towards a love of reading for personal enjoyment. ? Next, we reviewed what improvements you have made to mathematics, particularly to increase the achievement of girls so that they catch up with the boys. Staff have embedded the school's mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics.

They have focused on ensuring that pupils have a secure, solid understanding of the four mathematical rules of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. By developing accuracy in pupils' reading skills they help pupils to understand what type of mathematical methods they need to use when solving written problems. Pupils' books and school records show that pupils' progress has been further accelerated in all year groups, and for the vast majority of pupils.

• You have increased the amount of curriculum time allocated to mathematics. Staff are using this time to focus on the mechanics of mathematics through basic number work and sharpening pupils' knowledge of the four mathematical rules. This is improving pupils' mathematical fluency.

Staff resolve pupils' misconceptions so that all pupils can apply their understanding to solve increasingly complex problems. ? Pupils are encouraged to 'linger longer' so that they fully reason and comprehend what the connections are between the different steps they are making, or need to make, to solve these problems. In addition, the new ways in which mathematics is being taught mean that girls are not able to 'hide' in lessons as they had been doing.

As a result of the changes made, girls, as with other groups of pupils, are making much better progress and their attainment is now frequently equal to, or higher than, the boys in all year groups. ? Next, we looked at the achievements of those pupils who are entitled to the pupil premium funding. The staff leader for this focus group targets work for individual pupils and for small groups.

This is done through the careful analysis of what pupils know, understand and can do. When strategies are found not to be effective they are replaced with other ones. There are good links with external agencies and other organisations.

A particular success in developing pupils' self-confidence has been their participation in the 'Young Voices' choir competition. Also, the pastoral inclusion manager provides strong support for families, which they appreciate, and this helps raise pupils' attendance. ? During our visit we noticed that some pupils had a poor pen/pencil grip.

This has a negative impact on the quality of these pupils' letter formation and writing speed. I also saw that middle leaders of non-core subjects had received good-quality training and that more is planned. They are developing an understanding of how well pupils are achieving in their subject specialism, along with developing cross-curricular links with other subjects to make learning even more meaningful for pupils.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? pupils with a poor pen/pencil grip develop one that is more efficient ? middle leadership continues to develop, as in your school development plan, so that they can have a thorough understanding of how well pupils are achieving in the subject for which they are responsible. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Gloucestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Steffi Penny Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During this short inspection, I discussed the work of the school with you and with members of the senior leadership team. I also considered a variety of documentation provided by the school and information posted on the school's website. I examined the school's safeguarding records and talked to the members of staff who take the lead on this.

I held discussions with a representative of the local authority. I met with members of the governing body, including the chair of the governing body. Together with school leaders, I visited classes to observe learning and I looked at samples of pupils' work.

I spoke to a number of pupils to discuss their experiences of being members of this school. I also considered 94 responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey. I analysed eight responses to the pupil survey and 31 responses to the staff survey.

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