Roxeth Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Roxeth Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 July 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 November 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Senior leaders provide strong and effective leadership and have set a clear vision that has contributed to improving the school.

The school's self-evaluation is frank, detailed and accurate. It is based on a rigorous review of provision and i...ts impact on pupils' outcomes. The senior leadership team works successfully to promote a culture of achievement and everyone is clear about the areas for improvement.

This results in strong outcomes for pupils, who enjoy their learning. With your team, you have established a well-maintained and resourced school which provides an attractive learning environment for pupils. During our tour of the school, it was clear to see that the pervading atmosphere is calm, happy and busy.

Your vision for the children, 'Together at Roxeth we can achieve', is apparent throughout the school. At the previous inspection, you were asked to improve standards in writing through more consistent teaching. Since then, pupils' progress in writing by the end of key stage 2 has improved.

Even so, it remains below a priority for the school to bring progress in line with that in reading, especially boys, so that more are working at the 'greater depth' standard. Pupils are courteous, respectful and supportive of each other and the adults who work with them. They are keen to do their best in lessons, paying close attention to instructions and working independently on a range of tasks.

In discussion, pupils were confident and articulate, demonstrating high aspirations for their future lives. They are eager to share with visitors their positive experiences of their time in school. Parents and carers are also extremely positive about the school.

In their responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online questionnaire, many of them commented on the careful consideration given to pupils' individual needs with 'dedicated staff at all levels'. They said that teachers are very approachable and responsive in dealing with concerns. Parents value the inclusive ethos of the school, which enables their children to grow in confidence and to take pride in their learning.

In their feedback to Ofsted, they spoke about 'a wonderful community' and 'a fabulously good school'. The overwhelming majority of parents would recommend the school to others. Governors have a clear sense of purpose: to hold the school to account for providing the very best for its pupils.

Governors are inquisitive and ask pertinent, challenging questions. They test out your assertions about the strengths of the school by visiting lessons, meeting with staff and talking to pupils. In this way, governors have a clear and accurate view of how well the school is doing.

As with other leaders, there is no sense of complacency. Governors believe that the school can always improve and willingly look for ways of helping it to do so. Safeguarding is effective.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school. Leaders, including governors, ensure that the school meets its statutory duty to keep all children safe. High-quality, regular training for all staff ensures that they know how to keep children safe and what to do if they have a concern about a child.

The school's safeguarding governor visits the school regularly to check records and make sure that procedures have been followed diligently. A comprehensive induction plan helps new staff understand the strong focus given to safeguarding in this school. Policies and procedures are securely embedded, and referrals are made in a timely way.

As a result, vulnerable children and families are supported effectively. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe. Teachers make sure that pupils develop their skills and understanding of e-safety.

Pupils know about different ways of protecting themselves when using the internet. For example, they talked about not publishing photographs or giving out their names and addresses to people online. Pupils told me that bullying is rare in their school and expressed confidence that adults would deal with any incidents well.

Inspection findings ? At the start of the inspection, we agreed that I would look at how effectively leaders are ensuring greater consistency in pupils' progress in writing, especially that of boys. This is because assessment information shows variations in the progress pupils make in writing, and writing is a priority in your school improvement plan. ? The school has introduced strategies to develop writing, particularly boys' writing.

Teachers spend time talking to boys and gathering their interests so that the work they are asked to do is appealing to them. Teachers have worked effectively to improve the quality of pupils' punctuation and their sentence construction, as asked for in the previous inspection. The themed curriculum allows pupils to transfer and apply their writing skills across all subjects.

Your new system of writing targets helps teachers to plan tasks that meet pupils' different learning needs. The assessment team tracks pupils' writing carefully and quickly puts in place support where needed. ? Pupils' workbooks demonstrate that they are making stronger progress in writing, including boys.

We saw some excellent examples of improvement in the quality of pupils' handwriting as they progress through the school. By the end of Year 6, pupils are more confident writers and can write well across a range of genres. Opportunities to write in different subjects are securely fixed within the curriculum.

Pupils from different year groups could show me examples of high-quality writing across a range of different subjects. However, we agreed that more time needs to be given to allow the more able pupils to redraft their work and improve the quality and use of language in their writing. ? Our next focus for the inspection was to evaluate whether pupils' progress in the wider curriculum is as strong as it is in English and mathematics.

I wanted to establish whether the curriculum provides breadth and balance and supports good progress across a range of subjects. ? You have developed a thematic curriculum that makes links between subjects and contributes well to pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This has been supported with some subject-specific professional development.

Additionally, leaders have supported staff to develop pupils' literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. However, planning for subjects such as geography lacks continuity from one year to the next. This is leading to pupils repeating work unnecessarily and slowing progress.

In part, this is because the coverage of the curriculum is not monitored closely enough. ? Evidence from pupils' books shows that they make progress in learning about the selected themes. However, overall pupils' learning in some foundation subjects lacks depth and they do not develop their understanding and skills sequentially.

In particular, work is not planned well enough to challenge the most able pupils in subjects such as history and geography. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? pupils' writing continues to improve, and a higher proportion of boys achieve the higher standards ? the new plans for the curriculum consider the sequencing of learning in order to deepen pupils' knowledge and understanding, and that these plans are implemented effectively. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Harrow.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Michelle Thomas Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I visited a number of classes with you and your deputy headteacher to observe teaching and learning. I spoke with pupils about their work and looked at their books while visiting their classrooms.

I reviewed the school's website and considered a range of documents, including your summary of the school's effectiveness and the school improvement plan. I also looked at documents relating to safeguarding and attendance. During the inspection, I met with you, your deputy headteacher, two curriculum leaders and a group of pupils.

I held meetings with three governors and your school improvement partner, as well talking by phone to a representative from the local authority. I considered 49 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, and spoke informally with parents at the start of the school day. I also considered 48 responses from staff and 100 responses from pupils to their respective surveys.