Manor Field Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Manor Field Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 18 September 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 2014.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You lead the school successfully, with ambitious determination for all pupils to achieve well.

United in a strong sense of moral purpose you and your leadership team have successfully shaped a school in which pupils are happy and kee...n to learn. A parent explained: 'They seem to know how to bring out the best in everyone.' You have successfully created an open and welcoming atmosphere in the school.

A positive sense of mutual respect and support between staff, parents and pupils permeates the school. Staff responding to Ofsted's online survey unanimously agreed that they are proud to work at Manor Field Junior School. A member of staff commented: 'I feel supported, respected and encouraged to excel in my career.'

Parents are highly appreciative of the school and the support their children receive. You know your school and pupils extremely well. You know what is working well and where further improvements can be achieved.

You promptly identified the dip in pupils' outcomes in English and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2018, and you are taking decisive action to get back on track. You acknowledge there is more work to do to ensure that these improvements are sustained. Pupils talk eagerly about their learning.

They say that teachers make learning fun and interesting. Pupils talk about staff with the upmost respect. A pupil explained: 'Teachers value pupils and our rights.'

Classrooms are calm, and pupils focus productively on their work. Pupils behave well at breaktimes and move about the school in a polite and orderly manner. Governors share your ambitious vision for the school.

Governors hold leaders to account and check the accuracy of what you tell them through regular visits to the school and careful scrutiny of reports. Governors are exceptionally proud of the school and care equally for the well-being of pupils and the welfare of staff. As a result, governors are successfully contributing to the school's continued improvement.

At the time of the previous inspection, you were asked to ensure that a greater proportion of the most able pupils achieved outcomes at the higher standard at the end of key stage 2. You were also asked to sharpen the evaluation of the impact of additional provision offered to pupils. Across the school, the most able pupils are given increasingly useful opportunities to develop their learning.

For example, in mathematics, pupils think deeply, solve problems and practise their reasoning skills. However, tasks are not reliably challenging enough for the most able pupils. As a result, too few pupils are reaching the higher levels they are capable of in both English and mathematics.

This remains a priority for the school. Leaders are successfully refining their evaluation of the impact of additional support offered to pupils. Leaders carefully analyse the extra help pupils receive and keep a close eye on whether it is making a difference.

This approach has worked well in improving pupils' behaviour individually. Following the disappointing key stage 2 results in 2018, leaders are helpfully applying a similarly rigorous approach to tightening the evaluation of pupils' progress in learning. Safeguarding is effective.

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Your well-trained and knowledgeable staff are vigilant in their responsibilities to keep pupils safe. Staff know pupils and their families extremely well and readily use the school's effective systems for passing on concerns.

Leaders act promptly on the information they receive, working closely with parents and other professionals to protect pupils. Adults undergo thorough checks to ensure their suitability to work with children. Governors diligently carry out regular visits to the school to ensure that the premises and site are safe and secure.

Pupils feel safe and are taught how to keep themselves safe, online and in the wider community. Lessons, trips, assemblies and visiting speakers all help pupils to understand how to keep themselves safe. As a result, you have successfully established a successful whole-school approach to safeguarding.

Inspection findings ? During the inspection we looked closely at specific aspects of the school's provision, including the effectiveness of leaders' work to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well, the effectiveness of teaching and learning in English and how effectively the curriculum enables all pupils to make good progress and achieve well. ? Leaders' thorough understanding of the needs of the higher-than-average proportion of disadvantaged pupils enables them to make effective use of additional funding to support these pupils. Leaders productively focus on promoting positive attitudes to learning.

Disadvantaged pupils receive skilfully tailored teaching and support to help them learn and improve their progress. Leaders have high aspirations for this group of pupils and are carefully refining their evaluation processes to keep an even closer eye on the progress these pupils make to further improve their outcomes. As a result, work seen in current pupils' books shows evidence of increasingly rapid progress.

• Across the school, teachers provide interesting activities that develop most pupils' skills in English well. Pupils read a variety of thought-provoking books and are challenged to write for many different purposes. Teachers skilfully support pupils to evaluate and improve their written work.

For example, pupils were successfully editing their writing, based on characters from a story, reflecting on how to use more interesting vocabulary. Work seen in pupils' books shows that many pupils make strong progress from their starting points because of these successful approaches. However, sometimes work is too easy for the most able pupils to allow them to achieve at the higher standard.

• The thoughtfully designed 'Manor Field curriculum' is a strength of the school. Leaders have successfully crafted a vibrant learning programme that inspires pupils. Staff effectively plan for the progression of pupils' knowledge, skills and understanding in a wide range of subjects.

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is also proficiently encouraged. For example, pupils in Year 3 enthusiastically worked on a topic 'How to be cool at junior school' which is helping them to quickly settle in to their new school. As a result, pupils across the school are keen and interested learners.

The most able pupils relish the many opportunities the curriculum provides to explore and be curious. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? teachers consistently provide even greater challenge to the most able pupils, so that an increased proportion achieve at the higher standard in reading, writing and mathematics ? pupils' outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics continue to improve by the end of key stage 2, including for disadvantaged pupils. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Hampshire.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Claire Prince Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, senior and middle leaders and spoke to governors. I also had a discussion with a representative from the local authority.

Together, you and I visited classes in all year groups. I considered the 18 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, including 11 free-text comments. There were 12 responses to Ofsted's staff questionnaire, which were considered.

I also met with a small group of pupils, talked informally to pupils about their learning and scrutinised work in pupils' books. I analysed a range of the school's documentation, including information about safeguarding. We discussed your evaluation of the school's effectiveness.

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