Bosmere Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Bosmere Junior School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are confident and well mannered and enjoy school. They make sure that they do their best to make the school's values a part of everyday life, which includes being trustworthy, respectful and independent.

Pupils are proud of their school. As a result, they are happy to take on extra responsibilities to make it even better. Pupils can be school councillors, playground buddies or e-safety ambassadors.

The eco-council is proud of its achievements, and environmentalism is a big part of this school's wider curriculum. For example, pupils sweep up leaves or help make sure the school... is free of litter.

Pupils support others well.

They respect family set-ups and backgrounds that are different from their own. The 'buddy reading' system is a valued time when older pupils help younger pupils develop their reading. Pupils also sponsor the training of a puppy for a visually impaired person.

Pupils want to do their best, and staff reward this. Parents and carers receive a celebratory letter in the post when their child demonstrates the school's values particularly well. Parents, pupils and staff agree that pupils' behaviour is good, and bullying is rare.

Pupils are rightly confident that adults will make the situation better if they need help.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders are ambitious and are developing a curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils. They have devised a reading curriculum that enables most pupils to become strong readers by the time they leave.

Pupils understand and analyse high-quality texts to develop more advanced reading skills. Not all pupils can read with fluency, and leaders prioritise support for these pupils. Although all classroom staff have received some phonics training, not all staff have the expertise to help pupils to learn to read as quickly as they could.

Teachers check how well pupils develop their knowledge and skills precisely. The most successful learning occurs in subjects that regularly revisit previously taught knowledge, such as in mathematics and physical education (PE). This enables pupils to know and remember more, as well as to link their current learning to previous units of work.

For example, Year 6 pupils linked recent work on volume in mathematics to work on perimeter and area in Year 4. In PE, the oldest pupils recall their tag rugby learning, from using tactical movements in previous years, to running with and passing a rugby ball effectively in Year 6. However, pupils' learning of key knowledge, skills and vocabulary is not as strong in all subjects.

This means that pupils do not achieve as well as they could across the entire curriculum.

Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is very well led. Staff are aspirational for pupils with SEND to achieve as well as they can.

The targets teachers set are clear and achievable. This enables pupils with SEND to make considerable academic and pastoral progress.

Leaders have high expectations for pupils' behaviour, and staff model this for pupils to follow.

Staff use the clear structure for rewards, enabling positive behaviours throughout the day. Pupils play well at breaktimes in a busy but well-managed area. More significant behaviour issues are very rare.

When these do happen, pupils are supported with clear, targeted support.

Leaders provide good opportunities to develop pupils' wider experiences. They make sure that no pupils miss out on opportunities for financial reasons.

There are many clubs and visits. Pupils happily recalled a recent cultural visit from the Spinnaker Chorus singing group, when the whole school sang with gusto in a four-part barbershop harmony.

Governors understand and care for the school's pupils and staff.

Staff are exceptionally positive about the support they receive. They fulfil their responsibilities with moral purpose and diligence. This creates a harmonious, professional atmosphere for pupils to thrive.

As one parent commented, 'I can't recommend the school enough. Our child genuinely loves going into school every day to learn what's next.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding, where everyone knows their responsibilities. Pupils feel safe and know that there is someone to talk to if something worries them. Training for staff and governors is thorough and up to date.

This enables staff to identify when they need to deal with a concern. When a more serious situation arises, leaders make prompt and effective decisions.

Governors assure themselves of the work staff do by carrying out safeguarding monitoring effectively.

Leaders ensure that all adults have appropriate checks completed before they work with pupils. Pupils learn many elements of keeping safe, including online safety.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some members of staff do not have sufficient knowledge and skills to teach pupils who are struggling to learn to read.

This means that not all pupils are learning to read as well as they could. Leaders need to ensure that staff have the full range of expertise that they require. ? Not all foundation-subject curriculums are logically sequenced.

In these subjects, teachers do not always have clarity about the important knowledge that pupils have learned before and need to learn now. Leaders need to continue their work in improving the precision of sequencing in foundation subjects, so that the knowledge pupils acquire builds towards carefully designed, appropriate end-points.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in January 2013.

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