Frith Manor Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Frith Manor Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 25 June 2019 with Sam Nowak HMI, 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 April 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Leaders are reflective practitioners and have successfully built a staff team that has the capacity to keep improving outcomes for pupils. You and the leadership team have worked hard to ensure that pupils' outcomes have improved ...since the dip in 2016.

You identify expertise in the staff team members and invest in their development. As a result, the team of middle leaders, who share your vision for improvement, are acquiring the appropriate skills to improve pupils' progress, particularly in reading and mathematics. Since the previous inspection, the school has continued to focus on the areas for improvement.

You acknowledge that while good progress has been made in improving behaviour, there is further work to be done to improve pupils' progress in writing. This is particularly across the wider curriculum. The implementation of the new behaviour policy has been the result of work that successfully involved parents and included pupils' views.

The focus on positive rewards has resulted in a decline in low-level disruptive behaviour. Inspectors were impressed at the level of engagement in lessons by pupils. The necessary behaviour to enable effective learning is well established across the school.

The more accurate assessment in writing has highlighted that pupils' progress in this area is not as strong as in reading and mathematics. You aim to strengthen this to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning improves so that pupils achieve well in all subjects. Governors have a good understanding of the school's priorities.

For example, they have a clear oversight of leaders' actions to improve reading and the continued work to support pupils with special needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Governors have a wide range of skills. This ensures that they understand the range of information used to successfully hold leaders to account.

They show a high level of commitment by conducting regular visits to the school, for example to oversee the safeguarding documentation. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders ensure that staff receive up to date training, including recent guidelines on 'county lines'.

This means that there is a clear understanding of the shared responsibility for safeguarding. Leaders address concerns swiftly, working with external agencies where appropriate so that pupils and families receive the support they may need. They are tenacious in ensuring that responses from other services are timely and will escalate further if necessary.

Records for ensuring that staff are suitable to work with children are well kept and fit for purpose. Governors are well informed about the school's procedures for safeguarding. They check records regularly.

The curriculum provides a range of opportunities for pupils to learn to keep themselves safe, including when on the internet and road safety. Pupils, staff and parents all say that pupils are safe in school. As a result, the safeguarding culture in the school is strong.

Inspection findings ? We agreed to look at three areas across the school during this inspection. The first line of enquiry was to look at the actions leaders have taken to improve the progress of pupils entitled to additional funding. This was because these pupils were not achieving as highly as other pupils nationally, particularly in key stage 1.

• Leaders identified that this pupil group, although making progress at the national average by the end of Year 6, were not matching the progress of their peers. Effective use of funding from a local authority project enabled teachers to develop more precise feedback for pupils. Leaders set up programmes of support for identified pupils led by these teachers.

The effective system of small group input from teachers has resulted in these pupils now making better progress across the school. ? In lessons, teachers focus effectively on the needs of disadvantaged pupils. They provide pupils with opportunities to develop their self-confidence and take an active part in their learning, for example in developing their responses to teachers' questions.

• You and your staff are determined that the progress disadvantaged pupils make continues to match that of other pupils in the school. A result of the effective training that teachers now have is a clearer understanding of the actions needed to ensure that this happens. Pupils' books demonstrate that disadvantaged pupils are making good progress over time.

• The second line of enquiry was to look at the support pupils with SEND receive. This was because assessment information indicated that these pupils were not making as much progress as other pupils with similar starting points. ? Leaders rightly identified that progress for pupils with SEND was inconsistent across the school.

A review of the SEND provision in the school was conducted in the autumn term. This highlighted that a revised system of early identification of the needs of pupils would improve provision. Leaders' plans to implement a more accurate assessment will support teachers to improve access to learning for identified pupils.

• Leaders have increased the leadership capacity in the inclusion team to include key stage 1 expertise. This has already resulted in better support for teachers to plan effective learning for pupils with SEND. Leaders, including governors, are clear that this remains a school priority so that resources are well used to ensure that pupils with SEND achieve as highly as they can.

• The final line of enquiry looked at how the strides made in reading progress translate into pupils' writing. This was because progress in writing is not as strong as in reading and mathematics by the end of key stage 2. ? Leaders are working on developing a programme for pupils to practise communication skills.

Where this is stronger, there are models of more secure writing progress. In some books, there are examples of pupils making substantial progress across the year. Where this is less evident is in the wider curriculum.

• Middle leaders have worked on a revised curriculum that links writing opportunities with pupils' reading experiences. They understand the need to enable pupils to build on their knowledge and skills through a well-crafted curriculum. Currently, leaders are working on implementing this with staff so that the writing outcomes match those of reading and mathematics.

Inspectors and leaders noted some inconsistencies in the quality of pupils' writing in some year groups. Leaders have rightly identified the need to continue to develop pupils' writing in subjects across the curriculum. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? increased capacity for early identification of pupils with SEND ensures that targeted provision helps them to make stronger progress from their starting points.

• there is a continued focus for middle leaders to develop pupils' writing across the wider curriculum subjects. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Barnet. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Sara Morgan Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection Inspectors met with you and your leadership team to discuss the impact of leaders' work to maintain the good quality of education. We held meetings with members of the governing body. We heard a number of pupils read and to talk about their learning.

We visited classrooms to undertake observations with senior leaders, and looked at samples of pupils' work. We met with a representative from the local authority and met with the group of middle leaders. We reviewed a range of documents, including leaders' evaluation of the school's current performance, their plans for further improvement and information on pupils' current progress.

We considered a number of policy documents and records, including those related to safeguarding. The views of parents were considered through discussions at the beginning of the school day, as were the 68 responses to Ofsted's questionnaire, Parent View, including written comments. There were no responses to the Ofsted staff and pupil questionnaires.

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