Lound Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Lound Junior School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend Lound Junior School. They enjoy coming to school and attend well.

Pupils get on well with each other. They work well together in and out of lessons. Pupils take on leadership responsibilities in school willingly and well.

For example, the pupil peer mediators help to create the friendly atmosphere at break and lunchtimes.

Pupils say bullying happens infrequently. They know who to go to if things go wrong, and say they get help to put things right.

Incidents of poor behaviour are rare. There is mutual respect between adults and pupils.
<...br/>Staff are motivated and well led.

They encourage pupils to do well in their lessons. Pupils are supported to read confidently and regularly. Leaders of individual subjects know their areas of responsibility well.

Pupils study all subjects in the national curriculum. Although pupils cover the most important concepts in their lessons, they do not often have the chance to revisit these at a later date.

Pupils are supported to fulfil healthy lifestyles.

At lunchtime, for example, there are opportunities to take part in a variety of sporting activities. Pupils are also well supported by a pastoral leader to help support their mental well-being. The annual overnight residential and other regular educational visits are particularly welcomed by pupils.

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

The school is well led and managed. Leaders, including those with responsibility for governance, are committed to the school and its pupils. They know the school's strengths well and have sensibly prioritised school improvement initiatives.

The school moved to a new multi-academy trust in September 2021. The transition to the new trust has been handled well. Staff are proud to work for the school.

They say leaders are very mindful of their professional and personal well-being.

Subject leaders access subject network days, facilitated by the trust. These have supported them to develop their curriculum plans.

Teachers have high levels of subject knowledge. Training provided by leaders of special educational needs and/or disabilities helps staff to meet the specific needs of pupils. The needs of disadvantaged pupils are also well known and understood.

Subject leaders have created curriculum plans which set out the order in which new topics are taught. Within each unit of work, the key concepts have been identified and links made to previous learning. In history, for example, it is clear to see how the Victorian topic studied in Year 6 builds on prior learning to further develop pupils' abilities to think like a historian.

Although the key concepts of learning have been identified, pupils do not routinely get the opportunity to revisit these. As such, some pupils do not remember as much of the taught curriculum as they could. In addition, subject assessments do not precisely align with the identified key concepts.

There is a well-entrenched culture of reading throughout school. Pupils read daily. Leaders carefully monitor pupils' reading skills.

Appropriate support is provided for pupils who need additional help to read fluently. Whereas the overall standard of pupils' reading is high, the quality of their written work is more variable.

Pupils are taught how to behave well.

Staff model good behaviour. Pupils know about respect and why it is important. Their wider development is supported by an effective personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education programme.

This is supplemented by regular school trips and extra-curricular opportunities. Although the work of the school council was paused during the disruption caused by the pandemic, it has since restarted. This opportunity supports pupils to develop their own leadership skills.

Leaders have created a positive relationship between the school and its community. Staff and pupils have welcomed several new families to the school community over recent months. Almost all parents and carers who completed an inspection survey said they would recommend the school to others.

Some parents commented on aspects of the school site which, if left unaddressed, could end up presenting hazards to pupils in the future. Support from the trust is in place to improve these aspects of the site.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff receive safeguarding training on a regular basis. There are clear processes in place for staff to log concerns. Leaders ensure any such concerns are addressed in a timely fashion, working closely with local services when appropriate.

Staff are aware of the risks pupils face. They address road safety, for example, through the PSHE curriculum. This is important, as the school is situated on the brow of a hill on a busy main road.

Leaders have also recently put additional staffing in place to ensure pupils' exit from the school site is calm and well supervised.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Subject leaders have identified the key concepts in each unit of work. However, pupils do not have opportunities to revisit these learning points, and assessments do not routinely align with these concepts.

As such, there are missed opportunities for pupils to embed their learning and for teachers to check what pupils have remembered over time. Leaders should ensure the next step of their ongoing curriculum development addresses these points. ? Pupils' writing composition skills are not currently as well developed as other aspects of their academic development.

As a result, the quality of pupils' writing is not as advanced as leaders expect. Leaders should implement a strategy to support pupils to write fluently.

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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in July 2017.