Meath Green Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Meath Green Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 9 May 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. You have a strong vision for learning and high expectations of what staff and pupils can achieve. Staff and governors share your determination to create a school with a culture of aspiration and achievement.

You and your staff have fostered... a strong and inclusive ethos which promotes care and kindness across the school. This can be seen in the positive relationships between staff and pupils. Parents are very supportive of the school.

They described the warm and welcoming environment and how staff understand that a child's emotional well-being is crucial to their general welfare and their ability to learn. They stated that there is good support for pupils to help them to improve their learning. Parents overwhelmingly say that the school provides their children with a good education.

Leaders acknowledge that there is more work to be done to ensure that pupils make the best possible progress across the curriculum, particularly the most able. Pupils love coming to school. Strong relationships between staff and pupils combined with a rich curriculum underpin pupils' very positive attitudes to learning.

Teachers have high expectations and challenge pupils in lessons. Pupils work hard to achieve their best. This shows that leaders have successfully addressed one of the areas that inspectors asked them to improve at the previous inspection.

Pupils are enthusiastic and highly motivated learners. Pupils say they enjoy their learning because teachers plan and give them activities which make learning fun and interesting. They told me that their teachers make sure they learn the different 'parts' well so that when they complete an activity they can connect all learning 'together' and work more confidently.

They use feedback from their teachers and peers to edit their work and improve it further. One pupil told me: 'When we explain and discuss our work, we check what we have understood and where we can improve.' Leaders have an in-depth knowledge of the needs of individual pupils and their families.

They understand the school's successes and prioritise the training of staff to continually improve pupils' outcomes. Leaders judge the quality of teaching, learning and assessment accurately. They enhance their evaluation of teaching by working with fellow leaders or with experts from outside the school.

Governors challenge leaders about pupils' achievements in all subjects, including reading. You understand the many strong attributes of Meath Green Junior School but also know that there are still areas to develop further. You have identified that pupils' outcomes in reading need to improve further.

We also agreed that at times the most able pupils are not consistently challenged to extend their writing across the curriculum. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders have ensured that stringent checks are carried out before adults are employed or allowed to work in the school.

The school business manager keeps records of these checks. Governors play a vital role in monitoring important aspects of safeguarding, including these pre-employment checks. Governors carry out thorough audits of safeguarding and health and safety practice in the school.

Senior leaders have built a strong safeguarding culture in the school. All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff have regular training and updates, so that everyone understands clearly how to take good care of pupils.

All staff know how to recognise signs that a pupil may be at risk and report their concerns promptly. Leaders engage with the appropriate external agencies when a pupil is vulnerable. Consequently, pupils' needs are well met and they say they feel safe in school.

They rightly trust the friendly, caring staff to look after them. Pupils have a strong understanding of bullying in its different forms, including cyber bullying. Bullying rarely happens, but it is resolved swiftly when it does occur.

The playground is a friendly place to be because pupils are typically thoughtful and considerate towards each other, including when playing football and energetic games. Pupils learn how to stay safe in a wide range of situations, including outside of school and in the local play areas. They have a good understanding of the risks of being online and how to avoid these.

Inspection findings ? At the beginning of the inspection, we agreed to look at specific aspects of the school's work, including: what leaders are doing to ensure that pupils achieve well in reading; the effectiveness of teaching for the most able pupils; and how well disadvantaged pupils are supported. ? Pupils are avid readers. They make good use of the well-resourced and vibrant school library.

Pupils told me that they enjoy reading, including finding out facts and information to help them in their topic work. Parents and pupils are overwhelmingly positive about the strong reading culture at the school. Pupils relish opportunities to read.

They read confidently and often. They discuss their reading and told me that teachers provide them with an interesting range of 'recommended reads'. Year 6 pupils told me that they are 'buddy readers' and help younger pupils.

• Leaders are rightly focused on further improving pupils' outcomes in reading. Leaders have introduced a carefully planned and structured approach to teach reading comprehension skills. However, pupils do not have the same opportunities to develop and apply their comprehension skills in subjects other than English and mathematics.

Consequently, outcomes in the past have not been as strong in reading as they have been in writing and mathematics. ? Teachers have high expectations of pupils. The most able pupils are expected to tackle challenging work and develop their own creative ideas.

This is contributing well to their good progress overall. However, while they are given opportunities to explain their thinking in depth and detail in English, this approach is not yet consistent across all subjects. Leaders have identified this and, as such, are ensuring that the most able pupils have further opportunities to develop and extend their writing in all subjects.

• Leaders have evaluated how effectively the pupil premium funding is spent. They deploy funding to ensure that staff are highly skilled and trained to meet the additional, and at times varied and complex, needs of disadvantaged pupils. As a result, the pastoral and learning needs of disadvantaged pupils are met effectively.

Leaders have devised a wide range of successful strategies that support pupils well. Teachers are adept at modifying and re-shaping lessons to ensure that gaps in learning are identified and addressed successfully. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils make strong progress from their relatively low starting points.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? pupil outcomes in reading continue to improve further ? the most able pupils have opportunities to develop and extend their writing across the curriculum. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Surrey. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Shazia Akram Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you to agree the key lines of enquiry for the inspection. I also met with other members of the school staff, including your assistant headteacher, pupil premium leader, subject leaders and teachers. I met with six members of the governing body.

I had conversations with parents and local authority representatives. I visited all classrooms, accompanied either by yourselves or other leaders. I spoke to a wide range of pupils and staff and, together with leaders, looked at pupils' work and other evidence to evaluate pupils' progress over time.

I scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school's self-evaluation, plans for improvement, safeguarding records, pupils' progress information, and behaviour and attendance information. I considered 81 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, and 36 responses to Ofsted's staff survey. I also considered 48 responses to Ofsted's pupils' survey and written responses from parents to Ofsted's free-text facility.

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