Millfield L.E.A.D. Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Millfield L.E.A.

D. Academy

Following my visit to the school on 6 March 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 October 2014.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. The school works effectively with the academy trust to develop the quality of leadership and management.

Quality assurance reports provided by the trust help governors to evaluate the impact of leaders' actions. Trust suppor...t in action planning has ensured that the school improvement plan is well focused, with termly targets that help governors to ensure the school remains on track to achieve its goals. Rigorous monitoring of teaching and learning results in all teachers having a detailed action plan for their professional development.

An innovative 'teaching room' with one-way glass provides teachers with the chance to develop their next steps in teaching through live coaching and peer discussions. The standards achieved by the school have risen for the last three years in reading, writing and mathematics. The majority of pupils are now making consistently good progress in key stage 2.

This has led to attainment that is now above the national average, with significant improvements at the higher standard in reading and mathematics and writing at greater depth. Pupils continue to behave well in and around the school. Annual pupil surveys show overwhelmingly positive attitudes to school.

Lesson observations and conversations with pupils show they are eager to learn and to do their best. Pupils benefit from the numerous opportunities provided by the school. These include: achieving success at local sporting competitions; supporting the development of the school through the school council; selling a professionally printed comic in the local shop; producing a documentary on King Richard III to be shown at the visitor centre and visiting the local university to help raise pupils' aspirations.

Pupils are proud of the numerous awards achieved by the school. 'Wonderwalls' show the successes of the school, which include: Leicestershire e-safety award; Primary Science Quality Mark; Youth Sport Award and the Equalities Award. Alongside these awards, pupils' work is also displayed and celebrated.

The school works hard on ensuring that parents have opportunities to be part of school life and are aware of their children's learning. A '16-day book' is used to share a day's learning with parents. Pupils appreciate the opportunity to take these books home.

They told me, 'Parents can see what we are learning and help us.' Parents are very positive about the work of the school. A typical comment is: 'My son is in his final year at Millfield, and I could not have been happier with the education and opportunities he has had during his entire time at the school.'

Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. The reporting system is well understood by staff.

It ensures that concerns are responded to swiftly and actions taken are shared with those adults who need to know. Staff are aware of the signs and indicators that may be cause for concern and have received specific training on preventing radicalisation and female genital mutilation. Staff report, 'We are well supported and receive high-level training which is very thorough.'

Case studies of vulnerable families show that the school keeps detailed records. An effective prioritisation process ensures that the school can respond swiftly to serious concerns. Weekly meetings involving those with responsibility for safeguarding ensure that information is shared and well understood by the safeguarding team and those members of staff who need to know.

Inspection findings ? During the inspection, one of the areas I looked at was the teaching and learning of mathematics in key stage 2. As a result of the effective review of teaching and learning in mathematics, the school has adopted a new approach. Teachers now enable all pupils to access learning that is appropriate to their age.

Teachers demonstrate to pupils the required steps to achieve the learning and then use questioning to ensure that pupils understand. After completing a number of fundamental questions, pupils self-check their answers. If they have been successful, pupils move themselves onto more challenging questions that require them to apply their learning.

However, some pupils spend too much time completing the fundamental questions and do not benefit from accessing the challenging questions sooner. Sometimes the more challenging questions do not provide sufficient opportunities to make the pupils think hard. ? To help ensure that pupils have the necessary skills to access the whole-class learning, teachers regularly review pupils' work.

Where pupils have not secured the desired learning, 'IMPACT' sessions are swiftly provided. These sessions are additional, same-day learning opportunities that provide further support to ensure that pupils develop the skills required for the next day's learning. ? The previous inspection asked leaders to 'strengthen leadership and management by ensuring that all leaders, but particularly senior and middle leaders who are new to post, develop the skills they need to drive improvements in their areas of responsibility'.

This is an area that leaders have focused on strongly. Through effective support and guidance, previous middle leaders have developed strong leadership skills and are now part of the school's senior leadership team. These leaders are passionate and committed to their roles.

They complete regular checks on the quality of teaching and of pupils' work in their books. This results in clear next steps for the school. Effective staff training, demonstration lessons in the 'teaching room' and high-quality feedback ensure that teachers develop the required skills quickly.

• The school's leadership structure also includes many middle leaders. They told me they are well supported by the school to develop their leadership skills. They receive support from more-experienced leaders and benefit from external training.

Opportunities to review the quality of learning in their areas of responsibility result in identifying appropriate next steps. These next steps are used to drive further improvements. ? I also focused on the quality of learning and teaching in the Reception Year.

Improvements in the quality of the provision have resulted in strongly improving outcomes for children. Children are friendly and eager to learn. They listen very attentively to adults.

They benefit from a well-resourced setting which provides a broad range of stimulating learning experiences. Themed learning across the setting motivates the children to work hard at focused tasks. ? The early years leader has effectively overseen many of the improvements evident in the setting.

Accurate evaluations have resulted in clear next steps for the setting. The leader analyses teachers' assessments to identify children who are starting to fall behind and ensures that they receive additional learning. However, the impact of the additional learning is not measured, and it is not clear if it has made the intended difference.

• The school and the trust have worked very well together. As a team they have effectively overseen much change and development in the school. The impact of their actions is very clear in the strengths that are evident in the leadership and management of the school and the outcomes achieved by the pupils.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the school's approach to teaching mathematics continues to develop by ensuring that the most able pupils spend more time on the challenging questions and that these questions make pupils think harder ? the extra support for children in Reception is measured for its impact. I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer of the academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Leicestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Andrew Lakatos Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, members of the staff, governors, parents, pupils and teaching assistants. I observed several lessons with you. I worked with your mathematics leader and together we looked at the work in pupils' books from a range of abilities across the school.

I met with members of the school council to talk about their learning and experiences of school life. I took account of the 36 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. I looked at a range of documents, including the school development plan, the school's self-evaluation, records of monitoring from school leaders and the trust, minutes from full governing body meetings and assessment information.