Nether Green Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Nether Green Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 12 June 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 May 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 are a dedicated and committed headteacher who keeps the needs of the pupils at the heart of everything you do. You have established a clear vision for the school.

Together with your deputy headteacher, you are taking positive action to ma...ke your vision a reality. Your staff respect you and appreciate the opportunities that are available to them. They benefit from the good-quality training and development that you provide.

They understand and have supported the improvements that you have made since the last inspection. Your pupils are highly motivated and enthusiastic learners. They receive a good-quality education.

They enjoy engaging and exciting lessons, which are generally well planned to make sure most pupils are making good progress. There has been no compromise in the wide variety of subjects that are on offer in your curriculum and, as a result, pupils gain an extensive range of skills and knowledge. Pupils enjoy being at school and their very high attendance reflects this.

Pupils who access the special educational needs resource base receive a wide variety of exciting and practical activities that are well matched to their abilities. Staff support for pupils is strong. Pupils form highly positive relationships with the adults they work with.

Your governing body supports you well. Governors use their experience and enthusiasm to ask challenging questions that increase their knowledge of the school. They hold you to account for the decisions you make.

Governors are proud of your combined achievements to date, and are ambitious for the school to keep improving. You and your staff have created a very strong, welcoming culture. Parents enjoy and appreciate the school's friendliness and senior leaders' presence in the playground before and after school.

You have made good progress towards achieving the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. You have put in place good-quality and targeted training for staff. This enables them to deliver learning with a more individualised approach.

Teachers now have a greater focus on the teaching of reading and dedicated time is available in the timetable for this. The impact of this is seen in the 2018 outcomes for reading, which saw a higher proportion of pupils reaching the expected and higher standard, compared to the previous year. You have successfully improved the quality of subject leadership in mathematics and English, which in turn is bringing about improvements to pupils' attainment and progress in these subjects.

Since the last inspection, you have appointed new subject leaders for subjects across the wider curriculum, such as history and geography. They are enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but their roles in monitoring their subjects are not fully developed. You have appropriate plans in place to support them to improve their skills, which need to be realised.

Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Since the previous inspection, leaders have worked hard to ensure that pupils are safe.

A strong culture of safeguarding now permeates the school. You have implemented and embedded plans to ensure that pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, particularly when using the internet. These include lessons in class, assemblies and having visitors in school to talk to them.

Pupils report that there is no bullying in school and if there were any problems they are confident that staff would deal with them quickly and positively. Staff are knowledgeable about safeguarding and are trained to spot any signs that a child may be at risk of harm. This is due to the regular and good-quality safeguarding training they receive.

Pupils' behaviour around school is exemplary. They are kind, considerate and display maturity in their personal development and well-being. Inspection findings ? Staff seek to provide the best possible learning experiences and opportunities for pupils.

They use assessment information to support their planning effectively, which means that for the most part planned activities are well matched to pupils' abilities. However, occasionally, activities planned for the most able pupils are not sufficiently challenging to enable them to deepen their understanding and extend their knowledge. This impacts on pupils' progress.

• Support staff encourage pupils to be independent learners. They provide good-quality intervention and support to ensure that pupils make good progress in their learning. ? Pupils make good progress in English and mathematics.

Their language development and speaking and listening skills are particularly strong. ? The school's work to promote pupils' personal development and welfare is excellent. As a result, pupils are kind, caring and respectful to others, including their peers, staff and visitors alike.

Pupils listen carefully to each other, take it in turn to speak and make sure everyone has opportunities to contribute to a discussion. ? Senior leaders are aware of the changing needs of the pupils. For example, there is an increasing number of pupils who speak English as an additional language.

Leaders have introduced a focus on vocabulary to ensure that they provide additional support with English language skills. ? You have made sure that you work closely with your local infant schools to make sure that pupils are well prepared for their start with you. Similarly, the transition arrangements for pupils leaving the school to move on to the next stage of their education are equally thorough.

Consequently, the pupils are very well prepared and they continue to be successful learners. ? You use additional funding for disadvantaged pupils effectively. These pupils make good progress from their starting points.

Teachers know the pupils well, and effective additional support and intervention are available to them when needed. Disadvantaged pupils have improved their attendance due to the valuable support they receive. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? planned activities for the most able pupils are suitably challenging, so that pupils are made to think hard about their learning in a range of subjects ? plans for developing and strengthening subject leadership of the wider curriculum are realised.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Sheffield. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Sara Roe Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you, the deputy headteacher, subject leaders and the special educational needs coordinator.

I met with five members of the governing body. I evaluated documentation, including the school's self-evaluation, information about pupils' progress, behaviour and attendance records and information about safeguarding. I considered 54 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View.

I spoke to a group of pupils from a range of year groups. I visited classrooms alongside you and your deputy headteacher to observe teaching and learning. I scrutinised a range of pupils' workbooks from different year groups and different subjects.

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