Rokesly Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Rokesly Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 27 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 June 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 supported well by experienced senior leaders. Governors know the school well and provide a useful range of professional knowledge. Together, you are ambitious for your school.

Improvement plans correctly identify the most import...ant actions needed to improve the school. Classrooms are well-organised, attractive learning environments. Pupils' attitudes to learning and their behaviour around the school are very good.

They present their work well, successfully tackling one of the areas for improvement from the last inspection. Pupils join the school with standards of attainment that are at least in line with pupils nationally. Around a third have high prior attainment and very few have low prior attainment.

Just under a fifth of pupils reached the higher standard in the 2017 and 2018 reading, writing and mathematics tests. Last year, pupils' overall progress was in line with national averages, and above average in reading. Disadvantaged pupils' progress has improved considerably over the past three years in reading and writing, reflecting the school's effective use of pupil premium funding.

Published information shows that attendance is slightly below average. You told me that one reason for this is an increase in families taking children out of school for holidays during term time. School leaders keep a close eye on pupils who are persistently absent, working closely and effectively with other agencies to encourage improved attendance.

Safeguarding is effective. The school has a well-established culture of safeguarding. All checks on adults working in the school are in order.

Pupils say that they feel safe; parents and carers are content that their children are kept safe. Safeguarding procedures are well documented; they are promoted effectively to staff and throughout the building. Pupils say that occasional instances of boisterous behaviour occur on the playground but that these are dealt with effectively.

The mature, sensible attitudes of pupils who spoke with me showed that they know how to keep themselves safe. The correct procedures are followed, and detailed records kept, when pupils leave during the school year. This includes those who move to live abroad and those whose parents elect to educate them at home.

Partnership work with external agencies is effective in ensuring that vulnerable pupils are protected and monitored. Inspection findings ? At the start of the day, we agreed my key areas of focus for this short inspection. The first of these was mathematics.

Over the past three years, pupils' progress has not been as strong in mathematics as it has been in English. You have identified the improvement of pupils' reasoning skills as a priority. ? Our observations in classrooms and scrutiny of pupils' books revealed a well-organised approach to teaching mathematics.

Leaders have invested in new teaching resources from two commercial schemes of work which have helped bring greater consistency to the mathematics curriculum and strengthened mathematics teaching. In most cases, teacher explanations are very clear. This helps pupils understand concepts quickly and securely, often with ease.

Because of this, some pupils are not moved on soon enough to apply their knowledge in more challenging tasks. ? Teachers make effective use of questioning and discussion to check pupils' understanding, and to develop their reasoning skills. For the most part, this is effective.

For example, Year 6 pupils are challenged to apply their knowledge and work out increasingly complex problems relating to area and perimeter. On occasion, though, answers to teachers' questions are dominated by the most able and enthusiastic pupils at the expense of those who are not so quick or motivated. ? The school has engaged well with the local mathematics hub and with other schools, to learn from best practice.

A programme of daily times-table practice has been introduced throughout the school. This is popular with pupils and appreciated by parents. ? My second main area of focus was the wider curriculum.

The improvement plan has curriculum review as a key priority. Information on the school website shows variable detail about curriculum subjects. Therefore, we also agreed to look at the wider curriculum offered to pupils.

• Pupils are offered a good breadth of curriculum experiences. These are enriched by additional opportunities such as a recent art project with the Royal Institute of British Architects. High-quality pupil artwork is displayed around the school.

• In Year 4, music is taught by teachers from the borough music hub. This programme gives pupils good opportunities to experience learning an instrument and perform to an audience. They benefit from clear instruction, develop a good sense of pitch and rhythm, and learn to interpret stave notation.

Some pupils continue with individual instrumental tuition after Year 4. However, learning in the Year 4 programme is not considered sufficiently in planning the Year 5 and 6 music curriculum. ? French is provided throughout the school by a specialist teacher.

Pupils benefit from expert modelling in these lessons, which helps them to speak French confidently and correctly. Rokesly is partnered with a small primary school in rural France. Speaking and working with these children on biannual visits further develops Rokesly pupils' understanding of the French language and their cultural awareness.

• A number of curriculum subjects are taught as 'topics'. We looked at topic work in geography and history books. The range of themes covered provide pupils with a good breadth of spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding.

Some projects involve the whole school embarking on the same theme. These include studying the countries after which each class is named, or by exploring the life of a famous person as part of Black History Month. Differentiation between year groups is evident in the complexity of pupils' writing or illustration.

However, it is not clear how the content across these projects is planned to challenge different year groups. ? Discussion with middle leaders and scrutiny of documents confirmed that curriculum subjects are at different stages of planning. This is particularly the case with the foundation subjects.

Not all demonstrate a clear understanding of how specific knowledge and skills are built during pupils' time in school. This has been identified in the school improvement plan, with review and action planned for next term. ? Most parents who responded to Ofsted's inspection questionnaire agreed that their children are taught well and make good progress.

However, some said they felt that their children could be challenged more in class. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? planning in all subjects clearly sets out how specific knowledge and skills are to be built as pupils progress through the school ? teaching challenges all pupils so that they make consistently strong progress, including in mathematics ? every effort is made to reduce the number of pupils taking holidays during term time. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Haringey.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Mark Phillips Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you, the deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher, and with five subject coordinators. I met with three governors, including the chair, and held a telephone discussion with the school improvement partner from the local authority.

I made visits to lessons, accompanied by you and the deputy headteacher. I held discussions with a group of pupils and took account of 93 responses from parents to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View. Documents were considered.

These included published test results, the school improvement plan and the school's self-evaluation. I reviewed safeguarding policies and procedures. I also considered records of attendance and behaviour.

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