Roundhay St John’s Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Roundhay St John's Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 11 July 2018, 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 January 2014. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Following the last inspection, you correctly identified and prioritised areas for improvement. Shortly before the last inspection, along with governors, you appointed a substantive deputy headteacher, who has an o...verview of the early years provision, and a business manager. Since the last inspection, governors also appointed a team leader who coordinates the work of the teaching assistants in the school.

You realigned your senior leadership team to include phase leaders for key stage 1 and key stage 2. As a result, leadership and management have been strengthened further. Governance is a strength of the school.

Since the last inspection, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable vice-chair of governors has been appointed as chair of governors and continues to lead the governing body well. Governors have a wide range of skills and expertise, are proud of their school and are routinely involved in school life. They provide robust challenge and support to leaders and know the strengths and weaknesses of the school very well.

There is strong capacity in the school's leadership to achieve the improvements you aspire to. Your clear vision, determination and commitment to continuous school improvement have enabled you to create a school ethos based on teamwork. School leaders and staff put children and pupils in your school at the heart of what they do.

Staff are focused, not only on the progress of pupils, but also on their whole school experience. As a result, outcomes for pupils have been strong since the last inspection. You and your leadership team have successfully dealt with the areas for improvement identified in the last inspection report.

At the last inspection, you were asked to improve the quality of teaching so that it enables pupils to attain even higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics. You acted swiftly and raised the profile of teacher professional development across the school. You further raised expectations about the quality of teaching and learning.

Leaders focused strongly on staff development and sharing good and outstanding practice, not only within your school, but also through effective collaborations with other schools, coordinated by the local authority. You and your senior leaders regularly monitor the quality of teaching. As a result, all teaching across the school is now strong and the proportions of pupils achieving the higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics have been consistently well above national averages over the last two years.

Safeguarding is effective. You and your leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are thorough and detailed. There is a strong safeguarding culture in the school.

Staff know the pupils well and the monitoring of pupils' welfare is meticulous and comprehensive. Together with your business manager, you ensure that you carry out appropriate checks on the suitability of all staff who work with pupils. Your safeguarding governor monitors all areas of safeguarding thoroughly.

All staff and governors receive appropriate and up-to-date training in child protection and know what to do if they have any concerns about the children and pupils in your school. You and your staff meet frequently and discuss all concerns raised about pupils. As a result, the school shares information with external agencies effectively and leaders act swiftly and monitor the impact of actions closely.

Pupils report that they feel safe in school and know who to go to if they have any worries. They also say that bullying is rare and, when it does happen, teachers deal with it effectively. Inspection evidence and the views of parents, carers and staff also support this.

Pupils are polite and respectful to each other and to staff. The relationships between staff and pupils are very positive. As a result, behaviour in lessons and conduct around the school environment are very good.

Inspection findings ? Since the last inspection, school leaders have strengthened further the monitoring systems, which show that the quality of teaching is good and better in the vast majority of lessons. You have successfully realigned your senior leadership team and widened the range of staff involved in the frequent monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning. Together, you check the impact of this on the quality of teaching and the progress of pupils.

As a result, the vast majority of teachers provide appropriate challenge for all groups of pupils, including boys, the most able pupils and disadvantaged pupils, and use targeted questioning effectively to probe understanding and support pupils' progress. ? Following the findings of the last inspection, school leaders reviewed the staffing structure of teaching assistants. You appointed a higher-level teaching assistant as a team leader for all teaching assistants in the school.

All teaching assistants work more closely with the classroom teachers, are more involved in the monitoring of pupils' progress and are set challenging targets as part of a rigorous performance management process. Teaching assistants receive regular training, including how to best support vulnerable pupils and disadvantaged pupils. During our joint visits to lessons, you were able to clearly demonstrate the use of effective questioning by teaching assistants.

They provide support and challenge for pupils so that they can make the best possible progress. Inspection evidence, scrutiny of pupils' work and current assessment information confirm this. ? School leaders, including governors, scrutinise closely the spending of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils.

Since the last inspection, you have raised the profile of disadvantaged pupils across the school. Teaching assistants take greater ownership for their role in supporting the progress of disadvantaged pupils. Consequently, outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are improving.

Inspection evidence, school assessment information and scrutiny of pupils' work indicate that, currently, disadvantaged pupils perform better than their peers. ? Since the last inspection, outcomes for pupils at the end of Year 6 have remained strong. In 2017, the progress of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, in reading and mathematics was well above national averages and in the top 10% of schools nationally.

Progress in writing, however, was in line with averages for the past two years. Current school assessment information, inspection evidence and scrutiny of pupils' work indicate that the improvement in the progress of pupils in reading and mathematics continues. Progress in writing at the end of Year 6 continues to be average and unvalidated results suggest that the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in writing has declined slightly since 2017 and is now broadly in line with the national average.

You acknowledge that there is more work for leaders to do here in order for pupils to make as strong progress in writing as they do in reading and mathematics. ? Outcomes for pupils, including the most able pupils, in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 remain broadly in line with national averages. You have correctly identified this as an ongoing area for improvement for the school.

In 2017, the proportions of disadvantaged pupils achieving the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics were below national averages. Although inspection evidence indicates a slight improvement for the current cohort of pupils at the end of Year 2, you agreed with me that more work is needed in this area. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in writing at the end of Year 6 continues to increase ? outcomes for pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, at the end of key stage 1 continue to improve in reading, writing and mathematics.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Leeds (Church of England), the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Leeds. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Dimitris Spiliotis Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and your deputy headteacher, key stage leaders, staff and governors.

I also held telephone conversations with the local authority school improvement adviser and the chair of governors. I spoke to a range of pupils and parents. I listened to pupils read and, together, we conducted tours of the school and lessons, looking at pupils' work and observing their learning.

I also, alongside middle leaders, conducted a scrutiny of pupils' work in a range of subjects. I scrutinised and evaluated a range of documents relating to safeguarding, behaviour, attendance, parental views, pupils' views and school improvement. I took account of the 64 extended responses from parents to Ofsted's online questionnaire and the nine responses to the staff questionnaire.