Ofsted is reporting improvements at the Shanklin Church of England primary school, following it being placed in ‘special measures’ in September.
As part of the usual process, the first monitoring inspection was carried out 4-5 December, with the report (in full below) being published this morning. The official summary is: “The school is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures.”
The inspection covers many areas including observing all classes during ten lessons and the scrutiny of documents and the meeting with key people.
We’ve summarised sections of the report, but suggest reading the whole report.
Pupils: Eager to learn
“Teachers’ commitment, care and hard work are evident”, helping pupils to feel safe and pupils are displaying “Positive behaviour was observed across the school, with pupils eager to learn.”
Having previously had problems within the classrooms, “Pupils explained that they felt that their learning was not disrupted by others now and that they enjoyed school generally.”
New Headteacher: Making a good start
Alongside “a number of changes to the school staff”, a new headteacher was appointed in September 2012 and the Inspector said they had made a “good start at establishing a shared vision for the school and making sure that the key priorities are understood.”
Teachers: some exceptional skills
The Inspector reports that “the quality of teaching is improving”, and that “some teaching observed was very effective in driving pupils’ progress”, but also says that, “Too much teaching requires improvement.” It reports that “too much whole-class work” is carried out, not allowing the higher achievers to flourish and that “expectations that are too low.”
The “exceptional” teaching skills in phonics need to be spread through the school as they are “not used sufficiently well to improve the quality of phonics teaching across the school.”
Learning staff: Enthusiastic and work hard
Learning support assistants come in for praise, being judged “enthusiastic and work hard, showing how much they care for the pupils”. With a suggestion for the direction of them to be improved.
Senior leaders
The senior leaders are developing planning “to ensure that the focus remains on improving the quality of teaching and learning and raising standards”.
The Inspector says that these plans need refining with “clear milestones to measure against on the journey.”
Governing Body: Passionate and Committed
“Members of the Governing Body are passionate and committed to the school and pupils”, said the Inspector, while acknowledging they “need to develop further”, it’s noted that they are “keen to get support to do this”.
Isle of Wight council
The Isle of Wight council has provided “a range of support for the school, including advisor time”. While the school has welcomed this, it’s unclear what the impact of this has been on pupils.
IWC are picked up on the ‘statement of action’ that they have provided, saying it was “deemed to be not suitable as it required refinements to the way progress is monitored.”
It’s reported that school is developing its own “more effective” plan as the council hadn’t amended the statement.
