Parent update meeting July 2016

Welcome

What did OFSTED say that the school needed to do to improve? Improve teaching and accelerate the progress of all pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils and those in Years 3 to 6, by ensuring that: teachers use the information they hold about what pupils know and can do to set work that stretches them and ensure that they progress at a rapid pace teachers insist on accurate grammar, spelling and improved presentation in pupils’ written work the most-able pupils are given tasks that challenge them teachers’ marking and guidance consistently help pupils to improve, especially in English grammar, spelling and punctuation planned activities in mathematics develop pupils’ reasoning skills to help them solve more complex problems all staff in the early years provide children with activities that develop their writing and number skills. The Governing Body and staff of St. Andrew’s accepted the findings of the 2015 OFSTED report. In accepting our responsibility, we have actively been involved in responding to the areas identified in the report

Ofsted (2) Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, by: making sure that leaders hold teachers accountable for the progress their pupils make ensuring that middle leaders have greater impact in improving teaching and learning improving the skills of governors in holding senior leaders more rigorously to account for the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress establishing more robust systems for assessing the impact of the pupil premium funding on the progress of disadvantaged pupils across the school, so that gaps in achievement close more rapidly strengthening existing strategies to improve pupils’ attendance.

Ofsted (3) An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.   An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. Both external reviews have been completed.

What has the school been doing? The leadership team have regularly visited classrooms checking the quality of teaching and learning including looking at work, discussions with pupils and teachers. They have met with teachers to check progress, standards and analyse data and take necessary action to correct weaknesses. The school has had internal and external verification of our judgement of standards of pupils’ work for all year groups in writing and maths. New middle leaders and a Pupil Premium Champion were appointed in October. The new team have focused on enhancing the quality of teaching and learning by using data, coaching and building consistency of practice across the school. The SLT and MLT have regularly updated the governors on developments. Data analysed and questioned by governors. SLT holding staff to account. Performance management rigorously applied.

External support and challenge LA inspector visits Two visits by our School Effectiveness Advisor An inspection of our church school distinctiveness which gave us a judgement of good Training and support from Wimborne Teaching Alliance The School Effectiveness Advisor wrote, “English and Maths subject leaders, both newly appointed to their roles this year, are providing highly effective support to staff”. Excellent support and challenge by LA – the work undertaken by Mark Sandercock has been extremely effective and beneficial and has supported the development of skills of the new MLT

Training There has been extensive training in English Spelling, punctuation and grammar Maths including reasoning and problem solving Early Years Foundation stage Lesson planning. This was specifically targeting differentiation and pace of lessons, which had been identified as an area to develop prior to Ofsted, which confirmed that this was a priority. This style of planning has focused teachers on key areas that required improvement including differentiation, pace of lesson, challenge for more able pupils and support for pupils that require it. It is now used in all year groups effectively.

Early Years In Early Years this year 67.4% of children have achieved a GLD – Good Level of Development. An increase of 18.4% on 2015. Early Years judgements were moderated by the Local Authority (LA). The LA Senior Advisor wrote, “judgements for the ‘expected’ level are now consistent, accurate and in line with current expectations.”

Disadvantaged Pupils The Pupil Premium review has been completed. The external assessor from Hampshire stated in the first report that “many of the issues are already well on the way to be resolved” and “The school has made very positive strategic decisions to address the issues raised by OFSTED.”

The new deputy head Mrs. Lombard has been appointed to be the new deputy head from September.

Improving teaching and learning further TEEP From September the school is embarking on the Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme – a successful national training programme which will continue to help improve teaching and learning. This project will start with two training days in September and it has been chosen because it has a proven track record of improving outcomes for learners that focuses on teacher behaviours to bring about greater engagement of learners, increases in active learning, increases in higher level thinking and improved attainment. This project with new staff joining the school will encourage and enable staff to improve their practice.

Governance Two new governors have been appointed recently: Richard Collins bringing more business and IT skills to the FGB and Marcia Headon, a retired HMI, SIAMS Inspector and OFSTED inspector. We have introduced a new committee structure to hold the school to account more robustly: Finance Committee Standards, Performance and Curriculum Committee Ethos Committee (looking at church school distinctiveness) There have been two external reviews of governance.

Next term We expect: an OFSTED monitoring visit next term a visit from an adviser from the Dept. for Education continued monitoring from the Local Authority and Diocese.

Academy Research chair@standrewswey.co.uk In line with schools nationally and locally the Chesil Education Partnership schools are all researching academisation options. No final decisions have been reached yet but the governors are considering the options and will report back to parents soon. My email address is chair@standrewswey.co.uk