Summerbridge School: Parent Information Meeting 26th November 2018

Agenda Ofsted Update: what progress has been made since the Ofsted report was published? How Maths and English (with a particular focus on reading) are taught in school. How you can help your children with their learning at home.

Ofsted Update

Areas for development Weak progress in KS2 for reading, writing and Maths. Legacy of historically weaker teaching. Subject-specific skills are not planned or taught well across the curriculum. Pupils do not make secure progress across all subjects in the wider curriculum. Their cultural understanding is not well developed.

Areas for development Teaching has not been consistently strong over time. Work, set by teachers, is not always well matched to pupils’ needs and abilities and sometimes lacks challenge. Some teachers’ expectations of pupils’ behaviour are not as high as others. Weak quality of provision in the early years does not allow children to make the maximum possible progress.

The bigger picture Weak progress in KS2 for reading, writing and maths. Legacy of historically weaker teaching. Subject-specific skills are not planned or taught well across the curriculum. Pupils do not make secure progress across all subjects in the wider curriculum. Their cultural understanding is not well developed. Teaching has not been consistently strong over time. Work, set by teachers, is not always well matched to pupils’ needs and abilities and sometimes lacks challenge. Some teachers’ expectations of pupils’ behaviour are not as high as others. Weak quality of provision in the early years does not allow children to make the maximum possible progress.

Weak progress in KS2 for reading, writing and Maths. Open and honest approach to assessment. Adherence to key school policies now ensures continuity and coverage across all classes. More effective tracking of pupils’ progress. Expectations have been raised and are now made explicit to all pupils and staff. Closer working relationships between all key stages (holding each other to account).

Subject-specific skills are not planned or taught well across the curriculum. New schedule (2019) developing children’s knowledge. English linked with Topic and Science lessons to allow more time in the school day for learning across the curriculum.

Pupils do not make secure progress across all subjects in the wider curriculum. Their cultural understanding is not well developed. Focus on threading cultural awareness throughout the wider curriculum. In addition, planned culture-focussed weeks throughout the year (for instance our recent Diwali week).

How Maths and English are taught in school

Reading Reception Daily phonics teaching focussing on strong GPC, segmenting and blending. KS1 Daily phonics teaching focussing on building on all of the above, plus guided reading refining skills, such as: decoding, fluency, inference, etc. KS2 Daily guided reading sessions focussing on reading for purpose and further developing: decoding, fact retrieval and inference. Children are read to in every class at least 3 times a week.

Writing Reception Fine motor skills and mark making, early letter formation, spelling phonetically; all of which contribute to awareness of sentence structure and simple punctuation. KS1 Daily phonics focussing on spelling patterns, daily spelling and grammar through English lessons, writing for a range of purposes. KS2 Adapting writing styles to suit a range of purposes and audiences, further develop awareness of grammatical concepts and higher level punctuation, learning of spelling rules.

Maths Reception Daily adult led sessions and a stimulating environment encouraging good understanding of basic skills. KS1 Increasingly formal sessions (including access to outdoor maths), independent access to resources, problem solving and reasoning. KS2 Moving on from concrete foundations to more abstract concepts thus developing maths mastery.

How you can help your children

How we help you help them. Sumdog. Parent Portal: Grammar Glossary; Maths Vocabulary Glossary; and, ‘What I should know’ documents. Homework Challenges. Languagenut.

What you can do for children in: Reception KS1 KS2