Moving beyond the floor target – Leagrave Primary School, Luton

Date of issue: Jan. 2008

Theme: Schools Causing Concern (SCC)

School context and profile

Leagrave Primary School opened in September 1998, as a result of the amalgamation of Leagrave Infant and Junior schools. The current leadership team was recruited in September 2005. The LA had been working with the school prior to this. Audit at handover identified the provision as inadequate overall; teaching was 50% inadequate and attendance and behaviour had serious concerns.

Number on roll is 390 including Foundation Stage with provision for 60 part-time nursery places. Age range: three to 11.
The school is multi-lingual (19 languages) and multi-cultural, reflecting the local community.
20% of the school population have Special Educational Needs.
40% are eligible for free school meals.
There is a high incidence of pupil mobility.
74% of pupils come from minority ethnic and traveller groups.
On entry attainment is well below national expectations.

Much of the LA’s support work was actioned soon after the arrival of the new leadership team. The school was inspected in October 2006 when it was judged to be an improving school. The work of the headteacher was highlighted as a significant strength, and along with the governors and the leadership team has ‘effectively implemented improvements and there had been dramatic changes in the last year.’

Standards overall were judged to be unsatisfactory at this time, although it was stated that there was
good capacity to improve.
Issues identified were:

making better use of assessment and marking in order to raise standards;
improving the quality of teaching and learning so that it is consistently good;
raising achievement by developing the expertise of all the subject leaders and governors in checking that pupils do as well as they should.

2006 Key Stage 2 results: English L4+ 30%; mathematics L4+ 59%
2007 Key Stage 2 results: English L4+ 70%; mathematics L4+ 62%

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Barriers to improvement

Quality of teaching and learning was unacceptably low.
Recruitment and retention issues.
Behaviour and attendance issues.
History of low standards and lack of progress across the school.
Children working at below age-related expectations.
Lack of rigour and system in tracking and target setting.

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The school-based issues – what needed to change?

Change ethos and culture of under-achievement.
Raise academic and behavioural standards.
Significantly improve results at end of Key Stage 2.
Raise standards by making better use of assessment and marking for target setting.
Improve the quality of teaching and learning, so that it is consistently good.
Raise achievement by developing the expertise of all subject leaders, to ensure that all children do as well as they should.
Develop the expertise of governors in checking that all children do as well as they should.
Legacy of poor leadership and management impacting negatively on standards.

Priorities for the Raising Attainment Plan (RAP) included:

teaching and learning;
attendance and behaviour;
knowledge and effective use of pupil tracking data to raise standards;
development of distributed leadership model at all levels.

What was done?

The involvement of the school in the Intensifying Support Programme (ISP) and designation as ‘Hard to Shift’ has supported the refocusing of staff/children on achievement.
Additional time and resources allocated to Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education and a commitment to full inclusion in order to address the very specific needs of the children who live in this highly deprived local community.
Introduction of Hard to Shift agenda and audit of non-negotiables for ISP.
Development of focused, bespoke professional development, and use of mentoring, coaching and peer support to enable effective teaching and learning.
Focus on basic skills teaching and on how children learn, through strategic and rigorous planning and delivery of professional development and performance management.
Introduction of social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) throughout the school.
Development of distributed leadership has increased the effectiveness of subject leaders.
Appointment of an Early Years manager.
Innovative timetabling, curriculum content and design and thinking skills meet the needs of the pupils.
A lifestyle and inclusion manager drives and secures inclusion and support for the most vulnerable children, including extended school provision.
Benchmarks and robust systems and tools for self-evaluation, assessment and tracking progress are now embedded in the school.
Systems for promoting regular attendance by all pupils, including targets, rewards and so on developed and embedded.
Working with LA consultants, the school has established a rigorous system of tracking and monitoring pupil progress at all stages to ensure that each child is on track to achieve their targets.
A range of appropriate intervention strategies accelerate progress in English, mathematics and science.
Significant investment in ICT has provided all staff with state of the art equipment which enhances teaching and learning.
Development of leadership teams to drive school improvement.

Monitoring and evaluation

Success criteria for the RAP included:

Bespoke continuing professional development (CPD) is given priority to ensure that all staff are effective in their roles. Model adopted includes peer mentoring and coaching.
Improvements in attendance and punctuality, and reduction in exclusions have been achieved through development of a reward culture and working with parents through Every Child Matters core offer services to raise aspirations of children and parents.
Behaviour throughout the school is improved. Fewer incidents of unacceptable behaviour have been achieved through the work of the two family support officers.
Rise in levels of attainment, driven by culture of high expectations, quality first teaching and effective systems for Assessment Recording and Reporting.
Additional time devoted to core subjects.

What has been the overall impact?

Quotes from the children: ‘School used to be a nightmare a couple of years ago.’
‘ Now we have a very high level of work.’
‘We have task wheels, VCOP* and listen to other people’s views. ‘
‘We have pupil power, and opinions about school improvement.’
Quote from the headteacher: ‘ Professional development grows passion.’
*Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation

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Local authority support and challenge

Priority to support the school in recruitment of key personnel and development of effective leadership teams.
Help and support with resources, particularly for English as an Additional Language.
Provide support and challenge through ISP.
Support with development of SEAL.
Hard to Shift agenda led by LA.

What was done?

Role of School Improvement Partner, LA adviser, consultant:

LA provided continuing support through ISP consultancy.
Supported CPD through provision of consultants who coached staff.
LA put in additional funding; ‘making a difference’ enabled school to fund physical education manager for Planning, Preparation and Assessment time.
Supported provision of additional teacher for Year 6 from January 2008.
Supported school with succession planning.
Removal of previous ineffectual leadership.

Monitoring and evaluation

Provision of RAISE online and LA data which provided local and national comparisons for specific categories of learner.
LA working directly with the staff and team leaders to monitor and evaluate progress against targets at all levels, through ISP.
Support and challenge through termly RAP reviews.
Links to LA strategic planning evident and highlighted in the school plan. Links to key themes are made.

What has been the overall impact?

An excellent example of focused, sustained school improvement with strong partnership working to
improve outcomes for pupils.

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Sustainability – what next?

What will the school do?

The school has very good procedures in place for succession planning, and the leadership teams are active, effective and held to account for standards.
The organisation of the school into ‘domains’ supports this distributed leadership model.
There is a clarity of roles and responsibilities.
There are key staff in the school who take a leading role in ensuring that the focus remains firmly on teaching and learning.
SEAL is integral to the way in which the school operates and will continue to support good behaviour and attendance.

‘We are about stabilising and moving the school forward to produce leaders for the future.’ (Headteacher.)

What will the LA do?

The school will continue to receive LA support through ISP.
Provide rich data for the school, which will enable the effective self-evaluation cycle to continue.
Disseminate the very good practice at the school, through showcasing practice and using staff from the school as ambassadors of good practice in the authority.