Moving beyond the floor target - The Beeches Primary School, Peterborough

Date of issue: Jan. 2008

Theme: Schools Causing Concern (SCC)

School context and profile

The Beeches Primary School has 510 pupils on roll. There is a high level of social deprivation
All but one of these pupils has English as an Additional Language
On entry attainment is below national average, particularly in terms of Communication, Language and Literacy Skills
The school has 20% of children entitled to free school meals (FSM), although this does not include the Minority Ethnic New Arrivals (MENA) children, who are not eligible for FSM. (If they were to be
included, it would bring the total to 40%.)
34% of the school population have Special Educational Needs
A fire at the school in 2004 caused considerable disruption to pupils' education.

The school was inspected in December 2005, where it was judged to be a satisfactory and improving school. The headteacher was identified as 'a good leader, and the capacity for improvement is good.'

Issues identified were:

to continue with the strategies in place to raise standards and achievement in English, mathematics and science
to make sure that teachers are very clear about what they expect pupils to learn in every lesson
to continue with strategies to ensure that pupils attend school regularly.

2006 Key Stage 2 results: English L4 35%; mathematics L4 59%; science 65%
2007 Key Stage 2 results: English L4 72%; mathematics L4 69%; science 85%

Barriers to improvement

Very high level of pupil mobility. For example, 20% of the present Year 4 pupils have moved out of the cohort and less than 55% of current Year 5 were in Key Stage 1 at the school.
Attendance issues (there are a number of pupils who do not attend school regularly, and who continue to take extended trips during school term time).

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The school-based issues – what needed to change?

Effective and systematic interrogation of data to ensure positive outcomes for children
Development of effective systems for monitoring and tracking of pupil progress
Development of a new school structure, which would provide appropriate leadership at all levels.

Priorities for the Raising Attainment Plan (RAP) included:

teaching and learning
attendance
knowledge and use of pupil tracking data, including accelerated progress in target groups
distributed leadership linked to sustainable self-evaluation systems.

What was done?

The involvement of the school in the Intensifying Support Programme (ISP) for four years underpinned the refocus on effective systems for tracking, monitoring and evaluation impact
Careful appointment and deployment of key members of staff to lead the changes
Strategic and rigorous planning and delivery of professional development and performance management, which supports the School Development Plan
Provision of resources to enable staff to deliver the enriched curriculum more effectively, particularly ICT
Development and nurturing of staff to promote effective distributed leadership model, through staff teams led by three staff with teaching and learning responsibility
Systems for promoting regular attendance by all pupils and raising awareness of school expectations with parents have had a positive impact
Working with local authority (LA) consultants, 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
Effective use of pupil progress meetings to engage children with their targets
Establishment of 'buddy system' as peer support for target setting
Engagement with the Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL) Development pilot.

Monitoring and evaluation

Success criteria for the RAP included:

progress across all year groups
incidences of non attendance are reduced
rise in levels of attainment; sound evidence base.

The school has been well supported by the LA throughout, and continues to be. This included support for the leadership of the school, both at a strategic level and operational level. The work of the advisers and the consultants who work with the school is highly valued. The tariff applied to the school by the LA ensured that there was a high level of consultancy support.

Quote from the headteacher: 'ISP is a good model for ensuring really focused pupil progress, but it needs to be supported by a tight structure of leadership and management that includes quality benchmarks as well as a monitoring process such as, "Is this being done?"'.

What has been the overall impact?

'The RAP is integral to the School Improvement Plan and ISP is now more at an operational level than a strategic level.'

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Local authority support and challenge

LA identified key priorities for the school:

whole-school attainment and progress in literacy and mathematics, with writing as a priority
Year 5 and Year 6 attainment
CLL in Foundation Stage (FS) and Key Stage 1
speaking and listening, specifically paired talk (including talk in home language)
evaluation of impact of intervention/support
priority was to empower the leadership to make the difference
to improve attendance
support the development of effective tracking, monitoring and evaluation systems.

What was done?

Role of LA Adviser, consultant

LA provided good support and advice on data and its analysis. Met to look at school data and agree targets for improvement
LA provided data pack for school
Introduction of Hard to Shift agenda
A range of strategies to support the teaching of phonics
The categorisation by the LA of the school ensured that any additional support that the school requested/required, such as consultants, was made available to them
LA consultants and adviser worked alongside staff in developing effective monitoring and evaluation procedures
LA employed a consultant to support the school as additional capacity
School well supported by consultants and adviser in writing and reviewing RAPs
Joint evaluation of judgements contained in the self-evaluation forms
Support from ISP consultant.

Monitoring and evaluation

Provision of RAISE online and LA data which provided local and national comparisons for specific categories of learners
Attendance under constant scrutiny. Considerable improvements evidenced
LA working directly with the staff to monitor and evaluate progress against targets at all levels. To achieve green ISP judgements
To ensure that by 2007 the percentage of children achieving level 4+ is above the floor target in English and mathematics
To improve quality of teaching and level of expectations so that 90% of teaching is good or better.

Information and data used to measure progress included:

termly RAP reviews
cohort files, including detailed information on individual/target children. The information is interrogated regularly, and in detail, to ensure progress for each child. Because of the very high incidence of pupil mobility in the school, this micro tracking and evaluation is crucial to raising standards
teaching observations
work scrutiny reports by team leaders and mathematics and English subject leaders
FS Profile data
Key Stage 1/2 test and teacher assessment data
optional National Curriculum test information
visual mapping data for all year groups
Ofsted inspection report
Hard to Shift consultant monitoring information.

What has been the overall impact?

'Using the LA school effectiveness triggers, we are very clear about what support the LA can give us.'

End of Key Stage 2 results in 2007 show improvements in reading, writing and mathematics.
Some targets identified on the RAP for July 2007 for Key Stage 1 and across all year groups in Key Stage 2 have been met and exceeded.

'Tracking data and findings from pupil progress interviews are being used to inform professional discussions between teaching staff.'

Sustainability – what next?

What will the school do?

The school continues in ISP for the fourth year, and is using the rigour of the ISP model to prepare RAPs for other curriculum subjects
Ofsted judged the capacity to improve to be 'good.' The model of distributed leadership and succession planning which the school has developed will support this
There are now robust monitoring and evaluation systems throughout the school
The school is committed to the professional development of all staff, which is directly linked to raising standards, and is supported through performance management
The school has an effective model of team leaders and mathematics and English subject leaders who take a leading role in ensuring that the focus remains firmly on teaching and learning
School uses the social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) materials to promote good behaviour and attendance
School should reach 2008 targets.

What will the LA do?

The school remains at high tariff level with the LA, which will ensure continued effective support and challenge
Provide data for the school, which will enable the effective self-evaluation cycle to continue
Continue to act as challenge and support for the school.

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