Moving beyond the floor target - Grange Community Primary School, Suffolk

Date of issue: Jan. 2008

Theme: Schools Causing Concern (SCC)

School context and profile

The school serves an area of high social deprivation near the docks in Felixstowe. The school has had a turbulent period over the past three years, and has moved from an Ofsted category of serious weaknesses in 2004, to a judgement of good with outstanding features in that timeframe.

Grange Community Primary School has 187 pupils on roll (164 full-time and 23 part-time)
A small but growing number of pupils have English as an Additional Language
26% of children are entitled to free school meals
The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities is well above average, and includes those children with statements, who have a wide range of learning difficulties
Most children are from white British backgrounds, with a small number from a range of different minority ethnic groups

The school was inspected in March 2006, following inspection in 2004, where it was judged to have 'serious weaknesses'. The judgement made was that the school is now good, with good capacity to
improve, no longer has serious weaknesses, and provides good value for money.

Issues identified were:

to continue to raise standards in English and mathematics at both key stages by improving writing and mathematical problem solving skills
to continue to work with parents to improve pupils' attendance
to further develop the role of the governors, to enhance their impact on school evaluation and planning for improvement.

2006 Key Stage 2 results: English L4 54%; mathematics L4 54%
2007 Key Stage 2 results: English L4 79%; mathematics L4 71%

Barriers to improvement

Priorities for the Raising Attainment Plan (RAP) included:

teaching and learning
attendance and behaviour
knowledge and use of pupil tracking data, including accelerated progress in target groups
- increase motivation and engagement
- increase parental involvement with learning.

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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.

What was done?

The involvement of the school in the Intensifying Support Programme (ISP) underpinned the re-focus on effective systems for tracking, monitoring and evaluation impact
Careful appointment and deployment of key members of staff was made to lead the changes. There was a team working model in Years 5 and 6 which built on the strengths of individual staff
Strategic and rigorous planning and delivery of professional development and performance management, which supports the school development plan
Allocated time for subject leader development
Provision of resources to enable staff to deliver the enriched curriculum more effectively, particularly ICT, supported by use of Hard to Shift funding
Development and nurturing of staff to promote effective distributed leadership model
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, and a school improvement adviser (SIA), 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
Changes to the timing of the school day enable focused skills work, and minimise 'lost' time
Effective use of pupil progress meetings to engage children with their targets
Established weekly meetings for support staff, and directed time for support staff/teaching staff liaison
Establishment of, and high profile given to, the work of the school council to support good behaviour and develop pupil engagement
Governor working party established to reduce level of non-attendance. Education welfare officer and school council involved
Involvement of school with 'Playing for Success' with Ipswich Town football club
Training of teaching assistant as learning mentor.

Monitoring and evaluation

Success criteria for the RAP included:

incidences of non attendance and exclusion are reduced due to: engagement of parents through better communication; raised attendance at parent evenings; and higher response levels to
questionnaires
rise in levels of attainment achieved through developing focus on Quality First Teaching and improved Assessment, Recording and Reporting systems
staff structure includes new mathematics and literacy managers who have developed distributed leadership model, and more accountability for all staff
subject leaders are given time to fulfil their role
radical action taken with staff who, despite support, do not have the capacity to improve.

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.

Quote from the headteacher: 'End of Key Stage 2 results are not a Year 6 issue. We have changed the culture, everyone contributes.'

What has been the overall impact?

'The School Improvement Plan and the RAP are integrated.' (Headteacher.)

'Dialogue during Pupil Progress Meetings is crucial. Where they are and what you are going to do about it.' (Headteacher.)

'The current leadership team has changed the whole culture and expectations of the school. It is now one in which pupils have an expectation that they will succeed and staff understand that they make a collective contribution to this. They understand how this can be achieved.' (LA.)

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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 reading and problem solving skills in mathematics as priorities
ensuring appropriate progress of gifted and talented pupils
improving attendance and behaviour
support the development of effective tracking, monitoring and evaluation systems
effective deployment of support staff to support teaching and learning effectively
to develop the role of the subject leaders to support a distributed leadership model and ensure sustainability.

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 staff supported the school through ISP, with writing RAP and attending RAP reviews
Support for gifted and talented pupils
Introduction of Hard to Shift agenda
A range of strategies to support the teaching of phonics
Talk for Writing project
Training provision for teaching assistant as learning mentor
Effective 'Core action group' meetings on half-termly basis
The school specific knowledge of the SIA has enabled efficient brokerage of support for the school
LA consultants and adviser work alongside staff in developing effective monitoring and evaluation procedures.

Monitoring and evaluation

Provision of RAISE online and LA data which provided local and national comparisons for specific categories of learners
Attendance and exclusions 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.

Information and data used to measure progress included:

termly RAP reviews
half-termly core group meetings
mid-year formal assessment (information is interrogated regularly, and in detail, to ensure progress for each child)
teaching observations
work scrutiny reports by team leaders and mathematics and English subject leaders
Foundation Stage 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
use of key practitioner to identify intervention required; deploy support staff; oversee corrective programmes; and evaluate impact.

What has been the overall impact?

End of Key Stage 2 results in 2007 show significant improvements in reading, writing and mathematics.
Key Stage 1 results in English and mathematics show considerable improvements.
Reduced incidence of exclusions.
Improvement in attendance rates.
Some targets identified on the RAP for July 2007 across all year groups in Key Stage 2 have been met and exceeded.

Sustainability – what next?

What will the school do?

The school continues in ISP for the third year, and the RAP is integrated into the School Improvement Plan
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 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 will continue to receive a high level of support from the LA
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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