Around this time last year, Ofsted inspectors visited school. Whilst we were very happy with the school’s overall judgement of ‘outstanding’, we were disappointed that our Reception class was singled out as an area to improve. Parents tell us (and told the inspectors) that they are happy with their child’s progress in the first year at Moortown Primary, but inspectors were less enthusiastic.
Since the inspection, we have thought hard about the next steps. We didn’t want any knee-jerk reactions which would lead to only superficial improvements, if any. Here’s how we’ve responded to the inspection so far.
This year, staff in the class are participating in a year-long project with a private, Early Years specialist, Early Excellence. Six other primaries in the area are joining us.
Part of the project involves a visit from an Early Years specialist. We’re delighted with the feedback so far; below are some extracts from her report.
- The staff team work extremely well together and support children’s interests sensitively.
- The staff were very tuned into the children and responded with useful ideas and possibilities that they could think about.
- Children are encouraged to share their work with each other and to celebrate good learning together at the regular plenary sessions.
- Staff were observed through the session pointing out and reporting to each other things that were happening all around the room and outside.
- Organisation of provision in the indoor space is challenging. It is surprising how much staff have managed to fit in and are offering a good range of provision areas.
- There is a lot of encouragement for purposeful writing and mark-making in the areas – I like the writing wall in the role play area.
- The light and friendly ethos enables the children to feel secure and to take risks as they learn new skills and techniques.
- The headteacher is very supportive of development in the Early Years.
- The school clearly has a close-knit team that operates well together.
The report also praises the children in Reception, who ‘were observed working collaboratively together and talking spontaneously about their activities’.
As well as this project, we’ve invested in a lot of new furniture to help meet pupils’ needs even more, and new resources for children to play with and learn with. Ofsted inspectors also advised that the school’s leadership team (the assistant headteachers and me, the headteacher) should improve their evaluations in Reception; with this in mind, a range of external experts will observe provision and evaluate it alongside the school’s leaders, and the headteacher will visit Reception classes in other schools to evaluate alongside other school leaders.
We believe the provision in our Reception class matched the good and outstanding teaching and learning elsewhere. Nevertheless, we are keen to move forward positively, and take the Ofsted recommendations as a constructive prompt to get even better. We’ll continue to invest in training and resources to ensure the best provision and the best outcomes.