Shakespeare Junior School
St Catherine's Road
Eastleigh
Hampshire
SO504JT

Phone:023 80618905
Headteacher: Mrs L J McCarthy

Visit school website 

325 pupils, Mixed

ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out by three additional inspectors. They visited 20 lessons and observed 14 teachers. Meetings were held with groups of pupils, staff and governors. The inspectors observed the school's work, and looked at school self-evaluation documents, external monitoring reports and development planning. Sixty-one parental questionnaires were analysed as well as those from school staff.

The inspection team reviewed many aspects of the school's work. It looked in detail at the following:

• the degree to which there is rigorous tracking of pupils' progress, effective use of assessment and high expectations in order to raise achievement
• the success in establishing an effective leadership team that uses pupils' progress to identify how well the school is succeeding
• pupils' knowledge and understanding of communities elsewhere in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Information about the school

Shakespeare Junior School is larger than most primary schools. Nearly all the pupils are from White British backgrounds. A small number of pupils speak English as an additional language. An above average proportion have special educational needs and/or disabilities, including 11 pupils with statements of special educational needs who attend the resourced provision. Most of these pupils have some form of learning difficulty to do with speech and language. There has been a considerable change in the staff of the school, including the headteacher, during the last 18 months. The school has been awarded Advanced Healthy School status.

Main findings

Shakespeare Junior is a good school. Owing to the inspirational leadership of the headteacher and her senior leaders it has improved rapidly during the past 18 months. It is the ambition of all members of staff and governors to make the school outstanding. The pursuit of excellence has already resulted in exceptional improvement in a number of features of its work. School leaders have worked tirelessly to introduce or improve the essential procedures that ensure pupils make good strides in their work. They have been very successful. At present, they are focused on improving teaching and learning to ensure they, too, are outstanding. Parents and carers are unanimous in praising the good teaching and progress their children make. Self-evaluation at all levels is incisive and accurate. As a result, development plans are consolidating successes and securing rapid improvement. There is no complacency and second-best is not good enough for the staff or governors. As a consequence, the school has outstanding capacity for sustained improvement.

Pupils' attainment is rising well. The current Year 6 pupils, for example, are set to outstrip the levels of attainment achieved last year. While attainment is average overall at present, there is evidence in pupils' books of rapidly rising standards and in a few lessons observed, attainment was better than expected for the pupils' ages. Good progress is made by pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, especially those who attend the outstanding resourced provision.

The personal development of pupils is fostered very effectively and is a key strength of the good curriculum. Behaviour is excellent and pupils' full enjoyment of school is widespread. They work purposefully and productively and all are keen to do well. The care, guidance and support provided are outstanding. This is because staff and governors go beyond the call of duty to ensure every pupil is safe, secure and happy at school. This is immediately noticeable among the most-vulnerable pupils in the school. The highly effective pastoral care of pupils contributes strongly to the excellent equality of opportunity that is present in school.

School leadership and management are shared very effectively among the staff and governors. Everyone contributes successfully to pupils' good achievement. Leaders know where the school is most successful and where improvement is necessary. Development planning is aimed squarely at the key priorities. There is full realisation that to become the outstanding school for which everyone strives, further work has to be undertaken to ensure pupils have a full understanding of different communities in the United Kingdom. The pupils already have very firm understanding of, and involvement with, communities close to the school and overseas. Similarly, school leaders know that the use of assessment to promote even better progress is not yet fully established. This is because there are still inconsistencies in the use of assessment across the school.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure the use of assessment to support learning is consistent across all classes and that the pupils have ample opportunities to discuss and evaluate their own progress.

• Strengthen links with other communities in the United Kingdom so that the pupils themselves meet and work alongside people from different backgrounds.

There is great consistency of pupils' progress in lessons because teachers and teaching assistants are skilled in their work. Lessons are exciting, fun and very busy sessions where the pupils work hard to meet their learning targets. In the very best lessons progress is speedy and much is accomplished. Very occasionally, progress is not as rapid because the learning targets are not as clearly explained. The setting of pupils by ability for mathematics is a successful component in encouraging pupils' good progress. Their work in books is completed accurately, presented neatly enough and is aimed carefully at pupils' different abilities.

Attainment is increasingly above average in English. In mathematics and science it is rising well in all year groups and is average at present. There is also firm evidence in lessons of good achievement in information and communication technology (ICT).

Pupils stress they feel safe in school. The school's strong emphasis on promoting healthy lifestyles, recognised in its national awards, ensures that pupils have a good understanding of how to stay fit and healthy They are, however, realistic in their own evaluations of their health. They know, for example, that the contents of their lunch boxes do not always provide a suitably balanced diet. They are enthusiasts for sports and physical activity and are keen to join the many out'of-school activities that enhance their fitness effectively. Pupils' great enjoyment and enthusiasm for school is witnessed by their above-average attendance, which shows marked improvement year on year. They also develop very reliable skills in independent working, team-playing and in using their initiative, all of which contribute to their good preparation for secondary school. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very secure because of the harmony, tolerance and friendship shared among them all.

These are the grades for pupils' outcomes

¹ The grades for attainment and attendance are: 1 is high; 2 is above average; 3 is broadly average; and 4 is low

How effective is the provision?

Learning is well planned so that the different needs of pupils are met successfully. Lessons are often intriguing. Year 5 pupils, for example, thoroughly enjoyed investigating forces, especially upthrust, in their science session. They were surprised at the resistance met in attempting to push an inflated balloon into a tank of water. They talked confidently and spontaneously of the buoyancy of different objects and one pupil challenged everyone in his discussion of molecular movement in water.

The chief area for improvement in teaching relates to strengthening the use of assessment in identifying and sharing learning targets with pupils and giving them sufficient opportunities to talk about their progress. Similarly, cross-curricular links are the main improvement area for the curriculum. In some cases links are already well established, such as the use of ICT to promote pupils' increased knowledge of history topics including the ancient Greeks. However, the wider use of other subjects to support learning in English and mathematics is less secure.

The school has established a remarkably successful partnership with parents and carers to ensure all pupils' welfare. The 'mums' mornings' this term, and the 'dads' mornings' last term, are very popular events where parents and carers work with their children in lessons. It was very noticeable in the Years 3 and 4 English sessions how the pupils were very eager for their mums, grannies and aunties to have a go publically. The teachers were very successful in encouraging the sometimes reticent parents and carers to help the class improve their use of adverbs. There was great pride all round in the parents' and carers' achievements!

These are the grades for the quality of provision

How effective are leadership and management?

Leadership and management are characterised by an unswerving focus on what is best for the pupils. The headteacher conveys high expectations of everyone's work and sets an excellent example in her highly proficient approach to her duties. The strong impact of leadership is seen in how effectively the headteacher and senior leaders are at embedding ambition and driving improvement. Senior and middle leaders fully accept responsibility for pupils' best progress, all staff work cohesively and seamlessly in their work for improvement. This extends to the governors, who are also key players in the school team and are rigorous in their evaluation of school performance. As a consequence, school development planning is of excellent quality.

Leaders and governors take their responsibility to promote equal opportunities and tackle discrimination very seriously, and the success of this commitment is evident in the way barriers to learning have been tackled effectively. No one tolerates discrimination of any form. Everyone works diligently to ensure all pupils benefit from their education. The vast majority of parents and carers are pleased with what the school does for their children. They recognise that staff go out of their way to make sure all pupils are safeguarded effectively. The school's safeguarding procedures are outstanding and all statutory requirements, including child protection and risk assessment, are regularly reviewed and approved. The pupils themselves have a hand in this. They undertake their own risk assessments of different activities in school. They recognise hazards and potential dangers calmly and suggest how to avoid and reduce their threat.

The school has built highly effective partnerships to strengthen provision and outcomes. The strong partnership of staff, governors, parents and carers and pupils is a central factor in promoting pupils' role in the school community. The contribution the school makes to community cohesion is good. Links with local groups, other schools and visiting specialists contribute very effectively to broadening pupils' appreciation of the local community. There are now very effective links at pupil level with pupils at a school in Uganda. This is giving pupils a realistic view of a different lifestyle overseas. The missing factor is an equally highly effective partnership with others in the United Kingdom. The school has some links within the United Kingdom but these are at an earlier stage of development.

These are the grades for leadership and management

Views of parents and carers

Parents and carers have very positive views of the school. They express a few concerns in their written comments about pupils' behaviour and the way it is managed. Inspectors judge that the control and improvement of all pupils' behaviour is achieved with great expertise and success. The result is seen in the pupils' outstanding behaviour and their consideration for others. A vast majority recognise that the school is led and managed very effectively. In the main, parents and carers are happy with their children's experiences at Shakespeare Junior School and are adamant that their children enjoy school.

Ofsted invited all the registered parents and carers of pupils registered at Shakespeare Junior School to complete a questionnaire about their views of the school.

In the questionnaire, parents and carers were asked to record how strongly they agreed with 13 statements about the school.

The inspection team received 61 completed questionnaires by the end of the on-site inspection. In total, there are 313 pupils registered at the school.

The table above summarises the responses that parents and carers made to each statement. The percentages indicate the proportion of parents and carers giving that response out of the total number of completed questionnaires. Where one or more parents and carers chose not to answer a particular question, the percentages will not add up to 100%.

Overall effectiveness of schools inspected between September 2007 and July 2008

12 March 2010

Dear Pupils

Inspection of Shakespeare Junior School, Eastleigh SO50 4JT

When we visited your school recently we were very impressed with your warm welcome, politeness and splendid behaviour. Thank you for being so helpful and thoughtful.

We have written our report, which your parents and carers will see. We hope some of you will read it too. If you do, you will find we say yours is a good school and that it is improving quickly. Your teachers and the governors want it to be one of the very best. These are some of the things that we like about your school which we discuss in the report.

• You are making good progress and your work shows that you are now reaching higher standards than you did in the past.
• You enjoy coming to school and working with your teachers and other pupils.
• Your learning is fascinating and fun.
• You are extremely well looked after and helped to do well.
• Your school is very well organised and is led superbly.
• Your school welcomes all parents, carers and other visitors and helps them to help you to make the most of your education.

We have also included two areas where improvements can be made.

• We have asked your teachers to give you more opportunities to talk to each other and to them about how successfully you are learning.
• Your teachers are also going to build more links between you and people in other parts of this country so you can find out more about how they live.

We know your teachers are keen to make these improvements and that you will help them. You can do this by telling them what you find easy and what is difficult in your work.

We hope you have a very successful education and that you do well in the future.

Yours sincerely

David Carrington

Lead inspector