Springwell Junior School
Vicarage Farm Road
Heston
Hounslow
TW50AG
Phone:020 85701079
Headteacher:
Mrs Debra Kane
373 pupils, Mixed
| Unique Reference Number | 102501 |
|---|---|
| Local Authority | Hounslow |
| Inspection number | 323648 |
| Inspection date | 9 October 2008 |
| Reporting inspector | Nicola Davies |
This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.
| Type of school | Junior |
|---|---|
| School category | Community |
| Age range of pupils | 7–11 |
| Gender of pupils | Mixed |
| Number on roll | |
| School (total) | 371 |
| Appropriate authority | The governing body |
| Chair | Ms Anna Gaymer |
| Headteacher | Mrs Debra Kane |
| Date of previous school inspection | 11 October 2005 |
| School address | Vicarage Farm Road |
| Heston | |
| Hounslow TW5 0AG | |
| Telephone number | 020 8570 1079 |
| Fax number | 020 8577 0621 |
| Age group | 7–11 |
|---|---|
| Inspection date | 9 October 2008 |
| Inspection number | 323648 |
© Crown copyright 2008
Website: ofsted.gov.uk
The inspection was carried out by an Additional Inspector. The inspector evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school and the impact of changes to the curriculum, particularly on the progress of different groups of pupils. Evidence was gathered from the analysis of pupils' test results, observation of lessons and pupils' work, parents' questionnaires and discussions with the headteacher, staff, governors and pupils. Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in detail, but the inspector found no evidence to suggest that the school's own assessments, as given in its self-evaluation, were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.
This is a three-form entry junior school near Heathrow. Most of the pupils are of Asian heritage; over half are of Indian heritage and a quarter of Pakistani or other Asian heritages. Most pupils are either bilingual or learning to become bilingual. Around one in ten pupils is at early stage of learning English when they join the school. The percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals is a little below average. The percentage of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is above average. These mostly relate to difficulties learning to acquire basic skills.
| Grade 1 | Outstanding |
|---|---|
| Grade 2 | Good |
| Grade 3 | Satisfactory |
| Grade 4 | Inadequate |
Overall effectiveness of the school | Grade: 2 |
|---|
Springwell Junior's motto is 'Aspire...Create...Achieve' and pupils and staff at this thriving school work in harmony to make this a reality. Pupils, staff and parents share high aspirations for the school backed up by a very thorough system of tracking which charts how well pupils perform and what they should be aiming for. As a result, pupils aim high and are confident that they will achieve their goals. The creative opportunities for them at Springwell are a real strength of the outstanding curriculum. Pupils benefit from frequent opportunities to excel in the creative arts and in sport and extensive extra activities are carefully planned to meet pupils' needs and interests. This includes additional work and activities for pupils who find, for example, learning to read and write more difficult. This close targeting of additional programmes and activities is one illustration of the outstanding care, guidance and support which the school provides. Another is the thorough way that parents are kept informed and involved in activities and their children's progress. Termly bulletins are posted on the school's website. These give useful information about the curriculum which show parents what their children will be studying and also guidance on the ways that they can help.
Since the last inspection, the school has considerably enhanced the curriculum. Series of lessons now follow themes which enable pupils to build their academic skills and knowledge across different subjects. This approach has only been fully in place for a term but the benefits can already be seen in the high quality of work that pupils produce. For example, in one lesson during the inspection pupils developed their speaking and listening skills very well as they explained their scientific understandings by role-playing 'moon to earth' telephone conversations. In another, they used their mathematical skills to produce realistic income and expenditure budgets for a theme park of their own design. Pupils themselves have identified that the new curriculum helps them to make real links in their learning by 'seeing how things fit together'.
Teaching is good and the excellent system of leadership and management means that newer or less experienced teachers can develop their planning and teaching skills working alongside more experienced colleagues. The strong focus on oral work and themed lessons benefits pupils who are learning English as an additional language. Pupils make good progress to attain standards which are above those expected for their age, often significantly so. However, fewer pupils attain at higher levels in writing than do so in reading, mathematics or science. Whilst teachers help pupils to develop their basic English skills well, on occasions lessons lack a sharp enough focus on making sure that orally fluent pupils develop their academic, and particularly written, English language skills so they can fully demonstrate what they know and can do.
Springwell Junior is a very strong school community in which individuals' strengths are recognised and fully valued. As a result, pupils' personal development and well- being are excellent, including their understanding of health and safety issues, their behaviour, the contribution they make to the life of the school and their enterprise skills. Notable examples include the way that pupils skilfully identify how to improve lessons through feedback to the teachers and how they independently set up and manage their responsibilities and enterprises. In these ways, the school helps pupils develop into exceptionally mature, well behaved and thoughtful young people. One parent illustrated the strength of the school's ethos when describing how her child 'feels strongly about being a model student'. Staff and governors have recognised that there is scope to share and extend these strengths through further involvement with other school communities across Britain and internationally and so further enhance the school's good contribution to community cohesion.
The inspiring headteacher leads the school very well. She has developed a very strong team of leaders and managers who share skills but also champion their own particular specialist areas. As a result, the school functions very well on a day-to-day basis. Alongside this, leaders and managers inspire the real enthusiasm for teaching and learning which pervades the school's work. Staff are knowledgeable, committed and, like the pupils, aspire to excellence. Consequently, standards and achievement are continuing to rise. The school's processes for evaluating what it does well and planning for improvement are excellent and involve parents, governors, staff and pupils. These outstanding systems and processes combined with the school' s successful track record of improvement mean that it has an excellent capacity to improve further.
| Any complaints about the inspection or the report should be made following the procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted's website: ofsted.gov.uk. |
|---|
| Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate. | School Overall |
|---|
| How effective,efficient and inclusive is the provision of education,integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? | 2 |
|---|---|
| Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection | Yes |
| How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? | 1 |
| The capacity to make any necessary improvements | 1 |
| How well do learners achieve? | 2 |
|---|---|
| The standards¹ reached by learners | 2 |
| How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners | 2 |
| How well learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities make progress | 2 |
| How good are the overall personal development and well-being of the learners? | 1 |
| The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development | 1 |
| The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles | 1 |
| The extent to which learners adopt safe practices | 1 |
| The extent to which learners enjoy their education | 1 |
| The attendance of learners | 1 |
| The behaviour of learners | 1 |
| The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community | 2 |
| How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being | 1 |
| How effective are teaching and learning in meeting the full range of learners' needs? | 2 |
|---|---|
| How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners? | 1 |
| How well are learners cared for, guided and supported? | 1 |
| How effective are leadership and management in raising achievement and supporting all learners? | 1 |
|---|---|
| How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education | 1 |
| How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards | 1 |
| The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation | 1 |
| How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated | 1 |
| How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? | 2 |
| How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money | 2 |
| The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities | 2 |
| Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? | Yes |
| Does this school require special measures? | No |
| Does this school require a notice to improve? | No |
21 October 2008
Dear Pupils
Inspection of Springwell Junior School,Hounslow,TW5 0AG
Thank you so much for talking to me and answering my questions when I visited your school recently. Everywhere I went I found evidence of you 'aspiring, creating and achieving'. I really enjoyed my day with you and particularly sharing in some of your exciting lessons and, with many of your parents, watching your assembly on community.
Like your teachers and governors I have judged that Springwell Junior is a good school with many outstanding features. You can read more about these in the report which is attached to this letter. One outstanding aspect that your teachers are particularly proud of is the way you become such mature and articulate young people. So well done for all your hard work.
As you know, your headteacher and all the staff at the school are always working on ways to make the school even better. Your school motto sums up the way they work together to continually improve things. One of the things they want to do is to make sure that they provide really good opportunities for those of you who are bilingual to enhance your academic skills in English. This will help you to show exactly how much you know, especially when you are writing in English. This is a good idea.
Over lunch I heard all about the school elections and I am sure you will by now have elected an excellent set of representatives. I am sure they are already hard at work thinking of creative ways they can make Springwell even better!
Yours sincerely
Nicola Davies
Lead Inspector