Ofsted and Performance Data

Riders Infant School was inspected from 12^th to 13^th November 2019, where it was judged to ‘Require Improvement’. The actions that were identified by Ofsted for the school to improve upon are below:

• In the past, not enough pupils have developed the phonics skills they need. Leaders have begun to make improvements to the teaching of phonics in the early years and key stage 1 and some improvements can be seen. They need to continue their sharp focus on this aspect of learning so that pupils’ achievement continues to improve.
• Staffing is now more stable. Leaders have made sure that all subjects are led and managed by a member of staff across the federation. However, many of these leaders have had little or no training to help them to lead their subject effectively. Teachers’ subject and pedagogical knowledge are not yet secure in all subjects across the wider curriculum. Senior leaders must ensure that curriculum leaders become experts in their subjects, so that the quality of education significantly improves.
• Leaders need to ensure that all staff have equally high expectations of pupils’ behaviour so that all pupils can learn, and teachers can teach without interruption.
• Strategies to improve pupils’ attendance needs to be evaluated. Leaders should assess what is working well and consider new and more effective ways to improve pupils’ attendance in school.
• Teachers’ planning does not ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is developed. This is also the case for pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values. These important principles need to be taught within the curriculum so that pupils develop tolerance and respect for others and understand the consequences of their behaviour and actions.

Riders Junior School was inspected from 4^th to 5^th May 2016, where it was judged to be ‘Good’. The actions that were identified by Ofsted for the school to improve upon are below:

• Improve teaching, and hence pupils’ progress, by: – insisting that pupils take more care with their presentation – raising pupils’ spelling skills and ensuring that they use them more consistently in their writing – insisting that pupils join their handwriting consistently by the end of Year 4 – having a more consistent approach to setting out work in mathematics, and checking that pupils follow this – making more systematic use of homework to extend pupils’ learning and to engage parents more in their children’s schooling.
• Give pupils more opportunities to learn about the variety of cultures in modern Britain and in the wider world.
• Refine the school’s assessment system so that leaders can track the progress of different groups more efficiently, particularly for the most-able pupils.

Performance Data

Headline Data from Summer 2019 (National in brackets)

Early Years Good Level of Development (GLD) – 69%    (72%)                           

Year 1 Phonics 55% (82%)