Ofsted and Parent View
Ladysmith Junior School was inspected on 22nd and 23rd May 2024 and the school was judged as ‘Requires Improvement’. The report highlights areas of strengths and outlines areas of development for the school. The areas of improvement had been recognised by leaders in our self-evaluation work, and actions to remedy were already underway. We believe that this report is a fair reflection of the school in this moment.
We are pleased that inspectors recognised that personal development as ‘good’. They highlighted that; “pupils thoroughly enjoy coming to Ladysmith Junior School”, “relationships are warm and caring” and that the opportunities we provide “prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain.” The report also stated that, “pupils are safe and play happily during social times” and recognised that “there is a staff team determined to bring about improvements” and that morale is “high”
Why have Ofsted taken this view on the school?
OFSTED Inspections are an on the day assessment of the school. Throughout the inspection, inspectors spoke to children and staff across the school, as well as looking at books, discussing learning with the children and the staff, and observing lessons.
Our curriculum is in development, but we are already in the process of reviewing this. Some subjects are further ahead in their development than others. This has had an impact on the quality of outcomes for children in some subjects. Inspectors felt that the curriculum needed to be more thought out to ensure coherence across the school.
It was also recognised that SEND plans were not suitably ambitious, which was also reflected in the learning and expectations of those children.
A timeline for change
As you know, we are in a Managed Partnership with St. Christopher’s Trust who have a proven track record of improving schools. The action points in the report were already known to leaders, which was a driver behind joining a MATs so we could accelerate progress in these areas.
The school has been working with St Christopher’s this term to map out a timeline over the coming terms to improve teaching and learning, assessment and outcomes for pupils. We have worked alongside colleagues to review and audit elements of our current provision e.g. SEND and curriculum mapping, so we can create a clearer action plan for school improvement
Who is going to lead these changes?
Ladysmith Juniors School’s leadership will remain in post, but with the additional support and expertise of colleagues in St. Christopher’s’ Trust behind us. As highlighted in the report, “staff morale is high” and “there is a staff team determined to bring about improvements”. Outside of normal staff movements, we have a stable and committed team.
What changes will parents see to know the school is improving?
We will be inviting parents in throughout the next academic year to update them on our progress against the action points in the report.
We hope the most significant change will be that the children are more able to talk about the knowledge and skills acquired in their lessons, which will be demonstrated in outcomes of learning. This will be a result of improved teaching and learning, more precise assessments and clarity across the curriculum. Curriculum progressions and content will be available on our website once completed.
We will ensure that provisions for our key groups of pupils are more accurate, proportionate and we are committed to improving the experiences and outcomes for those pupils.
We will continue to implement our work on behaviour, which will result in a reduction in low-level behaviour, which was identified by inspectors. We have been on a journey with behaviour over the last 18 months and are proud of the improvements. Inspectors noted that “children play happily” and that “children are adamant bullying does not happen.”
What will be the impact on the future education provision?
As a result of the work we are already doing, the action identified in our school improvement plan, and the comments above, we believe that at the time of our next inspection, if not before, the school and our provision will be in a much stronger position whilst maintaining and building on our own culture at Ladysmith Junior School.
Parent View
Parent View gives you the chance to tell us what you think about our school.
By sharing your views, you’ll be helping your child’s school to improve. You will also be able to see what other parents have said about our school.
The site requires your email address and a password to complete the questionnaire. If you fill in the questionnaire more than once for any school using the same email address, the previous entry will be over-written. Parent View is designed so that there will only ever be one questionnaire from each email address for a specific school in that school year.
