Benhurst Primary School is told by Ofsted inspectors it still needs to make improvements

An Elm Park school is told it has made no significant improvements since last inspection

Safira Ali, Senior reporter Monday, January 14, 2013
2:50 PM

An Elm Park school has been told it has made no significant changes since it was last told to improve by Ofsted inspectors.

The education watchdog said Benhurst Primary School required improvement after it’s last inspection in October.

At that time it was rated as needing improvement overall and for the achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, and leadership and management. It received a good rating for the behaviour and safety of its pupils.

Since then it receives monitoring every term from Havering Council, which also provides staff training.

Following the inspection a monitoring visit was carried out in December to determine whether any changes had been made. The results of the visit have been published this month.

Adrian Lyons, the chief Ofsted inspector, said in his report: “There have been no significant changes since the last inspection.”

But he said: “The school’s action plan is rightly focused on improving the quality of teaching. It has clear success and milestones, although some timescales lack urgency.”

He added that senior leaders were able to report positive progress in some areas, and some whole staff training to improve teaching and learning has taken place. And during some focused monitoring the school made some improvements in marking.”

He said senior leaders have received additional training in lesson observation, which has helped them to better understand how to assess teaching.

The school has also identified the need to improve the quality of teaching in classes with more than one year group, but the report said: “It has not yet drawn on the

expertise of other schools to promote improvement in these areas.”

Inspectors said governors are not yet fully involved in evaluating the work of the school and said, “it is not clear how they propose to develop their effectiveness… [they] have no separate action plan, its impact has not yet been reviewed, and monitoring by governors is not written in the school’s development plans.”

Inspectors have recommended: increasing the urgency of the timescales in the action plan; arranging an external review of governance; learn from primary schools with expertise in managing mixed-aged classes; and to look at ways of raising achievement.