A Bath primary school that was placed in special measures by Ofsted has made progress in the last year, but many pupils remain below the expected standards for their age in reading and across the curriculum.
Roundhill Primary School on Mount Road in Bath
Last June, Roundhill Primary School at Southdown was rated as Inadequate by the education watchdog, and last October The Partnership Trust, which runs the school, received a Termination Warning Notice from Hannah Woodhouse, the Department for Education’s Regional Director for the South West.
In her warning letter, she said trustees understood the level of need in the school, but actions identified were not implemented quickly enough to rapidly improve it.
She also said leaders had not planned strategically, nor put an effective curriculum in place, that staff did not use assessment effectively and too often, teachers’ understanding of subject curriculums was weak.
The director added: “I need to be satisfied that the trust has capacity to deliver rapid and sustainable improvement at the Academy.
“If I am not satisfied that this can be achieved, I will consider whether to terminate the funding agreement in order to transfer the Academy to an alternative academy trust.”
Roundhill Primary School was formed in 2015 following the amalgamation of Southdown Community Nursery and Infant School and Southdown Junior School. In 2018 it was put into special measures and became a member of The Partnership Trust.
At last year’s inspection, the Ofsted team acknowledged the school’s “very turbulent time”, with a period of higher than usual staff turnover alongside several long-term absences.
They rated the school’s leadership and management, and quality of education, as Inadequate. Early years provision, pupils’ behaviour and attitudes, and their personal development were all said to require improvement.
Following a monitoring visit last month, an Ofsted inspector says in his report that leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is necessary for the school to be no longer judged as requiring special measures.
He said the school’s action plans are fit for purpose.
The inspector said the new headteacher has brought “drive and determination” to the school and she has wasted no time in prioritising the most urgent issues and gaining the confidence of the staff team.
He said the school environment has been “decluttered and stripped back” which has helped instil pride in the school for pupils and staff.
The school has a “robust” plan to improve but the scale of staffing absence and turnover has significantly limited the impact of its actions in many areas.
The school has started to implement clear lesson structures so that teachers are clearer on how best to teach. However, some teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are too low.
The inspector added that strong leadership has resulted in recent, positive strides in the teaching of early reading.
Pupils still have significant gaps in their knowledge though: “Additional sessions to help pupils catch up have been hampered by staffing absence. Many pupils remain below the expected standards for their age in reading and across the curriculum.”
Attendance is said to be much improved. The school has tightened its systems for addressing absence and the number of pupils who miss school regularly has halved.
The school has also reviewed its behaviour policy and has raised its expectations of how staff manage behaviour.
The monitoring report also notes that the trust has checked the school’s progress closely. It has committed additional expenditure and expertise to the school to help make improvements. There is a strong partnership with another school in order to share good practice.
The inspector has sent his latest findings to the Department for Education’s regional director and to the director of children’s services for Bath and North East Somerset.
The school’s ongoing struggle with staff absence resulted in some children having to stay at home one day last week.
On Monday 25th June some parents received notification that “due to unexpectedly high levels of staff absence across the school tomorrow”, they would not be able to send their children in.
The headteacher Kirby Littlewood addressed the matter in her weekly newsletter on Friday, saying: “Firstly, I would like to say thank you to those families in Laurel class and Year 5 who supported children at home on Tuesday this week. It has been a very challenging week, with some very difficult decisions needing to be made as a last resort due to the unprecedented staffing absence.
“We have worked tirelessly, for hours each day, to ensure that we have been able to open all classes for the rest of this week. We apologise for the inconvenience this had caused to the children and to you. We are not envisaging having the same issues next week. As I mentioned to you before, we are recruiting for a couple of new members of staff for September.”
A spokesperson for The Partnership Trust said: “A huge amount has been achieved at Roundhill since our last full inspection, and the arrival of our brilliant new headteacher at the start of the academic year has further strengthened the pace of change. While there is still work to do, our school is in a much stronger place.
“What we find particularly exciting is that we have clear plans in place for how we will continue on this very positive trajectory. As the inspector recognised, there is a real drive and determination at the school to give every child more opportunities and an enhanced learning experience.
“One area that we are still working hard to address is staffing. For lots of complex reasons, our staffing has not been as stable as we would ordinarily hope. Furthermore, teacher recruitment is difficult at the best of times – and our options are limited as we cannot recruit newer teachers because of our current Ofsted grading.
“With the support of the Trust we have worked to ensure that the disruption for our children is as minimal as possible. However, a recent bout of sickness meant that we had to shut two classes for one day at very short notice. This was an exceptional circumstance, and not something that ever hope to repeat.
“That being said, huge strides have been made and it is important that we acknowledge the role that our parents have played. We are so fortunate that we have a supportive community, and they have grasped the new initiatives and ideas that have been implemented. We are hugely grateful to them – this partnership approach is at the centre of everything good that is happening at the school.”
The trust runs 17 other schools in Bath, North East Somerset and Somerset.
