New City Primary School in Plaistow, London has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship Status.
Popular with Families and Local Community
The Inclusion Lead organised a very busy day for our Assessor’s visit, they were able to meet with many members of staff and to see the school at work talking to children and staff as they walked. The Assessor met with the Headteacher and Inclusion Lead and one of the Specialist SEND teachers. They said they had their Ofsted Inspection in the last week of the summer term when temperatures were at their highest. The school was running a serious of events to celebrate the school’s 150 years of existence. They had a whole week of cross-curricular activities planned out and in action when they got the call. They decided to go ahead with their plans and ensure the Ofsted team worked around them. They were obviously impressed by what they saw and heard, and the outcome was an Outstanding grade. This is an incredible achievement as the last inspection (pre-academization) was RI.
The Headteacher said the inspectors read the IQM Report from last year and were impressed that the school had regular external validation of their inclusion practice. The school community were and are delighted to have all their hard work recognised and it has done wonders for staff morale. The school was already popular with the families and local community, but the fantastic Ofsted report has led to increased interest in the school. Although the school is very popular, they still have significant vacancies across the school, and this is having a negative effect on their budget. Hopefully, this will increase numbers going forward. However, like most inner London schools the local population has decreased as many families have been moved out of the area or been sent back to home countries following Brexit. This is an issue that needs to be addressed at a higher level as its very difficult for schools and Local Authorities and central governments to address.
‘Evidence for Learning’
The next meeting was with the PHSE Lead who is also a teacher in the HUB. The HUB includes 21 pupils (of all age groups) and she teaches there two and a half days a week and the rest of the time is available for her to fulfil her many management roles. There are 11 Teaching Assistants who work mostly full time in the HUB and the children are divided into three groups according to their particular needs. Although the HUB is a major part of the school’s inclusive provision it is important to note it is not a Resourced Provision but is funded through the school budget.
An App called ‘Evidence for Learning’ is used when working with SEND children. Our Assessor was told it was similar to Tapestry, but found it works much better. The App can be pre-loaded with individual children’s targets and Teaching Assistants make very good use of it.
Ofsted judged personal development to be Outstanding. This is gratifying as Newham has the highest number of religious people in London therefore parent consultation about RSE was a challenge for the school, but it went very well. There was little or no kickback from parents. The school also did an on-line survey to ensure that everybody was happy with what was being taught.
The PHSE Lead wrote the whole PHSE curriculum and there are long, medium and short-term plans in place that are tweaked every year. The school felt it was important to produce their own PHSE curriculum because their school has a very different cohort from schools in their Trust and in the local area. A commercial programme would not have been suitable.
Pupil Voice and Pupil Views
Pupil voice and pupil views are really important to the school, and they try to establish what is on their mind and what issues or worries they may have so they can make sure the curriculum covers issues that are real and important to them. With this in mind, senior staff do interviews with groups of Year 5 and Year 6 children to see what issues are coming up and design the programme themselves. They find suitable resources from lots of other places.
There is a big focus on pupils advocating for themselves and to be able to take criticism and so on. It is about developing self-awareness and making them into social and responsible citizens. There are repeated messages over the school year. It is also about developing transferable skills. Each school in the Academy Trust has its own curriculum but they often agree to covering the same things. Each subject leader writes their own curriculum (in consultation with other teachers) and the senior team review them frequently. The school are an E for C school (Education For Change).
PHSE is taught once a week and allows children to talk in a non-judgemental way. The children love it and love the opportunity to talk about a range of topics. They can respond quickly to things that are happening locally, nationally, and globally.
Pupil Voice is an important part of the way the school works and is part of their inclusion policy and practice. The School Council met with Ofsted and obviously made a great impression on them.
Behaviour was Exemplary
Next there was an opportunity to tour the school and see it at work. Children were busy working in every part of the school. Classrooms were well organised, and behaviour was exemplary. The children go about their learning cheerfully and with enthusiasm.
The next discussion was with the Inclusion Manager/SENCO. The Special Educational Offer at New City Primary School and the different ways they are now providing support for pupils was discussed. The number of pupils with special needs has grown rapidly but the budget has not increased at the same rate. There is a shortage of staff as the Trust has put a freeze on recruitment at the moment because of concerns about the funding. As a result of staff shortages, the school has changed their model of working and set up the Learning HUB to help meet the needs of their most complex children. They are no longer able to provide the level of support in mainstream classes that they once did so the HUB brings children together in one place where staff can be used creatively. They work with small groups of children rather than one-to-one.
Our Assessor was told that EHCPs now take longer to agree, and interim funding while waiting is rarely provided. The school still provides the support, but this comes out of their school funds. There are two specialist SEN teachers – one who works two and a half days in the HUB and the other provides a range of interventions for SEN pupils. However, she is currently taking a class three days a week and therefore has less time to provide expert support.
Currently, there are 79 pupils on the SEN Register: 34 with a diagnosis of Autism; 12 on waiting list for a diagnosis; 6 speech and language issues – diagnosed with many more on the pathway to diagnosis; 6 with MLD; 11 with specific learning difficulties (especially Dyslexia); 1 with a physical disability; 1 with SEMH. Another 8 children are currently with a different agency input awaiting diagnose for a range of needs.
There are 15 children with EHCPs at the moment but there are many others pending. There is a noticeable increased need in Nursery and Reception and staff are gathering evidence so that they can apply for an EHCP at some point in the future. The Local Authority are turning down many applications for EHCPs so the school are working on the costings of provision. The school recruits’ children mostly from Newham but they also receive a large number of consultations from Waltham Forest and there are differences in the EHCP and SEND support process in the two Boroughs.
Learning Hub
The Learning HUB has a different curriculum to the rest of the school and is driven by individual needs and the need to make progress in all areas. There is a pre-formal and a semi-formal curriculum, and both have elements of what the EHCP suggests as targets. The three groups are set according to the particular needs of the children. Where possible and desirable elements of the mainstream curriculum are delivered so that when and if children are able to return to some mainstream lessons they are not too far behind.
The Inclusion Team is made up of the Inclusion Lead and two specialist SEN teachers and nine Specialist Teaching Assistants in the Learning HUB and eight other TAs across the school. They all have access to SEND resources and have been trained to use them. There are no class TAs in Key Stage 2 but they are in EYFS and Key Stage 1.
Teaching Assistants have planning time and are paid to be in school until 4.30pm once a week. This way they can meet, they can plan with teachers and can attend INSET. One of the Specialist SEND teachers provides training for TAs and prepares them to deliver interventions – such as LEGO therapy, speech & language therapy and language enrichment training. Teachers also receive much of this training, so they understand what children are learning when they are not in their class. There has been a lot of INSET on Quality First Teaching and around meeting the needs of children with different and specific conditions.
The school has two Teaching Assistants that function as HLTAs and the plan alongside other TAs and teachers. They are all passionate about the children and do so much additional work and activities on goodwill. The SENDCo tells me it is all about relationships. There is a planned INSET after Christmas to explain to all staff exactly what happens in the Learning HUB.
Staff meetings happen every Monday and have lots of opportunities to learn about new strategies for meeting the needs of SEND pupils. The SENDCo and specialist teachers attend Pupil Progress Meetings where they look at the data from tests (every term) and subject quizzes every half term. The aim of the tests and quizzes is to develop sticky knowledge which the school views as important if the children are to develop skills. Our Assessor was told that teachers across the school are skilled and plan very well for SEN. There is a SEND Toolkit available for all staff to use. Teachers in the school run the National Tutoring Programme and they use Pupil Progress Meetings to discuss the progress that children on this programme are making.
The next discussion was about wellbeing and the Assessor met with the Office Manager, the SENDCo and the PHSE Lead about this subject. Staff wellbeing was of particular interest as pupil wellbeing had already been discussed. Three Wellbeing Champions lead the work across the school and had set up a wellbeing working group that had representatives from different parts of the school. Wellbeing of staff is a priority for the school and there is an understanding that healthy and stable staff will ensure that children’s wellbeing is catered for. It is in everyone’s interests to invest in staff welfare and wellbeing.
The Business Manager has overall responsibility for the Premises Team, the cleaners, the kitchen staff as well as the mid-day-supervisors. Even though an external company employs the cleaners and kitchen staff they are part of the New City Family and are treated as such. Staff know each other well and senior staff clearly value staff at all levels. The casual conversations in the corridors and after school are important as they get to know the issues staff may be dealing with at home or at school and helps them to build relationships.
Workshops for Staff
The Education Psychologist came and talked to staff about wellbeing and there is a policy and nominated person with an overview of menopause and its impact on staff. There have also been workshops for staff around wellbeing and on debt management in order to help them manage their own mental and financial health. Every member of staff is given three paid days a year off school to do what they like. These wellbeing days are much appreciated and were introduced across the MAT. They certainly make a difference to staff. Staff are also allowed to bring their own children into school during INSET days, so they do not have to make alternative childcare arrangements. The Trust are also signed up to Health Assured where they can access individual support as needed. Furthermore, there is a mindfulness App that all staff can access and there is a free counselling service (through Health Assured) that they can access.
The Wellbeing Champions take their roles very seriously and explained that staff at all levels are listened to and their ideas are always considered before any decisions are made. Staff turnover is low as people like working in this school.
Our Assessor was able to meet two groups of staff (teachers and support staff) with a range of responsibilities. All were very keen to speak about their experience working in the school. Teacher workload and how the school help them manage it was discussed. It was explained the senior team listen to teachers, take on board their suggestions and do what they can to ease the workload. They have gone through all the jobs that need to be done and ask how it is helping the children – if they cannot establish this, they stop doing it.
Workload is constantly under review and the marking policy has already been changed and adapted to include more live marking. They are also trying to find ways to get on top of their planning. The senior team checks weekly plans, and it was discussed why this was felt to be necessary. They said it was about maintaining high standards and they want to keep moving forward.
They said that SLT act as a critical friend and the checking does help as things may need to be tweaked. Teaching staff said it is a benefit rather a chore. The Assessor asked what sort of things might be picked up through this monitoring and they gave the example of success criteria – if they are not succinct enough or if the sequence of topics or activities could be better. The Assessor wondered if the process was something that interfered with staff wellbeing but was assured it was not a big deal. It was just another pair of eyes on their plans and feedback was helpful. SLT are there to support and give feedback and they acknowledge that some teachers need more support than others.
A trainee teacher spoke about the support he receives as a trainee. He works closely with a mentor, and he has half a day a week to meet with other trainees to go through the theoretical base of his training programme. Before he joined the teacher training programme he had worked as a SEND LSA, and this had given him a good background into different teaching and learning approaches.
There are currently three ECTs in the school – all in their second year. There is a lot of training and inset for staff to help them continue to improve their practice. Subject leads often run inset sessions as does the SEND department.
Parent Volunteer
One of the teachers started as a parent volunteer and then took on a role as a TA. She then did her teacher training and is now a Year 6 teacher. One of the TAs came in as a one-to-one TA in Nursery but now works in the Learning HUB. She came in on supply and liked it so much she stayed and moved to work in other areas of the school.
Another teacher has been at the school for a year and is teaching Mandarin and she says she is very happy in her role and she and her fellow Mandarin teachers are very happy and feel included.
They all spoke about the positive staff meetings and the opportunities for INSET to share their practice. These are active sessions and are often presented by subject leads or by classroom teachers. Sharing and collaboration is integral to the way staff in New City Primary School works.
One of the teachers is the EAL Lead, and explained she is given time to provide staff training on meeting the needs of EAL learners in the classroom.
There is an EAL toolkit that supports teachers and Teaching Assistants. She did a lot of training with Hounslow EAL Service, and she uses the Bell Foundation for assessments. There is a starter book for new learners.
Our Assessor asked about teaching and learning and if there were any specific ways teachers were asked to plan and deliver lessons. There are teaching guidelines and a planning format that they complete every week. This has been reduced to make it less onerous. They use their PowerPoint slides rather than a separate document. They said the Deputy Head and subject leads check them. They find the process helpful.
Family Centre
Next our Assessor met with the Pastoral Team that included the Early Help and Family Centre Lead, the Family Support Worker, two Learning Mentors and an Apprentice Learning Mentor.
The Family Centre opened in April. Currently they offer sessions for under 5s every day and family support. The Learning Mentors and Early Help Coordinator offer support to families. They opened their own Foodbank and get donations and are part of the Phoenix Project and get free fruit and veg to give away and they run a free Breakfast Club that is well attended. Another new service is the uniform swap shop that is proving very popular with parents. There are very good relationships with parents because they know they are not judged (by school staff) when they ask for help or support. The school and staff fund the Family Centre work across the school as well as in the FC but they also get donations from a local charity and they do lots of fundraising activities themselves as well.
The Learning Mentors are found ‘wherever we are needed.’ They are in the playground looking for children who are sitting by themselves and seem to have no friends. They also support individual children who are referred to them. They meet with the attendance officer every week and follow up as required. They also line manage and train the Mid-Day Supervisors in playground games and behaviour strategies.
The Apprentice Learning Mentor started out as an apprentice PE coach and drifted into the Learning Mentor apprenticeship as he felt this was more supportive and suitable for him. He says he manages to do a bit of both (sport coaching and mentoring) in his current role. His apprenticeship involves him going to college once a month. It was explained the Trust run lots of different apprenticeships across all their schools.
Team Members Strengths
The Pastoral Team work collaboratively and play to the individual team members strengths. They explained they get on well with each other and have lots of discussions about children and how they can support them. They ‘pick everyone’s brains.’ They are all deputy DSLs and they attend the regular Wednesday Safeguarding Meeting and one of their roles involves monitoring children with CP needs or concerns.
There is an after-school provision for children of working parents, but they have to pay a daily charge for this.
During discussions the team said they often have trouble leaving their worries and anxieties about individual children (re Safeguarding) at school. This is common amongst those involved in safeguarding and they really do need external supervision. This is recognised by the Headteacher who did arrange for this to happen, but the person employed to do this was taken ill. It is hoped this will be followed through and that external supervision for all involved in safeguarding. Solution circles might also be used to help staff involved but should not replace external supervision.
There are 24 after school clubs that are run by teachers. It was explained that subject leaders want to promote their subject and run clubs that are connected to the subject. Our Assessor questioned the fact that all teachers are expected to run clubs on top of their heavy workload, but they said that nobody is compelled to run them – especially if they have small children at home. It is probably true that they feel they have a moral obligation to give children additional experiences and opportunities and they can choose something in which they are really interested. They try not to cancel clubs if the teacher is unable to run it one day and somebody else will cover it if possible.
The teacher who is running the club keeps a register of who is attending, and children sign up for the term. They get filled up quickly, but they try to fit in siblings so that parents can pick them up without any problems. Our Assessor asked how the school analyses the club attendance data so they can establish who is attending and who is not? This is particularly important in terms of disadvantaged/Pupil Premium children. There is no overall analysis (which would be worth doing) but they do discuss the Pupil Premium children’s attendance at clubs and activities during Pupil Progress Meetings. It would be interesting to see if there are any groups or individuals who are not included (even by choice) from clubs. Finding out why they do not or will not attend would help the school when drafting their after-school programmes.
Trips and visits are a priority for the school, and they try to get children out as much as possible. They restarted the trips schedule soon after the Covid pandemic – whilst many other schools held back on this because they felt it was so important for the children’s experience. Many of the trips and visits are integral to the curriculum. There are residential experiences for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils at Stubbers and they last two days and nights and are relatively cheap to run. They are free to Pupil Premium children give parents plenty of notice about costs and details early on so they can be prepared.
Regular Reviews
The Assessor spoke to the Headteacher about the recent Ofsted and how she might introduce some changes now this is done. She is rightly thrilled by the outcome and is very proud of the school. The accountability structures and the monitoring that are currently being used by both the Trust and the Headteacher were discussed. The Headteacher said they were due to have a school review from the Trust this term, but she requested that this be dropped in view of the inspection at the end of the summer term. This was agreed and has helped with staff morale during this very long term.
Regular reviews are probably not something that can be avoided if you are part of a large Trust but as Headteacher she is able to control what happens in the school. Following such an amazing Ofsted result the danger was that she continues to do things in exactly the same way (if it is not broke do not try to fix it) but it is also an opportunity to do things differently. The only way to continue to improve as a school to further develop the skills of teachers and support staff and to make them even more effective in the classroom.
This may involve taking some risks and easing up on the checking and monitoring – not really necessary as she and her team know the staff who need most support and they obviously trust their staff. Enabling them to learn from each other through peer observations and time to reflect on what they see and hear in each other’s classrooms would be a useful development. Our Assessor suggested that she talks to groups of teachers to gather their views on how they might move forward. The Headteacher is open to trying new things and keen to keep developing New City Primary School.
Finally, the proposed Flagship Project which will be led by the PHSE Lead was discussed. She outlined the project and said it was all about helping children to identify and express and then manage their own emotions.
The school have already started on this, and our Assessor saw evidence of this in all the classrooms they visited. They are working with BiG Education and the Laural Trust and with a number of schools in Newham and Tower Hamlets and Suffolk. They have met together and had various presentations about research and about attachment issues and how SCMH issues might present.
They spent time working out what was needed in their schools. They looked at Behaviour Logs and Year Groups that they would like to start to work on. They then ran a project with them and explored different ideas. They decided on Zones of Regulations as a good way to go. The Year 4 teachers started teaching Zones of Regulation and looked at activities they could use and they did surveys from the Laurel Trust (about emotions), they analysed them and fed back to the school on what was making children sad. They then implemented the Zones of Regulation and started developing the sort of language teachers and staff could model to children when talking about emotions. All staff including the Mid-Day Supervisors and Learning Mentors are now using the language.
The impact is already being felt and more issues and feelings are now being reported because they know and recognise them. The school has adopted a restorative approach in terms of behaviour as children now recognise their own emotions.
The long-term plan is to incorporate the Zones of Regulation into the into the PHSE programme as well as introducing specific Emotional Regulation time in the curriculum and they will introduce it in more detail to parents at specially arranged Coffee Mornings.
Happy School
New City Primary School is a very happy school where children and adults work together to achieve their very best. They are led by an inspirational Headteacher and a united and dynamic senior team. Staff feel included and are listened to and that they are involved in decision making. The community of the school is reflective and leave nothing to chance.
Their Flagship Project is ground in research and involves a range of other schools and organisations. Collaboration and on-going learning as they go forward is the way this school works. They have so much to be proud of.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.