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Coteford Infant School

The school

Coteford Infant School is a mainstream infant school with a nursery. It is located in Pinner, Middlesex.

The school has a large number of teaching assistants. It is not full – because of the falling birth rate and competition from other local schools – but has doubled in size over the last 12 years.

The school’s catchment area is mixed, with 28 per cent of children from ethnic minority groupings. It has extra resource provision for physically disabled children, all of whom are fully integrated within the school.

The 2000 Ofsted inspection report described the school as ‘a good school and an improving school’.

You can view the Ofsted report and performance table through the links on the right or at:

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The challenge

The school felt that careful baseline assessment on arrival would help with charting progress and allow teachers to pick up children with specific needs.

It wanted to formalise a system that sets and monitors targets, across the school, to provide consistency. It also responded to a need to demonstrate value-added measures, as the children’s ability upon joining the school appeared to be falling.

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The process

Upon joining the school, the nursery nurse, teacher and learning support assistants assess each child.

Target and record sheet for reading

The school has developed a bank of assessment sheets for core subjects with ‘can do’ statements associated with national curriculum levels in science, reading, writing and mathematics based on classroom observations and activities.

The assessment sheets are used six times each year to monitor progress, inform planning, set targets and determine next steps. Individual targets for children are reviewed every half term.

There is only limited sharing of targets because of the ages of the children involved. However, the school verbally shares short-term curriculum targets related to their class work.

The school has rigorous setting arrangements for mathematics from year 1 and writing and spelling from year 2. Parents receive a very clear picture of where their child is placed within these sets.

The school produces a written report three times each year around each half-term. This is given to parents at a parents’ evening where turnout has increased to over 90 per cent.

Parents also receive a weekly letter from their child’s teacher detailing what, in relation to the targets, will be studied in the following week.

Tracking sheets are used to track progress within class groups and identify children who require additional support. Specific aspirational targets are set for each class on a yearly basis and these are reviewed three times a year.

Descriptors for pupil tracking

The review considers a year leaders’ report to the senior management team on all children and their targets. The school tracking sheet is used to inform this discussion.

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The issues

The system has been in place for three years, following a pilot conducted by the deputy head. There have been some issues surrounding its implementation.

The procedure takes a lot of staff time. As a response to this, assessment forms are being refined to make the process more streamlined.

Tracking sheet

It has been more challenging to produce ‘can do’ descriptors associated with individual national curriculum levels for science than for English and mathematics.

It has been helpful to moderate the assessment of teachers within the school.

It has been important to provide support for new staff and newly qualified teachers in how to use the system.

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The impact

The increased use of data has shown that the children’s level of ability upon joining the school has fallen which has encouraged the school to make more use of value-added indicators.

The availability of data has made teachers much more aware of where the children are and what the next steps should be. It has enabled them to identify general and individual areas of weakness, which has brought about significant improvements. It has also provided parents with a much clearer understanding of their child’s progress.

As a result of the use of data and targeting, the school has introduced topic days and extended project studies. These have proved very successful in supporting the child’s achievement of their targets.

According to several teaching staff:

‘Sharing targets with the children is good – it helps them make progress even when they are quite young. A sense of achievement can follow when the target is met which is always an encouragement’.

‘Sometimes it is hard to set targets on something you have done, especially in science where you may not be returning to that topic again that year, but it is of course helpful to the following year’s teacher for when they pick up the topic again’.

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Tips for other schools

Advice to schools in a similar situation, looking to set up their own systems, would be to:

  • spread out the assessments so that they do not all happen in one week as this reduces the pressure on both teachers and children
  • involve teaching assistants in the assessment of children and in supporting their achievement of the targets
  • make teaching assistants’ training and professional development a high priority.

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School quick facts

School quick facts
School name: Coteford Infant School
School type: Infant
School category:
School LEA: Hillingdon
School last inspected: April 2000
School location:
School address: Fore St, Eastcote, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 2AX
Headteacher: Julia Thomas
Pupil age range: 3-7
Pupil gender: Male and female
Pupil background: High proportion from ethnic background
Pupil mobility:
Special education needs (SEN):
Free school meals (FSM): Above average
English as an additional language (EAL):

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School contextual data

School contextual data
Context 2001 2002 2003
NOR 211 207
FSM % 23
% SEN pupils with statement 6 7
% SEN pupils without statement 22 31
% Authorised absence 9.6 6.8 7.3
% Unauthorised absence 0.2 0.5 0.3
Pupil turnover
Results
% Achieving level 2 or above in KS1 reading 85 83
% Achieving level 2 or above in KS1 writing 90 86
% Achieving level 2 or above in KS1 mathematics 95 89

Note, that where possible, these figures have been taken from the Performance Tables website.

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Data management quick facts

Data organisation quick facts
Tool Further information
Pupil Achievement Tracker www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/performance/

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