Eden Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Eden Primary

Following my visit to the school on 21 November 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in July 2013. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your senior leaders have successfully addressed the actions for improvement identified in the previous inspection report. Since that time, the school has grown considerably.

You have taken decisive action to ensure that the right priorities ha...ve been identified to meet the school's changing needs. These include improving teaching and developing the early years provision. You invested in a well-considered programme of staff training and development.

As a result, teaching has continued to improve, as have pupils' outcomes. Your leadership team support you well, and through the quality of their work have ensured that the school continues to improve. Staff shared their admiration for the recent changes that you have made and confirmed that they are very proud to work at the school.

Trustees and governors know the school well and share your ambition for the pupils. They have fully supported your actions for improvement. They visit often to check progress and ask challenging questions to make sure that leaders secure improvement.

As a result, they have an accurate view of the school's strengths and the areas to improve. You have ensured that pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities receive carefully tailored support both in class and out of lessons. This enables them to achieve well.

Safeguarding is effective. The school's safeguarding procedures are effective. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of good quality.

Leaders and governors have ensured that policies and procedures promote and communicate vigilance to all staff. They counter-check training logs regularly. The school engages effectively with external agencies to support and safeguard children.

Staff training is up to date and as a result they are aware of what to do if they have any safeguarding concerns. Pupils have a good understanding of how to use the internet safely. Parents reported that their children are safe, well cared for and supported.

A few parents and pupils who responded to the online survey suggested that the school did not always deal with behaviour concerns raised with urgency. Attendance is above average. Inspection findings ? We first agreed to look at the effectiveness of actions taken by leaders to accelerate the progress of children in the early years.

• Children enter the school with good inter-personal skills but weaker writing skills. Some of the boys enter the school with weaker personal, social and emotional development. Children make quick gains in early years.

In the outdoor garden, children develop social skills quickly and they work collaboratively to tackle problems. In one session observed in the outdoor mud kitchen, children divided tasks among themselves and they all executed their roles well. They asked questions to clarify what they had to do, and they communicated their roles with each other.

• The children are kind and considerate. This is because the early years curriculum provides a wide range of activities both inside and out of the classroom. These activities, together with planned trips and visits to the locality, help to expand children's knowledge and understanding of the world around them.

Adults often plan themes such as caring for others, including the sick. They provide a range of activities to build on children's skills. ? Inspection evidence shows that changes to the curriculum, and improvements in teachers' planning of activities, have resulted in children making good gains in their communication skills.

Nevertheless, leaders and governors acknowledge that further improvement is needed to consolidate recent gains. Leaders continue to monitor teaching to ensure that it provides sufficient challenge for the most able children. ? We next looked at the impact of leaders' actions to improve the outcomes of key stage 1 pupils in mathematics and writing.

Leaders have acted decisively to introduce a range of strategies to rectify this underperformance. ? The key stage 1 curriculum aligns with the needs of all pupils, particularly those who have SEN and/or disabilities. Adults provide effective support that enables these pupils to feel safe and included, and to make good progress, socially, emotionally and academically.

• Visits to classrooms showed that teachers build on pupils' prior knowledge well to check and probe pupils' understanding. Together, we saw good examples of pupils demonstrating a clear understanding of what they had learned, and they could justify their reasons and answers. However, in mathematics and writing, activities are not always set at the correct level.

When this occurs, pupils' progress slows, particularly for some of the most able pupils. ? Finally, we looked at the impact of the curriculum in deepening pupils' understanding at key stage 2. Leaders are aware of the strengths and areas for development within the curriculum.

Leaders' investment in novels and quality texts has improved outcomes across the other curriculum subjects and challenged pupils' thinking. ? Leaders ensure that the curriculum provides a range of opportunities to explore concepts deeply. For example, the pupils apply their reading, writing and mathematics skills throughout the history and geography curriculum.

Art is celebrated across the school; pupils are provided with many opportunities to embed their skills. They study the intentions and motivations of a range of artists because the school has invested in a part-time art teacher. This enables pupils to become resilient and independent learners.

• In our visits to lessons, we found that teachers showed strong subject knowledge and asked questions that probed understanding. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? teachers routinely challenge pupils in their learning, particularly the most able pupils, so that they achieve their best ? the school's actions to accelerate the progress of different groups of pupils are evaluated regularly. I am copying this letter to the chair of the trust board, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Haringey.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Maureen Okoye Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you throughout the day. I also met with the vice-chair of trustees and other governors, including the governor responsible for safeguarding.

I heard a range of pupils in Years 1, 2 and 6 read. Together, we carried out joint visits to classrooms. I scrutinised pupils' work and discussed their learning experience with them.

I met with the consultant business manager to look at arrangements for checking the suitability of staff. I had a telephone conversation with the school improvement partner. I took into account the 82 responses by parents to Ofsted's online free-text facility and views sought from nine parents at the school gate.

I also took into account the views from 17 staff members and 88 pupils. I analysed a range of the school's documentation, including information about the school's achievement, records of leaders' information about attendance, the school improvement plan, safeguarding checks, policies and procedures. We discussed your own evaluation of the school's effectiveness.

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