Avenue Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Avenue Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Avenue Primary School is a happy and caring school where everyone is respected. Both the vision 'Expect the best to be the best' and the learning values are at the centre of the school's work.

Pupils take these values to heart and spoke about how they inspired them to try hard, both in and out of school.

The curriculum is broad and tailored to the needs of all pupils in the school. Teachers are careful to explain learning clearly and do their utmost to help pupils to succeed.

Because of this, pupils enjoy their learning and work hard to meet the high standards of the school.... All pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well. This is especially clear in pupils' strong outcomes in national reading, writing and mathematics assessments by the time that they leave the school.

Pupils are courteous and polite and are keen to talk to visitors about their school. They behave well and show high levels of engagement and interest in lessons. Well-established routines help pupils to concentrate in class.

Bullying is rare, but if it does happen, pupils know they can talk to any member of staff, who will quickly sort out any problems. Pupils appreciate the warm and respectful relationships that they have with staff. As one pupil put it: 'This school is built on kindness and respect.'



What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Reading is a priority in this school. Leaders understand the different needs of all pupils and are ambitious for everyone to be a fluent reader as soon as possible. Routines are quickly established in the Nursery.

Children practise their listening and language skills so that they get off to a flying start when they begin in Reception. Attractive reading areas invite pupils to read for pleasure. They regularly visit the school library and enjoy being read to every day.

As a result of this, pupils develop a love of reading.

Staff are well trained in the delivery of the phonics scheme and quickly identify any pupils who are falling behind. Teachers adjust lessons and provide additional support for those who need it.

Pupils regularly practise reading with books that are carefully matched to the sounds that they have been taught. Because of this, pupils' fluency develops quickly.

The school curriculum is ambitious and carefully planned.

Leaders have identified important skills and knowledge, ensuring that new learning builds on what has been taught previously. For example, in art and design, pupils learn how to use a pencil to make different shades of grey. Later on, they learn how to use these shades of grey to create depth in their pictures.

Pupils successfully draw on the knowledge they have practised and developed to produce final art pieces of high quality.

Regular assessment is used effectively in most subjects so that teachers have a good understanding of what pupils know and how to build on this. However, in a few wider curriculum subjects, approaches to checking pupils' understanding are currently not fully developed.

They do not support teachers well enough in identifying gaps in knowledge. This is limiting how well pupils progress through the planned curriculum in these subjects.

Teachers' strong subject knowledge, together with appropriate adaptations to lessons, helps all pupils, including those with SEND, to learn well.

Additional adults also support pupils with SEND effectively. For example, skilful questioning and use of additional resources help these pupils to learn well. This skilful support also helps pupils to behave well in lessons and sustain high levels of concentration and perseverance.

Attendance is a high priority for the school. Clear expectations are regularly communicated to pupils and parents and carers. Monitoring systems are robust, and careful analysis ensures that leaders have a good understanding of any issues.

Regular absences from school are swiftly followed up by leaders with positive and clear strategies. This is helping to improve attendance.

The governing body understands its strategic role and monitors the work of the school to support and challenge effectively.

Pupils enjoy the many wider opportunities offered by the school, including after-school clubs and a range of educational visits. The curriculum encourages pupils to understand and reflect on wider society and their experiences of the world around them. This is enhanced by special in-school events.

For example, pupils enjoy taking part in school cultural days which celebrate pupils' diverse backgrounds, cultures and religions.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some foundation subjects, how pupils' learning will be checked is, at present, not fully defined.

In these subjects, teachers do not use assessment information to identify gaps in pupils' knowledge as effectively as they could. The school should refine approaches to assessing pupils' progression through the curriculum so that pupils can be better supported to know more and remember more in these subjects.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in September 2014.