Beeches Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The headteacher and senior leaders provide a clear sense of direction.

They successfully lead improvement in teaching and pupils' achievement because they have an accurate view of the school's strengths and weaknesses. Teaching is usually good, and some is outstanding. Teachers are successful in engaging pupils' interest and helping them to make good progress in their work.

Pupils' achievement is good. At the end of Key Stage 2 they achieve standards that are in line with the national average in reading and writing. This represents good progress in relation to their starting points in Year 3.

Teaching assistants are well trained... and deployed effectively. They make a strong contribution pupils' progress. Pupils' progress is tracked closely and extra help for pupils who are disabled, those who have special educational needs and those who are at risk of falling behind is planned systematically.

Relationships between staff and pupils are very positive and as a result, pupils feel safe and well cared for. Pupils have positive attitudes to reading and have opportunities to read widely and often. Behaviour is good and pupils get along together exceptionally well.

Provision for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strong feature of the school. Governors have a good understanding of the school's strengths and provide a balance of support and challenge to senior leaders. It is not yet an outstanding school because : There are insufficient opportunities for pupils to apply their mathematical skills in subjects other than mathematics.

The attainment of all pupils in mathematics is not as strong as it is in writing and reading because the activities that teachers provide do not always fully challenge pupils in all parts of the lesson. Monitoring of the quality of teaching does not always provide teachers with sufficiently detailed improvement points to move all teaching to outstanding. Pupils do not have sufficient opportunities to explore ideas for themselves and carry out their own investigations.

Information about this school

This school is larger than the average-sized junior school. The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium (the additional government funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those in local authority care) is above average. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who speak English as an additional language is above average.

The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action plus, and those with a statement of special educational needs is above average. The proportion of pupils at school action is broadly average. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in English and mathematics.

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