Benton Park Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school. The school meets the needs of all its pupils extremely well. Pupils make excellent progress in all year groups.

By the end of Year 6, they achieve high standards in reading and writing and above-average standards in mathematics. Children get an excellent start to their learning in the early years provision. Teaching is at least consistently good across the school, and outstanding overall.

Staff have high expectations and set challenging work that motivates pupils and enables them to make rapid progress. High-quality marking ensures that pupils know exactly what they need to do to improve. There are rigorous systems to check how w...ell pupils are doing, and very effective support is provided when it is needed.

Teachers and teaching assistants work very closely together to support the learning of vulnerable pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who are disabled or who have special educational needs. The school's provision for severely hearing impaired pupils is excellent. Pupils' achievement in mathematics is strong, but slightly less so than in reading and writing.

This is because pupils do not have enough opportunity to investigate and solve more open-ended problems. Pupils behave outstandingly well in lessons and around the school. They have excellent attitudes to learning.

Pupils are very proud of, and greatly enjoy, their school. They get on extremely well with one another and there are very strong relationships between pupils and staff. Pupils say that they feel completely safe in school and are very well looked after.

They say that bullying is almost unknown and that there is none in school at the moment. The curriculum is rich, varied and well balanced. It engages pupils very effectively in their learning.

There is a wide range of stimulating enrichment activities. The school promotes pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development very effectively. Pupils are very well prepared for life in modern Britain.

The school is very well led and managed. The headteacher, staff and governors have high ambitions. They are committed to continuous improvement and achieving the best for each child.

They have successfully brought about improvements to teaching, achievement and behaviour since the previous inspection. Staff share best practice within the school, and work effectively to improve provision in other schools. Parents are highly positive about the school and very supportive of it.

Information about this school

The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school. Pupils are taught in 13 mostly mixed-aged classes from the Nursery to Year 6. The early years provision includes a part-time Nursery class and full-time Reception classes.

Most pupils are from White British backgrounds and speak English as their first language. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is just below average. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.

These are pupils supported by the pupil premium, which is funding the school receives for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children looked after by the local authority. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is average. The school includes specialist provision for 12 profoundly or severely deaf pupils, some of whom have complex needs.

The school is part of the Ouseburn Learning Trust, a partnership involving seven local primary schools and a high school. Staff from Benton Park offer support and training to other schools in the Trust and other local schools. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.