Chestnut Park Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Chestnut Park Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

The executive headteacher of this school is Rachel Jacob.

The head of school is Sarah Rumbol. This school is part of the GLF Schools Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Julian Drinkall, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Lynne O'Reilly.

There is also a regional director, John Williams, who is responsible for this school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to this school, where they are well cared f...or and achieve well. The school includes pupils' families in the school community, for example through events such as a summer carnival to celebrate pupils' backgrounds through shared music, dance and food.

Leaders provide coffee mornings where many parents share their views and hear about important issues, including pupils' safety in the local area and online.

The school is ambitious for pupils' achievement. Leaders provide a high-quality curriculum and effective support, including to pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

As a result, pupils typically learn the curriculum well.

Staff teach pupils about the school's high expectations for their behaviour and attitudes. In the early years, children settle quickly and learn to take turns and share well.

Older pupils treat one another with kindness and respect. They are focused, attentive and try hard in the classroom.

The school develops pupils' talents and interests through a wide range of enrichment activities including yoga, dance, Spanish club and board games club.

Pupils enjoy and are motivated by opportunities including performing at the Royal Albert Hall with the choir, and producing, then recording, their own music as part of the school's rap club. Pupils take on positions of responsibility, for example by volunteering to pick up litter in the school environment.

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

Leaders provide an ambitious curriculum to meet pupils' needs.

They have identified precisely key knowledge in a sequence that helps pupils to understand and remember it. Many pupils join the school part way through their education who often have additional needs or who do not speak English fluently. The school recently strengthened its approach to supporting those pupils.

Leaders identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge swiftly. As a result, pupils currently in the school learn the curriculum well, although pupils who left the school at the end of Year 6 in 2023 and 2024 had not had time to benefit from this approach. Therefore, published outcomes in national assessments, including provisional outcomes for 2024, do not reflect how well pupils currently in the school are achieving.

The school extends pupils' learning with a range of first-hand experiences that build well on what pupils learn in the classroom. For example, pupils learn to play either cello or violin, have professional tennis instruction and visit places of historical significance. For example, pupils in Year 3 visited Hampton Court Palace to learn about the Tudors and, in Year 5, pupils went to the British Museum to learn about the Ancient Egyptians.

Leaders prioritise reading. Phonics is taught systematically with a strong focus on identifying quickly any pupils at the early stages of reading who need extra help. Leaders check thoroughly that pupils can read each sound securely and blend them together before moving on to new content.

As a result, pupils learn to read with fluency and accuracy. Older pupils read a range of high-quality texts and are taught to understand their meanings well.

Focused training ensures that teachers have secure subject knowledge.

The school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND and teachers make effective adaptations to their delivery of the curriculum, which supports them to achieve well. Teachers present information clearly, helping pupils to understand new ideas and link them to recent learning. However, the school focuses less well on helping pupils to revisit content learned much earlier in the curriculum and understand how it links with new learning.

Pupils sometimes find this earlier content difficult to recall, which can limit how deeply they understand concepts.

Teachers provide work and activities which help pupils, including children in the early years, to practise what they have learned in a focused way. This supports pupils to remember key concepts.

Teachers check that pupils have understood new content securely. However, the school is developing its approach to checking children's understanding in the early years. Some of this work is new and, at times, staff in the early years do not check that children have learned what they intended.

As a result, some children develop misconceptions that are not identified and addressed swiftly.

Teachers encourage pupils to behave well and remind them of the school's expectations and routines. As a result, pupils behave well and learn free from disruption.

The school identifies pupils who need additional support with their behaviour and provides them with a wide range of effective help. The school ensures that pupils attend frequently and provides them with support where attendance needs to improve.

Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

Leaders teach pupils about how to stay safe and healthy, including how to notice their feelings and look after their mental health. For example, pupils are taught about how social media could affect their mental health and about how to manage anxiety. Pupils are taught about different beliefs and cultures.

They learn about democracy and practise what they have learned through elections for student council.

The school has taken effective action to refine and further develop the quality of education that it provides so that pupils typically achieve well. It checks carefully that these actions are having a positive impact on pupils.

Staff have been supported well and helped to develop throughout, particularly through focused training and guidance by school and trust leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• When teaching new curriculum content, the school does not routinely support pupils to revisit the prior knowledge they need to understand new content securely.

As a result, pupils sometimes struggle to recall prior learning, including important vocabulary, and use it to help them to understand new ideas deeply. The school should ensure that teachers help pupils to recall prior learning from earlier in the curriculum and make connections with new concepts. ? In some instances in the early years, staff do not assess children's knowledge systematically.

Where this is the case, misconceptions that children have are not swiftly identified and corrected. As a result, children sometimes make mistakes when they complete tasks where they need to draw on what they have been taught earlier. The school should ensure that teachers check children's learning systematically in the early years and correct any misunderstandings swiftly so that gaps do not open up in their knowledge.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be outstanding for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding for overall effectiveness in June 2018.