Crown Lane Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Crown Lane Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are keen to demonstrate their Crown Lane 'superpowers' in all that they do. For example, staff encourage pupils to show resilience, curiosity and reflectiveness when they are learning.

Leaders and staff have created a kind and safe place for pupils to learn.

They foster a community where everyone is polite and respectful to one another. Pupils are kept safe.

Leaders have high aspirations for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Teachers ensure that all pupils are supported effectively in their learning an...d achieve well.

Leaders have introduced a new behaviour policy. This has resulted in a calm atmosphere around school and in lessons.

Irrespective of what year group they are in, pupils are keen to learn and work hard. Those who are new to the school, including those children who join the Nursery class or the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced provision), quickly get used to routines and demonstrate positive attitudes to school life. They join in happily with everything that is on offer.

Leaders plan a range of educational visits to enhance pupils' learning of the curriculum. Pupils speak fondly of these visits. They understand how these are planned to enrich what they have been taught in class.

Pupils also participate in a range of leadership opportunities that allow them to help shape different aspects of school life.

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

Leaders have ensured that there is an ambitious curriculum for all subjects, including in the early years. Staff are carefully trained to enable them to successfully deliver the curriculum.

Senior leaders and subject leaders work together well to evaluate and modify the curriculum and its delivery. Pupils know and remember more due to leaders' strong oversight and ambition. Teachers also use strategies which help pupils to regularly revisit and remember their learning.

This also helps pupils acquire and remember secure knowledge across the curriculum.

Leaders and teachers have planned the curriculum so that pupils are able to build on their previous knowledge. In mathematics, for example, pupils' understanding of important concepts, such as fractions, develops in a logical manner from the early years up.

For example, in the Reception Year, children learn about and practise dividing up objects into equal pieces. Later, in Year 3, pupils develop their knowledge by working out whether fractions are equal. In Year 4, pupils learn about mixed numbers and how to resolve improper fractions.

Last year, pupils' outcomes in national assessments were not as strong as leaders expected. In response, leaders have refined the curriculum and are providing training to staff. This work has, in the main, strengthened how well pupils learn, as well as how teachers identify and rectify any gaps in pupils' knowledge.

However, some teaching incorporates activities that are not helpful in supporting pupils to learn and remember the planned curriculum. Leaders are working with teachers to ensure that tasks and resources in lessons fully support the intended curriculum goals.

Leaders and teachers use assessment purposefully to find out how well pupils understand knowledge.

Where appropriate, teachers make adaptations to the delivery of the curriculum so that pupils can revisit ideas. If required, pupils receive focused help, sometimes in small groups, to help them to catch up.

Leaders have prioritised early reading, and this is clear in the ambitious approach to phonics.

Children begin learning phonics from the beginning of Reception. Leaders have invested in extensive training for all staff. This means that staff are skilled in supporting pupils to learn and recall sounds.

Pupils use this knowledge confidently to read with fluency and accuracy. The curriculum has been planned to ensure that pupils read widely in a range of subjects and develop a love of reading and stories. Pupils spoke warmly about the stories that they have read and had read to them.

They enjoy story time at the end of each school day. Curriculum leaders also expect pupils to learn and use key vocabulary in a subject.

Leaders ensure that pupils with SEND are identified promptly.

Appropriate support is then put in place. Leaders work closely with parents and carers, pupils and staff to ensure that the support is helping pupils to learn well. Pupils attending the specially resourced provision learn in a kind and supportive environment.

Leaders ensure that the delivery of the curriculum supports these pupils' academic and social development well. Parents appreciate the support that this provision offers their children.

Leaders make sure that the new behaviour policy is applied consistently.

Pupils show positive attitudes to learning in lessons. It is rare for staff to need to give them reminders. Pupils enjoy their breaktimes.

They play together in safe and friendly ways.

Leaders and teachers have thought carefully about the experiences that pupils need to support their wider development. They plan events and activities to develop pupils' interest in and understanding of the world beyond their local area.

For example, they ensure that pupils experience visits to museums and art galleries in order to broaden their knowledge of artists and artefacts.

The governing body supports and challenges leaders effectively, especially with the work to ensure that staff well-being is a priority.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have ensured that there is a strong safeguarding culture at the school. Leaders have designed and put in place a rigorous scheme of training for all staff and governors. Staff are knowledgeable and report concerns promptly.

Pupils' welfare, including that of the most vulnerable, is well supported by all who work at the school. Leaders work closely with external agencies when there are concerns.

Through the curriculum for personal, social and health education, pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe, including online.

They learn about these themes in both lessons and assemblies. Pupils have trusted adults in school that they feel confident to talk to if they have a concern.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some activities that pupils complete in lessons are less helpful than others in supporting their learning of the curriculum.

When this happens, it decreases how well pupils are supported to secure and remember knowledge. Leaders should continue their work to strengthen the implementation of the curriculum for all 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 February 2012.

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