Eastbury Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Eastbury Primary School continues to be a good school.

The headteacher of this school is Lisa Shepherd.

This school is part of the Partnership Learning Trust which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Roger Leighton, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Saadat Mubashar.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are enthusiastic about coming to school.

They like learning a wide range of subjects and spending happy times with their friends in the playground and singing together.

Pupils behave kindly and respectfully towards each other and adults in th...e school. Pupils are confident that putting a note into the 'worry monster' and speaking to a trusted adult will resolve any concerns.

Staff ensure that pupils are safe in school.

Leaders have high expectations that pupils achieve well. The school provides pupils with education, guidance and opportunities to prepare them for their next stages after primary school.

The school ensures that all pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including those who attend the school's additional resource provision (ARP), benefit from all that the school has to offer. Staff guide parents and carers to support their child's learning at home.

Leaders organise a wide range of educational activities for pupils that inspire new interests and broaden pupils' experiences, including outings to museums, galleries and theatres.

Pupils attend clubs that enrich their learning, for example pupils are proud to wear badges awarded at Emerald Club for their mathematics skills.

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

The school's curriculum is overseen by a newly structured leadership team. Leaders have thought through clearly the order in which pupils are to be taught key content and ensure that the curriculum reflects the ambition of the national curriculum.

Pupils learn and build up knowledge and skills over time. They develop their understanding and use of technical vocabulary across different subjects.

The school responded swiftly and productively following below-average results in national assessments in reading and mathematics at the end of Year 6 in 2023.

Leaders identified key areas to improve and adjusted the school's approaches to the teaching of early reading and mathematics. They revised systems to check how well pupils are learning. In early reading and phonics, staff swiftly identify gaps in pupils' learning and provide well-planned and structured support to target the phonics sounds pupils need to revisit.

This helps pupils to strengthen their knowledge of phonics and develop their reading skills and fluency.

The school has established new routines for pupils to recap and reinforce prior learning. For example, in mathematics, teachers ensure that pupils are secure in their knowledge of essential skills before moving on to more demanding concepts.

Teachers provide pupils with helpful ways to boost their recall, such as songs and rhymes in the early years.

Pupils benefit from the school's recent revisions to the curriculum across all subjects. For example, pupils in Year 4 link their prior and current learning in history to wider themes such as settlement and invasion.

In a few subjects, pupils are in the early stages of studying the revised curriculum and are less secure in their understanding of more complex ideas.

The school provides staff with regular training and guidance to ensure a consistent approach to the delivery of the curriculum. Teachers make adaptations to their teaching carefully to enable all pupils to access the same curriculum.

Pupils with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language learn well alongside their peers. Pupils who attend the ARP participate in mainstream lessons.

Staff were typically positive about the school.

They appreciate training that the school provides to support them in their roles. The school has taken steps to reduce staff workload and support staff well-being. Some initiatives are quite new and leaders' work is ongoing to ensure that all staff feel the benefit.

From the early years onwards, staff ensure that routines for sensible conduct are well established as pupils move from one activity to the next. Pupils respond swiftly to their teachers' reminders to be attentive. Staff develop effective strategies for any pupils who need extra support to manage their behaviour.

Pupils attend school regularly. Staff identify and follow up any pupil who is absent from school. Where there are concerns about attendance, the school works closely with pupils and their families to help improve their attendance rates.

The school provides pupils with age-appropriate guidance on ways to stay safe including online and in the wider community. Pupils respond maturely to taking on responsibilities. Pupil reading ambassadors help to organise classroom libraries and encourage others to choose from the school's wide range of high-quality texts.

Children enjoy listening to stories, and learn to appreciate books from the earliest opportunities.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, recent revisions of the curriculum are in the early stages of being implemented.

Occasionally, pupils are less secure in their learning of more complex ideas. The school should continue the delivery of the revised curriculum so that pupils deepen their understanding of key concepts 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2019.

Also at this postcode