Edgware Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Edgware Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have high expectations for pupils. They want pupils to have a happy and successful experience of school. Staff work as a close team to ensure that pupils have a wide range of opportunities to enrich their learning and broaden their interests beyond taught subjects.

Pupils are polite, respectful and considerate towards each other. They are cheerful coming to school because they make friends and their teachers help them to learn.

Staff seize opportunities to encourage pupils to develop their awareness of current issues at local, national and global levels.

For exampl...e, pupils shared their ideas with architects and the wider community about local redevelopment projects. The eco council organises energy-saving and waste-reduction activities. Pupils enjoy attending clubs to pursue and learn new pastimes, including sewing and model building.

Leaders make sure that everyone has the chance to participate.

Pupils take on roles of responsibility, including as sports ambassadors who encourage others to take part in physical activities. Mental health pupil champions receive guidance on how to look after their own and others' emotional well-being.

Leaders make sure that staff spot rare instances of bullying and help pupils to resolve any issues swiftly. Pupils are safe in school.

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

Leaders have set out the sequence in which they expect pupils to develop knowledge and skills in all subjects.

They ensure that teachers are clear about what pupils should know and remember over time. Teachers routinely revisit key facts to check pupils' recall and identify any gaps in their learning. Teachers adapt their planning and teaching of the curriculum to help pupils catch up.

Staff have high expectations for pupils' use of subject-specific vocabulary, correct pronunciation of technical terms and the development of pupils' thinking to learn more demanding concepts. Some subject leaders are new to their role. They are in the early stages of identifying staff training needs and where staff may need further support with aspects of the subject curriculum.

On a few occasions, when teachers' subject knowledge is not as strong, pupils' misconceptions and errors go unresolved.

Leaders ensure that staff are alert to identifying pupils' special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders swiftly implement strategies to enable pupils to have the same learning opportunities as others.

Leaders promote pupils' enthusiasm for reading from the early years onwards. Staff are trained in the school's chosen scheme for the teaching of phonics so that there is a consistent approach across the school. Leaders are highly considerate that early readers can be of any age.

Staff use effective strategies to support pupils who start at the school part way through their primary education and who are behind in their reading, including pupils who speak English as an additional language.

Opportunities and encouragement for pupils to read are firmly rooted in the life of the school. Pupils visit the school library and have access to leaders' thoughtful choice of texts that are relevant to pupils' interests and which complement their learning.

Special events, such as pupils joining other schools to perform scenes from Shakespeare plays and visiting authors, develop pupils' appreciation of high-quality texts.

Pupils focus well in class and are enthusiastic to learn. They willingly work together, listen to each other's ideas and compare notes on how they are getting on with a task.

Pupils respond positively to well-established routines and their teachers' high expectations. For example, children in the early years were intrigued to explore the properties of snow gathered in trays by their teacher after recent wintry showers. Older pupils sensibly used water sprays to investigate the suitability of materials for making shelters.

Leaders promote healthy lifestyles and provide pupils with information and guidance to help them make informed choices about their diet and exercise.

Aspects of safeguarding, including e-safety, are woven through the curriculum. In English, pupils in Year 6 reflected on possible signs of neglect affecting a character in their class text, and how they might report a concern.

Personal, social and health education raises pupils' awareness of risks to pupils' well-being and encourages them to speak out if they feel unhappy or are uncomfortable about a situation.

Pupils in Year 6 are well prepared for their next steps. They develop an insight into work-related skills, such as teamwork and finance in their enterprising projects.

They hear about a range of different professions in a careers fair.

Staff felt that leaders are considerate of their well-being and that they are supported in their roles. Leaders, including governors, have made changes to policies that have helped staff to manage their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders oversee a strong culture of safeguarding across the school. They ensure that all staff are suitably trained and receive regular updates and reminders so that everyone is familiar with latest requirements and recognises their responsibility to safeguard pupils.

Staff are alert to, and know what to do, if they have any concerns.

Leaders make sure that staff are up to date with online content that might pose a risk to pupils.

Leaders work with professional agencies to provide support for pupils and their families when needed.

An administrative omission in the record of pre-employment checks was corrected during the inspection.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some subject leaders are in the early stages of developing their role. Routines for identifying staff training needs and providing support are not well established.

Occasionally, where staff teach beyond their areas of subject expertise, pupils' errors or misunderstandings are not picked up and resolved. Recently appointed subject leaders should implement their intended development programme to identify and address weaker areas of staff subject knowledge.

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 May 2017.