Firside Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The executive headteacher and head of school provide good quality leadership. They are driving improvements in teaching and tackling underachievement effectively.

Assessment information and pupils' work show that the current Year 6 pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils achieve well because of good teaching and teachers' high expectations in most classes. Pupils are expected to do the best they can and respond well to the challenges teachers provide.

Behaviour and safety are good. Pupils get on well together and with their teachers and value the feedback that teachers give them. Pupils are keen to learn and... behaviour is good in lessons, when moving between lessons and at break times.

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good and pupils are well-prepared for life in modern Britain. Governors have been instrumental in taking decisive action to ensure that this is a good school. They provide an increasingly good degree of challenge which promotes better teaching and higher standards across the school.

It is not yet an outstanding school because : Guidance given in teachers' marking and feedback is not always targeted well enough on how pupils can improve. In some classes, teachers' expectations of the less-able pupils are not high enough. Teaching assistants are not always used to best effect in some lessons to promote pupils' learning.

Middle leaders are not yet playing a key role in raising achievement across the school.

Information about this school

The school is larger than the average-sized junior school and is situated in the northern part of Norwich. The majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds.

Most pupils are admitted from the two local infant schools and live within the immediate locality. The school is housed in the original secondary school building for Hellesdon, which was built in 1937. The school was subsequently changed into a middle school and was then restructured into a junior school in 2007, as part of the Norfolk reorganisation programme.

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium (which is additional government funding used to support pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after) is below the national average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below the national average. In September 2014, the headteacher from the local Hellesdon High Academy was seconded to lead as executive headteacher of the school.

A head of school and heads of year were subsequently appointed. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics. The school has recently set up a 'Rainbow Room' to help meet the needs of its disabled pupils.