Forster Park Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Forster Park Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 25 June 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in June 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You took up post as executive headteacher in September 2016.

You and your leaders subsequently identified the school's improvement priorities. You made sure that staff and governors have a good understanding of them. Parents are very positi...ve about the provision their children receive, and leaders are successfully addressing priorities.

You restructured the leadership team, which has increased capacity to address improvement priorities. You have drawn on expertise from within the school and from across the school's federation to achieve this. Senior and middle leaders provide good-quality guidance and support to staff to ensure that weaker areas in provision are being tackled.

Feedback from staff is positive about the help they have received. Governors completed a review of their work in 2018. They have responded to the outcomes of this review and made changes to the structure of the governing board.

They have also increased their ability to hold school leaders to account. Leaders attend governing board meetings to explain their improvement work, and governors visit school to talk to both staff and pupils. They have a good understanding of how the school keeps pupils safe, and attend regular training to ensure that their own knowledge of safeguarding is up to date.

Safeguarding is effective. Leaders have ensured that there are rigorous processes in place for addressing concerns and ensuring that pupils are safe. Leaders are tenacious in following up their concerns, and challenge external agencies if they feel action is not timely or sufficient.

Staff have a good understanding of how to keep pupils safe. Leaders provide an extensive range of training for staff, which includes information about local safeguarding risks for example, knife crime. Leaders know pupils and families well, and this helps them to provide timely support when needed.

Attendance has improved and is closely monitored. A combination of high expectations and rewards has supported this work. Pupils feel safe in school, and know who to speak to if they have a concern.

They do not believe bullying is an issue, and said that behaviour in and out of lessons is good. They learn how to keep themselves safe through lessons and presentations by visitors to school. Year 6 pupils recently visited a local charity to learn more about the impact and causes of knife crime.

Inspection findings ? We focused on three lines of enquiry to check whether a good quality of education has been maintained. Firstly, we considered how well the teaching of reading is ensuring increases in pupils' progress across key stage 2. This is because, in 2018, pupils at the end of key stage 2 made progress in reading that was significantly below that of pupils nationally.

Leaders identified this as a key area for improvement. ? Leaders have reviewed staffing to ensure greater support for pupils across key stage 2. Previously, support was focused on Year 6.

Leaders also reviewed their approaches to teaching reading. This was to ensure that teachers deepen pupils' understanding of texts, and pupils develop an enthusiasm for reading. Pupils can now make good verbal and written responses to the books they read.

This has, in turn, enabled pupils to learn vocabulary to express their ideas and thoughts. The school's leader for reading has provided models of teaching to help teachers and teaching assistants to improve the pupils' progress. A key part of this process has been the development of learning behaviours that support reading.

These include resilience, expressing an opinion clearly and challenging the opinions of others. Leaders recognise that the school's next step is to extend the application of these learning behaviours to the wider curriculum. ? This improvement work has had a positive impact on pupils' learning.

More pupils across key stage 2 now achieve the level expected for their age, and many have made strong progress to exceed this. Evidence in pupils' books and talking to pupils indicates that progress at the end of key stage 2 this year will be stronger than in 2018. Teachers will now ensure that improvements in reading skills and knowledge will support improved progress across the curriculum.

• Secondly, we explored how well teaching in mathematics meets the needs of the most-able pupils so that they make the best progress across key stage 2. The number of pupils achieving the higher standard in mathematics has been lower than in reading and writing. ? Leaders identified that all pupils, and particularly the most able, do not have sufficient opportunities to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts.

Teachers now plan their teaching to include smaller steps of learning so that concepts are fully mastered. To test this out, pupils are required to solve complex problems and to explain their reasoning. Pupils I spoke to told me that, 'there is always something else for us to do to show we understand what we have learned.'

Most-able pupils feel challenged, and recognise the progress they make. ? There has been a school-wide focus on developing mathematical language. This has helped pupils to extend their mathematical reasoning skills.

By the end of key stage 2, many pupils are now able to provide coherent and well-considered written explanations. ? Finally, we considered how effectively teaching challenges the most able pupils in key stage 1. This is so that they sustain the same high standards they achieve at the end of early years.

• At key stage 2, leaders have worked with teachers to review the curriculum in reading and mathematics. In addition to developing their decoding skills, pupils in key stage 1 can answer complex questions about the books they read. They learn to give their opinions about characters, and the language of the texts.

This ensures that the most able pupils are challenged to develop higher-level skills. In the recent end of key stage 1 assessments, more pupils achieved the higher standard in reading than in 2018. ? In mathematics, teachers use a range of approaches to challenge most-able pupils.

Teachers encourage these pupils to tackle more complex problems, often by using pictures and objects to explain their thinking. Pupils' books show that they are expected to work at a deeper level. Pupils recognise that the work they are given challenges them, and they enjoy this.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the behaviours for learning that have supported pupils' improved learning in reading and mathematics are extended to learning in the wider curriculum ? teachers embed the improvements in pupils' knowledge and reading so that they support learning across the curriculum. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Lewisham. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Nicholas Flesher Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I held meetings with leaders, including members of the local governing board, to discuss their evaluation of the school's effectiveness and its improvement plans. I considered documentation provided by you, and information on the school's website. I visited lessons with leaders, and reviewed a sample of pupils' books.

I spoke to pupils about their learning during our visits to lessons and in the playground. I met with a group of pupils from across key stages 1 and 2. I reviewed 12 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire for parents, Parent View, 21 responses to the Ofsted pupil survey, and 40 responses to the Ofsted staff survey.

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