Goldstone Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Goldstone Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils thrive at this friendly school. They are happy, active and excited to learn.

One parent summed up the views of many by saying, 'My child skips into school each day and comes out buzzing.' Pupils and parents feel listened to. Pupils trust that adults care for them and will respond if they have any problems or worries.

This helps pupils to grow in confidence and to feel safe. Consequently, bullying is not something they worry about.

Pupils are expected to behave well and work hard, and for the most part they do.

The school is a hive of purposeful activity. ...Staff know pupils and their needs well. This ensures that pupils who need additional support benefit from the thoughtful provision that is put in place.

This helps all pupils to feel included and experience success.

A strong sense of community pervades all aspects of school life. Right from the start in early years, families feel welcomed and involved.

Pupils engage confidently with the wide range of additional opportunities available to them. This includes different clubs and activities such as camping on the school field. They are proud of their many sporting achievements at local and national levels.

Pupils are active in community projects and initiatives such as 'Our City, Our World'.

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

Leaders have put in place a broad and ambitious curriculum. It is ordered logically from early years to Year 6.

Across most subjects, leaders identify precisely the important knowledge that pupils should learn. This helps pupils to build their knowledge systematically. Leaders are taking effective action to strengthen some aspects of the curriculum further still.

For example, in mathematics, there has been a successful focus on developing pupils' knowledge of the times tables. However, the curriculum is not as precisely considered in a small number of subjects. Leaders are rightly focusing their efforts to address this.

The curriculum has been carefully designed to engage and interest all pupils. Teachers implement the curriculum well. Where adaptations are needed, for example for those pupils with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND), these are carefully identified and planned for.

Regular checks help ensure that all pupils build knowledge effectively. Staff make full use of the school's grounds and location as effective learning resources within the curriculum. For example, pupils plant vegetables as part of their 'Dig for Victory' focus before harvesting them and making soup with them as part of food technology.

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum. Right from the start in Nursery, children enjoy stories and are excited by events such as getting a letter from a local author. Phonics is taught systematically.

This helps pupils to learn to read quickly and well. Any pupils who start to fall behind are identified by regular assessment and given the help that they need to catch up quickly. Staff ensure that reading books match the sounds that pupils are learning.

This helps pupils to apply their growing knowledge so that they become increasingly fluent and confident. Pupils enjoy reading and being read to. Teachers select stories to read to pupils which engage their interest and help them to broaden their vocabulary and knowledge of the world.

Pupils have well-developed opinions about the characters and plots in the books that they read.

Pupils behave well. In lessons, they engage with their learning and follow instructions.

Even the very youngest children learn to use 'kind hands and kind words'. Any pupils who need redirecting are quickly identified and orientated so that there is little lost learning or disruption. Relationships are warm throughout and this supports learning effectively.

Pupils' personal development is well considered. Leaders have ensured that the well-structured personal, social and health curriculum responds to pupils' changing needs in an age-appropriate way. Pupils can volunteer to take part in the wider life of the school by, for example, acting as a playleader, reading buddy or running the pupil tuck shop at breaktimes.

A focus on sustainability is helping pupils to reflect on environmental issues in an informed way.

Governors know and support the school well. They use a wide range of information to help them to monitor and evaluate the impact of leaders' actions effectively.

Staff feel that their contributions are valued and appreciated. They know that leaders consider their workload and well-being carefully and have made adaptations to aspects of their work in response.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have strong systems in place to identify and communicate any safeguarding concerns effectively. This includes carrying out appropriate checks to ensure the suitability of staff. Leaders ensure that staff are well trained.

This helps leaders to act swiftly to secure the right help for any pupils at risk. Leaders work well with a range of outside agencies when it is needed to help protect pupils.

Leaders have a good awareness of how to adapt the curriculum accordingly so that pupils learn how to keep themselves safe both in and out of school.

They provide parents with helpful safeguarding information.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, the curriculum does not sufficiently identify the essential knowledge pupils should learn and remember. As a result, pupils have gaps in their knowledge.

Leaders are aware of this and have plans in place to address it. Leaders should continue to review and refine the curriculum to ensure that pupils build all the knowledge they need across all subjects to be fully prepared for the next stages of their education.

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 June 2013.