Grange Park Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Grange Park Junior School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend Grange Park Junior School. The school's motto of 'striving to be the best that we can be' is embedded into the life of the school. The school has high expectations of pupils.

Pupils achieve well across an ambitious curriculum. Pupils understand the core values of kindness, empathy and equality. They value the high level of support and care they receive from staff.

Pupils are happy and safe.

Pupils are polite and behave well. They know that if they are worried about anything they can ...speak to any adult or put a concern in the 'worry box'.

Staff deal with rare incidents of poor behaviour very effectively. Pupils appreciate this support and trust leaders to help them. Relationships between staff and pupils are extremely strong.

Opportunities to develop new talents and responsibilities are an important part of the school's provision. For example, the school has recently invested in a swimming pool and aspires for all pupils to become proficient swimmers. Pupils contribute to the wider community, for example through raising awareness of road safety.

Pupils also enjoy the educational visits that staff organise to enrich their learning, including visits to places of worship, a local theatre and concerts, where the school choir performs.

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

Leaders, including governors, are passionate about providing the best-quality education for their pupils. Pupils study a wide range of subjects.

The school has planned and sequenced the curriculum carefully. It has also given careful thought to the adaptations needed so that pupils with different abilities and needs access learning successfully. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Sometimes, however, the curriculum does not provide opportunities for pupils to extend their understanding of ideas in a subject, for example by using what they know to explore more advanced subject content. This means that pupils do not deepen their learning as effectively as they could.

The curriculum is broad and ambitious.

Leaders have identified the important knowledge and skills that they want pupils to learn. For example, in mathematics, teachers design activities that require pupils to revisit and reuse knowledge that they have learned previously. This helps to secure and strengthen pupils' understanding.

However, in a few subjects, teaching expertise is not as strong. This means that, in these subjects, pupils are not able to develop the same depth of understanding as they do in most other subjects. Leaders have a clear strategy to develop staff expertise further, but this is still work in progress.

Pupils enjoy reading. The school follows a systematic reading programme to support pupils in developing their reading. Those who struggle to read with fluency are given specific support to ensure that they keep up with their peers and are able to access the curriculum fully.

Pupils experience a wide and diverse range of texts that foster their positive attitudes towards reading.

Pupils behave well in and around the school. The atmosphere is calm and orderly.

Pupils really value the school's rules and rewards such as the disco dodge ball. Robust and effective systems are in place to ensure that pupils continue to attend school regularly and on time.

Work to foster pupils' personal development is a strength.

Pupils are very well prepared for life beyond their school. Pupils learn about different cultures, beliefs and religions. They are taught about respect and equality and learn that discrimination is wrong.

Opportunities to perform, work together and compete in sporting events help to develop pupils' resilience and confidence. Pupil leadership roles are well established and support pupils to become 'leaders of tomorrow'. Pupils relish the opportunity to develop their leadership skills through the school council, being a 'junior travel ambassador' or a member of the sports crew.

The school has made recent successful changes to improve its work. Leaders are supported and challenged well by school governors. Staff morale is high due to the collaborative culture that exists at the school.

Leaders support staff with their well-being and workload. Staff said that they are proud to work at the school.

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 foundation subjects, teachers' subject-specific knowledge and subject-pedagogical knowledge are not securely developed. This means that some teaching is not helping pupils to develop deep and detailed knowledge. The school should ensure that staff have the subject knowledge that they need to deliver the curriculum effectively.

• Sometimes, the curriculum does not provide pupils with suitable opportunities to deepen their learning. This hinders pupils from being able to enrich their understanding of key ideas and concepts. The school should ensure that the curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to further develop their knowledge and understanding, and use what they know to access more advanced subject content.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 for overall effectiveness in September 2019.

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