Grange Park Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The four key values of 'community, inclusion, ambition and mindfulness' are tangible at Grange Park Primary School. They are evident in relationships between pupils, the knowledge pupils learn in lessons and the experiences that leaders provide.

Pupils are fiercely proud of their school community and enjoy attending here. They feel happy, valued and safe. Staff have the highest expectations of what pupils can achieve.

Leaders have placed a strong focus on well-being and mental health. Pupils of all ages apply to be happiness heroes and help their peers who might be anxious or worried. Pupils have personal reflection journals and value using these.

Pupils are ...taught how to manage and recognise their emotions.

Leaders' determination to raise aspirations and show pupils what they could achieve in life is inspirational. The school has created a curriculum around careers that means pupils have high ambitions for their future.

Through a range of additional experiences, including a careers fair and a university graduation, pupils are encouraged to aim high. The school has ensured that these aspirations for pupils' futures are underpinned by a secure and ambitious curriculum.

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

New leadership has made sensible decisions about how to develop the school's curriculum.

The impact of the leaders' work is clearly evident in the areas that they have prioritised. Pupils learn to read well and their mathematical understanding is secure. The school has created a culture where reading is valued.

The teaching of phonics is effective and pupils who find reading more difficult are well supported to keep up with their peers. Pupils of all ages enjoy daily story time and undertaking the role of reading ambassadors. They discuss with enthusiasm the lessons they learn about equality and discrimination from the stories that adults read to them.

The youngest children listen to stories with rapt attention.

The curriculum in some subjects, notably science, is exceptionally strong. Leaders have thought carefully about how to create and enthuse young scientists.

This passion for learning is created through what pupils learn in lessons and the experiences they have outside the classroom. The school uses a range of trips and visits to make learning relatable for children. Pupils explain visiting the source and then the end of the river and how it linked to what they had learned in geography and mathematics.

The curriculum in some wider foundation subjects is not as well developed as science. Leaders are in the process of continuing their curriculum development across these foundation subjects.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are sensitively supported to learn alongside their peers.

Adults are skilled at ensuring that pupils with SEND are supported to achieve their potential. This school is an inclusive community. The 'hive' and 'nurture' provisions mean that pupils who require additional support are able to succeed here.

Children in the early years benefit from an engaging and well-designed environment. Adults focus on developing children's language through effective questions and strong modelling of ambitious vocabulary. Children are well prepared for the next stages of their school journey through the use of strong routines.

Pupils' behaviour is exceptional. In classrooms, they are engaged and keen to learn. Even the youngest children treat each other with kindness and maturity because they are taught to respect each other's differences.

Pupils are passionate about equality and explain that 'we all have the same rights as each other'. They live out these values every day. Pupils have a strong understanding of difference and respect for diversity.

They explain that bullying is not a problem in their school. If it did happen, they are confident that adults would deal with it quickly.

One of the key strengths of the school is the integral role it plays in the local community.

Families are grateful for the ambition and confidence that the school instils in pupils. Parents also appreciate the range of support the school provides them with. Leaders are relentless in removing any barriers to attendance and achievement.

Governors and school leaders have absolute clarity about their vision for this school. They are ensuring that pupils in this community are kept safe and enabled to thrive. All staff are proud to work here.

They feel extremely well supported by leadership and that their opinions are valued. Staff describe feeling 'blessed' to work at this school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Curriculum thinking is more strongly developed in some subjects than others. In some subject areas, the school is still in the process of mapping out precisely what they want pupils to know. The school should ensure that the curriculum thinking for all subject areas is as robust as that in the strongest subjects.