Green Park Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Green Park Primary 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 ambassadors of their school. The school's mission statement permeates everything that they do. Pupils play and learn happily together as they prepare for life beyond school.

They benefit from warm and supportive relationships in lessons and at breaktimes.

Pupils are taught to make a positive contribution through their roles as representatives on the school council and as playground leaders. They demonstrate compassion when supporting good causes within and beyond their school community.

For ex...ample, pupils organised donations to a foodbank during harvest. Pupils also discover new skills and talents such as chess and gardening. They enjoy representing their school in a range of sporting activities.

Pupils are supported to understand their own and others' feelings and emotions. They are incredibly kind to each other. They strive to live up to the school's high expectations of their behaviour.

Pupils are proud to follow the 'Green Park Way.' They strive to earn the much coveted 'values champion' awards that they receive for their positive attitudes to school life.

The school has high expectations for pupils' achievement.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), access an ambitious curriculum. They achieve well across a range of subjects.

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

The school prioritises the teaching of reading.

Staff are trained to deliver the phonics programme consistently well. Children in the Nursery class join in with rhymes and songs to develop their early language skills. This prepares them well for learning phonics as soon as they enter the Reception Year.

Pupils benefit from reading and listening to stories from their class and school library collections. Older pupils understand the importance of reading to develop their vocabulary and comprehension skills. They are proud to be trained as 'book buddies' for younger children in the school.

The school ensures that pupils read books that match the sounds that they know. They provide pupils who need extra help with appropriate support. As a result, pupils learn to become confident and fluent readers.

Governors support and challenge the school effectively. They understand what the school does well and what further improvements need to be made. This has helped to ensure that effective action has been taken to maintain the standards identified at the time of the previous inspection.

For example, much work has been undertaken to ensure that the school identifies pupils who may have additional needs quickly. The school has invested in developing staff expertise in this area. The school ensures that pupils with SEND have the support that they need to progress well through the curriculum.

The school has recently reviewed its curriculums in subjects other than English and mathematics. The content of these curriculums is designed to help pupils build knowledge logically over time. Staff value the regular curriculum training that they receive.

This ensures that they are confident in delivering the curriculums. Staff also value the school's commitment to reducing their workload. This helps staff to fulfil their roles effectively and supports their well-being.

In most subjects, teachers reliably check what pupils know and remember. However, in some subjects, teachers' checks are not clearly focused on the key knowledge pupils need to support their future learning. This leads to gaps in some pupils' learning and prevents them from achieving as much as they could.

In addition, errors in some pupils' spelling, punctuation and handwriting go unchecked. Consequently, some pupils continue to repeat these errors.

Children in the early years, including those in the Nursery class, settle into routines quickly.

They learn to take turns and share with others. This positive start is built on as they move through the school. Pupils understand the importance of keeping physically and mentally healthy.

They learn about using breathing and meditation techniques which pupils say help them to feel calm.

The school prioritises pupils' attendance. Some pupils do not attend school as regularly as they should.

The school has a clear understanding of the reasons for this absence. It takes swift and effective action to provide support for these pupils and their families. As a result, pupils' rates of attendance are improving.

Pupils understand that everyone is unique. They learn that people have different families, backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs. Pupils are able to speak confidently and maturely about the importance of treating everyone equally.

They benefit from being taught the skills of debate to support them to understand and respect other people's viewpoints. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• At times, staff do not identify the spelling, punctuation, and handwriting errors that pupils make when they write independently. This means that some pupils continue to make the same errors over time. The school should ensure that staff identify and address these errors so that pupils are supported to develop their writing accuracy and expertise across the curriculum.

• In some subjects, the checks that staff make on pupils' understanding are not clearly focused on the key knowledge that pupils need to know to support their future learning. This leads to gaps in some pupils' understanding and prevents them from learning all that they could. The school should ensure that checks on pupils' understanding in these subjects are focused on the most important information that they will need to secure future learning.

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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in July 2015.

Also at this postcode