Grenoside Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Grenoside Community Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this warm and friendly school.

They value their learning and are proud of the school's place in the local community. Pupils show great interest in the heritage of Grenoside. They enjoy learning about the old Victorian school building, which is located very close to the school.

Pupils respond very well to the school's high expectations for their progress and behaviour. Pupils are swift to settle to learning and benefit from the calm learning environment. Pupils achieve well in end of key stage tests and assessments.

The school is relentles...s in its focus to support pupils to achieve positive outcomes.

Pupils play a pivotal role in creating a happy and caring school environment. They are keen to welcome visitors.

They value the adults in the school. Pupils are confident to approach staff if they need to. Adults know them and their families well.

These positive relationships help pupils feel safe in the school.

Pupils benefit from a wide range of trips and visits. Pupils in Year 6 enjoy their residential experience and pupils in Year 3 enjoy visiting Cresswell Crags.

The school takes extensive steps to ensure that pupils can benefit from these exciting opportunities.

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

The school places high value on developing pupils' reading skills. This happens as soon as pupils join the school.

Highly trained adults ensure pupils have the reading skills to learn the curriculum. Pupils who need extra support are swiftly identified. Any gaps are closed quickly through interventions.

These interventions take place rapidly once a gap has been identified. A range of ambitious texts are explored with pupils. Pupils develop a love of reading.

For example, pupils in Year 3 excitedly discuss the genre and characters in 'The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale'.

The well-sequenced curriculum ensures that pupils gradually build their knowledge over time. In mathematics, pupils develop their basic skills first.

They then experience regular opportunities to solve increasingly complex problems. The school is ambitious for all pupils. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from adaptations to reach the same endpoints as their peers.

For example, in mathematics, Year 5 pupils use a value slider to support them with place value. Parents value the high-quality support that pupils with SEND receive.

In other curriculum areas, pupils also recall their most recent learning well.

For example, pupils in Year 6 explain how the Roman invasion of Egypt impacted on the pharaohs. Adults frequently check pupils' understanding in lessons. The swift identification of any misconceptions ensures that pupils build knowledge on secure foundations.

However, there is not a consistent approach to checking what pupils have remembered over time. In some subjects, the school does not have a precise understanding of what pupils have learned.

Children in the early years have a happy start to their education.

Purposeful and engaging activities ensure children benefit from every activity they take part in. For example, children take a number block from a 'mystery box' and use their mathematical learning to work out the number if it is doubled. Adults carefully assess the activities children engage with.

They ensure children access a broad range to support their learning.

Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs. These include reading club, choir and boccia.

Pupils' engagement in these enrichment activities is extremely high. Pupils' wider education is also enhanced through focused lessons. They learn about the different protected characteristics.

Pupils have a strong knowledge of these and know that discrimination should not be tolerated. Through this learning, pupils show kindness and empathy towards others.

Pupils enjoy taking part in the 'Great Grenoside Bake Off'.

They work together to design and sell a product to the wider community. This helps develop different skills, ranging from mathematics to customer service. The recipes pupils use are then collated in a cookbook.

Pupils are proud to use this event to raise funds for the school and charities.

The school and governing body are determined in their vision of the best for every child. Governors support and challenge the school to bring this vision to life.

Strong links are created to support this vision. For example, the school works very closely with leaders from a multi-academy trust. The school uses these links to help progress the school further.

Staff are proud to work at the school. They know that the school places great value on their well-being and workload. The school's collaborative approach ensures that every member of the school community feels important.

One parent summed up many parents' high regard for the school, when they said, 'The school really works as a team together and it shines throughout 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 some foundation subjects, the school has not yet fully implemented effective assessment strategies.

This means the school is not as clear about what important knowledge pupils have learned and remembered over time as it could be. The school should ensure it has more consistent approaches to checking pupils are remembering more over time in some foundation subjects.

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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in January 2019.