King David Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a warm and welcoming school where pupils of different faiths work harmoniously together. Adults and pupils show a deep level of respect and care for one another, strongly promoting the school's values.

The positive relationships between pupils and staff are clear to see.

Pupils enjoy coming to school. They are happy and feel safe because they know adults care for them and sort out any worries they may have.

Pupils feel comfortable talking to adults about any concerns. Pupils know the school's behaviour expectations. They work hard to meet these and behave well.

Children in the early years quickly settle into expected routines and show positiv...e attitudes to their learning. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in all aspects of school life and have equal opportunities to succeed.

The school is ambitious for pupils and wants them to achieve well.

However, the school does not have a full and accurate picture of what is working well and what needs to improve. As a result of this, the quality of education that pupils receive is not yet good enough. This means some pupils do not achieve as well as they should.

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

Significant work has been undertaken to plan an ambitious curriculum since the last inspection. This has been successful. However, the implementation of the curriculum is not consistently good across the school.

Where practice is strong, staff have a detailed understanding of the curriculum planning and have strong subject knowledge to enable them to teach it well. They also ask probing questions to check for gaps in pupils' learning, which are then quickly closed. However, in other classes, staff subject knowledge is less secure and pupils' misconceptions are not identified and addressed.

This means that those pupils are often not able to successfully build on previous knowledge.

Staff deliver the phonics programme well. The school is supporting staff to become experts through frequent training and weekly coaching.

While pupils are learning their phonics, their reading books closely match the sounds they know. This helps them to get off to a great start with their reading. Staff give good support to pupils who are at risk of falling behind in the phonics programme.

This helps them to catch up with their peers. However, when pupils finish the phonics programme, they then self-select the books they take home to read. This leads to many pupils choosing books that are not matched to their ability and do not help them to develop their reading fluency over time.

The school is clear about the knowledge it wants pupils to learn and remember, including children in the early years. However, teachers do not consistently use this information to assess how well pupils remember the knowledge they have been taught. In addition to this, teachers do not adapt their delivery of the curriculum in response to what pupils know and can do.

The result of this is that some pupils' recall of prior learning is insecure and gaps in pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills are not addressed swiftly. In too many cases, especially for disadvantaged pupils, gaps in pupils' knowledge are widening. The most recent set of published results indicate that the proportion of pupils in key stage 2 achieving the combined expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics is below average and key stage 2 writing progress is significantly below national measures.

Pupils behave well in this school. Staff insist on high standards of behaviour from the early years onwards. They establish consistent routines in lessons.

This helps pupils to concentrate and have positive attitudes to their learning. Staff ensure that children in the early years benefit from supportive and caring relationships. Expectations of learning and development in the early years are high.

Leaders have tackled some aspects of the weaknesses identified at the ungraded inspection. However, other aspects of the school's work have not improved and, in some cases, have deteriorated. Positively, pupils with SEND achieve well from their various starting points.

Staff identify these pupils' needs early on and put appropriate support in place to help them make progress in their learning. However, the school has not taken sufficient action to address some of the key weaknesses in teaching, which has led to the poor implementation of the curriculum in some areas. In addition, the school's understanding of how well disadvantaged pupils make progress is weak.

Oversight of the use of resources to support disadvantaged pupils is not in place, and so some disadvantaged pupils do not receive the support they need to make good academic progress and achieve well. Over the last 10 months, there have been community tensions, which have had an impact on the harmonious nature of the wider school. This created a number of challenges for school leaders.

Pupils learn to value differences and feel it is important to treat people equally. The school encourages pupils to be curious about world issues and develop a broader understanding of society. Pupils learn about the importance of healthy eating, maintaining an active lifestyle and keeping mentally healthy.

They know how to stay safe online, for example by not sharing personal information with people they do not know. Pupils enjoy residential visits and activities, and events linked to the school's Jewish character. Older pupils take on extra responsibilities such as being play leaders and members of the school council.

These opportunities help pupils to develop their sense of independence and responsibility. This contributes to their pride in the school.

Governors are committed and involved with the school, but they have not always held the school to account for the quality of education well enough.

This is because the information that leaders have provided them with has not given them accurate and sufficiently detailed information about the school, and particularly the quality of the education that the pupils receive. Leaders have an overly generous view of how well the school is performing and have not identified and tackled the key weaknesses well enough. During the inspection, a significant minority of parents mentioned the school's lack of response to their concerns, which covered a range of issues, including dissatisfaction with the quality of education their children are receiving.

Governors and leaders are mindful of the workload and well-being of staff. Staff appreciate this. They feel valued and well supported.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school does not have an accurate picture of what is working well and what needs to improve. As a result, governors do not have sufficient and accurate information to hold the school to account effectively.

The school should ensure that it accurately evaluates and addresses any weaknesses in the school, especially how well the curriculum is taught. It should then improve the information governors receive to ensure they have a high-quality strategic oversight to successfully support and challenge leaders. ? The school's intended curriculum is not consistently delivered by teachers.

As a result, pupils do not know more and remember more over time. The school should ensure that teachers have the skills to deliver the curriculum in every subject as intended, so that pupils can successfully build on their knowledge over time. ? The school has not ensured that books pupils select to read after they have finished the phonics programme are matched to their reading ability.

This slows pupils' learning and hinders the development of reading fluency. The school should make sure that pupils select texts that provide them with opportunities to practise their reading and develop their fluency. ? Teachers do not check pupils' knowledge and understanding effectively in some subjects.

As a result, they do not adapt their delivery of the curriculum in response to what pupils know and can do. This slows pupils' progress. The school should support teachers to check pupils' learning systematically and use this to inform next steps in learning.

• The school's understanding of how well disadvantaged pupils make progress is weak. As a result, some disadvantaged pupils do not receive effective support and do not achieve as well as they should. The school should ensure that improvements are made to the provision for disadvantaged pupils, including how actions and support are monitored and evaluated.