Markeaton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Markeaton Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school and enjoy their lessons. One pupil said: 'When you walk in to school in the morning, you feel relaxed and ready for the day because it's a nice place to be.'

The school's 'Markeaton Minds' approach encourages pupils to do their best work and to learn from any mistakes they make.

Pupils say that teachers are very good at helping them to learn, to understand and to remember. Pupils behave well.

They are friendly and kind to one another. Pupils like having lots of friends. One explained that, because of all this, school was 'a bit wonderful'.<...br/>
During lessons, pupils listen carefully to their teachers and work well with one another. Bullying and poor behaviour are rare but, if they ever happen, staff deal with them quickly and effectively.

Work is challenging for pupils.

Teachers enhance the curriculum by planning a wide range of interesting, enjoyable activities. These include exciting educational visits, interesting guest speakers and learning in the school's wooded area. There are also plenty of lunchtime and after-school activities and clubs.

Parents and carers are very happy with Markeaton Primary School. One summed up the views of others by saying: 'This school is a community. It's lovely for the children and it's lovely for the parents.'



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

School leaders make sure that pupils have a broad and well-rounded education. They make sure that all staff have high expectations of what the pupils can achieve. Pupils achieve well.

Staff want to include everyone. They support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities extremely well. They pay careful attention to their progress to make sure that their needs are met.

Kind, caring staff mean that children settle quickly into school life in the early years. The teaching of early reading is well organised. This helps pupils to become confident, fluent readers.

Every afternoon in Year 1, teachers follow up the phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) they have taught earlier that day. This ensures that everyone understands them. Teachers spot pupils who might fall behind and help them to catch up quickly.

A few children make a slower start because they are still learning how to listen to sounds. Encouraging all pupils to enjoy reading is a big priority for school leaders. Pupils listen with rapt attention during the daily class story-time session.

They like visiting the attractive, well-stocked school library.

Pupils enjoy their lessons. They say that the teachers are very good at helping them by showing them how to do things first.

They also say that teachers explain everything to them well. Teachers plan most sequences of lessons with a clear idea about what pupils must remember at the end. They build securely on what pupils already know.

For example, Year 6 teachers ensure that pupils are fluent in place value and multiplication facts. They then teach them more complex mathematics. Planning in some subjects is not always so precise about what pupils must remember.

This means that they cannot recall quite as much as they could. Pupils know a great number of the things that teachers have taught them in history, for example. However, they remain unsure about exactly how long ago events happened.

Pupils have lots of opportunities to take part in rich and varied activities. School leaders want them to become 'responsible and ambitious citizens of the future'. Pupils visit museums, places of worship and other schools in different parts of Derby.

Staff encourage them to be independent and to take responsibility. Some are members of the eco council or 'well-being ambassadors'. Pupils also enjoy a wide range of clubs.

These include 'clay creators', 'sign language club' and 'knee-high ninjas'.

Pupils behave well in lessons and around school. Lessons are not disrupted.

The headteacher and his team lead the school well. Leaders take teachers' workload into account when, for example, writing a new policy on marking. Teachers say that they appreciate this.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Pupils feel safe. They learn how to stay safe, for example when they are online.

Staff understand that safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. The systems for checking that staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children are effective. The designated leaders for safeguarding know the pupils and the families well.

They are well trained and know how to deal with a wide range of concerns. They work closely with other professionals to make sure that the most vulnerable pupils are supported.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

In a minority of subjects, teachers' planning does not always make it as clear as it could be precisely what specific knowledge and skills the pupils need to learn in order to move on to the next stage of learning in that subject.

Leaders need to check that all teachers' planning makes this clear. . In the early years, teachers do not immediately begin teaching a small minority of the weakest readers the sound-letter correspondences they need to know.

This is because some children enter the school with insufficiently high skills in listening. However, leaders need to monitor that teachers always begin to teach each of these children the next stage of phonics as soon as they are ready.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 a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good on 16 June 2011.

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