Oakdale Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Oakdale Junior School is a welcoming place with a caring ethos. The school has high expectations of pupils. They rise to these.

Pupils learn well in many subjects.

The school's newly created values of 'respect, aspiration, resilience and kindness' make clear how pupils should behave. The environment is calm and purposeful.

Pupils are keen to learn. Staff take the time to forge nurturing relationships with pupils. As a result, pupils are confident that staff will support them with any worries.

Pupils benefit from a rich array of experiences beyond the curriculum. The school offers a wide range of clubs and activities to help pupils widen their interes...ts. Pupils enhance their academic learning through trips such as to London, arts centres and to Lulworth Cove.

School councillors value the difference they make to their school community. For example, they raise money through uniform sales and summer fairs to build a garden area and to fund extra play equipment. Pupils learn how to stay safe through thoughtfully planned sessions on water and road safety.

Pupils know that believing in yourself supports positive well-being. As a result, pupils are prepared well for life beyond Oakdale.

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

Parents, pupils and staff are positive about the recent changes brought about by the school's leaders.

The trust and governors know the school well. The trust works proactively with the school to support any areas of need, for example regarding the curriculum. Staff feel valued.

Reading is at the heart of the school's curriculum. Pupils who are not fluent readers on entry to the school are given swift support by expertly trained staff to catch up quickly. The books these pupils read are matched to their phonics ability.

Staff quickly identify and address any misconceptions. Consequently, pupils become confident readers. Once they are beyond phonics, pupils benefit from a well-considered reading comprehension curriculum.

Pupils are motivated to think about author choice and motive. As a result, pupils understand a range of challenging texts.

The school has worked with determination to swiftly review and create an aspirational curriculum that is progressively designed with the important knowledge pupils need to learn.

In subjects such as art and mathematics, learning is revisited frequently. Learning checks inform future curriculum design. Staff tailor lessons to enable pupils to know and remember more over time.

As a result, pupils can talk about how their knowledge of sketching has built over time to produce more detailed pieces. In some subjects, however, learning checks are not as well developed. These checks do not focus on the most important knowledge pupils need to learn or they are less regular.

On occasion, the information the school gains about what pupils know is not used effectively to help develop the curriculum. Misconceptions in pupils' learning do not get addressed quite so well. This means a few pupils have gaps in their knowledge.

The school accurately identifies, and supports well, the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers consider what extra support pupils might need to learn successfully alongside peers. This is also the case for pupils who arrive to the school with English as an additional language.

However, some pupils who are eligible to receive pupil premium funding do not benefit as well. In a minority of cases, the school does not precisely identify their needs. This limits how well they learn the curriculum and so they do not achieve as well as their peers in some areas.

The school's personal development programme is a strength. Pupils enjoy 'diversity day' where they learn about the fundamental British values and various cultures. They appreciate visitors from different faiths as well as from humanists.

Pupils show they respect the diversity of modern Britain.

Oakdale is an orderly place to learn. Pupils have positive attitudes towards learning.

The school works closely with families to remove barriers to attendance. As a result, pupils attend school regularly.

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 has not precisely identified the barriers faced by some disadvantaged pupils. As a result, these pupils develop gaps in their learning. The trust must ensure that the school identifies disadvantaged pupils' needs with accuracy to inform the teaching approaches used to improve their knowledge so they are well-prepared for their next stage.

• The school does not check how well pupils have learned in some subjects. This means that assessment information is not being used as effectively as it could be to help strengthen the curriculum and to address gaps in pupils' knowledge. The school should further develop its use of assessment in these subjects so that it helps to deepen pupils' knowledge and understanding.