Park Hall Junior Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

This is a good school. Standards have been well above national averages for the last three years and parents and carers are delighted with the good progress that their children make. In mathematics, pupils' achievement is outstanding as a significantly high proportion of pupils attain the higher levels.

However, the school is not yet outstanding as some groups of pupils achieve less well than others in reading and writing. Pupils do not use their writing skills enough in other subjects and the presentation of their work is often untidy. A very small number of pupils in each year group struggle with sounding out unfamiliar words and do not have sufficient strategies for working them out.

Teachi...ng is good. Good relationships, secure subject knowledge and consistently good use of assessment tools are the hallmarks of the teaching in this school. Pupils enjoy learning and behave well both in and around the school.

Learning is active; not a minute is wasted, and all groups of pupils make good progress, including those who speak English as an additional language, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs. The school is a safe and harmonious community. Partnerships with parents and carers are excellent.

Attendance is high and pupils love coming to school because of an exciting curriculum underpinned with good opportunities for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Leadership and management are good. The headteacher's vision and drive are evident in ambitious performance management targets, identified as a result of tracking pupils' progress.

This has been instrumental in creating a good school whose track record demonstrates a good capacity to improve. The leadership of teaching is good as staff are given very clear targets for improvement through the thorough analysis of their work in the classroom. Self-evaluation is accurate but the school development plan is not rigorous enough in identifying precise success criteria.

Information about the school

Park Hall Junior Academy converted to academy status on 1 January 2012. It is larger than the average primary school. The majority of pupils belong to ethnic minority groups, the largest being Indian and Pakistani.

The number of pupils who speak English as an additional language is much higher than is typically found. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well below that seen nationally. The number of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, mainly moderate learning, social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, is broadly in line with that seen nationally.

The number of pupils with a statement of special educational needs is well below the national average. The school shares a site with Park Hall Infant Academy, and the school is used by Park Hall Community Association. The school has received many awards including Leading Parent Partnership award (Platinum standard), Healthy Schools award, Artsmark Gold, Activemark Gold, Basic Skills Agency Quality Mark and Self-evaluation Quality Mark (Platinum award).

The school meets the government's current floor standard. Before- and after-school care is provided within Park Hall Junior Academy by Park Hall Community Association. This setting is subject to regular inspection by Ofsted and does not form part of this report.

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