Park House Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Park House Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to Park House Primary School, which is reflected in the above-average rates of attendance. Pupils say that they are happy at the school.

As one pupil said: 'Teachers are kind. If you need help, this is given'.

Governors and leaders have high expectations for pupils and a shared vision of providing a 'challenging, exciting, enjoyable and relevant curriculum' that is designed with the intent of pupils being well prepared for their secondary education.

Pupils' views advocate this. Typical comments are: 'I get to learn new things each day'; 'Teachers hel...p me to get better'; 'I get to learn things independently'; and 'Teachers make learning fun'.

Staff care about pupils and their families.

As one parent stated: 'Park House is a lovely school. It has a real community feel. Pupils thrive here and make great progress.'

The vision of leaders is on its way to being realised. Pupils achieve well, particularly in reading and mathematics.

Leaders have equally high expectations of pupils' behaviour.

Pupils behave well in lessons, during assembly and at breakfast club.

Pupils interviewed say that they feel safe in the school. They say that any problems they have are sorted out quickly.

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

Senior leaders prioritise reading. The design of the early reading programme is well structured and ambitious. Staff have received appropriate training to secure a consistent approach.

The reading books that pupils are given are well matched to their stage of development. Adults keep a close eye on pupils' progress. If pupils begin to fall behind, support programmes are put in place to help them catch up quickly.

Pupils have access to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction reading material. They enjoy the daily story time, which is delivered animatedly by teachers. The package that pupils receive helps them to become fluent, proficient and confident readers.

Teachers have good subject knowledge. They harness this to present learning in interesting ways, which engages pupils. For instance, in mathematics, pupils explain how, in each lesson, they do 'flash-back' activities.

These cover content that they have been taught before. This helps them to review and remember their prior learning. Teachers check what pupils can recall.

They redesign their programme if they find gaps in pupils' mathematical learning.

Leaders have designed and implemented a new curriculum for the foundation subjects. This is intended to provide a structure of continuity and progression for pupils' knowledge from the early years to Year 6.

The curriculum content is ambitious in breadth and content and is suitably balanced. It places an emphasis on pupils learning about the history and heritage of their locality in north east Derbyshire. In history, pupils visit Creswell Craggs to learn about the Stone Age.

They learn about the inventor George Stephenson. This has helped them to understand the importance of the railways during the Victorian era.

The curriculum is more firmly established in subjects such as history, and it continues to evolve in a small number of foundation subjects.

Leaders are still putting the finishing touches to their plans. They have not yet identified in all subjects the precise knowledge that they want pupils to know and recall. In addition, pupils are not revisiting their learning as often as they could to ensure that levels of recall remain high.

This is a barrier to pupils achieving as well as they could in these subjects.

Leaders quickly identify those pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff liaise with other agencies to secure a programme of support that enables pupils with SEND to achieve well.

Leaders have a clear vision and plan for promoting pupils' personal development. Pupils enjoy accessing a range of extra-curricular activities, particularly in sport and music. Pupils know that the decisions made by the school council have improved the school.

Pupils help the environment by recycling. They also share how 'playground buddies' have helped to support pupils who may be feeling lonely during social times.

Pupils learn about relationships in an age-appropriate way.

They develop a respect and understanding for those who have different beliefs and backgrounds to their own.

Governors provide appropriate levels of support and challenge to leaders. Governors and leaders have ensured that pupils' behaviour is good.

The enthusiasm of a few pupils during competitive sports at breaktimes can overspill into misbehaviour. Governors have agreed a new approach to anti-bullying. This is to support pupils to manage their emotions during these times.

Staff feel that leaders are considerate of their well-being and workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Senior leaders are systematic in recording any concerns about pupils, triangulating information with pupils' attendance and behaviour.

They are able to quickly identify those who may be at risk. They provide timely support to pupils and families when concerns arise, involving other agencies if required. Staff are knowledgeable about how to keep pupils safe because they are well trained.

Leaders ensure that the suitability checks made on staff are thorough.

Pupils say that they are taught how to keep themselves safe. This includes when learning online and in out-of-school contexts, such as road safety, railways and not talking to strangers.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Curriculum development, in a few subjects, is still relatively new. The ambition of leaders is not yet fully realised. Leaders should continue to refine their curriculum plans, notably in identifying the precise knowledge that pupils need to learn, so that pupils are able to achieve highly in all subjects.

Subject leaders need to check the implementation of the refined curriculum to assure that it is being delivered to a standard that meets the high expectations of leaders. ? In some foundation subjects, pupils' recall of what they have been taught before is not always as secure as it could be. They need to be given more frequent opportunities to revisit and recall their learning.

This will help teachers to check more closely what pupils know and remember in order to quickly identify any gaps in learning, which will in turn inform their next teaching steps. This is so that pupils can achieve as well in these subjects as they do in core 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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in October 2014.

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