Park View Community Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and enjoy coming to school.

They are well-behaved and welcoming towards visitors. Pupils form strong and meaningful relationships with staff and with each other. Pupils' hard work and considerate behaviour help to ensure that the school is calm and purposeful.

Pupils learn about safe and appropriate personal relationships, as well as how to maintain their mental and physical health.

The school expects pupils to achieve highly. In order to achieve this ambition, it has ensured that a well-designed curriculum is now in place for most subjects.

However, staff do not deliver this curriculum consistently well. Pupils, including those with... special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), do not achieve as well as they should in some subjects.

Pupils are proud of the different charitable and community events in which they participate.

Often, they are responsible for organising such events. For instance, they support a local foodbank and they have sought the views of members of the community on traffic-calming measures. These experiences provide pupils with the skills that they need to become responsible and active citizens.

Pupils enjoy visits to places of interest that help to bring the curriculum to life. For example, visits to museums help pupils to better understand their learning in history. Year 6 pupils look forward to their annual residential learning experience.

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

The school has recently undergone considerable change in terms of its staffing. This has affected the quality of education that pupils receive. It has led to pupils not achieving as well as they should.

However, governors, together with the local authority, are beginning to bring about greater stability. This in turn is leading to improvements across different aspects of the school's work.

The previous curriculum did not enable pupils to learn well.

With the support from a local multi-academy trust, the school has redesigned the curriculum from the early years through to Year 6. The curriculum details what pupils should know and understand from the start to the end of their time in school. This means that there is a clear pathway to help staff build pupils' knowledge over time.

The updated curriculum is still relatively new. Some staff are in the early stages of building their expertise to teach the new, more ambitious curriculum expectations. This means that their success in making sure that the curriculum has the intended impact on pupils' learning is variable.

In some subjects, pupils do not remember important subject content. As a result, they do not develop the secure knowledge that they need to successfully move onto new learning.

The school has not ensured that teachers have the expertise that they need to check how well pupils are learning.

This means that pupils' misconceptions are not addressed quickly enough. This causes the gaps in their learning to widen.

Pupils enjoy reading.

They are familiar with the work of a range of authors. Pupils read widely and often. Staff carefully select high-quality books for pupils to read.

Children in the Nursery classes regularly practise singing songs and rhymes. This helps to build their knowledge of sounds and supports their language development. From the start of the Reception Year, children benefit from a well-delivered phonics programme.

This continues into key stage 1. Staff make sure that the books that pupils read match the letters and sounds that they have already learned. Pupils who find reading difficult receive targeted support that helps them to become fluent readers.

Pupils with SEND learn alongside their peers. Teachers modify curriculum materials to help these pupils to access the curriculum. The school works with external specialists, and with parents and carers, to support pupils with SEND.

Procedures for identifying pupils' additional needs have improved. However, pupils with SEND experience the same weaknesses in the curriculum as their classmates, and therefore do not achieve as well as they should.

The school's work to improve pupils' behaviour and rates of attendance is proving successful.

Typically, pupils follow instructions in class, and they enjoy discussing their learning. Children in the early years are especially engaged during story time. Absence rates are beginning to reduce.

Some aspects of the school's provision for pupils' personal development are designed well. For example, opportunities are available for pupils to participate in some extra-curricular activities, such as in chess, clarinet and sports clubs. Pupils demonstrate their maturity in different leadership roles, including as school councillors.

They understand fundamental British values, including democracy and the rule of law. Pupils also know the importance of treating other people's views with respect. However, there are less opportunities for pupils to celebrate different cultural and religious beliefs.

This means that some pupils are not as well prepared as they should be for life in modern Britain.

Throughout a period of instability, staff morale has remained high. The school has made sure that it has considered the impact of curriculum change on staff's workload and well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, staff do not deliver the curriculum consistently well. In these subjects, pupils, including those with SEND, lack subject-specific knowledge and depth of understanding.

This prevents some pupils from successfully moving onto new learning. The school should ensure that staff receive the support that they need to deliver the new curriculums with confidence and expertise. ? Teachers do not use assessment strategies consistently well.

This means that they do not identify and address pupils' misconceptions and gaps in their learning. This hinders pupils from making the most of the new curriculum. The school should strengthen its approaches to assessment so that pupils can build securely on what they already know and can do.

• There are limited opportunities for pupils to find out more about cultural and religious diversity. As a result, some pupils are not prepared as well as they should be for life in modern Britain. The school should strengthen its programme to support pupils' personal development so that they are better prepared for their future lives.