Parkroyal Community School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The headteacher and other senior leaders have successfully arrested a decline in the school's performance.

Their determined and focused leadership has secured improvements in the quality of teaching and learning, and pupils' attainment and progress are also now improving. School leaders, including governors, have a very good understanding of the school's strengths and weaknesses. Their improvement plans are detailed and plot a clear way ahead.

Their vision for moving the school forward is shared by staff. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is now good overall. In almost all classes, teachers display secure subject knowledge ...and clear explanations help pupils to learn well.

Pupils' personal development, behaviour and welfare are good. Pupils get on well with each other and say that they feel safe and enjoy coming to school. Attendance rates are typically above the national average.

Provision for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. The school has a particularly strong musical tradition and many pupils benefit from playing in the orchestra or singing in the choir. The school is very successful in its work to engage parents, including an innovative approach to homework and an 'open-door' start to the day in Reception class.

As a result, the great majority of parents are very positive about the school. They appreciate the care and support their children receive. Children get off to a good start because of the effective provision in the early years.

They make good progress and the proportion of children reaching a good level of development is rising quickly. While the effectiveness of teaching across key stages 1 and 2 has improved, there are still some inconsistencies. Not all teachers plan effectively to meet the different learning needs of pupils in their class or build on what pupils know.

Occasionally, teachers' explanations are not clear enough for pupils to understand. Where this is the case, pupils' learning slows. The school's determination to improve pupils' achievement in English and mathematics has led to good progress in reading and mathematics.

Progress in writing is variable. Less attention has been paid to developing pupils' skills and knowledge in subjects such as science, history and geography. As a result, outcomes for pupils in those areas are not as strong as they should be.

Information about this school

The school is larger than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below average. The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is broadly average.

The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for achievement in Year 6. The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish. The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

In the early years, children attend Reception class on a full-time basis. There is Nursery provision on site which is run by an independent provider and which is inspected separately by Ofsted. The school operates breakfast and after-school clubs every day.

There have been a number of staffing changes since the previous inspection, including in school leadership. The headteacher took up her position during the autumn term, 2016. This followed a period of 18 months during which the school operated with a shared-headship arrangement.

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