Sparken Hill Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Ryton Park Primary School provides a good education for its pupils. Parents and carers are particularly pleased with the excellent care, guidance and support provided for their children. The views of one parent or carer are typical of many when commenting: 'I am very pleased with the outcome of my two children's education, my eldest changed schools beginning of last year and he did more work within one month here than he ever did at his old school.

He has been given the attention needed to help him catch up. I cannot fault this school in any way at all.' Following a turbulent period when the school's roll increased significantly, pupils' attainment in national tests dipped and was very low.

H...owever, as a result of the drive of the senior leadership team, effective teaching and a rich curriculum, pupils' attainment has risen significantly. Pupils make good progress from their very low starting points, although past underachievement results in attainment that is below average in the key areas of English and mathematics. Pupils really enjoy coming to school and their enthusiasm for activities is reflected in the levels of attendance that have improved very considerably over the past two years.

Teachers make learning interesting and work hard to encourage pupils to do well. All groups of pupils achieve well because of the very effective additional support provided for those pupils who are new to the school, are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language or who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Pupils who are potentially vulnerable are provided with excellent pastoral help, enabling them to participate fully in the life of the school.

Pupils comment that 'learning is fun' and this helps to promote their good and often excellent behaviour in lessons. Teachers mostly plan work effectively for different ability groups. However, assessment information is not always used sufficiently well to ensure the most-able pupils progress as quickly as they should and these pupils are sometimes required to listen unnecessarily to teachers' explanations.

The school has rightly identified the need to ensure there are more opportunities to improve pupils' writing and mathematical skills through work in other subjects. The curriculum is good. The key subjects of English, mathematics and science are rightly given prominence, but they are enhanced through an extensive range of visits and visitors.

The excellent information and communication technology (ICT) resources are used very effectively. For example, the pupils regularly produce a television programme, highlighting the school's work which is shown to all pupils on both sites. Music is given considerable prominence with a large number of pupils receiving free instrumental tuition.

The headteacher, very well supported by senior staff, has worked effectively to ensure that common policies are implemented across the two sites in readiness for the move to the new school. Self-evaluation is very rigorous and the senior leaders and managers have identified accurately areas for improvement and what works well. Monitoring teams, including subject leaders, work across both sites to ensure the assessments of how well pupils are progressing are accurate.

The systematic monitoring of teaching, with effective mentoring and support for staff, has had a good impact on pupils' learning. The school's planning for community cohesion is good and a wide range of partnerships make a useful contribution to this aspect of its work. The school's participation in the Stephen Lawrence Project is helping to ensure there is no discrimination and that pupils from all heritages achieve as well as one another.

The leadership has been very effective in arresting and reversing the decline in pupils' attainment and attendance, and this indicates the school's good capacity to sustain further improvements.

Information about the school

Ryton Park is a much larger-than-average primary school serving an area of north Nottinghamshire. As a result of the closure of a nearby school that was subject to special measures, the number on roll of Ryton Park Primary more than doubled in 2009.

However, the school still occupies the two original sites with children from Nursery to Year 6 on both sites. The school will move to new accommodation in September 2011. Most pupils are from White British heritage, but there is an increasing number from a wide range of other minority ethnic backgrounds.

The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average and a few are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is much higher than that seen nationally. The percentage of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is average.

Most of these pupils have mild learning difficulties, although a very small number have more complex learning needs. The number of pupils who join or leave the school at times other than the normal times is much higher than in most schools. The school has gained Healthy Schools status, the International Schools Award, the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) excellence award and is a BECTA ICT best school regional winner for the East Midlands area.

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