The Oval School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

School leaders have checked teaching regularly and given advice, and these things have led to recent improvements in teaching and progress. Children make an excellent start to their schooling because the teaching and work set for them in the Nursery and Reception classes are outstanding. There are examples of outstanding teaching in all three key stages within the school.

The progress being made by the pupils has improved across the school and is now consistently at least good across the year groups. Pupils behave well and say that they feel safe at school. The school is using additional funding effectively to make sure all groups of pup...ils make good progress.

The school's promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. Pupils enjoy school because relationships are very good and the lessons are interesting and often fun. Teachers involve pupils very well in understanding what they should be aiming for in lessons.

Marking is outstanding in literacy and mathematics. It is not yet an outstanding school because : The attainment of pupils when they leave the school at the end of Year 6 is not yet consistently at or above national averages. Teachers sometimes miss opportunities for pupils to practise their literacy and numeracy skills in other subjects.

Occasionally, the work teachers give pupils is not fine-tuned to match their abilities. Although pupils make good and sometimes outstanding progress in literacy and numeracy, this is not sustained in other subjects.

Information about this school

The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school and is growing in size as it moves from two to three classes in each year group over the next three to four years.

The school population is very diverse and the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above the national average. Almost half of the pupils are from White British backgrounds but there are 36 minority ethnic groups represented in total, with those from Pakistani backgrounds being the largest. The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is well above average.

This is additional funding provided to schools for children in the care of the local authority, children with a parent in the armed services, and those children known to be eligible for free school meals. There are currently no children who are looked after by the local authority and there are no pupils from service families. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is well above the national average.

The proportion supported at school action plus, or who have a statement of special educational needs, is above the national average. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress. The school has achieved the gold award for 'Food for Life'.

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