Earl's Court Free School Primary Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that boys have more opportunities to develop their skills so that a greater proportion make rapid progress and exceed the national age-related expectations in writing.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The executive headteacher’s inspirational leadership has instilled an ethos of excellence in pupils, staff and parents alike. She and the highly skilled deputy headteachers have quickly built on the school’s strengths. As a result, this is an outstanding school where pupils achieve highly.
• Regular and accurate checks support leaders’ evaluation that teaching has an outstanding impact on pupils’ learning. Leaders’ thorough monitoring systems mean that they constantly review and refine school priorities if this is deemed necessary. As a result, the quality of teaching remains of a consistently high quality.
• The procedures for managing the performance of all staff are thorough. Leaders support staff in improving their classroom practice.
• An innovative curriculum enables pupils to extend their knowledge systematically across a wide range of interesting subjects. Leaders ensure that pupils benefit from new experiences to the full. For example, the ‘take over’ day gives pupils a chance to shadow staff to see what it is like to teach and run a school.
• The promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is effective. Pupils acquire a deep understanding of modern British values, which prepares them well to become active citizens. Opportunities for pupils to participate in cultural activities abound, including the ‘international day’. This successfully involves parents and pupils in sharing food and their cultural heritage.
• The physical education and sport premium is well spent to promote pupils’ physical development at breaktimes and to develop skills to help them to compete in sporting activities.
• Leaders and governors have made well-informed decisions about how to spend the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils. As a result, these pupils enjoy equal opportunities to participate in all aspects of school life and make similar and sometimes better progress than other pupils.
• Additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well spent and pupils are well provided for. The school’s system for early identification of pupils’ needs is accurate and ensures that additional support appropriately meets the needs of these pupils. As a result, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make rapid progress.
• Parents are confident that their children receive a high-quality education from the team of effective teachers. They agree that the school keeps their children safe, particularly through the current extensive programme of building work.

Governance of the school

• Governors and trustees have an accurate and thorough knowledge of the school’s performance. They use their vast range of skills to great effect. They challenge school leaders to ensure that teaching is outstanding in order that pupils achieve consistently high standards. They ensure that leaders use the performance management system effectively to set challenging targets for staff.
• Governors and trustees ensure that the pupil premium and the physical education and sport premium benefit pupils. They make sure that the academy’s website provides a wide range of high-quality information for parents.
• Trustees, governors and senior leaders share a very clear vision for how they wish the school to continue to improve as pupil numbers grow.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Trustees and governors ensure that the school fulfils all of the statutory safeguarding requirements. Regular training means that staff have a clear understanding of recent government requirements, including radicalisation and female genital mutilation. Staff are confident in using the school’s system when raising concerns about pupil welfare. School leaders ensure that that all processes for recruiting staff work well and that the recording of all required checks is efficient.
• The safeguarding governor routinely checks the school’s policies, procedures and single central record. The school works very well with other agencies to make sure that information-sharing and actions taken help to keep pupils safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Leaders and staff share high expectations for what pupils can achieve, whatever their abilities or starting points. As a result, pupils quickly build on previous knowledge and make excellent progress.
• Pupils benefit from a well-planned knowledge curriculum. They have many opportunities to apply their knowledge in a wide range of subjects. Teachers successfully develop pupils’ ability to make links in their learning as well as an understanding of what it means to be an ‘historian’ or a ‘scientist’.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities work well alongside their peers in many lessons. Leaders provide the necessary evidence to secure additional support for these pupils when this is appropriate. This ensures that the pupils receive high-quality support and make strong progress.
• Pupils rapidly develop early reading skills in well-structured lessons. High-quality texts ensure that pupils develop a love for reading. Most-able pupils, including the disadvantaged, are developing fluency and confidence in using expression when reading aloud.
• Teacher’s questions successfully deepen pupils’ understanding and prompt them to think beyond their first response. For example, pupils use accurate mathematical vocabulary to explain counting and converting values of coins using real money. This results in strong outcomes for pupils.
• Teachers prepare extremely well for delivering high-quality lessons. For example, in a poetry lesson, pupils were pretending to be mice to create a word bank for their own poems. As a result of the well-led session, the writing produced was of a high quality. However, leaders agree that the proportion of most-able boys working at greater depth needs to increase so that it is in line with girls.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils have excellent attitudes to their learning. Their strong self-discipline ensures that pupils continue to develop skills to learn and play together positively.
• Pupils’ understanding of democracy is well developed through a range of opportunities to vote. For example, they vote for school council membership and when nominating charities to support.
• Pupils are given time in the day for self-reflection. This work around the school value of ‘serenity’ results in them being ready to learn. Pupils have an appropriate understanding of what behaviours make a ‘bully’. A Reception child was clear that bullying was ‘constant’ and not just someone being silly. The pupils told the inspector that bullying does not happen at Earl’s Court.
• Pupils develop the ability to recognise risks and keep themselves safe. They talk confidently about how to stay safe when using the internet and online technology.
• Pupils have a love of learning. They speak with enthusiasm about the school’s curriculum. They get excited about the range of enrichment activities. A recent school trip inspired one pupil to want to work in the radio industry. They show the value of ‘fortitude’ when tackling the high challenges set by their teachers.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils demonstrate the school values in the way they conduct themselves in lessons and as they move around the school. There is a high level of collaboration and pupils go out of their way to help each other in lessons.
• The exceptionally low numbers of behaviour incidents are because pupils demonstrate very high levels of care and friendship at playtime.
• Leaders have been successful in working with the small number of pupils whose attendance has been a concern. Attendance information is regularly analysed and appropriate support is given to families so that attendance improves for these pupils. Currently, attendance is above the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Results for Reception children in 2016 show that a high proportion of them reached a good level of development. Their progress was strong. Staff worked hard to successfully increase the proportion of children exceeding the early learning goals. In 2016, all pupils reached the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check.
• Leaders use the pupil premium funding extremely well. High-quality support means that disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, make excellent progress.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities progress strongly from their starting points. Pupils’ achievements are tracked accurately and effective support is provided. This means that pupils’ needs are met successfully. Leaders encourage parents’ involvement in support of their children’s learning. These positive relationships contribute to pupils’ excellent progress.
• Pupils who arrive in school with little English also make very strong progress. Teachers identify these pupils’ needs accurately. Work seen in pupils’ books demonstrates how the rapid development of early reading and writing skills enables these pupils to access the curriculum quickly.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Teaching in the provision is outstanding. This means that all children have an excellent start to school and they are well prepared for Year 1. Children benefit from the strong subject knowledge of the early years team.
• Children quickly establish effective routines. They develop independence and resilience well. The inspector saw this during the inspection. Children were wholly involved in their learning over a sustained time. They show perseverance when tackling challenging tasks.
• Children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, make rapid progress from their starting points. This ensures that a higher than average proportion of children exceed the early learning goals. Children engage in a very wide range of exciting and challenging activities that develop their understanding of their world. This is the case both inside and outside of the classroom. High-quality observations of children’s achievements are recorded in their learning journeys. This provides staff with a range of useful information to accurately measure rates of progress.
• Responses from children to the well-crafted questions from staff show how they are developing reasoning skills in number. For example, children talked about how to halve towers when there were equal and unequal numbers of cubes. This led to a lively discussion about how to divide odd and even numbers
• Relationships with parents and carers are very strong. Parents are very happy with the level of challenge that their children receive. Transition to Year 1 is smooth because teachers prepare their children well.
• Safeguarding is effective. Staff work diligently to ensure that the environment is secure. Children show how well the school develops their social skills by playing safely and encouraging their peers to be careful.

School details

Unique reference number 140811 Local authority Hammersmith and Fulham Inspection number 10031664 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy free school 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 87 Appropriate authority The governing body Co-Chairs Executive Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Alex Conabeare Chloe Mawson Laura Lund 020 8741 9967 www.wlfs-earlscourt.org headteacher@wlfs-primary.org Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• Earl’s Court Free School Primary is a small primary school. It opened in September 2014 with an intake of 30 Reception children who attend on a full-time basis. In September 2015 and September 2016, the school admitted a further 30 children each year. The school will continue to grow to the full primary age range, catering for pupils aged between four and 11. The school is part of the West London Free School Academy Trust, which includes two other primary schools and a secondary school. The trustees oversee the work of all four schools. The school shares the same site as West London Free Primary School. The school is due to move into a new building in 2020.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above the national average.
• The number of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed learning in each classroom at least twice. Observations were undertaken with the executive headteacher and the two deputy headteachers.
• The inspector met with members of the local governing body and the trust.
• Meetings were held with pupils from the school council to discuss their learning and views on the school.
• All leaders met with the inspector to discuss their roles and the impact of their work.
• The inspector heard pupils read from Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. She talked to pupils in lessons and as they moved around the building.
• The inspectors examined a range of school documents, including information on pupils’ progress, improvement plans, curriculum plans and checks on the quality of teaching. The inspector also examined school records relating to safety and behaviour.
• The inspector scrutinised a range of pupils’ books across a range of subjects.
• The inspector considered the responses to a pupil survey, 19 staff responses to the online survey and 69 parent responses to the Ofsted online survey.

Inspection team

Sara Morgan, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector