Hadrian Park Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to improve teaching and learning further so that pupils’ rates of progress accelerate, especially in key stage 2 by:
  • ensuring that all lessons move on quickly so that all pupils, especially the most able, achieve as well as they can
  • continuing to provide opportunities for pupils to apply their English skills in other subjects and in real-life contexts to further deepen their understanding.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher provides strong strategic leadership. Since joining the school three years ago, she has swiftly addressed the issues that were identified during the previous inspection.
• Leaders and governors are taking effective steps to eliminate weak teaching. Having recognised that not all pupils were making sufficient progress, the headteacher and senior leaders devised a more accurate assessment system and identified effective ways for teachers to improve their planning and classroom practice. This is leading to consistently good or better teaching across the school.
• Other leaders support the headteacher effectively. Together, they have established a culture of high expectations for all members of the school community. As a result, pupils are well aware of expectations to work hard, behave well and show respect to adults and each other. The school is calm and purposeful because leaders and staff successfully promote a very positive climate for learning and socialising.
• The ambition and drive to improve all aspects of school life includes actions to tackle previous weaknesses, eradicate underperformance and improve the quality of teaching and learning. Current pupils are now making strong progress in their learning in all year groups across the school.
• Leaders and governors have an accurate view of what the school does well and what it needs to do to consolidate recent improvements and be even more successful. Procedures to monitor and evaluate the school’s performance through checking the quality of teaching and learning are incisive and detailed. Leaders hold teachers stringently to account for pupils’ progress in learning.
• Leaders base plans for further improvements on a clear view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, which they detail in the school development plan. Leaders monitor actions carefully so that they waste no time in further improving the school. Planned actions clearly align with the measureable rates of progress that pupils make in their learning.
• Leaders use the pupil premium funding effectively to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve as well as others in the school and are able to participate fully in all aspects of school life. In order to promote the progress of pupils supported by the additional funding, the school deploys skilled teaching assistants to help them keep up with other pupils in the school. Leaders and governors monitor effectively the impact that any additional provision has on the development and well-being of each child.
• The school’s curriculum is rich and balanced and meets pupils’ needs and interests well. In addition to the lessons that cover the subjects prescribed by the national curriculum, pupils can develop and apply their skills and knowledge through a range of stimulating and varied learning events and activities. There are a vast range of trips, visits and residential stays, including a visit to France for the older pupils.
• Pupils’ good personal development is in part due to a curriculum and school ethos that strongly contributes to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The enrichment activities, the thought-provoking assemblies, the teaching of religious education, the promotion of British values and the work of the school council are very effective in providing pupils with knowledge and experiences that prepare them for becoming well-rounded individuals and responsible citizens.
• Pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities receive appropriate support. Teachers identify their needs early and accurately track their progress, which is mainly good. Consequently, additional funding for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is used effectively.
• Leaders use the physical education and sport funding for schools effectively to increase the range of sporting opportunities available to pupils. The physical education apprentice, strong links with the local high school and a specialist teaching assistant further enhance the opportunities available to pupils. The number of pupils participating in school-based sports clubs continues to rise and is now over 300. The school has achieved the gold award from the youth sports trust. A continued professional development programme is in place to develop further teachers’ skills and confidence in the teaching of physical education.
• The local authority has responded promptly to the school’s weaker outcomes for pupils in key stage 2, and visited regularly to provide support. Governors, the headteacher and subject leaders have access to specific training and guidance. Links with other schools have been brokered. These measures are augmenting leadership capacity.

Governance of the school

• Governors bring a range of professional skills and experience to the school, enhancing their effectiveness and impact. A number of governors meet each week to drive forward further actions to eradicate underperformance. This challenges and questions school leaders well. Governors hold leaders to account for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, as well as for the outcomes of pupils seen in statutory test and school data.
• Governors have an accurate and incisive view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, participating in monitoring activities alongside senior leaders, such as tours of the school to see learning in progress and analysing work in pupils’ books. Governors share senior leaders’ ambition to eradicate underperformance.
• Governors also monitor pupils’ personal development and check that pupils are safe. They ensure that child protection and safeguarding are a high priority for staff, that procedures fully meet requirements and that they keep policies and practices up to date.
• The governing body ensures that additional funds are well spent. Governors are knowledgeable about the effect that additional funds have on pupils’ progress, including funding to support disadvantaged pupils or to support those who have SEN and/or disabilities.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. A strong culture of safeguarding exists throughout the school. The governing body and staff take their responsibilities seriously, and robust procedures are in place to ensure that staff effectively and urgently address any safeguarding concerns.
• Safeguarding training and records are up to date and are carefully managed.
• The long-established culture of keeping pupils safe remains very evident. Those with specific responsibilities for safeguarding ensure that they and others carry out their roles effectively.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Observations of learning and scrutiny of pupils’ work and assessments show that good, and in some cases highly effective, teaching is now established and consistent across classes. This has led to standards in reading, writing and mathematics rising. Pupils who were previously underachieving are now catching up rapidly, and differences in attainment are diminishing between different groups of pupils across classes.
• In lessons, pupils are enthusiastic in their learning, and expectations for both achievement and behaviour are usually high. Teachers and support staff expect pupils to work hard. Workbooks show that pupils waste very little time. In lessons, pupils interact with other pupils to share ideas and improve their knowledge and skills.
• Relationships between staff and pupils are harmonious. Most pupils work hard in lessons and enjoy their learning. They often find lessons interesting and fun. The most able pupils sometimes do not do their best when the work does not fully extend their thinking.
• Guidance for learning is good. Teachers use their good subject knowledge to make it clear to pupils exactly where they should focus their efforts in lessons. Pupils often receive clear criteria and checklists to help them assess their own work and see how to improve it. This helps them make good progress in their learning.
• A scrutiny of books shows good progress in the quality, form and structure of pupils’ writing. Pupils’ work in their mathematics books shows that there are very good opportunities to tackle problems and to learn through trial and error. Pupils learn to apply different methods of calculation, and teachers provide good opportunities in lessons to explain these.
• Teachers teach reading well throughout the school and pupils enjoy reading. Older pupils, especially the most able, read fluently and with confidence, and some read for pleasure at home. From the early years, pupils use their knowledge of phonics to support their reading of new words. Pupils’ phonics skills have improved since the previous inspection. Frequent opportunities for pupils to read in lessons helps them make good progress in their reading.
• Teaching assistants are well trained and effectively deployed. They have the strongest impact on learning of those who find learning more difficult. Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils receive frequent additional support in class or in additional sessions outside the classroom.
• The daily nurture provision helps pupils improve their attitudes to learning, their work habits, their ability to concentrate and their relationships with others. This helps those supported by this provision make good progress in their learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils show respect and care for each other. They value their classmates’ opinions, and work happily and cooperatively in lessons. Pupils’ skills in speaking and listening in paired and group discussions are good.
• Pupils told inspectors that the school looks after them well and that they feel safe at school. They make good progress in their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Their social development is a particular strength and pupils relate well to one another, staff and visitors. They demonstrate secure knowledge and experience of other ways of life and are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• Many pupils benefit from the good-quality breakfast club and the effective nurture provision held daily in the school.
• Pupils, especially the older pupils, enjoy taking responsibility for helping the school run smoothly, for example as members of the school and play councils.
• Pupils understand what bullying is and are proud to report that bullying is very rare in their school. They are confident that adults would quickly deal with any bullying that did occur.
• Pupils know about safety and are aware of the many potential dangers in modern life. Their knowledge of internet safety is good; they can describe the use of firewalls and the dangers of sharing personal information online.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils behave exceptionally well in lessons and during the more unstructured times of the school day.
• Pupils are polite to each other, to their teachers and to visitors. For example, during the inspection, one pupil asked an inspector if he needed help in finding his way around the school. The pupil offered to show the inspector the quickest route to his destination.
• Pupils are attentive and behave well in lessons. They willingly answer questions and are keen to help and support other pupils. Pupils cooperate when working in groups and are mature enough to work independently and show initiative.
• Attendance is consistently above the national average, and pupils are punctual and well prepared for school each day. There is little persistent absence and the school keeps good records of patterns of attendance to be able to follow up any absences on a daily basis.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Children in the early years make good progress from their starting points. Their attainment at the end of Reception is above the national average.
• Results in the national phonics screening check in Year 1 have been above the national average for the last three years. This is due to the very regular good-quality teaching of phonics in younger classes. Results in national assessments at the end of Year 2 in reading, writing and mathematics were above average in 2017.
• In 2017, pupils left the school at the end of Year 6 with above-average attainment in mathematics. Their attainment in reading and writing was slightly below the national average.
• The most recent national assessment results reflect significant improvements to pupils’ attainment and progress compared with previous years. The national assessments also show that the progress made by all groups of pupils in relation to their different starting points was significantly better than at any time over the last three years.
• Work in pupils’ books and the school’s accurate records show that current pupils are making good progress throughout the school and that pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Overall, disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are making good progress. This is because additional government funding is used well to provide interventions that are tailored closely to pupils’ individual needs.
• Although the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils make good progress in most classes, they are sometimes not fully challenged. This means that they do not consistently reach the higher standards they are capable of. Early years provision Good

• Leaders have established an exciting, stimulating, safe and language-rich learning
• Children are eager to learn and explore. They enjoy opportunities to investigate and environment, both indoors and outdoors. They have ensured that the welfare requirements of the early years are met. learn happily together. Their behaviour is consistently good. Progress in personal, social and emotional development is good, and this accounts for the strengths seen in children’s behaviour and in their relationships with adults. They are encouraged to take turns and to consider others.
• The vast majority of children start in the early years with skills and knowledge below those typical for their age. As a result of good teaching and provision, careful observation and good questioning, children make good progress and exceed the national average attainment by the end of the Reception Year.
• The curriculum is broad and provides a wide range of interesting learning activities. Children learn through play and well-designed learning activities. For example, children were asked to write about different features of a range of animals they had found.
• Teachers identify SEN accurately and at an early stage. Children who have SEN and/or disabilities are given the support they need to help them make good progress from their starting points.
• The school works effectively with outside agencies, such as the speech and language therapy service, to help children overcome learning difficulties.
• Additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is well spent, and these children, including the most able disadvantaged children, make good progress.
• Adults know the children well. They make regular assessments and use these assessments to modify activities and their teaching to meet the children’s needs in both indoor and outdoor learning. Parents regard the early years highly and feel fully involved by the school in their children’s learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 132141 North Tyneside 10037727 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 Community 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 418 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Alan Brown Angi Gibson 01912 007257 www.hadrianparkprimary.org.uk hadrianpark.primary@northtyneside.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 29─ 30 November 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is larger than an average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups and who speak English as an additional language is well below the national average.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• Early years provision is full time in the Reception classes and part time in the Nursery.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes. Some lessons were observed jointly with a senior leader. In addition, shorter visits to classrooms were carried out to see particular aspects of the school’s work, such as the teaching of reading or the provision of nurture guidance.
• A range of other school activities, including playtimes and lunchtimes, was observed.
• Inspectors scrutinised past and current work of pupils of different abilities in all year groups. Inspectors also listened to pupils reading.
• A meeting was held with four governors, including the chair of the governing body. A meeting was held with a representative of the local authority. Pre-arranged as well as informal discussions were held with members of staff and pupils.
• Inspectors analysed documents, including the school’s plans for improvement and reports showing the school’s view of its own performance. The school’s website was evaluated. Safeguarding documents and policies and records relating to pupils’ personal development, behaviour, welfare, safety and attendance were inspected.
• Inspectors analysed information on the performance of the school in comparison with other schools nationally and the school’s own records of pupils’ attainment and progress.
• Inspectors took account of the 30 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. Inspectors also took account of the results of the school’s most recent survey of parents and spoke with parents at the start of the school day.

Inspection team

Geoffrey Seagrove, lead inspector Deborah Ashcroft Gillian Nimer

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector