Dover Park Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that pupils in Years 5 and 6 sustain and improve their current progress, so that they achieve as well as they should by the end of key stage 2.
• Develop teachers’ understanding of how to challenge all pupils to think deeply, so that:
  • pupils make consistently good progress, regardless of their starting points
  • more pupils achieve a higher standard of learning in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of key stage 2.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher and her deputy work effectively together with a sense of common purpose. Despite facing numerous challenges around recruitment and staffing, their resolve to improve the school has not wavered. Over the last year, their work has led to notable improvements in the quality of teaching and, consequently, in pupils’ outcomes.
• Leaders’ clear vision motivates all staff to do their very best for the pupils in their care. Staff are highly positive about the improvements that have happened since the last inspection. All those who responded to Ofsted’s survey described being proud to be a member of staff at the school. This was clearly evident in their work during the inspection.
• Staff are keen to develop their teaching expertise. They value the training they receive, which encourages and supports their improvement. They recognise how opportunities to think together about the effectiveness of their teaching have led to consistent learning experiences for pupils.
• Leaders ensure that pupils experience a suitably broad curriculum, which develops their knowledge, skills and understanding appropriately over time. They have adapted how subjects other than English and mathematics are taught, which is improving the quality of pupils’ experiences. Teachers encapsulate local interests in their planning where they can, which helps to bring pupils’ learning successfully to life.
• Pupils have useful opportunities to learn about the diversity of modern Britain. Leaders embrace the chance for pupils to celebrate people’s differences and learn about cultures that are less evident in their local community, through carefully planned trips and visits. Staff place a clear and useful emphasis on aspects that help pupils to learn and to make safe choices about the world around them.
• The deputy headteacher leads the school’s inclusion work successfully. Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are supported very well because their needs are met sensitively and with determination. Additional funding is used carefully for them and for disadvantaged pupils. Leaders check to make sure that it helps pupils make increasingly strong progress in their learning over time.
• Leaders give careful thought to enhancing the quality of sports provision, using extra funding well. This enhances the pupils’ taught curriculum, as well as providing pupils with opportunities to become more active and engage in competitive sport. Over the past year, the proportion of pupils meeting the national curriculum requirement for swimming has doubled, and the percentage of pupils participating in extra-curricular sport has also increased.
• Leaders make good use of expertise from the local authority to enhance the school’s development. They are increasingly independent in determining what help is most needed to support the journey of improvement most effectively, rather than just responding to local authority guidance. Middle leaders value, and gain from, the opportunities this brings for them to work with others from beyond the school.

Governance of the school

• Governors recognise that their work had not been rigorous enough to support the school’s improvement journey in the past. Over the last 18 months, their determined actions have notably strengthened the governing body’s effectiveness. Governors now challenge leaders successfully about the difference their work makes to standards in the school.
• More than half of the governors have joined the governing body over the past two years. When vacancies have arisen, governors have been strategic in making new appointments, ensuring that new recruits bring skills that enhance their collective work. Consequently, the governing body is suitably equipped to fulfil its duties well.
• Governors play an active part in the life of the school. They use their expertise to test out what leaders tell them about strengths and priorities for ongoing development. They ensure that additional funding is used appropriately to improve pupils’ academic outcomes. As a result, they contribute usefully to ensuring the rising standards in the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders have established a strong culture where no concerns are too small. Their absolute commitment to this aspect of the school is demonstrated by their investment in staff training, which is thorough and helpful. This enables staff to act with confidence to keep pupils safe.
• Leaders are vigilant in checking that adults who come into school are vetted appropriately, keeping careful and detailed records. They have responded promptly to recent changes in national safeguarding legislation, ensuring that relevant policies are up to date and that staff understand the new arrangements. Governors demonstrate an equally clear understanding of requirements, checking rigorously to make sure that these are in place.
• Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe from a range of risks, both in school and in their local community. They talk knowledgeably about practical issues, such as fire drills and managing medical issues, and can identify a ‘safe’ adult they feel confident to talk to about any worries they have. This helps them to feel well looked after. The small number of parents who expressed their opinions to inspectors were highly positive about how well their children are cared for by adults in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Leaders have wisely placed a strong emphasis on improving the quality of teaching since the last inspection. They have been successful in this goal, despite having to manage challenges linked to staff recruitment. The impact of their work is evident in how teachers show their understanding of how pupils’ learning builds over time across the curriculum, and plan accordingly for it.
• Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes towards their studies. They work hard and try their best, finding their learning interesting. They are supportive of each other, working well together. Consequently, classroom environments are conducive to pupils making good progress over time.
• Learning routines are well established across the school. Pupils access useful practical resources, such as dictionaries, thesauruses and working walls, as a matter of routine, which helps them to complete learning tasks successfully. They value what teachers tell them about how to improve their work. As a result, they are able to persevere when work is tricky, and to make good use of their time in lessons.
• Teachers ensure that learning activities are matched appropriately to national curriculum requirements. They use questioning well to test out what pupils know and, on occasion, to probe them to think more deeply. They emphasise subject-specific words well in their dialogue with pupils, helping pupils to widen their working vocabulary.
• Phonics is taught very well, using well-rehearsed and stimulating routines. Pupils clearly enjoy this aspect of their learning. They use their phonics skills effectively to access unfamiliar texts, reading fluently and with confidence, even when words are challenging.
• While pupils talk confidently in class, their written work does not always reflect their verbal fluency and understanding. When older pupils introduce creative ideas and more sophisticated vocabulary to their writing, their grammatical and spelling accuracy is sometimes affected. Leaders recognise that pupils do not always transfer their grammatical understanding to longer pieces of work.
• Teachers provide pupils with opportunities to extend their learning in mathematics, through accessing more challenging tasks. When this occurs, pupils are not always directed towards the most appropriate task for them. As a result, some find their work too easy and others grapple with calculations that are too difficult for them to complete successfully. Opportunities for pupils of all abilities to work at a deeper level of understanding, by learning how to problem solve for example, are not currently well established across the school.
• Parents and carers are generally positive about the quality of teaching across the school. A very small number reflect concerns arising from staff turnover over the past year. Parents understand how they can help their children at home. They feel that homework is appropriate and that it supports pupils’ 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 relish the numerous opportunities they have to play a part in the life of the school. Many act in a range of roles, such as those of house captain, anti-bullying ambassador or playground pal, which they describe animatedly. They take these roles seriously and value how they help them to learn about taking responsibility within their community.
• Leaders plan useful experiences that prepare pupils well to be good citizens. They use trips and visits to extend pupils’ understanding of cultural diversity beyond their local area, such as through a visit to London. This helps pupils to develop their awareness of the wider world and their place within it, and supports the spirit of inclusion that is evident in the school.
• Adults understand vulnerable pupils’ needs very well. Their sensitive support, during lessons and social times, enables some pupils to be more successful than in the past, including some who come to the school for a ‘fresh start’. Where pupils and families need more intensive help, leaders work persistently to secure it, liaising closely with experts from beyond the school.
• Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when using the internet. They say, and most parents agree, that bullying is rare, but is dealt with well by adults. The ethos of acceptance is evident from pupils’ warm relationships, both with each other and with the adults around them.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils conduct themselves well around the school. Their behaviour is managed successfully by staff, using clear and consistent expectations. Instances of poor behaviour are rare, with low numbers of pupils reaching the level of a ‘red card’ sanction or a fixed-term exclusion from school. Leaders monitor patterns in behaviour carefully, which enables them to pre-empt potential issues by putting appropriate support in place.
• Attendance is broadly average overall. Very few pupils are persistently absent from school. Some disadvantaged pupils do not attend as well as others in school, but leaders’ actions to address this are proving effective over time.
• Pupils speak considerately to each other. There are very few instances of aggressive or derogatory language, because pupils rise to adults’ high expectations for their behaviour. Pupils describe the school as a happy place.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Following disappointing Year 6 outcomes in 2017, leaders’ renewed determination and focus led to notable improvements in 2018. Provisional information shows that the percentage of pupils achieving at least the standard expected by the end of Year 6 almost doubled in mathematics between 2017 and 2018. Standards in reading and writing also improved.
• Standards in phonics are very high. The proportion of pupils who achieve the phonics check standard has increased notably over time and is now well above national figures. Almost all pupils meet the standard by the end of Year 1 and all do so by the end of Year 2. This represents good progress from broadly average starting points.
• Pupils currently in Years 1 to 3 are making good progress from their starting points. The proportion who are on track to achieve at least the expected standard of learning by the end of Years 2 and 6 is at least in line with 2017 national averages. This is because pupils have experienced consistently effective teaching since joining the school.
• Year 5 and Year 6 pupils are currently making good progress. However, they are yet to catch up from underachieving during their first few years at the school, when the teaching they experienced was less effective. The improvement in Year 6 outcomes that was achieved last year suggests that teachers and leaders have the capacity to help pupils to catch up more between now and the end of key stage 2.
• Over time, the proportion of pupils who achieve above the expected standard is improving gradually, but remains a clear focus for improvement. The percentage of pupils in key stage 1 who are currently working at a greater depth of understanding is below the 2017 Year 2 national averages in writing and mathematics. Leaders and teachers collectively recognise the need to raise their expectations for the most able pupils, so that more of them achieve a higher standard of learning by the end of key stage 2.
• Less-able pupils make good progress, particularly in their writing. Work in their books shows them to be developing their letter formation, sentence structure and accuracy of punctuation well, over time. This supports them in accessing the wider curriculum successfully.
• Disadvantaged pupils make good progress, because of the precise and useful support they receive. In some year groups, they attain at least as well as other pupils in school, and perform favourably when compared with end-of-key-stage national averages for all pupils. Where this is not the case in other parts of the school, disadvantaged pupils are catching up with their peers.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities achieve well in reading, making better progress than all pupils nationally. By the end of key stage 1, they attain similar standards as other pupils nationally who have SEN and/or disabilities. Currently, their progress in writing and mathematics across key stage 2 is less convincing, but is improving over time.

Early years provision Good

• Children achieve well during their time in early years because of the good-quality provision that they experience.
• Adults shape learning opportunities carefully to stimulate children’s interests, making effective use of physical spaces and practical resources. Children enjoy selecting from a mixture of activities that help them to develop across the different early learning goals. Consequently, almost all children achieve a good level of development by the time they move on to key stage 1.
• Leaders use their clear understanding of the early years requirements to evaluate provision accurately. They identify appropriate next steps for development, which they are effective in addressing. For example, disadvantaged children did not achieve as well in 2017 as they should have. Leaders identified why this was the case, adjusting the curriculum in response. As a result, disadvantaged children did much better in 2018, attaining above other children, both in school and nationally.
• Children interact well with each other and the adults around them. They play well together, demonstrating their good manners. They listen attentively to adults and follow instructions willingly. They behave extremely well and look after their environment carefully.
• Adults work closely with parents to ensure that children’s specific needs are identified. They start before children join the school, so that they can put steps in place to meet children’s needs promptly from when they first arrive in school. Parents value how well their children are cared for. Leaders are keen to develop their work further with local pre-schools so that the transition process can be managed even more effectively.
• Boys and girls engage equally in highly appropriate activities that help them to improve their reading and writing. Their ‘funky fingers’ work develops their muscles and motor skills successfully. They respond well to the precise phonics teaching and enjoy using creative language. For example, during the inspection, children were talking to their teachers about examples of alliteration that came up as part of their conversation.
• By the end of early years, children typically make good progress and attain well. The proportion who reach at least the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics is broadly in line with the national average. Leaders are ambitious to increase the proportion of children who exceed the expected standard by the start of key stage 1, by ensuring that they make increasingly strong progress over time.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 118179 Isle of Wight 10053048 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 Maintained 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 199 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Dave Edmonds Ms Anita Wilcox 01983 562617 www.doverpark.co.uk office@doverparkpri.iow.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 28–29 June 2016

Information about this school

• Dover Park is a small maintained primary school for pupils aged four to 11. It became a one-form intake school in September 2016, when restructuring of education provision on the Isle of Wight was completed.
• Almost all pupils are of White British origin, with a below-average proportion believed to speak English as an additional language. Twice as many pupils are supported by the pupil premium than is the case nationally. The percentage of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, including those who have an education, health and care plan, is broadly average.
• The headteacher has been in post since September 2011. However, there have been a number of other personnel changes since the last inspection, including in leadership, teaching staff and governance.
• Leaders work closely with advisers from the Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS), which provides local authority support on the Isle of Wight.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with senior and middle leaders, and with a group of pupils, to discuss a range of relevant issues. They spoke to some parents on the playground at the start of the day. The lead inspector met with two governors and with a representative of the local authority.
• The inspection team visited classrooms to observe learning across all year groups and in a range of subjects. Some of these visits were carried out alongside school leaders and the local authority representative. While in classrooms, inspectors talked to pupils and looked at their work.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of documents that were provided by school leaders or available on the school’s website. These included various policies, information about the school’s curriculum, and records of pupils’ attendance, behaviour and academic achievement. Inspectors worked with the leaders for English and mathematics to review a sample of pupils’ work.
• The school’s safeguarding arrangements and records were scrutinised. This included a review of the school’s central record of checks on adults who come into school to work with pupils.
• Inspectors took account of survey responses from 21 pupils and 14 members of staff. They also considered nine responses to the Parent View online questionnaire, including six free-text comments.

Inspection team

Kathryn Moles, lead inspector Christine Bulmer

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector