Parkside Community Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve outcomes for pupils in reading, writing and mathematics, particularly in key stage 2, by ensuring that:
  • teachers have consistently high expectations for what pupils can achieve
  • pupils are clear about what they are learning and for what purpose
  • there is more challenge for most-able pupils to achieve the higher levels and work at a greater depth.
• Strengthen leadership and management, by:
  • ensuring that the curriculum more effectively meets the interests as well as the needs of the pupils and supports more rapid progress and improved outcomes for all groups
  • making sure that middle leaders have a greater impact on the quality of teaching and learning and outcomes for pupils.
• Improve the outdoor provision in the Reception class to support the development of children’s skills in all areas of learning.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• The headteacher and deputy headteacher work well together and form a strong team to lead the school effectively. They have managed the considerable turbulence in staffing and the changing profile of the school well. Despite a decline in the school’s performance since the last inspection and a legacy of underachievement, pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching and learning are now improving.
• Since the previous inspection, the school roll has declined. Much of the housing in the estate where the school is located has now been turned over to student accommodation, with families being rehoused. This has had an impact on the school’s budget and there remains uncertainty regarding the future. As a result, recruitment has been difficult and several staff are on temporary contracts.
• Senior leaders, including governors, share the ambition to provide the best for pupils. The headteacher and deputy headteacher rapidly identified weaknesses, particularly in the behaviour and attitudes of the pupils. They quickly initiated successful strategies and the impact of their work is evident in pupils’ good behaviour and positive attitudes to learning. This has a positive impact on pupils’ progress, which is improving. Senior leaders are fully aware, however, that to support the school’s continuing improvement, pupils’ achievement across key stage 2 needs to be strengthened.
• Regular checks on the quality of teaching and learning and pupils’ progress provide leaders with information for further planning and improvement. The performance management system is established and ensures that teachers are accountable for their pupils’ progress.
• The monitoring work of subject leaders helps them accurately identify strengths and weaknesses in their subjects. This informs their action plans for improvement. In mathematics, English and science, leaders provide effective guidance to colleagues. Senior leaders have correctly identified that there is scope for leaders to have an even greater impact on improving the quality of teaching and learning and pupils’ progress.
• Many pupils in the school have specific and complex social, learning and behavioural needs. Strategic decisions by senior leaders and governors ensure that pupils, whatever their needs, have equal opportunities. They learn without fear of discrimination of any kind and participate in all that the school offers. The learning support base, the appointment of a well-being manager, a free breakfast club and external support all make an effective contribution and help to reduce barriers to learning. Senior leaders and governors are rightly monitoring these initiatives closely to ensure that they are cost effective.
• Senior leaders ensure that there is an intense focus on improving pupils’ basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders acknowledge that there is further work to do to ensure that there is greater breadth and balance in the curriculum to motivate and enrich pupils’ learning. Interesting and purposeful links are already evident in some classes, which give pupils opportunities to apply their skills in meaningful ways across subjects. This is not consistent in all year groups. Pupils spoke with enthusiasm about trips they had made. Visits to Canterbury Cathedral, the Turner Contemporary gallery and an outing to help clean up Whitstable beach provided memorable experiences for them.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and British values are promoted well through the school’s values, assemblies and ethos of the school. Pupils demonstrate a good sense of respect and individual liberty in their work to promote internet safety.
• The school’s inclusive ethos and the well-led provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities mean these pupils receive good guidance. Their needs are swiftly identified, including the provision of any external, specialist support where appropriate. Good links have been forged with a special school to share and promote good practice.
• Senior leaders and governors keep a close check on how well the pupil premium funding is making a difference for pupils. Potential barriers to learning are identified and support is provided to help overcome these. Differences in the achievement of disadvantaged pupils compared to other pupils nationally had diminished in 2015. There was a different picture in 2016, which mirrored the underachievement for all groups. Current disadvantaged pupils, including those who are most-able, however, are making similar better progress in the school in most classes.
• The school makes good use of the primary physical education and sport funding. It is used mainly to fund the school’s membership in the Canterbury Sports Partnership. This includes a sports coach who works with pupils and staff to enhance skills and improve outcomes for pupils.
• Although too few parents responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, to make it difficult to draw any conclusions, more parents completed the recent school survey. Parents were positive about all aspects of the school’s work. Leaders are relentless in their efforts to work with parents, find ways to involve them in their children’s learning and work in partnership with the school.
• The local authority provides a good level of support for the school. Advisers reacted swiftly to the issues that left the school vulnerable in terms of staffing, the decline in pupils’ achievement and the implications of the falling roll.

Governance of the school

• Governors are actively involved in the school and share the ambition to forge further improvements. Their strategic work has been enhanced with the appointment of a national leader of governance to the governing body.
• Governors are well informed about the school’s strengths and weaknesses through a rigorous programme of monitoring visits. These are tightly linked to the school development plan. This enables the governing body to provide an increasing balance of challenge and support and hold leaders to account effectively for the school’s performance. Governors have the appropriate skills and experience to do this.
• The governing body has reflected on its own strengths and where it can be even more effective and has an action plan in place to guide its work. An audit enabled governors to identify gaps in skills and two new governors have recently been appointed to provide appropriate strengths.
• Governors keep a close check on the pupil premium funding and the primary sports funding to ensure that they are used appropriately and are making a difference for pupils.
• The chair of the governing body liaises closely with the local authority on the issues for the budget as a result of the falling roll.
• Governors ensure that statutory responsibilities are met, including those relating to safeguarding.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. A culture of safeguarding is embedded in the school.
• All staff are aware of their responsibility in keeping children safe. Staff know the pupils well and are alert to any signs that may be a cause for concern. The procedures for raising and recording concerns are fit for purpose and followed by all staff.
• The designated leaders for safeguarding ensure that all staff receive appropriate quality training so they understand how to keep children safe in a wide range of areas, including in relation to radicalisation and exploitation.
• Record-keeping is detailed and well organised. All the required checks are made on staff and governors. The site is secure and all visitors are checked on arrival.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Although improving, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not good. Improvement is required because although there are pockets of strong teaching, the quality is not consistently good in all year groups.
• Sometimes, teachers do not make it clear to pupils about what it is they are learning or what is expected of them. As a result, pupils can lose interest and concentration and they do not achieve as well as they might.
• Not all teachers have consistently high expectations of all pupils, particularly the most able. Work for the most able pupils is not always sufficiently demanding to challenge pupils to make the progress of which they are capable.
• In mathematics, a recently introduced approach is helping pupils to apply the skills they learn to solve problems. This helps to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and their ability to reason and explain their thinking. This approach is not yet fully embedded across the school.
• Teachers use a consistent approach to teaching grammar, punctuation and spelling and this is beginning to reap benefits in the progress that pupils are making in writing. In most classes pupils have opportunities to write at length. Year 6 pupils were totally absorbed in writing plans for a diary entry linked to their history work. They worked together well to discuss ideas and produced some powerful writing.
• Where there are strengths in learning, teachers’ expectations are high for pupils’ achievement, tasks are clearly explained and pupils have a clear sense of purpose for their learning. Year 2 pupils, for example, were completely engrossed in making posters to advertise a play they were going to perform for parents. They were drawing on knowledge from a previous lesson where they had gathered facts about polar bears. They fully understood the purpose of the activity and produced good-quality writing as a result. These aspects are not consistent in all classes.
• Teachers have good relationships with pupils and pupils feel valued and want to do well.
• Teaching assistants mostly make an effective contribution to pupils’ learning, particularly in teaching phonics skills. They usually work well with teachers to make sure that all pupils are fully included.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils have good attitudes to learning, want to do well and enjoy all that they do in school.
• Pupils have responded well to a recent initiative by leaders of a ‘pride award’. During the inspection, several pupils demonstrated pride in their achievements by insisting on sharing their work with inspectors.
• Leaders provide good support for pupils’ emotional and social development as well as their academic achievement. The well-being and learning support managers make a very positive contribution to pupils’ personal development and well-being.
• Pupils say that they feel safe in school and that they are not aware of any bullying. They know the difference between different types of bullying and that sometimes friends just fall out. They have a good awareness of how to keep safe in and out of school and are particularly aware of issues around e-safety.
• Pupils know they are safe to learn without any type of discrimination as they know that any language or actions that may cause offence would not be tolerated.
• Pupils who attend the breakfast club have a safe, healthy and sociable start to the school day. One pupil explained that she enjoyed doing word searches at breakfast club because, ‘it gets my brain ready for school’. The breakfast club provision has helped to improve attendance and punctuality.
• In the school’s survey, all parents who responded agreed that their children are happy in school, feel safe and are well looked after.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils generally behave well in lessons, around the school, at lunchtime and in the playground. Behaviour sometimes slips a little when teaching does not sustain pupils’ concentration and some pupils can become distracted and lose their focus on learning.
• The systems for managing the behaviour of pupils with particular and often complex behaviour needs are effective. The procedures are implemented consistently by all staff and expectations are well known by the pupils. The clear and successful aim is on making sure that pupils with specific needs are focused as quickly as possible on their learning and that any untoward behaviour does not interrupt the learning of others. The well-being and learning support managers make a valuable contribution to keeping pupils on track by supporting their emotional and social needs as well as their academic needs.
• Attendance has improved, although it remains below average. Leaders do all they can to promote and encourage regular attendance. There has been a marked improvement for some pupils with previously high absences and the number of pupils with persistent absence has reduced. Leaders analyse the attendance of different groups rigorously. Leaders go the extra mile to support pupils who may be at risk of exclusion, for example, by offering a part-time timetable. The aim is always to ensure that pupils are successfully reintegrated back into their classes.
• In the school’s survey, almost all parents agreed that the school makes sure its pupils are well behaved and pupils spoken to during the inspection agreed with this.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils’ achievement requires improvement because although current pupils are making stronger progress than last year, it is uneven across the year groups. Pupils in key stage 2 are not making enough progress to catch up from their low starting points at the end of Year 2. A legacy of weaker teaching and staffing turbulence since the previous inspection means that despite improving progress, pupils are not reaching the expected attainment in Years 3 to 6.
• In Year 2, the school’s assessment information and the work in pupils’ books show that current pupils are mostly on track to achieve the expected attainment by the end of key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics. This is a result of strong teaching in Year 2.
• Caution needs to be taken in interpreting the published results due to the small and fluctuating numbers in the Year 2 and Year 6 groups. For example, in 2016, one pupil represented 10% of the group in Year 2. In Year 6, one pupil represented almost 6%. Around half of the pupils in the 2016 Year 6 group started at the school in key stage 2 and just over three quarters had complex special educational needs.
• In 2016, the large majority of pupils reached the expected standards by the end of Year 2 in reading and mathematics. In writing, half of the year group reached the expected standard.
• The proportion of pupils who reached the expected attainment by the end of Year 6 was below that found nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils’ progress from their low starting points at the end of key stage 1 was significantly below that expected nationally, particularly in writing.
• Leaders have taken effective action to support pupils’ reading achievement. Progress and attainment in reading was well below average in 2016. There was, however, a marked increase from previous years in the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected level in the Year 1 phonics screening check and it was above average. Effective training and well-managed provision have a positive impact on pupils’ improved phonics skills. Increased resources for small-group guided reading sessions, a lunchtime reading club for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 and trips out for pupils to spend their book tokens are ways in which leaders are working to improve outcomes and promoting enjoyment of reading for pleasure.
• The progress of disadvantaged pupils currently in the school is similar to other pupils in that it is improving but it is uneven across the year groups and not fast enough to enable pupils in key stage 2 to catch up with other pupils nationally. In some classes, more disadvantaged pupils are making the expected or accelerated progress than others, particularly in writing.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make progress similar to others in the school. The provision for this group is managed very well by the deputy headteacher. Pupils’ needs are identified at an early stage and appropriate support is given in class, in small groups and in the learning support base.
• In 2016, there were too few pupils with high prior attainment at the end of Year 2 to comment in detail on their achievement by the end of Year 6. By the end of Year 2, not enough pupils were attaining at a greater depth from their starting points at the end of the early years.
• The most able pupils currently in the school are starting to be challenged more effectively in some classes and subjects when expectations are high. In mathematics, for example, pupils are encouraged to challenge themselves by choosing tasks at different levels and quickly move on to applying their skills. Sometimes, the most able pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable because they work through tasks from the same starting point as others when they could be engaged in more demanding work more rapidly.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Children generally start in the Nursery or Reception class with skills and knowledge that are well below those expected for their ages, particularly in their communication and language skills and their personal development. In the current Reception class, however, there is a different picture as most children started with skills and knowledge typical for their age. This is a consequence of the fact that most of the children had attended the Nursery, received a good grounding and made good progress from their starting points.
• In 2016, the proportion of children who reached a good level of development by the end of the early years was below that found nationally but had improved from the previous two years. As a result, children were better prepared to continue their learning in Year 1. The latest school assessments indicate that the proportion of children on track to reach a good level of development at the end of the current year is set to increase further.
• The quality of teaching is improving but is not yet consistently good. The planned activities do not consistently take children’s interests into account or make learning as exciting and stimulating as it could be.
• Children continue to get a good start in the Nursery class. They settle quickly into the established routines and respond well to the high expectations.
• Support from the local authority early years adviser has helped to improve the learning environments in the Nursery and Reception class. The Nursery children have good opportunities to play and learn in the outside area, which supports the development of their skills effectively. The outdoor area for the Reception children has correctly been identified as needing considerable improvement to support children’s developing skills in all areas of learning.
• Good relationships between children and adults mean that children are happy and feel safe and secure. Children respond positively to adults and behave well.
• The Nursery and Reception class teachers provide joint leadership for the early years. They ensure that all the welfare and safeguarding requirements are met. They liaise well with the well-being manager to ensure that children who are disadvantaged or may be vulnerable are given the necessary support to help reduce barriers to learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 118536 Kent 10032972 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils Gender of pupils 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 119 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Ursula Fuller Ann Beaven Telephone number 01227 464956 Website Email address www.parksidecommunityprimaryschool.co.uk officemanager@parkside.kent.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 19–20 June 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school and the roll is declining. There is one class in each year group.
• Most pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average.
• The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium funding is well above average.
• A higher-than-average proportion of pupils join or leave the school other than at the usual times.
• Children in the Nursery attend daily morning sessions. Children in the Reception class attend on a full-time basis.
• The school provides a daily breakfast club which is free of charge for all pupils.
• The school does not meet the government’s 2016 floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The headteacher was appointed in October 2014.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes. Most of these observations were conducted jointly with the headteacher or the deputy headteacher.
• Inspectors talked to pupils about their work and looked at work in pupils’ books.
• Inspectors observed pupils at playtime and lunchtime and asked them for their views on the school. They also talked to pupils about reading and listened to some pupils read.
• Discussions were held with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, other staff with key leadership responsibilities, governors, the local authority senior improvement adviser and the school’s link improvement adviser.
• Inspectors looked at a wide range of documents including the school’s own check on its performance and the quality of teaching, the school improvement plan, information on pupils’ progress and records relating to attendance, behaviour and safeguarding.
• Inspectors looked at the five responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, which included two written comments, and spoke to some parents at the start of the school day. They also took account of the school’s own recent parental survey which had 31 responses.

Inspection team

Margaret Coussins, lead inspector Graham Chisnell

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector