Gosford Park Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, by:
  • ensuring that the most able pupils and those capable of attaining higher standards receive sufficient challenge in reading, writing and mathematics
  • providing pupils with increased opportunities to apply their literacy and numeracy skills more independently in their work.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, by:
  • further developing middle leadership to ensure that leadership responsibilities are shared and capacity is strengthened
  • ensuring that assessments on entry in the early years are accurate and activities build on children’s individual starting points.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher leads with steely determination and provides a clear direction for continuous improvement. This has had a significant positive impact on the quality of teaching and learning. As a result, progress rates are accelerating and pupils behave well and are keen to learn. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the leadership of the school, summarised by the comment, ‘Gosford Park is managing to inspire children to learn and thrive and provide them with everything they need in order to fulfil their potential.’ Pupils’ welfare and safety are given a high priority by all staff.
• The headteacher supports and challenges staff effectively to improve their performance. Teachers are given targets linked to the priorities of the school. These are reviewed regularly and have resulted in improved teaching and learning.
• Leaders have invested in appropriate training opportunities for staff. Where this has been most effective, teaching has improved. The school has used the services of an external consultant to work in classes alongside teachers to help them develop their practice, which has been effective.
• Provision for pupils’ social, moral and spiritual development is strong. Vibrant displays around the school reinforce key messages. The school receives a high number of new pupils, including many from different countries. All are made to feel welcome and fully included in school life. Pupils have a growing understanding of cultural diversity and different world religions.
• Leaders have evaluated the effectiveness of the curriculum and have made suitable changes. The curriculum is well designed as it enables pupils to experience a range of exciting topics and gives them opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills across different subject areas. This has increased pupils’ engagement and their enjoyment of learning, and supported pupils’ progress across all areas of the curriculum. A wide variety of extra-curricular activities are on offer to all pupils including different sports, a cookery club and other after-school opportunities.
• The headteacher, supported by other leaders, has worked tirelessly to improve parental engagement, which is now effective. Parents report that there is an ‘open door’ policy at Gosford Park and that they are encouraged to discuss their child’s progress regularly with class teachers. A greater proportion of parents than in recent years attend events and parent consultation meetings. There are some exemplary examples of homework on display, for example where parents and children have worked together to produce rockets.
• Additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used well. For example, leaders buy in specialist services to support pupils whom staff identify as having speech and language difficulties. This proactive approach has resulted in a significant number of pupils making improvements in their speech more quickly rather than having to wait for support from local health services.
• Gosford Park makes good use of its sports funding. It has ensured that pupils have more opportunities to take part in sporting activities. Sports coaches are employed to work alongside school staff to help develop teaching skills during physical education (PE) lessons, lunchtimes and after-school clubs. Leaders are now working to increase pupil participation in after-school sports activities.
• Support from the local authority has been effective. A local authority representative knows the school well and has supported leaders to evaluate progress against areas for improvement and identify further developments.
• Leaders regularly check the progress of individual pupils and identify interventions and additional support to address gaps in their learning. Most interventions are of a good quality and improve outcomes for pupils.
• Middle leaders have a good understanding of the subjects they lead. However, the headteacher oversees some key subjects in addition to her leadership responsibilities. Although some of this is partly due to staff absence, middle leadership has not been fully developed.

Governance of the school

• Governors are supportive of the school and positive about the impact the headteacher has had on improving the quality of teaching, learning, behaviour and parental engagement. They are well informed as the headteacher provides a wealth of information about the work of the school and governors come into school to look at improvements first hand.
• Governors receive regular updates about the progress of current pupils. They understand how well the school is doing compared to other schools nationally.
• Governors support and challenge subject leaders and hold them fully to account. They have a good understanding of the context of the school and barriers to pupils’ learning. As a result, they have employed a family support worker to help secure further improvement. However, governors acknowledge that leadership capacity can be further strengthened. They are keen to support the headteacher and ensure that key leadership roles are shared more widely.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The headteacher, supported by other senior leaders, has ensured that a culture of keeping children safe is of paramount importance and everyone’s responsibility. As a result, parents, pupils and staff are confident that the school’s work to keep children safe is a strength of the school.
• All staff receive regular and relevant training. They are vigilant and swiftly report any concerns about pupils to the headteacher. All relevant policies are up to date, approved by governors and shared with all staff.
• Governors have an up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding and fully understand their responsibilities. They regularly monitor this aspect of the school’s work to ensure that procedures are being followed in line with guidance from the Department for Education.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching has improved across the school as a result of the headteacher and other leaders undertaking effective monitoring and subsequent action. This has ensured that they have a clear view of the quality of teaching, learning and areas for improvement, which has enabled them to provide targeted support to some teachers. Teaching is now good across the school.
• The school has recently reviewed its approach to homework. Parents are now more engaged in their children’s learning. Creative examples of such work can be seen around school.
• Relationships between pupils and adults are strong. Pupils are well supported in lessons by both teachers and teaching assistants. Staff skilfully model learning, use effective questioning and address pupils’ misconceptions. This ensures that pupils make good progress in lessons and are fully engaged in their learning.
• The school has made a good start in developing ways in which pupils can enhance their reasoning skills in mathematics. Questioning is used effectively to encourage pupils to clearly explain their reasons and methods to answer mathematical problems.
• Pupils are taught to write in a variety of different styles and purposeful links are made to other subjects. For example, in Year 6 pupils were writing poems inspired by the famous painting ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch. Work in books is well presented and shows good progress over time. Pupils use neat, cursive handwriting across different subjects. Key stage 1 pupils apply the phonic skills they have learned to good effect.
• Reading is strongly promoted at Gosford Park. The school has trained a group of lunchtime supervisors called ‘The Reading Army’ to support pupils who have been identified as needing additional support in this area of English. During the inspection, pupils were seen reading to adults in the new reading areas around school, showing their enjoyment and love of reading.
• Sometimes, teachers do not consistently challenge pupils well enough in their learning. This reduces their ability to achieve higher standards. In mathematics, pupils are encouraged to complete a ‘moving on’ task. When this is used well, pupils apply skills taught in a new context to demonstrate and consolidate their learning independently. However, this is not consistent across the school and is less evident in pupils’ writing books or reading tasks.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils say bullying is rare at Gosford Park. They understand what bullying is and what they should do if they feel they are being bullied. They can describe the different forms bullying can take and know how to stay safe online.
• Pupils value the education they receive and understand the importance of working hard and achieving well at school. One pupil expressed this by saying, ‘You need a good education so that you can get a good job and follow your dreams’ – a philosophy that the school promotes.
• The school is currently working on a new initiative to support children in developing a ‘can do’ attitude. Pupils talk openly about the work they have completed on developing a ‘growth mindset’.
• Sports coaches are employed to work with pupils at lunchtime and after school. This has had a positive effect on pupils’ physical well-being as well as improving behaviour at lunchtimes.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are welcoming, courteous and show good manners around school. They are all proud to follow the ‘Gosford Park etiquette’, showing respect to one another, all adults and their school environment. This ensures that the school atmosphere is calm and orderly throughout the day.
• Behaviour logs clearly show that behaviour incidents are reducing. This is as a result of the behaviour policy being applied consistently by all members of staff and followed by pupils. Pupils have a clear understanding of the rewards and sanctions in place.
• Pupils’ work in books is neat and well presented, demonstrating the pride that pupils take in their work. They are keen to learn. During the inspection low-level disruption was rare and staff, pupils and the school’s own records confirmed that this was typical.
• Due to the effective work of the senior leadership team, pupils’ overall attendance rates are now in line with the national average. Leaders have worked relentlessly to improve attendance and ensure that more pupils arrive at school on time.
• Parents and pupils are confident that staff deal with poor behaviour well. Pupils and parents report that any issues are dealt with effectively by senior leaders and class teachers. As a consequence, pupils feel safe.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Work in pupils’ books indicates that pupils are making good progress. In recent years, pupils’ attainment by the end of Year 6 has been below the national average. Also, a substantial proportion of pupils failed to make the amount of progress expected during their time in key stage 2, in both reading and mathematics. However, actions taken by leaders to improve teaching have ensured that progress is accelerating and more pupils are now working at age-appropriate levels.
• In recent years, attainment at the end of key stage 1 has been broadly in line with the national average across all subjects. However, disadvantaged pupils have not done as well as other pupils, particularly in achieving the higher levels in English and mathematics. Improved teaching, together with targeted support and earlier intervention, is now leading to differences between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally diminishing.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the standard required in the Year 1 phonics check is rising. Results in 2016 were broadly in line with the national average and standards are set to be maintained in the current year. Pupils in Year 1 are already able to apply their phonic knowledge effectively in their writing and are prepared to tackle relatively challenging words. For example, during the inspection pupils were writing a character description for their ‘minion’ and pupils used their phonic knowledge successfully to help with tricky spellings.
• Most pupils are making good progress from their starting points. This is as a result of consistently good teaching. However, too few pupils reach the higher standards at the end of key stages 1 and 2 as work is not sufficiently challenging, especially for the most able.
• Across all key stages, girls perform better than boys in reading, writing and mathematics, both at the expected and higher standard. Leaders have identified this issue and put strategies in place to ensure that boys now do as well as the girls. For example, ‘The Reading Army’ is used well in reading to diminish any differences in attainment.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well in lessons and through targeted interventions. All pupils are discussed during pupil progress meetings and interventions identified as required. Interventions are closely monitored and reviewed regularly to evaluate the progress pupils make from their different starting points.
• Disadvantaged pupils make good progress. This is because leaders use the pupil premium funding effectively to meet their needs. Pupils benefit from additional support and targeted teaching. This helps them keep up with their peers and achieve well. Differences between these pupils and other pupils are diminishing.
• The most able pupils achieve well, but on occasion work is not sufficiently challenging. This limits the proportion of pupils reaching the higher standards.

Early years provision Good

• Children make good progress in the early years. Most children enter the Nursery or Reception with skills that are typical for their age. In recent years, a greater proportion of children have reached the standards expected at the end of Reception. As a result, the vast majority of children are well prepared for their learning in Year 1.
• Boys’ achievement is rapidly catching up with that of the girls. The difference between boys’ achievement and girls’ achievement is closing rapidly. This is due to changes made to provision and careful consideration of themes and activities. For example, Reception children are currently learning about space, which has engaged boys and girls alike.
• The headteacher, supported by the leadership team, has correctly identified that disadvantaged pupils are not performing as well as they should. Effective steps have been put in place to address this. Children receive additional support with their early literacy and mathematical skills to help them achieve as well as other children.
• Adults model language well. As a result, children’s communication skills develop well and most children in the early years are articulate and are able to speak in sentences. In addition, questioning is used effectively to support children’s development in all areas of the curriculum.
• A wide range of resources and good-quality activities are planned both indoors and outdoors. Children engage fully in their learning and remain on task for long periods of time, exploring their own ideas as well as those which are planned.
• Children are well cared for and kept safe. They are supervised carefully by all adults. Their curiosity and willingness to play and work with others contributes well to their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development.
• The partnership between home and school is effective. Parents are encouraged to contribute to the ‘Proud Cloud’. This is an opportunity for parents to share with school their child’s achievements at home.
• Learning journals are used well to record children’s progress against different aspects of the early years curriculum. However, assessments made of children’s starting points, when they join are often too low and do not reflect children’s true abilities. This slows children’s progress as teachers do not move children on quickly enough in their learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 103643 Coventry 10025265 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 Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 459 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Trevor Sharman Leah Baddeley 024 7622 3281 www.gosfordpark-coventry.org.uk/ admin@gosfordpark.coventry.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 16–17 October 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This school is larger than the average primary school.
• The early years consists of Nursery and Reception classes. Nursery children attend part-time and Reception children attend full-time.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is above the national average. Most pupils speak English as their first language.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium funding is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed teaching in all classes. They saw 14 parts of lessons and undertook a learning walk with the headteacher and deputy headteacher.
• Meetings were held with pupils, the headteacher, other staff with leadership responsibilities and members of the governing body. Inspectors also spoke to a representative of the local authority.
• Inspectors took account of the 25 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) and the comments made. Inspectors also spoke to parents as they collected their children from school. Pupils’ views were also considered by talking to pupils both formally and informally during the school day. Inspectors also reviewed 19 staff responses to the online staff questionnaire.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read, talked to them about their learning and reviewed work in their books.
• Inspectors reviewed a number of documents, including the school’s own evaluation on how well it is doing, the school improvement plan, data on current standards, leaders’ reports about the quality of teaching and learning and records relating to behaviour, attendance and safeguarding.

Inspection team

Michelle Johnstone, lead inspector Marie Thomas Gareth Morgan Mary Maybank Benetia Mounsey

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector