Victoria Park Junior School

Victoria Park Junior School Davyhulme Road East, Stretford, Manchester, M32 0XZ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school.  Standards in English and mathematics have been significantly above average for the past five years. An above average proportion of pupils are achieving the highest levels in these key subjects.  Outstanding teaching over time results in pupils making rapid gains in their learning. Teachers are highly skilled at using questioning to effectively stimulate pupils’ curiosity and understanding about the world around them.  Teachers’ excellent subject knowledge, high expectations and well-planned lessons enable pupils, particularly the most-able, to make rapid progress.  Pupils thoroughly enjoy learning and are willing to take part in all of the activities.  Attendance has significantly improved as pupils love coming to school. Parents say, ’my children cannot wait to get here.’  Behaviour is exemplary. Pupils feel extremely safe in the school. They come from different backgrounds but play and get on exceptionally

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

well together.  The governing body successfully ensured that quality time was given to the new staff enabling them to quickly grasp and understand their roles and their responsibilities without disrupting the school’s routine.  Senior leaders have rigorous and robust systems for monitoring the quality of teaching and learning but the subject leaders are in the early stages of doing this for their subjects.  The curriculum is stimulating and provides pupils with rich experiences that are highly effective in promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Senior leaders, in partnership with the governing body, have successfully created a highly inclusive and vibrant school. They have worked exceptionally hard in improving it so that all aspects of its work have progressed from good to outstanding.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection team observed 15 lessons. Two of these were jointly observed with the headteacher and deputy headteacher. Inspectors observed a whole-school assembly.  Inspectors listened to pupils read. They looked at work in pupils’ books.  Meetings were held with key staff, pupils, a representative from the local authority and three members of the governing body.  Inspectors looked at a number of documents, including the school’s development plan, the school’s evaluation of its own performance, governing body minutes, the school’s own data on pupils’ current progress, documents relating to safeguarding and records relating to behaviour and safety.  Inspectors took account of the 20 responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View), discussions with parents at start of the school day and analysed 17 staff questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Sharona Semlali, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Neil Dixon Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is an average-sized school.  The previous headteacher retired at the end of the summer term in 2013. The new headteacher and the new deputy headteacher took up their positions in September 2013. Even though they are new to their positions they are not new to the school.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives pupil premium funding (additional money given to schools for particular pupils, including those known to be eligible for free school meals, looked-after children and pupils from service families) is above average.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is above average, as is the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported by school action is above average. The proportion supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is also above average.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the current government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen the roles of the subject leaders by ensuring that they are involved in embedding the rigorous monitoring systems that already exist, so they have more impact on pupils’ outstanding achievement in their areas and can continue to drive the school forward.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils mostly join the school with skills that are above those found nationally but this does vary from year-to-year. All of the different groups of pupils make exceptional progress in all subjects and reach exceptionally high standards in English and mathematics by the time they leave at the end of Key Stage 2. This has been the case for the past five years and is constantly improving.  Leaders are highly successful in promoting equal opportunities, as all pupils are exceptionally well-prepared for the next stage in their education.  All of the pupils made at least good progress in mathematics and 83% made outstanding progress. In the 2013 national tests, 78% of pupils achieved the highest levels in mathematics which is significantly above average when compared to the 2012 national figures. Pupils have excellent computational skills and are able to use these skills in real-life situations.  Pupils are enthusiastic readers and thoroughly enjoy reading a wide range of different types of

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

books for pleasure and they do this often.  Work in pupils’ books shows they are continuing to make rapid gains in writing. This is because they are given plenty of opportunity to write about their wealth of real-life experiences that are being provided by the school, particularly through drama. Pupils’ strong and determined effort in writing is acknowledged well by the school.  Pupils from a minority ethnic background and those who have English as additional language achieve exceptionally well and achieve standards at the end of Year 6 that are similar to the others in the school and is well above their peers around the country. This is because of the tailored support given to them and their parents.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make rapid progress from their starting points. This is because the school works extremely closely with external specialists, parents and pupils to provide the personalised support that is needed. Leaders carefully track and review

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

their progress.  The school is very well organised in the way it spends the funding on the pupil premium. This includes having an extra teacher to the year group so that pupils can be effectively taught in smaller groups in the morning. As a result, the gap is rapidly closing between those eligible for free school meals and others in the school. In the 2013 national tests, those eligible for free school meals are now less than one term behind the others in reading, writing and mathematics and their attainment is significantly above the national average.  The school makes excellent provision for developing pupils’ physical well-being and uses funding very effectively to bring in high quality specialist coaching, additional activities and equipment. There is a high take up in all of the clubs and pupils appreciate all of the opportunities offered.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Outstanding, first-rate teaching over time has helped pupils to make accelerated and exceptional progress. Pupils say, ‘We have fun and learn at the same time.’  Teachers throughout the school are highly successful in teaching pupils how to sharpen their speaking skills by getting them to fully explain to a ‘shoulder partner’ how they derived an answer through a problem-solving exercise. For example in a Year 5 mathematics lesson, pupils confidently explained their thought processes to their ‘shoulder partner’ about how they got their answers when they were exploring the relationships between a set of decimals, fractions and percentages.  Highly effective use of the different types of questioning and strong encouragement in getting all pupils to ask questions is one of the strengths in the school. This has helped to inspire pupils’ curiosity and probe their thinking about the world around them. There is a new question for

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

them to think about every day and this is displayed on the large interactive board in the hall. All of the teachers have excellent subject knowledge which enables to successfully challenge all of the different groups of pupils, particularly the most-able ones. As a result, more pupils are achieving the highest grades in English and mathematics.  Teachers’ planning is thorough and closely matches the different needs in the class. They diligently monitor pupils’ progress and constantly amend and adapt their lessons so that all pupils achieve extremely well.  Teachers highly motivate and engage pupils through their lively pace of lessons. For example in a Year 6 English lesson pupils enjoyed and were highly involved in having a lively debate about the characters in the book called, ‘Good night, Mr. Tom.’  Teaching assistants and the extra adults in the school are fully utilised to maximise pupils’ learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils display excellent attitudes and contribute considerably towards their own learning. They work enthusiastically and support each other exceptionally well and as a result, make rapid gains in their learning. Their extremely positive attitudes are displayed across all subjects; for example in a Year 5 lesson, pupils were overwhelmed at their success when they managed to use a computer programme to animate some cartoon characters.  Pupils’ behaviour and conduct around the school is exemplary. Responses from staff and parental questionnaires and discussions with pupils are all extremely positive about behaviour and safety in the school.  Pupils play well together. Playtimes are fun, friendly and calm. They know, display and fully embrace the school’s code of conduct. They learn and play together, fully accepting any differences between them.  Pupils say they feel safe and that bullying is rare and this is also seen in the school’s

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

documentation. They have a clear understanding of how to keep themselves safe beyond the school and when they are using the Internet.  The school is very effective at supporting and managing the few pupils that have challenging behaviour.  Pupils are very committed and serious about the different roles that they have around the school. For example, the ‘reading ambassadors’ helped to play a significant part in improving their library and members of the ‘school council’ enjoy judging the tidiest classroom so that the winners can be awarded with the ‘golden broom.’  Attendance is above average. This has significantly improved over the past three years.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school has effectively addressed all the issues from the previous inspection. Consequently it has improved from good to outstanding. Leaders are not complacent and continue to strive for excellence. The school is well-placed to improve further.  Highly effective succession planning by school leaders and the governing body has successfully enabled a smooth transition for leaders to move into their new positions without causing any disruption to the school or impacting on pupils’ achievement.  The dynamic and determined leadership skills of the headteacher and deputy complement each other extremely well. They are strongly supported by a very experienced team of staff where morale is high.  All teachers and teaching assistants have aspirational and challenging targets that help to continue to improve their practice. These are robustly reviewed regularly.  Robust and rigorous systems are in place to check the quality of teaching by senior leaders.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

However, subject leaders are not yet fully involved in this process and therefore have a limited impact on pupils’ achievement in their subjects.  The school offers an outstanding provision to develop its pupils to love learning by providing them with a rich and engaging curriculum that builds their skills and knowledge extremely well. It responds well to their needs and request. Wherever possible it makes links with the local community. For example during the ‘aspirations week,’ leaders made strong links by using experts from their local community to help to make this a success.  Opportunities such as: residential trips to places like Robinwood, pupils learning to play different types of instrument and having a wide range of clubs significantly promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Parents hold the school in high regard. Responses to the on-line survey (Parent View) show that

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The leadership and management are outstanding

all of them would recommend the school to another parent.  The local authority has given the school good support and uses it as an exemplar of good practice to other schools.  The governance of the school: - The governing body has an excellent overview of the school’s strengths and development points. This is because all members have undertaken a rigorous amount of training so that they can effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities. They have an in depth knowledge and understanding of the school’s data about pupils’ achievements. They make regular visits to the school to check on the different aspects of the school and stringently challenge and support school leaders. All of them are fully dedicated and committed to their roles. They have been instrumental in involving parents with their children’s learning by training them to come into the school to help with reading. They have set up an equalities group where parents can

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The leadership and management are outstanding

share and learn about each other’s cultures. They have a clear understanding about how progression in teachers’ salary is linked to pupils’ outcomes. They ensure that all safeguarding policies and child procedures are exemplary.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 106327 Local authority Trafford Inspection number 428830

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 234 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Paul Jamieson Headteacher Joanne Taylor Date of previous school inspection 10 February 2009 Telephone number 0161 912 5005 Fax number 0161 865 3469 Email address victoriajunior.admin@trafford.gov.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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School details

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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School details

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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