Knightwood Primary School

Bellflower Way, Knightwood Road, Eastleigh, SO53 4HW

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The whole school community works continuously to provide the very best education for pupils. The headteacher, deputy headteacher and other senior leaders guide this work exceptionally well and the school has improved considerably since its previous inspection.  Procedures for reviewing the impact that teaching has on pupils’ progress and acting on the information to bring about improvement are outstanding. Leaders and governors have an excellent knowledge of the quality of teaching.  The work of the ‘Impact Teams’, which support, develop and improve teaching across the school, is outstanding. The school is exceptionally well placed to maintain its high-quality education.  Teaching is outstanding. Skilled staff inspire pupils to do their very best. The support for pupils who find learning difficult is excellent.  The early years is outstanding. Children’s excellent progress ensures they are very well prepared for

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

Year 1.  In Years 1 to 6, pupils make excellent progress. By the end of Year 6, their attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is consistently well above average. Pupils are very well prepared for their future education.  The curriculum for each year group is extremely effective in supporting pupils’ progress. Extra activities before or after school and at lunchtimes, especially those for sport, enhance pupils’ achievements and enjoyment very well.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are promoted exceptionally well. Pupils have an excellent understanding of the importance of British values such as democracy, tolerance and fairness.  In lessons, around the school and at playtimes pupils’ behaviour is outstanding. Their commitment to learning and work ethic are excellent.  Safeguarding is given high priority. Pupils feel very safe and secure in school. Relationships with staff

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and between pupils are excellent. The school is a very happy and productive place.  Parents and carers are involved in school life especially well. They provide very good support for the work pupils do at home.  The governing body fulfils its role exceptionally well. Relationships between governors and staff are outstanding. Governors’ very good knowledge of the staff’s work, including the quality of teaching and learning, is due to the rigorous reviews they carry out.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed pupils’ learning in 17 lessons or parts of lessons, of which four were joint observations with senior leaders. In addition, the inspection team made a number of other short visits to group or individual activities. They heard a sample of pupils read, scrutinised a selection of pupils’ written work and visited some extra-curricular activities.  Meetings were held with pupils, members of the governing body and staff, including senior and middle managers. A conversation was held with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 130 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. They also spoke to a small number of parents and carers bringing their children to school.  Responses from the 33 staff questionnaires were analysed.  The inspectors observed the school’s work and scrutinised a number of documents, including the school’s records on current pupils’ progress, behaviour and attendance. They looked at documents related to

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Information about this inspection

planning and monitoring and safeguarding.

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Inspection team

Diane Wilkinson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Knightwood is a larger than average-sized primary school with two classes in each year group. Children attend the Reception classes on a full-time basis.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is well below the national average.  A small minority of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. Few speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium funding is low (fewer than five in most year groups) compared to the national average. In this school, this additional funding is to provide extra support for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.  Leaders and staff work closely with other schools in monitoring and improvement work, for example in checking the accuracy of pupils’ assessment.  Governors provide a before-school club for pupils. A considerable number of extra clubs are provided for

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Information about this school

pupils both before and after school and at lunchtimes, including for supporting homework, reading and physical education and sport.  The school meets the 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?

 When teachers mark pupils’ work they should consistently provide guidance on improvements and check that pupils have effectively responded to their advice.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 This is a school where the ambition to be excellent is at the heart of all it does. The headteacher and senior leadership team are outstanding leaders who are exceptionally good at enabling and empowering all who work in the school to make a very effective contribution to school improvement. Subject leadership and leadership of other important aspects, such as special educational needs, is of high quality.  An example of the relentless way in which they go about their work can be seen in the outstanding procedures in place, involving all leaders and governors, for reviewing and improving the quality of teaching. Very regular checking of all the information available allows leaders to intervene very swiftly and successfully when any weaker aspects appear. This, together with excellent support and coaching, helps maintain high-quality practice and exceptionally good achievement. Teachers new to the profession

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The leadership and management are outstanding

quickly become skilled practitioners.  The school takes its responsibility for promoting equality of opportunity, fostering good relationships and tackling discrimination very seriously. This ensures that those pupils who might be at risk of underachieving make outstanding progress. Discrimination is any form is not tolerated and the school is an exceptionally happy and safe place to be.  The curriculum to support pupils’ learning and personal development is highly effective. Exceptionally well- designed programmes for reading, writing and mathematics ensure pupils rapidly acquire and use the skills they need. After-school activities and out-of-school visits enrich pupils’ learning considerably.  The attention given to promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their commitment to British values are outstanding. As a result, pupils are exceptionally well prepared for their

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The leadership and management are outstanding

future in a diverse and democratic British society.  The governing body makes excellent decisions regarding the allocation of financial resources, especially for the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils. This is used very effectively to provide specific programmes and resources for supporting these pupils’ personal and academic needs and to provide high- quality teaching for them. Governors’ success is seen in the outstanding achievement of these pupils.  The sports fund grant to encourage good performance and increased experiences is exceptionally well allocated to achieve this goal. Improvements in the quality of teaching, resources for physical education, pupils’ participation in a very wide range of sports, and their very good performance are a testament to this effective spending.  Keeping pupils safe and free from harm are a top priority for staff and governors. They underpin this determination with very regular and rigorous procedures for safeguarding pupils which fully meet

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The leadership and management are outstanding

government requirements. Pupils are exceptionally well looked after, including through the vetting of staff and child protection arrangements.  The local authority rightly deems this to be a school that needs little support. Nevertheless, leaders and governors wisely use local authority expertise to help develop innovative practice and maintain high performance. Excellent partnerships with other schools support development especially well through the sharing of expertise.  The school has an extremely good partnership with parents and carers who are very well informed about the school’s work and their children’s progress. Parents and carers are very appreciative of and committed to the school, including through overseeing their children’s homework.  The governance of the school:  Working exceptionally well with school leaders, governors fulfil their statutory duties very well. A very strong commitment to reviewing the school’s effectiveness, including through a range of very well-

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The leadership and management are outstanding

focused visits, ensures that governors are particularly well informed about teaching quality and pupils’ achievement. Their good understanding of national assessment data allows governors to accurately compare Knightwood’s performance against that of other schools locally and nationally. Governors share the staff’s strong determination to be one of the best schools and hold staff to account exceptionally well to help achieve this. Governors take a very keen interest in any area where pupils’ performance dips, keeping a close check of the effectiveness of strategies to improve them. Governors are very effectively involved in the formal management of staff performance, receiving very secure information that allows them to reward only teaching that helps pupils to make rapid progress. Governors set equally high standards for themselves, reviewing their own performance equally rigorously and demonstrating a strong commitment to training in important areas such as safeguarding.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils’ excellent attitudes to learning support their achievement exceptionally well.  Pupils are very reflective about the things they do due to the outstanding promotion of their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils’ moral and social values are exceptionally strong. They are very aware of what is deemed to be acceptable behaviour, fully support the school’s rewards and sanctions procedures and develop excellent moral values. Behaviour observed during the inspection was exemplary.  The behaviour of the very small proportion of pupils who find good behaviour difficult improves exceptionally well over time due to the excellent support they receive. There have been no exclusions for a number of years.  Pupils develop a strong thirst for learning. They willingly respond to the high expectations teachers have of them and set the same high expectations for themselves. Consequently, older pupils keep a very close

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Behaviour

check on their learning, assessing how well they are doing, which helps them to become lifelong learners. Their attendance is consistently above average.  Outstanding relationships between pupils ensure paired and group work is excellent. Pupils’ capacity for teamwork is a considerable strength because they respect each other’s points of view.  Pupils are very proud of their school and willingly contribute to school life, for example, as school councillors or play leaders at lunchtimes.  Pupils are strongly committed to democratic values and embrace the concepts of tolerance and fairness. Their understanding of and respect for different cultures and religions are excellent.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding.  Pupils and their parents and carers are well aware that pupils feel very safe and well cared for in school. This is evident not only during the school day, but also in the before- and after-school clubs.  Checking of the effectiveness of the school’s policies and procedures, especially those for behaviour, health and safety and child protection, is very regular and rigorous. Pupils themselves are very good at looking out for each other and abiding by the school’s stringent safety rules.  Bullying in any form is extremely rare and pupils have strong confidence in adults’ ability to respond to any concern they may raise.  Pupils have many opportunities to learn about how to keep themselves safe, for example in the case of fire, during school visits or when using social media sites on the internet.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff have excellent knowledge of the levels at which pupils are working. As a result of this, and the very high expectations they have of pupils, teaching in reading, writing and mathematics is outstanding.  The excellent relationships between staff and pupils, based on a climate of mutual trust and respect, ensure that the management of behaviour is especially good. Lessons are very rarely interrupted. The climate for learning is outstanding. In many lessons there is a very purposeful buzz of excitement and serious discussion going on between pupils, indicating their strong commitment to do their best.  Both teachers and learning support assistants are skilled at demonstrating and explaining new work so that pupils understand easily. When pupils work on their own tasks, staff are very good at monitoring how well they are doing. Most are excellent at questioning pupils, prompting and probing to help their

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

understanding and move them on further.  Teachers are very skilful at recognising when some more able pupils do not need to listen to extra explanations before starting their work and can get on to their tasks quickly. They are equally good at knowing when a few are struggling on a task and drawing them together to provide extra advice.  The special group or one-to-one activities for disabled pupils, those with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils are exceptionally well designed to support their progress. Teaching on these occasions is excellent. A homework club and opportunities to read to an adult while attending the breakfast club support their achievement very effectively.  Excellent feedback to pupils during lessons helps them easily recognise their success and continually refine their work to make it better. When marking or assessing pupils’ recorded work, staff are very good at

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

indicating how well they have achieved. However, teachers do not always point out how work could be improved and then follow this up to ensure errors are not repeated.  Parents’ and carers’ support for work done at home is outstanding. The activities provided enhance pupils’ learning in class exceptionally well.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils’ achievement throughout the school is outstanding due to consistently outstanding teaching and learning, which help pupils to progress exceptionally well.  Reception children enter the school with skills typical for their age. They make outstanding progress and most reach a good level of development by the time they enter Year 1.  This very good start is built on extremely well in Years 1 to 6. In national tests, at the end of Years 2 and 6, attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is significantly above average. Pupils are exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of their education.  The national check on pupils’ phonics skills (letters and the sounds they represent) in Year 1 shows that they are consistently above average. All pupils are skilled at using this knowledge to build new words by the end of Year 2.  Older pupils have an excellent understanding of what they read. By Year 6, they easily understand

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

meaning from clues in the text, using their reading skills to excellent effect in other subjects.  Pupils’ ability to write effectively in a wide range of formats is evident from a young age where they use a wide and effective range of vocabulary and features like alliteration to enhance their work.  Older pupils are very effective writers in many formats; their stories include excellent drama and tension. Their writing in other subjects supports achievement exceptionally well, for example, in the exceptionally well-considered biographies of Isambard Kingdom Brunel for a history task.  In mathematics, younger pupils have a very secure understanding of place value ensuring that, by Year 2, their ability to calculate is excellent. Year 6 pupils are exceptionally skilled mathematicians, with a very strong ability to apply their understanding of different ideas when working with numbers, measures or in

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

solving problems.  Disadvantaged pupils make the same outstanding progress as their classmates. Most reach above average attainment levels in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6The achievement of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is excellent. High-quality support in the younger year groups means few need any support in the older classes. Virtually all reach at least the levels expected for their age by Year 6, often exceeding them in mathematics.  Pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds achieve as well as their classmates. The majority reach above average attainment levels. The few pupils who speak English as an additional language achieve exceptionally well.  The achievement of the most able pupils is excellent; the number of pupils in this group increases considerably as pupils move up the year groups due to the excellent progress they make. Well over a third

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

of pupils reach the higher Level 3 in the tests for Year 2 pupils and, by Year 6, over half the pupils reach the higher Level 5, a quarter reaching Level 6 in mathematics. This is consistently much better than in the majority of schools.  Excellent use of the sports fund grant enables pupils to attain well in aspects such as cricket, football and table tennis. Their performance in local competitions is very good.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Reception children benefit from excellent teamwork among skilled staff who ensure that learning activities are very well planned and organised for children of this age. Their achievement across all areas of learning is outstanding.  Excellent relationships with parents and carers help children settle in to school quickly. Children’s personal, social and emotional development is given high priority and there is a strong focus on helping them acquire the skills they need to become good learners. Children’s behaviour, relationships and attitudes to learning are excellent and they are very well prepared for the work they will need to undertake in Year 1.  Communication, literacy and mathematics skills are taught exceptionally well. Children’s oral language and listening skills are especially good and children quickly grasp new ideas. The quality of discussions in class or group activities is very good.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children’s phonics skills are exceptionally well developed; part-way through the year the large majority are reading simple texts. Children are very enthusiastic about writing. At the time of the inspection, most were already writing in sentences with good handwriting and phonetically correct spelling.  In mathematics, most children know the sequence of numbers to 20 and do simple calculations. They recognise shapes and patterns and compare quantities or lengths easily. Their strong curiosity in the world around them is evident, for example, in their enthusiasm for learning about Chinese culture.  The classroom and outdoor area are organised very effectively to support learning. Many resources or prompts are available to support learning when an adult is not directly supervising.  Children’s well-being and safety are given high priority. They feel very safe and secure, quickly developing confidence and independence, and taking great care of resources.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The assessment records of children’s progress are very detailed and informative although they do not always identify the next steps clearly enough. Nevertheless, information about the stage children are working at is used exceptionally well to set new activities that move them on very quickly.  The assistant headteacher leads this aspect of the school’s work exceptionally well. She is highly reflective and ensures staff keep a continual focus on how to improve children’s education. In this, she is strongly supported by reception staff who work hard to ensure children have a very productive year.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 131717 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 449681

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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 4-11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 420 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Allan Claggett Headteacher Paul Haydon Date of previous school inspection 26–27 May 2010 Telephone number 02380 261900 Fax number 02380 261919 Email address s.mussell@knightwood.hants.sch.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 and 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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