Churchill Gardens Primary Academy

Churchill Gardens Primary Academy Ranelagh Road, Pimlico, London SW1V 3EU

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Overall effectiveness Good

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Not previously inspected

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This is a good school

 Since the school opened in September 2013, senior leaders have been successful in raising pupils’ aspirations for learning.  Leaders work very well with parents. Parents feel that the school listens well to their concerns and ideas. Regular workshops help parents understand the school’s curriculum and how they can support their children’s learning.  Reading is promoted well throughout the school. Pupils’ achievement in reading is improving. Children quickly develop a love of reading. By the end of key stage 2, pupils have mature, well- formed opinions about their reading preferences.  Children in the early years make good progress in their relationships with their peers and in their ability to speak and listen. This is due to careful planning and consistent teaching by the early years team.  Specialist teachers have good subject knowledge. They deliver well-planned lessons and provide skilful feedback to pupils on their learning. This is

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This is a good school

helping pupils catch up with national expectations, particularly in art, history, music and mathematics.  Pupils in the school’s resource provision for speech, language and communication difficulties make strong progress.  Pupils’ attitudes to learning have improved since the school opened. Pupils want to learn and do their best. This is shown in their high attendance, which is now above the national average.  The local accountability board provides a high level of challenge to school leaders. It knows the school’s strengths and weaknesses well. This knowledge is used effectively to ensure that interventions and funding are having the required impact on pupils’ outcomes.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Too many pupils do not reach the highest levels of attainment by the end of Year 2 and Year 6.  Middle leaders do not take sufficient responsibility for checking on their subject areas, particularly within the early years.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Senior leaders should ensure that a higher proportion of pupils achieve the highest standards of achievement by: ensuring that pupils, particularly the most able, have greater opportunities to apply their writing skills and vocabulary across the curriculum developing the skills of middle leaders, so that they take greater responsibility for checking on pupils’ outcomes in their subject areas, particularly within the early years ensuring that middle leaders have action plans that identify clear targets and timescales for delivering improvements.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The principal, senior leaders and the local accountability board have successfully raised the learning aspirations of pupils, parents and staff. The school community is unified in its shared belief that all pupils can and should attain highly, both personally and academically.  Senior leaders have an accurate view of the school’s effectiveness. Since the school opened, they have created an atmosphere in school that is purposeful and centred on learning. Pupils and staff work harmoniously together.  The curriculum has been developed to prepare pupils for secondary school and beyond. A key thread running through the school is the development of pupils’ speaking and listening. Pupils increasingly develop the ability to give presentations, recite poetry publicly or hold a debate. For example, pupils regularly take part in formal debates. One pupil explained, ‘We take a topic and choose which side of the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

argument we agree with. There is no right answer, but one side of us agrees, they are the proposition and one disagrees, they are the opposition’.  Regardless of their starting points, ethnicity, gender or social background, pupils are making good progress. This is due to the focus on narrowing gaps in learning by raising the outcomes of those at risk of underachieving. Leaders and staff are adept at identifying weaknesses in pupils’ learning, and in planning to overcome such hurdles quickly. Staff make good use of additional time given to them to work with individuals and/or small groups of pupils. Staff use this time daily to re-teach topics that pupils have misunderstood or found confusing. This illustrates the school’s commitment to equality for all.  Leaders have developed their curriculum to focus on explicit subject teaching. Teaching contributes strongly to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. In particular, pupils are increasingly

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

familiar with a range of composers, artists and authors. This understanding is fuelling their learning as they embed the techniques of others, for example, Monet or Charles Dickens, within their own unique and creative music, art and writing.  Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain. They have a clear understanding of democracy and talked with inspectors about the election for a new London mayor. ‘We live in a democracy. When you are 18 you can vote for someone to represent you at City Hall or the Houses of Parliament’. Pupils understand that they have free speech, but also talked of the need to respect other people’s views and opinions.  Leaders have built strong relationships with parents. Regular workshops about the school’s curriculum are provided for parents. These provide parents with the information they need to understand what their children do at school and how they can support them at home. Parents appreciate these workshops and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

they are well attended. Parent View, the Ofsted online questionnaire, shows that parents have a high level of satisfaction with the school’s work. One parent summed up the views of many who spoke to inspectors: ‘This is a great school, staff really listen to what we think and really believe in our children. They want them to do well and they help us to help them’.  Leaders make good use of the pupil premium funding. It is successfully ensuring that pupils across the school are catching up with their peers. In many year groups, pupils eligible for this funding are making greater progress than non-disadvantaged pupils in the school. Leaders adapt interventions and support based on teachers regular informal and formal assessments. This means that no time is wasted in ensuring that pupils get the support and challenge they require to succeed both academically and socially.  Equally, additional government funding for primary sports (the sports premium) is well spent. This is

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

focused on expanding the provision of sports and increasing participation rates for pupils. Pupils have access to skilled subject-specialist teachers and are taught a wide range of games and sports.  The teaching of those pupils with special educational needs or disability is well led. The special educational needs coordinator effectively ensures that support for individual pupils is well matched to their needs. She carefully considers the impact of the school’s work on raising the progress and attainment of this group. Careful consideration is also given to the performance of groups within special educational needs. For example, the coordinator considers whether pupils with special educational needs perform differently in mainstream classes or in the school’s resource provision. This effective work is increasing the progress made by pupils with a special educational need or disability across the school.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 Performance management is used effectively by leaders to drive up standards of teaching and the outcomes of pupils. Staff are expected to ensure that pupils in their care make good progress in their learning. Targets are linked to pupils’ progress, teaching and additional areas of responsibility. Training is tailored to the needs of staff members. For example, recently qualified teachers receive more regular ‘drop-ins’ to provide feedback about strengths and weaknesses in teaching. This feedback is developmental and helps to improve the quality of teaching over time.  Middle leaders are effective at sharing best practice with their peers within the school. This work is further enriched by the sharing of excellent practice from outstanding primary schools within the academy trust. Their role is developing well. However, middle leaders’ plans for improving their subject areas are not sufficiently sharp enough. Improvement plans do not have precisely worded success criteria to enable

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

middle and senior leaders to check on the impact of their work. Equally, it is unclear in their plans how they will check on whether their initiatives are on track to improve pupils’ outcomes throughout the academic year.  The governance of the school Members of the local accountability board have a strong understanding of the school’s current strengths and weaknesses. They have a clear vision for what they wish the school to achieve. Members hold senior leaders and staff accountable for improving pupils’ outcomes and achieving the school’s objectives. They have a good understanding of assessment information from the early years through to Year 6. This information is used well to further challenge leaders and to ensure the school’s policies are implemented effectively. Members work well with the school’s sponsoring academy trust. They observe meetings from other local accountability boards within the academy trust. They keep abreast of developments across the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

trust. This helps members to hold themselves and senior leaders to account against improvements being achieved in other primary schools within the trust.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff are well trained in the school’s procedures for keeping children safe. They comply with national guidance and legislation.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 Pupils’ work shows that they consistently make good progress across different year groups and subjects. This starts in the early years, where staff ensure that children get a solid start to their school career. Children are helped to overcome difficulties in their speech and language and relationships with peers. As a result, they quickly make the same good progress as their older peers in the school.  Pupils who attend the school’s resource provision for speech, language and communication difficulties receive high-quality teaching that meets their needs. Staff are highly skilled at developing pupils’ oral and written communication. In mathematics, they are helped by the strong use of physical materials to support their calculations. Teachers effectively elicit pupils’ ideas and help them to share successful calculation strategies with their peers. Learning in English is also successful as pupils are systematically

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

helped to develop their thinking and a love of reading and writing.  Feedback to pupils is given throughout lessons. Pupils are able to make minor adjustments to their work as a result and quickly overcome potential barriers to their learning. In English, pupils use feedback to improve the quality of their writing and explore their responses to reading comprehension in more depth. In mathematics, pupils are given opportunities to deepen their strength in calculation. For example, pupils’ books show that they get opportunities to practise calculations again when errors in their work have been identified. When pupils have mastered a calculation strategy, they are given the opportunity to apply this learning to increasingly complex problems. This is starting to accelerate the already good mathematical progress being made by pupils across the school.  Writing is well developed as a skill for life. By the end of Year 2, virtually all pupils are writing neatly in

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

well-formed script. Staff model very well the expectations for handwriting and consistently ensure that pupils use script when writing. Pupils rise to this challenge and their work is consistently neat and well presented. Pupils develop a solid understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling as staff consistently reinforce this learning in English lessons. However, pupils’ creative and factual writing in other subjects is not as strong. Teachers are not consistently ensuring that pupils apply their understanding of grammar, punctuation, spelling or writing for an audience in other subjects.  Specialist teachers are deployed across the curriculum in key stage 2 and in many key stage 1 subjects. Teachers have strong subject knowledge and this enables them to teach high-quality lessons and units of learning. This is especially effective in art, history, music and mathematics. For example, pupils benefit

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

from their music teacher strongly modelling singing, pitch, tempo and rhythm. This results in pupils being engaged in their learning, systematically developing their subject-specific vocabulary and developing their ability to play musical instruments.  Science teaching is effectively developing the ability of pupils to think scientifically. Pupils’ work is increasingly sophisticated as they progress through the school. They are increasingly able to plan and conduct simple experiments. They are taught to draw scientific conclusions and link their learning to the established body of scientific knowledge in the world beyond school. Work in books also shows a clear development of scientific vocabulary. Pupils are being well prepared for key stage 3 science at secondary school as a result.  Art is well taught to pupils throughout the school. Skills are systematically developed alongside teaching about artists, the history of art and theories about the mixing of colour. Pupils have a secure

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

understanding of the works of a range of artists and the techniques used in their work; for example, Year 4 pupils’ work on Wayne Thiebgud’s pop-up art and Reception children’s work linked to Matisse and his use of shapes in painting.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils enjoy school and want to do well in their learning. Since the school opened, attendance has steadily increased and it is now above the national average. Very few pupils are persistently absent and the school works well with families to secure improvements in attendance from these pupils.  Pupils are taught well about the dangers of talking to strangers and potential hazards of the internet. They are very clear about how they keep themselves safe beyond school and online. For example, pupils explained to inspectors how they do not use their real name online or give any information away that may help to identify their home or school. This shows a clear understanding of e-safety. Equally, they were aware of the importance of staying safe on other electronic devices, for example, when playing console games through the internet.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school actively promotes tolerance for others. This has helped to reduce bullying incidents over the past two years, and there are now very few. Leaders deal with such incidents, including when prejudicial words have been used, very well. Parents are involved in dealing with such incidents and preventing a recurrence of the behaviour. As a result, pupils feel very safe at school and understand what to do if they should feel vulnerable or in danger.  Leaders work effectively with external agencies to keep pupils safe. Detailed records are kept of incidents that cause concern about pupils’ welfare. Designated leaders meet regularly with staff from across the school (for what leaders call ‘an internal team around the child’ meeting) to review concerning behaviours or incidents involving pupils. This helps leaders to check on low-level concerns as well as the high-level incidents that require immediate referral to external agencies.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils play well together and show respect to one another, adults and visitors. They conduct themselves well as they move around the school building in a calm and respectful way. Pupils have a high level of pride in their school; they tidy up after themselves at lunchtime and leave no litter around the premises.  On entry to classrooms, pupils quickly settle to learning and listen well to adults leading their learning. Pupils are keen to progress in their learning, taking on board quickly advice from staff about how to improve their work. They further demonstrate their positive attitudes to learning through their consistently neat presentation in work books.  Clear support is provided for pupils who find meeting expectations for good behaviour challenging. On entry to the school or the early years, these children are given support to improve their behaviour over

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Behaviour

time. Parental involvement is used to overcome this barrier to learning in partnership with families.  Behaviour records show that there have been a few instances of bullying and uses of discriminatory language since the school opened. However, these are reducing over time and there have been no incidents at all in the last term. No pupils have been excluded since the academy opened two years ago.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 On entry to the early years, children have skill levels that are well below those typically expected for their age. This is across all areas of the early years foundation stage curriculum. Inspectors verified this by checking evidence recorded for children against observations of them playing and interacting with their peers. Careful planning and good teaching mean that children make consistently good progress and begin to catch up with their peers nationally. In particular, children make good progress in their ability to communicate with adults and other children. They learn to play initially alongside other children and then with them. Children develop their writing ability quickly, progressing from basic mark making to writing letters and words.  Pupils in key stage 1, and children in the early years, make excellent progress in their ability to read through decoding, segmenting and blending words. By the time children leave the early years, they have

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Outcomes for pupils are good

begun to catch up, although there remains a significant gap between boys and girls at the start of Year 1. However, in 2015, by the end of Year 1 pupils had overtaken their peers nationally and the gap between boys and girls in the phonics screening check had closed. Pupils’ work in class and the school’s assessment information show that Year 1 pupils are again on track to maintain this performance. This represents excellent progress in pupils’ ability to read using their phonics skills (letters and the sounds they represent).  Pupils’ progress and attainment in reading and writing in the 2015 national tests for Year 6 were below other pupils nationally. However, pupils across the school are now showing much faster progress and higher levels of attainment. The longer pupils are benefiting from good teaching at the school, the better the progress they are making.  Pupils across the school enjoy reading. It is well promoted by staff, who actively teach pupils about a

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Outcomes for pupils are good

range of famous texts. Pupils have well-formed opinions about their personal preferences and explain these well. One pupil summed this up when talking about Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’: ‘I won’t give you a spoiler, but it is a very good read with great characters and a pacey plot’.  Pupils who have special educational needs or disability make the same good progress as other pupils. The school’s assessment information and observations across the school show that this is the case regardless of their individual needs. Indeed, pupils who attend the school’s resource provision often make accelerated progress, enabling them to narrow the gap with their peers in school. This rate of progress is attained due to carefully planned teaching and interventions across the school that are monitored regularly. Funding for special educational needs is therefore well targeted on meeting the needs of individual pupils and this group of pupils as a whole.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 The most-able pupils make good progress overall. However, pupils generally and the most-able pupils in particular do not have sufficient opportunities to apply their writing skills across the curriculum. There are also too few opportunities to deepen the quality of their writing through applying their subject-specific vocabulary in their writing.  In 2015, pupils at key stage 2 made good progress in their mathematics from key stage 1. Their progress was above the national average. This good progress can be seen in all year groups, with pupils making consistently good, and sometimes better, progress across the school. Pupils are well supported, with good use of physical resources for less able pupils and the setting of work involving more abstract calculations for the most able. As a result, pupils’ progress in mathematics has been stronger than for writing over the past two years.  Progress in other curriculum areas, such as science, music, art and religious education, is good, and an

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Outcomes for pupils are good

increasing number of pupils are making accelerated progress. This can be seen in the quality of pupils’ work, for example, the progress pupils are making in sketching, shading and developing three- dimensional drawings.

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Early years provision is good

 From starting points below those typical for their age, children make consistently good progress, particularly in the areas linked to communication and personal and social skills.  Children in Reception Year made good progress in 2015, although several had special educational needs, and fewer children achieved a good level of development than nationally. However, the figure for mainstream children (excluding those children who attend the school’s resource provision for special educational needs) is in line with national figures.  Careful planning by staff in the early years ensures that children can develop skills they find especially difficult. For example, vocabulary building and the development of speech are specific focuses during the children’s time in Nursery. Children were observed drawing pictures of flowers and working with adults to label these. Children were becoming familiar with the scientific terms for parts of the flower, for example,

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Early years provision is good

stem and petal. A related activity, planting seeds, further engaged children in developing their vocabulary. Provision also aims to close gaps in achievement between girls and boys. Boys were especially interested in growing oregano to use on pizzas!  Teaching in the early years is consistently good. Children develop their skills across the curriculum areas and this contributes strongly to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. For example, children have recently been learning about trust. They are familiar with the story of Noah and how he had faith in God. They have also been learning about forgiveness, which is key to their working with others in school. They have reflected on this when reading the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Children’s reflections were well thought through and meaningful and included, for example, ‘I think Jack’s mum should say sorry. She shouted at him for getting seeds’, and ‘I think Jack should say sorry for stealing’.

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Early years provision is good

 Leadership and management of the early years are good. The key stage leader, alongside senior leaders and members of the local accountability board, have a clear understanding of the provision’s strengths and weaknesses. However, middle leaders do not have a strong enough understanding of how their work impacts on the attainment and progress of children in the early years. Leaders agree that this is important to ensuring that children get an outstanding start in their learning across the curriculum.  More children leave and arrive during the academic year than is usual. For example, one third of the current Reception cohort was not in the school in September 2015. Leaders work with teachers to ensure that children are well inducted and assessed. This ensures that children who join the school mid-year are making good progress while at Churchill Gardens Primary Academy.

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School details

Unique reference number 139940 Local authority Westminster Inspection number 10011706

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 2–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 282 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Paul Smith Principal Diane George Telephone number 020 76415935 Website www.cgpacademy.org.uk Email address office@cgpacademy.org.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Churchill Gardens Primary Academy is slightly larger than the average-sized primary school.  It opened in September 2013 as a sponsored academy. It is sponsored by the Future Multi Academy Trust.  The school’s curriculum is taught by specialist subject teachers in key stage 2. Years 3 to 6 have a form tutor who is responsible for pupils’ pastoral care and for teaching religious education and citizenship. Key stage 1 pupils have a class teacher, with specialist teaching provided in music, history, computing, art and science.  The proportion of pupils eligible for additional government funding, known as the pupil premium, is well above average. The funding is used to support pupils who are eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils who come from minority ethnic heritages is much higher than average. A wide range of heritages is represented. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is

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Information about this school

well above average.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is higher than average. There is a 40-place speech and language provision.  The school has a nursery with 20 full-time and 20 part-time places. Part-time pupils attend for a morning or afternoon session.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school offers a daily breakfast club.  The predecessor school, Churchill Gardens Primary School, was last inspected in September 2012, when it was judged to require improvement.  The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed a range of learning activities across each class. Some observations were undertaken jointly with the principal. Inspectors also visited the breakfast club and each class within the school’s resource provision for speech and language needs.  Inspectors observed pupils’ conduct during morning break, lunchtime and around the school building. They also had lunch with pupils in the dining hall, observing their behaviour and interactions.  Inspectors held informal discussions with groups of pupils from key stages 1 and 2. They held meetings with the principal, assistant principals, the early years leader, parents, and members of the local accountability board and sponsoring academy trust.  Inspectors considered 16 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey for parents. Inspectors also considered 25 responses to the electronic staff questionnaire and 10 paper copies given to the

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Information about this inspection

inspection team.  Inspectors reviewed the school’s assessment information for pupils across the early years, key stage 1 and key stage 2. This information was scrutinised against pupils’ work and observations of early years children playing and working in the school.  A wide range of documentation provided by the school was considered, including its school improvement plan, subject action plans, and records relating to the behaviour, attendance and safeguarding of pupils. Performance management information and records of the school’s checks on teaching were also scrutinised.

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Inspection team

David Storrie, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Nicholas Cornell Ofsted Inspector Gill Bal Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . 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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted.

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Inspection team

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, further education and skills, 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. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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

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