Kingston Park Academy

Long Lane, Carlton-in-Lindrick, Worksop S81 9AW

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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 Requires improvement

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This is a good school

 The vast majority of parents spoken to regard the school highly. They say how much it has improved over the last two years.  The principal has provided the key inspiration for the many improvements made since the previous inspection. Leadership and management at all levels are now effective and leaders have ensured improvement in the quality of teaching.  Governors and staff are united in the common purpose of improving the school. Leaders and staff know the school inside out and resolutely tackle any weaknesses that come to light. The school is well placed to continue to improve in the future.  The quality of teaching and the use of assessment are good. All groups of pupils make good progress in their reading, writing and mathematics.  Well-trained teachers and teaching assistants work together to meet the learning needs of different pupils successfully. Effectively deployed teaching assistants have a particularly positive effect on the

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This is a good school

learning of those pupils who find learning more difficult.  Governors use the broad variety of skills and experience they bring to their roles to help make the school better. They provide good support to senior leaders and are effective at asking challenging questions.  In the Nursery and Reception years, children make good progress and are well prepared for Year 1.  Pupils say they feel safe. They also act safely and with respect for other pupils’ safety.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good, especially their social development. Pupils acquire a good understanding of British values. They are thoroughly prepared for the next stage of their education.  Pupils behave well and are polite and well- mannered. They are proud of their school, work hard and enjoy lessons. Older pupils say that their school is now much better than it used to be.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Outcomes are not yet outstanding because even more pupils, especially the most able, are capable of making better than expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  In some classes, pupils’ skills in reading, writing and mathematics are not fully developed in subjects other than English and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve the effectiveness of the leadership and management of teaching, so that pupils’ attainment rises, by: improving the progress of the most able pupils in reading, writing and mathematics by modifying the curriculum to meet their needs fully ensuring that all teachers help pupils develop their reading, writing and mathematics skills in other subjects such as history, geography and science.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The principal has determinedly and relentlessly worked to improve the school and has been successful in communicating high expectations to staff and pupils alike. The vast majority of staff, parents and pupils spoken to hold her work in high regard. Other leaders are clear about their roles and work as an effective team in their shared commitment to raising pupils’ achievement and developing teaching further.  Leaders, including governors, know the school inside out and the school’s own evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses is accurate. This means that leaders are working on the right things and have brought about continuous improvement in teaching and in pupils’ outcomes, their personal development and their behaviour and welfare.  The school has thorough systems to ensure that teachers’ assessments of pupils’ learning are accurate. Leaders use these accurate assessments to keep a very close eye on the progress of each pupil. Groups of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

pupils and individuals who do not appear to be doing their best are identified and extra help is provided. An extensive range of high-quality additional help is available to those pupils who have special educational needs or disability, to disadvantaged pupils and other pupils at risk of falling behind.  The principal, with very good-quality support and challenge from the multi-academy trust, rigorously monitors the quality of teaching throughout the school and tackles any weaknesses or inconsistencies that come to light. The recently appointed vice-principals are now being fully included in this work and the school is appropriately extending the role of subject coordinators to include observing teaching in their subjects.  Staff training is well directed and makes a difference to pupils’ learning. For example, the school has provided extensive training to staff on providing high-quality guidance for learning to pupils. Training is then

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

followed up by checks by leaders to ensure that all staff fully understand and implement school policies. As a consequence, the quality of guidance for learning throughout the school is consistently good. All teachers, through their marking of pupils’ work and through their discussions with pupils, show pupils where and how to improve their work and many pupils show a clear understanding of the next steps in their learning.  Leaders have done much good work to improve links with and information to parents. The school website is of high quality, regularly updated and appreciated by parents. Some parents are already using the school’s smartphone app which gives them easy access to the website and alerts them when it is updated. Good- quality, well-attended sessions are held in the early years to help parents support their children’s learning at home.  The school’s curriculum places appropriately strong emphasis on developing pupils’ basic skills of reading,

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

writing and mathematics and progress in these subjects is good in English and mathematics lessons. The school has not developed a sufficiently systematic way of ensuring that these skills are developed well in other subjects such as history, or geography. Consequently, practice is inconsistent in this aspect of teaching.  The curriculum is effectively modified to meet the needs of those at risk of falling behind or those who have special educational needs or disability. These pupils receive extensive additional support for their learning and consequently make good progress. Also, because of the good-quality support they receive, those at the early stages of learning English are enabled to quickly gain confidence in spoken and written English. The attainment of boys has been lower than that of girls and the school has done much over the last two years to adjust the curriculum to more fully engage and interest boys in learning to read and write. This work has

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

been successful because boys are now doing much better than previously. For example, boys in particular are reading more at home on the online books available to them. Although the most able make good progress throughout the school, the curriculum is not as fully effectively modified to meet their needs.  Pupils find the curriculum interesting and engaging. Pupils are given additional experiences through residential and day visits, through visitors to school and through special theme days. The curriculum is broad and pupils enjoy their weekly French lessons. Pupils in Years 2 and 3 enjoy their ukulele lessons and pupils in Years 3 and 4 benefit from swimming lessons.  The school’s curriculum supports pupils’ personal development and welfare well. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is effectively nurtured through lessons and assemblies. British values are promoted well through special event days, in lessons when pupils learn about, for example, democracy, and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

through classroom displays and special assemblies. Pupils were looking forward to participating in the school referendum on remaining in or leaving the European Union. The school is aware that pupils lack understanding of other ways of life in modern Britain and is planning to extend pupils’ knowledge and experience of other cultures.  The school uses its primary physical education and sports funding well to promote pupils’ physical development and their personal well-being and enjoyment of activity and sport. Since the previous inspection there has been an increase in after-school clubs which the pupils enjoy. Pupils’ participation in sport and physical activities has also grown, including competitions with other schools. Teachers also regularly work alongside professional coaches and this helps them to develop their skills in teaching.  The school makes good use of its additional government pupil premium funding and the gap between the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

attainment of disadvantaged pupils and other pupils is narrowing year-on-year. The school’s accurate records of pupils’ attainment show that the gap in attainment has continued to narrow this year. In reading, for example, there is no discernible difference in the progress made by disadvantaged pupils and other pupils in the school.  The governance of the school The school’s educational advisory board carries out its governance functions effectively. Governors bring a good range of experience to their roles and hold leaders to account for the performance of the school. They have a good understanding of national data, which enables them to compare the performance of the school to other schools nationally. They use the school’s own assessment system to check regularly on how much improvement has been made. Governors have a clear understanding of the quality of teaching throughout the school and regularly

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

receive good-quality information on this from the principal. They check this out through their own first- hand links with the school. They successfully oversee the school’s rigorous arrangements for the performance management of staff and check that weaknesses are tackled and good teaching is recognised. The governing body also gives appropriate attention to pupils’ personal development and well-being. They check that policies and procedures are kept up to date and that the school’s safeguarding and health and safety arrangements, including training, fully meet requirements.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The school works closely with outside agencies and parents to establish a safe and caring environment for pupils. Safeguarding, safe recruitment and child- protection training are up to date and safeguarding arrangements fully meet requirements. Adults know how to respond to any concerns and, as a result, pupils say they feel safe in school.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 Since the previous inspection, teaching, learning and the use of assessment are much improved throughout the school. Teachers have good subject knowledge and use this effectively to help them teach reading, writing and mathematics well. As a result, pupils make good progress in their learning and in their personal development.  The training and deployment of teaching assistants is a strength. They provide particularly good support for the learning of pupils who have special educational needs or disability, for disadvantaged pupils and for those at early stages of speaking, reading and writing English. All these groups make good progress throughout the school.  In all classes, pupils are given high-quality guidance for learning. Staff continually assess pupils’ work during lessons and when marking work. These ongoing assessments are used to show pupils how to overcome difficulties or make corrections. Assessments are also used to see which pupils would benefit from additional

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

sessions in the afternoon provided for those ‘who didn’t quite get it’.  Lessons are interesting and motivate pupils well so that they enjoy learning. Staff question pupils carefully and use their responses to deepen their understanding. Regular opportunities to talk to other pupils are provided and these help pupils develop their skills in speaking and listening.  Good relationships and high expectations of manners and conduct are evident from the early years onwards. These are strongly supported by the school’s effective behaviour management policy and pupils respond well to staff’s almost invariably high expectations. On a few occasions, when the teacher does not expect enough, there is some minor low-level disruption, but leaders are aware of this and are taking appropriate action to improve the quality of teaching further.  Expectations of pupils’ achievement are mostly high and pupils are encouraged to aim high, do their best

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

and work hard. These expectations are evident in the pride that pupils take in the presentation of their work. In a minority of classes, teachers’ expectations for learning of the most able pupils are not always high enough and the work they do is sometimes too easy to enable them to make outstanding progress.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Because the quality of teaching has improved, pupils’ attitudes to learning are much better than at the time of the previous inspection. Teachers and teaching assistants expect more of pupils’ learning and behaviour and the pupils have risen to this challenge.  The school has also been successful in helping pupils to aim higher. Many pupils are confident that they can be successful and they enjoy school and learning. Only rarely, where the teacher does not expect enough, is there some low-level disruption.  Pupils told inspectors that the school takes good care of them and that they feel safe at school. They make good progress in their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Their social development is a particular strength and pupils relate well to one another, to staff and to visitors to school. The school is

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Personal development and welfare

aware that a relatively weaker element is pupils’ knowledge and experience of other ways of life in modern Britain and has planned some useful work to improve these.  Pupils, especially the older pupils, enjoy taking responsibility for helping the school run smoothly, for example as play leaders or as members of the school council.  Pupils understand what bullying is and are proud to say that bullying is very rare in their school. They are confident that adults would quickly deal with any bullying that did occur.  Pupils know about safety and are aware of many potential dangers in modern life. They are, for example, clear about how to keep themselves safe when using the internet.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils say that behaviour at their school is always as good as the good behaviour evident during the inspection.  In the dining room, at playtimes on the playground, in assembly and around school, pupils behave well and relate well to each other. Disruption in lessons is rare because staff almost invariably guide pupils to work hard and do their best.  The school’s system for maintaining good behaviour and relationships has improved since the previous inspection and all staff and pupils are aware of the school’s effective behaviour policy.  The vast majority of pupils attend regularly and arrive punctually at school. Rates of attendance of all groups of pupils are broadly average and the school successfully tackles persistent absence and promotes good attendance.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 Pupils’ outcomes are good and the school has been successful in raising pupils’ achievement. The school’s accurate and regularly updated records, pupils’ books and evidence of pupils’ progress in lessons, show that current pupils are progressing well throughout the school. Previous gaps in learning are now being filled and attainment is rising. Pupils are now well prepared for the next stage of their education and the world of work beyond. Attainment is rising not only in English and mathematics, but also in other subjects such as physical education, history, and art and design.  Due to good-quality provision in the early years, children in the Nursery and Reception years make good progress and attainment is in line with that typically found nationally. Attainment in national screening for phonics (the use of letters and their sounds to help pupils read and spell) in 2015 was below national averages. However, due to better teaching in the Reception Year and Year 1, considerably more pupils this

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Outcomes for pupils are good

year are on track to attain the nationally expected standard.  The quality of teaching in key stage 1 is consistently good and attainment has risen this year in Year 2 in reading and mathematics. Teacher assessments indicate that this is also the case in writing.  Pupils make good progress in Years 3 to 6 and attainment is higher this year than last year in Year 6 in reading, writing and mathematics.  The school’s records show that disadvantaged pupils are benefiting from the school’s wise spending of pupil premium funding. The smaller class sizes and extensive additional support provided have helped narrow the gap between the progress of these pupils and other pupils nationally, although the attainment of this group of pupils remains a little below standards expected by the end of Year 6 for all pupils.  Pupils who have special educational needs or disability now make good progress due to the extensive good

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Outcomes for pupils are good

quality additional support they receive. Pupils at the early stages of learning English, who are mostly in the younger classes, soon grow in confidence in their spoken and written English and their parents are pleased with the progress that they make.  Pupils’ work and the school’s records show that the most able make good progress, although occasionally the tasks they are given are too easy to ensure they consistently make outstanding progress.

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Early years provision is good

 Parents who spoke to inspectors hold the school’s early years provision in high regard. They feel fully involved in their children’s learning at school and understand how they can support their learning at home. They find the ‘learning logs’ of their children, the school’s website and the open door policy at the start of the school day helpful for them and their children. They also spoke highly of the five visits made by their children during the term before they joined the school to help their children get off to such a good start.  Children join the early years with skills and knowledge which are often lower than those that are typical. Since 2014, an average proportion of children have attained a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year. Current teacher assessments indicate a similar picture this year. Children are therefore achieving well in both the Nursery and Reception Years and are being appropriately prepared for Year 1 and

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Early years provision is good

school life beyond.  Although the quality of teaching provided by teachers and teaching assistants is not yet outstanding, it is consistently good and assessment is used well. Based on their accurate assessments, staff plan learning activities that interest and stimulate children and help them make good progress. Teaching assistants and volunteers make a good contribution to children’s learning, both in the Nursery and in Reception years. Basic skills are well taught. For example, children are taught to hold their pencils correctly so that they make a good start to learning to write neatly. In their daily phonics lessons, they are effectively taught to use letters and the sounds they make to help them read and spell.  Children’s books and ‘learning logs’ show the good progress made by all children, including disadvantaged children, in their writing and number work. Disadvantaged children benefit from the good adult-to-pupil

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Early years provision is good

ratios made possible through the school’s wise spending of its pupil premium funding. The most able are also given an appropriate level of challenge and do well. Children who come to school with little spoken English soon make good progress and gain in confidence. The learning needs of children who have special educational needs or disability are diagnosed at an early stage and whatever support that is needed is provided.  The indoor and outdoor areas provide good facilities and stimulus for learning and are well organised and effectively used.  There is a well-developed home reading programme. Many parents make an important contribution to their children’s good progress in reading, for example by hearing them read regularly at home or by practising their phonics with them.  Relationships between children and staff are good and children are looked after well and kept safe. Care and safeguarding procedures are thorough in the early years. Children behave well. Expectations are consistently

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Early years provision is good

high and children are taught to be polite and well-mannered to each other and to adults both when working as a class and during independent sessions. They know how to take turns and listen to others and not to shout out when an adult is talking.  Leadership and management in the early years are good. The early years and key stage 1 assistant principal keeps a close eye on where further improvements are needed. The principal is knowledgeable about the quality of provision and the progress of individual children in the early years and she effectively checks on the pace of improvement.

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School details

Unique reference number 138997 Local authority Nottinghamshire Inspection number 10011767

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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 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 180 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair John Hancock Principal Vicki Pearson Telephone number 01909 730294 Website www.kingstonpa.org.uk Email address info@kingstonpa.org.uk Date of previous inspection 17–18 June 2014

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Information about this school

 In this smaller than average-sized school, an average proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language. Most of the school’s pupils who are at the early stages of learning English are in the younger classes. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is average.  A high proportion of pupils are supported by the pupil premium throughout the school. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is above average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.  The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the School Partnership Trust multi-academy trust.  The large majority of teachers and leaders have been appointed to their posts since the previous inspection.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes, including jointly with the headteacher. In addition, a number of shorter visits were made to see particular aspects, such as the teaching of reading. A range of other school activities, including playtimes, lunchtimes and an assembly were observed.  Inspectors scrutinised past and current work of pupils of different abilities in all year groups and heard some pupils reading.  The lead inspector met three governors including the chair of the governing body. Inspectors analysed documents, including plans for school improvement and reports showing the school’s view of its own performance, safeguarding documents, and policies and records relating to pupils’ personal development, behaviour, welfare, safety and attendance. Inspectors analysed information on the performance of the school in comparison with other schools nationally and the school’s records of pupils’

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Information about this inspection

progress.  Short discussions were held with 47 parents of 77 children at the beginning of the second day of the inspection. The views of the 13 parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, were considered. Also, the 63 returns from a school survey conducted in March this year were analysed.  Inspectors received the views of staff through discussions and by considering the four responses to the inspection staff survey. They also received the views of pupils through both informal and pre-arranged discussions.  The lead inspector held a meeting with a representative from School Partnership Trust Academies, the multi-academy trust supporting the school.

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Inspection team

Roger Sadler, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Harkireet Sohel 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

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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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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