Weston Park Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Katie Coombes Headteacher Weston Park Primary School Denton Road Hornsey London N8 9WP

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 October 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in November 2012.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Leaders, including governors, have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your arrival at the school has brought stability to the school’s leadership, which is recognised by staff and parents alike.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Pupils, staff and parents value your leadership and have confidence that your plan to improve the school further will succeed. You are very ambitious for the school, and have an accurate understanding of what the school does well and where the school needs to improve. Senior and middle leaders are effective and support teachers well in classrooms. This has led to pupils making stronger progress in phonics, reading and writing. Notwithstanding this, leaders know that there is more to do to improve provision in mathematics across key stage 2. They have identified strategies to achieve this and are implementing planned actions to improve pupils’ outcomes in this area, especially in relation to ensuring that pupils understand mathematical concepts more fully.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Governors are knowledgeable, involved in the work of the school and offer you strong strategic support. Working together, you have ensured that pupils gain a secure grasp of the basic skills in literacy expected for their age. Leaders, including governors, understand that they need to ensure that attendance continues to improve, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Teachers give pupils clear guidance on how to make their work better, and this is proving very helpful in ensuring that pupils, particularly the most able, make good progress. You and the teachers have given careful attention to improving the level of challenge for most-able pupils since the last inspection. This is proving successful so that now an increasing number are achieving the higher standard in end of key stage tests, particularly in reading and writing.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Pupils take great pride in their work and artwork is an emerging strength of the school. Teaching assistants make a valuable contribution to supporting pupils’ progress and encouraging them not to give up by helping them to overcome any difficulty they may have or by encouraging them to attempt work that they find hard. This enables pupils, particularly those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities to keep trying, even when they find the work challenging.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

You, your leaders and governors have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are effective and records are complete. All checks on the suitability of staff to work at the school are in place. Clear systems exist for staff to make referrals when concerns arise, and subsequent actions are followed up effectively. Leaders work well with families and external agencies to ensure that pupils receive well-targeted support when required. Staff training, including that related to the ‘Prevent’ duty, is up to date. Staff have a good knowledge of potential concerns within the community the school serves. This increases their vigilance in spotting and reporting concerns about pupils’ well-being.

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Short inspection of Weston Park Primary School

Pupils report that they feel safe in school and that behaviour is good. They say that bullying is a rare event. Pupils enjoy coming to school and have great confidence that the staff work hard to support their education and well-being. Pupils behave well and have extremely positive attitudes towards the school. Their contribution to the life of the school is valued by all staff

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Inspection findings

 For the first line of enquiry, we agreed to look at key stage 2 pupils’ progress in mathematics. This is because, last year, pupils’ progress was weaker in mathematics than in reading and writing. You have rightly already identified this as a priority.  Looking at pupils’ current mathematics work and reviewing current assessment information provided us with compelling evidence that pupils’ progress is now good.  Having more opportunities to work practically and in small groups is helping pupils to become more confident mathematicians. For example, pupils can confidently explain their reasoning when they perform complicated subtraction sums using numbers up to 1,000,000.  As well as focusing on increasing how accurately pupils solve problems, you have focused on improving pupils’ understanding of the number systems. Well- considered training from the school’s subject leader has enabled staff to develop

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Inspection findings

their expertise. Teachers’ practice across all aspects of mathematics is helping pupils gain a better grasp of number facts, and their understanding has improved as a result.  My second line of enquiry was about ensuring that all pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2, make good progress. Staff have worked hard to eradicate any variability in the outcomes achieved by this group of pupils and the difference is narrowing. Staff recognise the importance of ensuring that the needs of this group of pupils are met.  You have an action plan to spend the pupil premium funding and leaders are now starting to evaluate its effectiveness for individual pupils. For instance, leaders recognise that intensive small-group work is effective in key stage 2 in improving pupils’ performance. In addition, supporting pupils’ involvement in extra-curricular activities, where there is a cost, is helping older pupils to foster positive attitudes

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Inspection findings

to school life.  Finally, we looked at pupils’ attendance. In 2016, disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities were persistently absent more than is typical when compared with the national average.  Pupils are encouraged and rewarded for their good attendance. Staff identify any concerns promptly, and follow these up through meetings with parents. Families are actively discouraged from taking extended breaks away from school during term time. You and your staff work effectively to support the parents of all pupils where attendance is a concern.  Although these strategies are improving attendance overall, you recognise that there is further work to do to ensure that the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is as good as that of other pupils nationally. We agreed that it would be useful for the school to maintain its focus on this.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 all pupils make consistently strong progress in mathematics across key stage 2  teachers teach in a way that ensures good progress of pupils who are disadvantaged  strategies to improve pupils’ attendance and attitudes to school are developed further to ensure that disadvantaged pupils attend school as regularly as their peers.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Haringey. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I held several meetings with you and your deputy headteacher. I met with two governors and a representative from the local authority. I held informal discussions with parents on the playground and considered written comments made to Ofsted. You accompanied me on visits to classrooms. I talked to pupils about their learning. I looked at pupils’ books and listened to a range of pupils read as they were engaged in their learning. I also evaluated a range of school documentation including school development plans, safeguarding records and information about current pupils’ achievement and attendance.

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