Fulham Primary School

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

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Ms Leesa Schooneman Headteacher Fulham Primary School Halford Road London SW6 1JU

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 6 November 2018, 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 your predecessor school was judged to be good in September 2012.

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Leaders’ plans have identified the needs of the school accurately and have taken effective action to address areas for improvement indicated in the previous inspection. Middle and subject leaders have provided effective support for teachers to improve rates of progress. Leaders at all levels recognise that these improvements need to continue with greater impetus.

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

Inspection evidence confirms that the stronger learning in early years and Years 1 and 2 has continued to improve since the previous inspection. Published assessment information indicates that overall rates of progress within key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics were broadly average in 2017 and 2018. Pupils, parents and carers state that leaders have made significant improvements in the learning of these important skills. Other inspection evidence confirms this. The quality of writing and mathematics that pupils demonstrate in the wider curriculum is not typically as strong as their work in specific English and mathematics lessons. You and your leadership team have already started to improve this, but recognise that these improvements are at an early stage.

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

The school is an inclusive and welcoming environment where pupils’ well-being is of as equal priority as their academic learning. As well as looking forward to the experience of learning in lessons, pupils say that they enjoy learning more widely through the after-school clubs that many of them attend. Pupils’ enthusiasm and hard work makes a strong contribution to their progress. They, along with parents, say that staff are helpful, hardworking and caring. Safeguarding is effective.

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. Regular and up-to-date training and open communication about possible concerns has helped to establish a culture of vigilance. Staff know how to identify potential risks to pupils, including those around the school’s locality, and they take prompt and effective action.

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe. For example, they learn about internet safety and ‘stranger danger’. Pupils have positions of responsibility to help them contribute to the collective safety of the school. For example, ‘leaders in digital literacy’ work with teachers to promote safe and effective use of the internet and computers.

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Short inspection of Fulham Primary School

Governors also have a clear understanding of the school’s duty to safeguard pupils. They check how well staff use the school’s procedures, and the quality of record- keeping. Pupils and parents indicate through discussions and surveys that they have no significant concerns about safeguarding.

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Inspection findings

 Our first agreed focus for this inspection was to find out how well leaders’ actions have increased levels of challenge in learning, primarily within key stage 2. In 2017 and 2018, the proportion of pupils who achieved the higher standard at the end of Year 6 in reading, writing and mathematics was below average.  Leaders work with teachers to plan lessons which provide greater challenge than previously for pupils. Our observations of teaching and work scrutiny show that there are growing and effective opportunities for deeper learning across reading, writing and mathematics.  Not all teachers use assessment information skilfully enough to provide a consistently high level of challenge. Consequently, levels of challenge provided for pupils are still variable, particularly in the wider curriculum in relation to the application of mathematics skills and in the accuracy and depth of writing.  The second focus for this inspection was to explore how effectively middle and

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Inspection findings

subject leaders are supporting teachers with improving progress in reading and writing, particularly through key stage 2. Some of these leaders have taken up leadership roles recently, and they are critical to implementing the school improvement plan.  With support from middle leaders, the majority of teachers identify pupils at risk of underachievement earlier. They, along with classroom support staff, provide well-tailored help for these pupils. Middle leaders help teachers to use a wide range of teaching strategies to engage pupils. Still, improvements in pupils’ learning have not been established equally well across all subjects. This is because leaders do not monitor the impacts of their actions as rigorously as required.  Reading across the curriculum is now more frequent and helps pupils access more challenging learning activities. They read widely both inside and outside of school. Since the last inspection, teachers use more challenging texts in lessons,

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Inspection findings

and pupils study these in depth. This helps pupils understand, for example, the feelings of characters and the use of inference and deduction.  The third and final focus of the inspection was to find out how well progress in writing has improved across the school. Published assessment information from 2017 and 2018 indicated that as pupils moved up the school, their rates of progress with writing decreased compared to their younger years. Your own internal assessments confirmed this.  Inspection evidence, including your own checks on learning, confirms that the quality of writing across key stage 2 is typically better than that indicated by published data. Writing in key stage 1 remains strong. Early years has increased opportunities for discussion so that children have more to write about. The quantity and quality of writing has improved throughout the school.  We saw examples of high-quality writing in numerous classes. More confident

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Inspection findings

pupils can write at length and describe complex ideas and characters. They can write to the demands of different subjects, including science. Some pupils include less detail in their writing because they are not clear enough about the expectations for their work.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 monitoring of the impact of support provided by leaders is more rigorous and frequent so that improvements take place more quickly  teachers use assessment information more skilfully to adjust their teaching so that levels of challenge better match the needs of pupils  progress in literacy and numeracy in subjects other than English and mathematics more closely matches the best progress seen within the school.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the chief executive officer of the Brightwells Academy Trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Hammersmith & Fulham. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I met with you and the senior leadership team. I spoke with two governors, including your chair of governors, the chief executive officer of Brightwells Academy Trust and a group of five staff. I also met with a group of pupils. I considered 18 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, the results of your own surveys of parents’ views and 15 responses from staff to Ofsted’s online survey. I visited classrooms, jointly with school leaders, to observe learning and reviewed pupils’ work in books. I checked a range of documentation related to safeguarding. I evaluated further documentation, including the school’s self- evaluation and improvement plans, monitoring information and the school’s own assessment information.

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