Gossops Green Primary

Inspection of Gossops Green Primary Kidborough Road, Gossops Green, Crawley, West Sussex RH11 8HW

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Outstanding Early years provision Outstanding Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Not previously inspected 17–18 September 2019

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What is it like to attend this school?

The principal and other leaders have transformed Gossops Green Primary School. Leaders have very high ambition for pupils. School leaders make excellent working relationships with parents and the local community. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school and what it provides for their children. This is especially the case in early years foundation stage.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This school has a family atmosphere. Staff know their pupils well and look after them carefully. Pupils say that they are safe at school and their parents agree.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy to learn. They thrive in lessons because teachers plan the curriculum carefully and spark pupils’ interest. They support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) particularly well. All staff work hard to provide pupils with exactly the right amount of support and challenge. Consequently, pupils’ achievement is rising.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The vast majority of pupils behave well and are polite. Leaders provide specialised help to make sure that pupils are supported well with their behaviour, if necessary.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders make sure that pupils treat each other with kindness and respect. Pupils say that bullying is very rare.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a school that welcomes every child wholeheartedly.

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better?

Trustees and governors have ensured that leaders improved the education on offer to pupils rapidly and securely. Consequently, pupils achieve well across the school. Leaders have shared successfully their vision for a first-rate curriculum.

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better?

While appropriate curriculum plans for each subject exist, work is underway to improve them to include much more information. Teachers are using these new plans successfully to deepen pupils’ knowledge and skills. Teachers find out what pupils know already and plan activities which carefully build up their knowledge further. For example, teachers ensure that pupils in Year 4 talk about Rome and the country of Italy before starting a history topic about Romans. Staff widen pupils’ experiences by taking them on visits and inviting experts in to the school. Teachers make learning exciting which helps pupils remember what they have been taught.

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better?

Leaders provide staff with excellent training sharply focused to improve pupils’ knowledge and skills. Staff have honed their teaching skills with much enthusiasm. The principal has reduced teachers’ workload significantly. Staff enjoy working at the school and feel energised.

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better?

Leaders make sure that the teaching of reading is at the heart of the school’s work. 17–18 September 2019

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Pupils are eager to read. Teachers are experts in the teaching of early reading. Staff help pupils to match letters to sounds very effectively. Pupils move on quickly to read sentences and paragraphs with fluency and understanding. They choose books to read at school and home that match their reading levels. Staff support pupils that fall behind so that they catch up quickly.

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Staff adapt the curriculum well to support pupils of all abilities. Teachers and teaching assistants find out what help is needed for pupils with SEND. They give extra support so that any difficulty with learning is reduced for pupils who may be struggling.

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Early years education is a particular strength in this school. Adults already know children very well despite it being early in the term. Children settle in remarkably quickly and get off to a flying start. Teachers and other adults ensure that the environment and learning activities promote intense interest across a wide range of subjects. During the inspection children were buzzing with excitement and totally engrossed in their learning. Teachers watch children carefully and ask questions to make them think deeply. Children make decisions for themselves and carry out tasks independently right from the start. Because staff are highly skilled, they prepare children very well for transition into Year 1. Parents are glowing in their praise for Reception Year and say that their children flourish in the setting.

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Pupils’ attendance is improving. While leaders have worked hard to ensure that most pupils attend school regularly, there are still a small number of pupils who miss too many days at school.

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Pupils enjoy their time at school. Pupils develop a sense of responsibility and cooperation. The school is calm and purposeful. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school.

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The curriculum develops pupils’ empathy well so they understand how to live in a harmonious community. For example, when key stage 2 pupils learned about slaves, pupils expressed their view that slavery is wrong. Staff use assemblies to give key messages, such as the importance of working in a team.

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Pupils’ interests and skills are developed well though opportunities to attend various extra-curricular activities, such as music and sports.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Safeguarding pupils is taken very seriously by staff at the school. Leaders make sure that staff are well trained so that they are vigilant at identifying pupils at risk of being harmed. They have strong reporting and recording systems of safeguarding matters. Leaders’ work with other agencies and parents is exemplary.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have ensured that staff have a firm understanding of the dangers of 17–18 September 2019

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radicalisation and extremism. Staff make sure that pupils understand how to keep safe when online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have developed teachers’ understanding well about how long- and medium-term curriculum plans support pupils’ learning. Leaders have supplemented existing plans effectively in nearly all subjects. More work is still to do in computing, music and religious education. Leaders should ensure that the last remaining areas of the curriculum to be enhanced are planned and implemented as well as the rest.  Leaders have improved pupils’ attendance recently. However, pupils’ attendance remains below the national average for primary schools with similar levels of deprivation. Leaders should continue their strong work to ensure that levels of attendance, especially for pupils who are disadvantaged, are improved further.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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How can I feed back my views?

If you’re not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 17–18 September 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10111098 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Gossops Green Primary converted to become an academy school on 1 November 2016. When its predecessor school, Gossops Green Community Primary, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to require improvement.  Gossops Green Primary is part of The Collegiate Trust.  The headteacher took up her post in April 2018.  The academy trust delegates responsibility for overseeing aspects of the school to a local governing body.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors met with trust representatives, governors and leaders of the school.  Inspectors found out about the school’s curriculum, how it is implemented and its impact.  The subjects considered to provide information about the curriculum were: reading, writing, mathematics, history and technology. After a meeting with 17–18 September 2019

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subject leaders, lessons were visited and pupils’ work was scrutinised. Meetings were held with pupils and their teachers to discuss pupils’ learning.  Meetings were held with groups of staff, parents and pupils. Inspectors considered the responses from Ofsted’s online questionnaires completed by staff, parents and pupils.  Staff recruitment records and safeguarding documents were checked. The inspectors conducted discussions with teachers and pupils about keeping safe. The lead inspector held a meeting with the school’s designated safeguarding lead.  A range of school documents were scrutinised including action plans and attendance records. Inspectors reviewed the school website.

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Inspection team

Sue Child, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Kanwaljit Singh Ofsted Inspector 17–18 September 2019

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regulates and inspects to 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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