Oldfield Park Junior School

Inspection of Oldfield Park Junior School Lymore Terrace, Twerton, Bath, Somerset BA2 2JL

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Outcome

Oldfield Park Junior School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love coming to this friendly school. They say that they enjoy their lessons, feel completely safe and that all adults take good care of them. Pupils’ joy of learning is plain to see. Pupils show high levels of concentration and enthusiasm. They stick at something if they find it difficult. Pupils listen well to their teachers and readily work with each other to share ideas and solve problems. Pupils get on very well with each other and with all staff.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Teachers expect much of their pupils and plan learning that both excites and engages them. Pupils respond by giving their all in lessons. The library is a hive of activity at break and lunchtime, as pupils search out new books or hunt for information on the internet. They relish all the school has to offer. Nearly everyone takes part in the very wide range of sporting and cultural activities that take place after school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Behaviour across the school is impeccable. Pupils are courteous and polite and older pupils readily help out younger ones. They look out for others and say that unkind behaviour and bullying is not known.

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better?

Senior and curriculum leaders, as well as all staff, are highly ambitious for their pupils. They have thought deeply about what pupils should learn term by term. They are making sure that the good quality of education provided by the school is getting even better.

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better?

For most subjects, leaders’ plans make clear to teachers what to teach to their pupils and the order in which to teach it. Teachers make sure that pupils know what 1–2 October 2019

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they need to know before they move onto new or more demanding work. For instance, pupils in Year 4 can confidently give reasons why the Romans invaded Britain because they have a good knowledge of what Britain was like before the Romans came. Sometimes, teachers’ planning does not identify clearly the knowledge that pupils need to gain after a series of lessons. This holds back pupils’ learning.

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Pupils relish the many chances they have to learn across different subjects. The themes followed by each class during the term fire up their imagination and help them see links between different subjects. Pupils in Year 5, for instance, enthuse about their rainforest theme. They are passionate about finding ways to save the planet.

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Across the school, teachers and support staff are well aware of the needs of pupils. Teachers adapt their plans to make sure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) gain good knowledge and understanding. In this way, pupils with SEND achieve well, as do all pupils.

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Leaders make sure that there are clear plans in place so that everyone becomes an able and eager reader. Pupils read every day. They enjoy the class novel that they read through the term. They are linked to the term’s theme. Those pupils who join the school with weak reading skills receive plenty of help to catch up. Some of these weaker readers, though, continue to struggle. Teachers do not know which phonics scheme the infant school uses. This makes it harder to build upon what pupils already know when they join the school.

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The school’s curriculum extends well beyond the classroom. An extensive range of visits and trips adds greatly to pupils’ classroom learning and their wider development. Pupils speak with delight about their termly enrichment day and their enjoyment of activities as diverse as yoga, Pilates, engineering and animation.

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The headteacher has built a team of dedicated staff. They learn from each other and from other schools in the trust. The Palladian Academy Trust (MAT) has fostered this sharing of expertise. Staff feel respected and appreciated by school leaders and say that the school takes full account of their welfare when making decisions. They appreciate the well-being days that all staff, teaching and non-teaching, have each year. Governors have played their part too, asking the right questions of school leaders and keeping them on their toes. Parents agree that this school is very well led and managed.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff are well trained to make sure that pupils are safe and protected. They are alert to any signs that a pupil may be in harm’s way. They report any concerns to the right people straight away. The safeguarding team work well with outside agencies and follow up any concerns with thoroughness and speed. They make sure that 1–2 October 2019

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these pupils receive the right support they need.

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Leaders ensure that pupils know how to keep themselves safe. They make certain that pupils have access to a wealth of information on keeping themselves safe, mainly through the well-planned personal, social, health and economic education.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Small numbers of pupils join the school not having met the required standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 2. Although these pupils are making gains, the speed at which they make up lost ground and acquire reading fluency is hindered by teaching not building effectively on pupils’ existing phonics knowledge.  The subjects in the thematic and mathematics curriculum are very carefully mapped out to make sure that all necessary areas of learning are covered. There are some areas, however, where the details of what teachers expect pupils to have learnt by the end of a series of lessons are imprecise. The school needs to make sure that it continues to refine these areas of the curriculum so that all teachers know what pupils should know by defined end points and that this is well sequenced.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Oldfield Park Junior School, to be good on 3–4 October 2012.

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How can I feed back my views?

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. 1–2 October 2019

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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. 1–2 October 2019

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School details

Local authority Bath and North East Somerset Council

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.oldfieldparkjuniorschool.com

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Oldfield Park Junior School is part of Palladian Academy Trust. The school joined the trust on 1 November 2016. The school is a junior school catering for pupils from Year 3 to Year 6, that is, from ages seven to 11.  The school is similar in size to other junior schools. Most pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below the national average.  The proportion of pupils with SEND, including those supported by an education, health and care plan, is below the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.

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Information about this inspection

 During the inspection, the inspector met with the headteacher and senior leaders and staff responsible for areas of the school’s curriculum. We visited classrooms together, looked at pupils’ workbooks and talked with pupils in lessons and in separate groups.  The inspector looked at a range of documentary evidence. This included the school’s evaluation of its own performance and plans for improvement. Various documents 1–2 October 2019

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related to safeguarding, including the single central record, were looked at.  The inspector spoke with parents at the end of the school day and gathered views and took account of the 66 responses to the online questionnaire Parent View. The inspector received 64 free-text responses and 21 responses to the staff survey.  The subjects considered as part of this inspection were: reading, mathematics and the subjects covered by the thematic curriculum, such as history.

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Inspection team

Michael Merchant, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 1–2 October 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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