Town Farm Primary School & Nursery

Inspection of a good school: Town Farm Primary School & Nursery St Mary’s Crescent, Stanwell, Staines, Surrey TW19 7HU

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Outcome

Town Farm Primary School & Nursery continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Town Farm is a lively school where there is always something going on. Pupils told me they are happy and have fun. They enjoy the interesting lessons and exciting after-school clubs. Pupils say this is a good school where adults help them to learn and grow. Leaders are always looking for ways to improve the school to make things even better.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are well cared for and behave well. They are polite to each other and treat adults with respect. Leaders keep a close eye on pupils’ behaviour to make sure pupils feel safe and happy. Pupils told me that bullying is rare. They said that staff always tackle any problems they have. Sometimes, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have difficulties with their behaviour. The school supports these children well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy their lessons and do well in reading, writing and mathematics. Staff have high expectations of pupils’ work and behaviour in lessons. Leaders have successfully improved the teaching of English and mathematics. They are now changing the way they teach subjects like science and history. Based on their previous success, these improvements look very promising.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Reading is very important at Town Farm. Leaders have made reading a priority and it has improved. Most young pupils quickly become enthusiastic readers. Staff get children interested in reading right from the start. Reading begins well in the Nursery, where the needs of three- and four-year-olds are well met. Children in the Nursery and the Reception classes are very excited by the books they are reading. Pupils across the school told me about the books they enjoy reading and listening to. Younger pupils make good progress in phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) and most of them get to where they should be by the end of Year 1. Leaders help staff to practise and improve the way they teach reading. Most children can read every word in their reading books. However, a few children have reading books that they cannot read or do not understand. This makes reading more difficult for them. 24–25 September 2019

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Leaders have successfully focused on getting English and mathematics right before moving on to other subjects. Leaders understand what pupils need to learn in each class to get them to the right place by the end of Year 6. Plans for each subject sensibly begin in the early years and build pupils’ learning year on year. Combined with pupils’ hard work and teachers’ high expectations, this makes sure that pupils do well in the assessments at the end of key stage 2. Pupils are, therefore, well prepared for secondary school and beyond.

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Leaders and governors want all the children to do well. They have improved the curriculum and make sure that the way subjects are taught suits the pupils in the school. For example, the focus on learning new words in all areas of the curriculum helps the pupils learn more in each subject. Staff keep a close eye on pupils’ learning and work hard to help them catch up when they need to. Disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND are well supported, including those pupils with more complex needs.

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This year, the school has changed the way some subjects are taught. This is to help teachers plan interesting lessons and to involve parents and carers more in their children’s learning. Pupils still experience separate subjects, such as science, but learning is linked with other areas. Governors were rightly involved in the changes to the curriculum and keep in touch with staff in the school to see how this is going. However, leaders and governors do not yet have clear plans in place for how they will check that the changes they have made to the curriculum are working. Pupils’ outcomes are not yet at the same high standards as they achieve in English and mathematics.

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A wide range of interesting activities help pupils make good progress in their personal development. For example, pupils gained valuable experiences during the very popular recent elections to vote in their own MPs. Pupils enjoy the wide range of clubs and after- school activities on offer to them. From playing hockey to joining the Shakespeare club, pupils have a lot of fun activities to choose from.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have created a culture where everyone takes children’s safety very seriously. Leaders work closely with other agencies, such as the local police, to make sure they understand local issues and concerns. Staff ensure that pupils have the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe. A good example of this is the school’s work to make sure pupils understand the safe use of the internet.

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Safeguarding

Staff training is thorough and closely monitored. In this way, leaders reassure themselves that staff and governors have the knowledge that they need to keep children safe. 24–25 September 2019

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders should ensure that younger pupils who struggle to learn to read are always given books that closely match the sounds they know. These pupils do not get the time they need to re-read the books to practise what they know. This limits their fluency and means that they do not understand what they are reading. This slows their progress in reading and other subjects.  Leaders and governors must ensure that they monitor the effectiveness of recent improvements to the school’s curriculum. This will let them know if staff have all the knowledge that they need to teach all subjects well. It will also help them to make sure that pupils are learning the right things at the right time in each subject in order to achieve highly across the curriculum.

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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 second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good on 24 March 2011.

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How can I feed back my views?

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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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 24–25 September 2019

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pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 24–25 September 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10111276 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 28 January 2016

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Information about this school

 Town Farm has a Nursery class for three- and four-year-olds. Most children attend part time; a small number attend for thirty hours each week.  The headteacher has been appointed since the last inspection.  The school is currently midway through a refurbishment of the whole building.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector met with the headteacher, senior leaders, middle leaders, other staff and members of the governing body. The inspector spoke to the school’s improvement partner. Discussions covered a wide range of subjects, including safeguarding.  The inspector looked closely at three subjects during this inspection: reading, writing and science. The inspector visited 13 lessons with senior leaders. The inspector also met with teachers, curriculum leaders and pupils to discuss these subjects. The inspector also listened to four children read and looked at pupils’ work in these subjects.  The inspector spoke to parents at the start of the day and considered the 27 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. The inspector also considered the 35 responses to the staff questionnaire. There were no responses to the pupil 24–25 September 2019

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questionnaire.  The inspector scrutinised a range of documents and considered the information on the school’s website. This included information relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance. The inspector looked at plans for improvement as well as leaders’ evaluation of the school’s performance.

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Inspection team

Phil Minns, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 24–25 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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