Crestwood Park Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Crestwood Park Primary School Lapwood Avenue, Crestwood Park Estate, Kingswinford, West Midlands DY6 8RP

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 September 2021

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Outcome

There has been no change to this school’s overall judgement of good as a result of this initial (section 8) inspection. However, the evidence gathered suggests that the inspection grade might not be as high if a full inspection were carried out now. The next inspection will therefore be a full (section 5) inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Crestwood Park is a friendly school, where pupils are cared for well. Parents hold the school in high regard and value its family ethos.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel safe and say that poor behaviour and bullying are rare. They are confident that adults deal with any incidents of poor behaviour quickly. Pupils’ good behaviour is recognised and celebrated regularly. Pupils are enthusiastic about the school values - referred to as SPARKS: ‘Smart, Polite, Aware, Respectful, Kind, Safe’. They understand why these values are important and reflect them when they work and play together.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from a range of activities beyond the classroom. Leaders are starting to reintroduce the educational visits that took place before the pandemic. Pupils enjoy these visits. Older pupils take on extra responsibilities, such as being reading ambassadors, lunchtime monitors and members of the school council. These opportunities help pupils to develop their sense of independence and responsibility. This contributes to their pride in the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff encourage pupils to work hard. Pupils are interested in the topics that they learn and are proud of their work. However, some subjects are not well planned. This limits pupils in reaching their full potential.

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

Leaders, including those responsible for governance, want the best for every pupil. They know the school well and have rightly identified the need to improve the quality of education that the school provides. However, this work needs to be carried out more rapidly to help pupils develop and remember the knowledge that they need. 28 and 29 September 2021

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Teachers ensure that their planning helps all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to learn the full curriculum. These plans set out how staff should support pupils during lessons. Adults do this successfully. Their support ensures that all pupils learn a broad range of subjects. However, the curriculum is not structured sufficiently well enough in some foundation subjects. This is a barrier to pupils’ learning. For example, pupils learn French in some years and German in others. This slows pupils’ learning.

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Curriculum plans in some subjects set out clearly the essential knowledge that pupils need to learn. For example, in mathematics, teachers understand the exact content they need to teach, and when to teach it. This allows teachers to check that all pupils are keeping up with the mathematics curriculum. However, curriculum leaders have not set this information out precisely enough in all subjects. As a result, teachers sometimes decide for themselves which key facts and ideas to cover. While these lessons provide pupils with interesting activities and exciting experiences, they do not build pupils’ knowledge over time. This hinders pupils from achieving as well as they should.

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Leaders have ensured that there is a clear approach to teaching early reading. Staff understand this approach and stick to it. The curriculum is well planned and sequenced. Younger pupils learn to read in small groups every day. As a result, most pupils make good progress and soon become better readers. However, some pupils do not get enough practice because the books they read are not well matched to the sounds they know. This slows their progress in learning to read fluently.

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Leaders have identified the early years as a phase of the school they intend to improve further. They have started to make positive changes to enhance children’s learning experiences. For example, they have deployed extra staff to work with children in smaller groups. This helps children to carefully focus on the things they need to learn.

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Leaders have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. They communicate these expectations well. Procedures for dealing with behaviour are clear. This helps all staff to have a consistent approach. As a result, pupils behave very well. They concentrate on their tasks and take part in lessons without fuss.

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Leaders work extremely hard to promote the well-being of children and adults. Pupils benefit from weekly lessons in personal, social, health and economic education. These lessons teach pupils about healthy relationships and help them to maintain strong friendships. The pastoral team work diligently to support pupils, families and staff. This is creating an environment where everyone feels valued. Consequently, pupils enjoy being at school and staff morale is high. 28 and 29 September 2021

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders, including governors, have put systems in place to safeguard pupils. They keep accurate records and work well with other agencies to make sure that pupils receive the right help when they need it.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that all staff are alert to identify pupils who may need help. For example, staff regularly discuss possible situations when they would need to take action. This helps staff know what to do if they have concerns about a pupil.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils practise reading using books that are not precisely matched to their phonics ability. This prevents these pupils from becoming better readers. Leaders should ensure that pupils practise reading from books that are matched to their reading ability.  Curriculum plans are not structured sufficiently well in some subjects. This limits pupils in reaching their full potential. Leaders should ensure that the curriculum is well structured in all subjects.  Curriculum plans in many foundation subjects do not set out the essential knowledge that leaders expect pupils to know and remember each year. This is a barrier to pupils knowing more and remembering more. Leaders should develop curriculum plans to clearly set out the knowledge, vocabulary and skills that pupils are expected to learn in each subject.

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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 or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, 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 deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in June 2016. 28 and 29 September 2021

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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 are the school and you are 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. 28 and 29 September 2021

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website http://www.crestwood-p.dudley.sch.uk/

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 8 and 9 June 2016, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher was appointed in September 2019.  The school is an average-sized primary school.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with school leaders and has taken that into account in their evaluation.  Early reading, mathematics and history were considered as part of this inspection.  The inspector met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, curriculum leaders and teachers. The inspector also spoke with a group of governors, including the chair of the governing body.  The inspector had a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.  The inspector reviewed curriculum plans, looked at pupils’ work and visited lessons. 28 and 29 September 2021

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 The inspector reviewed safeguarding procedures. This included scrutinising the school’s single central record of checks on staff.  The inspector also looked at a range of policies and documents provided by the school. These included leaders’ evaluations of the school’s effectiveness and the school’s improvement plan.  The inspector had informal conversations with parents at the end of the school day and considered 52 responses on Ofsted’s Parent View website.  The inspector spoke to groups of pupils to collect their views on the school and took account of 31 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.  The inspector spoke with a range of staff and considered 22 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Jonathan Leonard, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 28 and 29 September 2021

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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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