Park Road Community Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Park Road Community Primary School Wroxham Road, Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire WA5 3EF

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Outcome

Park Road Community Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this school. They arrive each day with a positive attitude. They are excited to learn. Relationships between staff and pupils are strong. This helps pupils to feel happy and safe. Leaders have high expectations for pupils’ behaviour and learning. This starts in the early years, where children are taught new knowledge and clear routines. Most pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff make sure that pupils behave in a calm and sensible manner. Pupils are considerate of others as they move around the school and play outside. They are polite, friendly and respectful of each other and of staff. Pupils are well motivated by leaders’ rewards systems, such as the ‘golden planet’. Pupils are confident that leaders and staff resolve the rare incidents of bullying quickly and successfully.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils value the opportunities that leaders give them to hold a wide range of responsibilities. Pupils lead several teams. These include the happiness team, eco warriors and the sports crew. They have organised a happiness café to provide refreshments for other pupils and families. Some are play leaders and values champions. This helps pupils to be active citizens and to have a voice in making decisions about the school’s development.

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

Leaders have constructed a broad and ambitious curriculum. In most subjects, this makes it clear how children and pupils will build their knowledge in each year group, from the Reception Year to Year 6. Leaders make sure that teaching activities are well matched to the planned curriculum. This helps most pupils’ learning to build on what they already know.

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

In a minority of subjects, leaders have not identified the essential knowledge that pupils should learn and when they should learn it. 5 and 6 April 2022

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Leaders have a deliberate focus on children’s speech and language development in the early years. This begins with a curriculum that is full of talk, songs, rhymes and stories. In other year groups, teachers introduce pupils to a range of new and relevant vocabulary, such as ‘carnivore’ in Year 1 and ‘nobleman’ in Year 5. As a result, pupils develop the language that they need to articulate their ideas and their knowledge of important concepts. This helps to prepare pupils successfully for their next stage of learning.

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Leaders prioritise reading and ensure that pupils read widely and often. Leaders make certain that staff are well equipped to deliver the reading curriculum. Staff select reading books that are well matched to the sounds that children and pupils are learning. This helps pupils to strengthen their phonics knowledge and to become fluent, confident readers. Staff provide extra support for those pupils who struggle to read. This enables them to catch up.

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In most subjects, teachers use assessment strategies well to identify any gaps in pupils’ learning. In these subjects, teachers revisit learning where pupils’ knowledge is not secure.

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Leaders and staff have a good understanding of pupils’ needs. Pupils, including those with SEND, are supported well to access the curriculum. This begins in the early years. Leaders and teachers are quick to identify the needs of pupils who may have SEND. They make sure that these pupils receive the support that they need. Pupils throughout the school behave well and demonstrate an eagerness to learn. They concentrate on their learning activities and any disruption in classrooms is rare.

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Leaders have deliberately organised the personal development curriculum so that staff develop pupils’ character. Pupils have many opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge beyond the academic curriculum. They enjoy the opportunity to join clubs. For example, there is a crochet club, a choir and a number of sports clubs. Pupils also contribute to school life. For instance, pupils learn how to feed and look after class pets, such as chickens, guinea pigs and a tortoise. Pupils help the community by taking part in activities such as organised litter picks with businesses in the local area.

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Staff teach pupils about important values, such as having respect and taking responsibility. Pupils understand and respect how people can be different from one another. Pupils told the inspector that the school motto, ‘unique individuals learning together’, reminds them that everyone is special and should be treated equally.

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Governors, members of the trust and school leaders have a clear understanding of the strengths of the school and the areas that require further development. Leaders are considerate of staff’s well-being and have taken steps to reduce workload. This helps staff to feel valued and appreciated.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 5 and 6 April 2022

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Leaders and staff are committed to keeping all pupils safe. Members of the trust and the local governing body have a strong oversight of safeguarding procedures in the school. Leaders ensure that staff have up-to-date training. Staff identify pupils who may be at risk of harm or neglect and act quickly to ensure pupils’ safety. Leaders keep detailed records of their work to safeguard pupils and follow up concerns appropriately with other agencies.

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Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including online. For example, they learn how to cycle safely when they are on or near roads.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a minority of subjects, leaders have not identified the essential component knowledge that they want staff to teach and assess. This means that leaders are unclear if pupils learn all that they should in these subjects. Leaders should clarify their curricular thinking in these subjects, in terms of the curriculum and its assessment.

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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 second section 8 inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Park Road Community Primary School, to be good in May 2012.

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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 . 5 and 6 April 2022

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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. 5 and 6 April 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10226059 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

 Park Road Community Primary School converted to become an academy school in January 2018. When its predecessor school, Park Road Community Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be good overall.  This school is part of the Omega Multi-Academy Trust.  Leaders do not use any alternative provision for pupils.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken this into account in her evaluation of the school.  During this inspection, the inspector met with the headteacher and other leaders in school. The inspector also spoke with a range of staff.  The inspector met with three governors, including the chair of the governing body. The inspector met with the chief executive officer of the trust and the chair of trustees.  The inspector spoke with parents and carers at the end of the school day. 5 and 6 April 2022

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 The inspector considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, including the free-text comments. The inspector considered responses from the staff and pupils to Ofsted surveys.  The inspector examined a range of safeguarding documentation. She checked how leaders ensure that safe recruitment procedures are in place. The inspector checked records of staff safeguarding training. She spoke with staff to check how well they understood safeguarding procedures.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour at playtimes, in lessons and around school. She also spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at school.  The inspector carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics and history. She met with subject leaders and teachers and visited a sample of lessons. The inspector spoke with pupils and looked at examples of their work. She considered the curriculum across some other subject areas. She also observed pupils reading to trusted adults.

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Inspection team

Sally Timmons, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 5 and 6 April 2022

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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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