Burlish Park Primary School

Inspection of Burlish Park Primary School Windermere Way, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire DY13 8LA

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Inspection dates: 17 and 18 January 2023

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Outstanding Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Not previously inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 17 and 18 January 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school and behave well. They know the trust and school values and work hard to ‘love, learn and live’ together in a respectful manner. Pupils achieve well. Leaders provide an extensive range of enrichment opportunities for all pupils. Parents’ and carers’ ‘pop-ins’ allow them to find out about and share in their child’s learning. Parents also value the care, support and nurture that all staff give to pupils.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are caring towards each other. They look out for each other’s safety. Older pupils take their play leader responsibility seriously. They know not to share information about the friends they help. House captains organise numerous inter- house competitions across the year. Older pupils help younger pupils as they cook, dance and row their way to success. Pupils are happy and safe. Leaders deal well with bullying if it should happen.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel listened to and valued in school. School council has increased the number of litter bins in the playground and reduced the amount of rubbish on the ground. The youngest pupils show great care for, and love of, the environment as they use the specially created outdoor area to appreciate nature throughout the seasons.

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better?

Leaders set and achieve an unwavering ambition that every member of school will feel valued and be successful. This ambition starts from the very top with the trust’s vision, values and expertise. School leaders make this ambition a reality in all that they do in and across the school. Staff say they ‘have the best of both worlds’ in terms of how well the trust and school leaders look after them. They value the ‘check-ins’ that leaders make and the range of high-quality support in place to help them teach their subjects well.

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better?

Leaders have designed an ambitious curriculum. In all subjects, there is a pathway in place. This takes pupils on a journey of exploring, learning and remembering from the early years to Year 6. A range of carefully planned visits bridge learning in books with learning in the environment. Pupils behave well in lessons. They enjoy talking about what they are currently learning across a range of subjects. However, there are times when pupils do not readily retrieve their previous learning.

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better?

Leaders make sure that all pupils learn to read well. For a few pupils, this takes longer to achieve. Teachers do not give up. The targeted help that is put in place continues until pupils successfully read their books fluently. Pupils are surrounded by high-quality texts in the school library and in their classrooms. They like the reading challenges that take place.

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better?

Just as a pebble dropped in a river ripples outwards, so staff in the early years begin the flow of building children’s knowledge. Children benefit from a range of specific 17 and 18 January 2023

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taught and free-choice activities linked to a topic. Each topic forms part of the whole in a carefully planned and sequenced curriculum. Children used the props provided to wrap up warm as they visited the polar role-play area. They told an inspector that, ‘You need coats, hats and gloves to keep warm.’ They also know that you should wear sunscreen to keep safe in the summer and that ‘penguins need the ice to be able to slide down to the sea’.

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Teachers in the early years and beyond choose and use a range of strategies in lessons that are well suited to the subject being taught. For example, in mathematics, 'twist it and deepen it' helps pupils to solve problems using what they know. In physical education, pupils relish the challenge of measuring and comparing steps as they complete the ‘million step challenge’ with other trust schools.

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Most teachers make the right checks to help pupils improve. Where this is not the case, such as with handwriting, leaders know about it and have swiftly put plans in place to make sure teachers consistently meet leaders’ high expectations.

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Leaders use their intricate and extensive knowledge of each pupil to note and understand individual needs. They give each pupil who requires it an advocate; a person who will be there for them while they need it. They carefully match support to these needs. This specific attention to detail ensures that all pupils, but especially pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are successful learners. It also makes sure that pupils with SEND regularly access a variety of extra-curricular opportunities. Parents of pupils with SEND in both the mainstream school and the language unit deeply value the difference leaders and staff make to their children.

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Pupils can and do access a range of opportunities. ‘Burlish Bear’ and ‘Munch and Crunch’ clubs, plus Alfie the nurture dog, help pupils to be healthy in body and mind. From Reception children learning to ride a pedal bicycle, to the many inter- house competitions involving drama, rowing, cooking and sports, there is something for everyone.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Safeguarding underpins all that leaders do. Leaders make the right checks before staff start at the school. Once staff are in their role, safeguarding training and thinking about safeguarding are part of the daily routine. All staff have a deep knowledge across a range of safeguarding topics. If concerned about a pupil, they know what to do, when and why.

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Safeguarding

Leaders and staff know the risks young people face in today’s society. They teach pupils about these risks and how to manage them. Pupils in turn know a lot about keeping themselves safe. This includes around water, while using technology, physical and mental health and within friendships. 17 and 18 January 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The curriculum is relatively new, so teachers have had limited opportunities to support pupils to revisit their learning and remember things over time. This means that pupils are not able to articulate in enough depth or breadth what leaders have set out they should know. Leaders should continue to embed successful recall strategies and provide oracy opportunities for all pupils, enabling then to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their knowledge throughout the curriculum.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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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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 and 18 January 2023

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school provides before- and after-school childcare on site. It does not use any alternative provision.  Burlish Park Primary School is part of The Rivers C. of E. Academy Trust.  There is a resourced provision for children with SEND. This is known as the Language Unit. The pupils attending the Language Unit have a speech disorder and/or a developmental language disorder. The provision caters for 10 pupils of primary school age. Pupils spend the morning in the Language Unit and the afternoon joining their mainstream classes at Burlish Park.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 17 and 18 January 2023

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 Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and senior leaders.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, history, modern foreign languages and physical education. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also spoke to other subject leaders and looked at samples of pupils’ work in some other subjects, including science, geography, English, and personal, social and health education.  The lead inspector spoke with the chair of trustees and met with the chief executive officer.  The lead inspector listened to a sample of pupils read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and at breaktimes and lunchtimes. They spoke formally with groups of pupils, as well as talking to pupils

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in lessons and around school.  Inspectors met with leaders about the school’s safeguarding procedures. Inspectors reviewed policies and records relating to safeguarding, bullying, behaviour and attendance. Inspectors spoke to pupils and staff about pupils’ safety.  The lead inspector reviewed a wide range of documents, including the school’s evaluation and improvement plans, the scheme of delegation and information on the school’s website.  Inspectors talked informally with pupils and staff to gather general information about school life. In addition, they took account of the responses to Ofsted’s surveys of staff’s, pupils’ and parents’ views. An inspector spoke with parents at the school gate.

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Inspection team

Kirsty Foulkes, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Anne Potter Ofsted Inspector 17 and 18 January 2023

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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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