Downsview Community Primary School

Inspection of Downsview Community Primary School Beech Avenue, Swanley, Kent BR8 8AU

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 25 and 26 April 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Downsview Community Primary is a nurturing and supportive school. Staff know their pupils well, and there are positive relationships evident across the school. Pupils are proud to attend this school and of the inclusive nature of their community. For example, they talk positively about the Diwali and Holi celebrations they have held.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well and are keen to live up to the increased expectations throughout the school. Behaviour in lessons is mostly calm and focused. Bullying now happens very rarely. If it were to take place, pupils are confident that staff would deal with it swiftly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have a good range of opportunities beyond the academic curriculum. As well as a range of clubs, including cooking, football and beading, they also have opportunities to develop leadership skills. Pupils have a voice in this school, through the eco, school and sports councils. Pupils talk positively about these roles and aspire to take them on.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from the actions leaders have taken to improve the quality of education following disappointing outcomes from the end of key stage assessments in 2022. However, this work is not yet embedded across the school.

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better?

Leaders have high ambitions for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They have planned an appropriate curriculum that is well considered and maps what pupils need to know from Year 1 upwards. However, the planning in the early years is not as clearly connected.

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better?

In some subjects, planning carefully sequences both the knowledge and skills that pupils need to succeed. However, in some foundation subjects, this is not yet as well balanced. As a result, sometimes activity choices are not always as clearly linked to the intended learning. Where practice is strongest, pupils benefit from clear explanations from teachers. Here, pupils can link their new knowledge to what they learned previously. However, this is not the case across all subjects. Previously, pupils’ attainment in national curriculum tests has been low. While current pupils are making better progress through some areas of this strengthened curriculum, this is not consistently the case across the school.

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better?

In mathematics and early reading, teachers have established systems to assess what pupils know and can remember during their lessons. This allows teachers to adapt what they teach to inform pupils’ next steps, ensuring that any misunderstandings are resolved quickly. However, this is not the case in other subjects, and leaders have not yet embedded a system to check what pupils can remember over time. 25 and 26 April 2023

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Leaders increasingly promote a love of reading throughout the school, including the improved library space, classroom displays and reading corners in each classroom. Early reading is generally taught effectively. Children now benefit from targeted and specific sessions to support their particular needs, helping them to develop the skills they need to become increasingly fluent and confident readers. However, this practice is still relatively new and not yet having the full impact that leaders intend.

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Leaders have not ensured that all staff have a consistently secure knowledge of how to meet the additional needs of pupils with SEND. Leaders make timely referrals for external support. However, in lessons, the support is more varied. Leaders have not equipped teachers well enough to ensure that there are routinely strong adaptations to learning so that all pupils can access their learning effectively. As a result, not all pupils learn as well as they should.

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In the early years, like elsewhere in the school, there are warm and positive relationships between staff and children. However, children have not been sufficiently well prepared for their next steps. While children are engaged and interested in a range of different activities, leaders have not considered carefully enough the intended learning that sits behind the activity choices. Similarly, while leaders acknowledge that communication is an essential area of development for children in the early years, staff do not fully exploit opportunities to model and encourage pupil talk.

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While attendance for many pupils is generally strong, there are a minority of pupils who do not attend school regularly enough. Leaders’ actions to address this are beginning to show some impact, but this work continues.

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Senior leaders know their school well and carefully identify the actions they need to take to develop it. They work effectively with governors and school improvement partners from the local authority to evaluate the impact of their actions. This helps them to know that their actions are having the impact they want them to. However, they recognise that there is still more work to do.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

There is an effective culture of safeguarding at the school. Staff receive appropriate training which is regularly updated, meaning that they know how to identify and refer any pupils who might be at risk. They know their pupils well, and there are detailed records kept of any concerns. Concerns are acted on quickly, and leaders liaise well with external agencies as needed.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn about how to keep themselves safe, including when online, through the curriculum.

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Safeguarding

Leaders complete appropriate checks to ensure that adults are safe to work with 25 and 26 April 2023

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children. Governors know their safeguarding responsibilities and hold leaders to account.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Attendance in school is not high enough. As a result, too many pupils, particularly those who are persistently absent, are missing out on the learning that the school provides. Leaders need to continue to identify the barriers to good attendance and work with families to ensure that attendance increases.  In the early years, there is not always a clearly considered plan for the activities that pupils undertake in order to develop their learning and specifically language acquisition. Consequently, there are missed opportunities to develop pupils’ communication skills. Leaders need to ensure that all staff have the knowledge required to fully develop children’s communication and language.  There is not a clear or systematic approach to assessment in the recently developed foundation curriculum. This means that teachers and leaders do not have an accurate understanding of how much knowledge and skills pupils have

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

understood or retained. Leaders need to ensure that staff are secure in their knowledge of how to assess effectively so that in the way that is the case for maths and early reading, teachers can gauge what pupils have understood and adapt their teaching as necessary.  Teaching in lessons is not consistently adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. As a result, pupils do not make the progress that they should through the planned curriculum. Leaders need to ensure all teachers have the knowledge to make required adaptations to learning activities for pupils with SEND.

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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. 25 and 26 April 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.downsview-primary.kent.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 7 and 8 January 2020, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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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.  The inspection team held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, teachers and pupils. The lead inspector met with the members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. The lead inspector also held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.  The inspection team carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, geography 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 25 and 26 April 2023

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pupils’ work. The lead inspector listened to some pupils read to adults they knew.  To inspect safeguarding, inspectors held meetings with safeguarding leaders, the governing body, teachers and pupils. They scrutinised the single central record and checked safeguarding records.  The inspection team took account of a range of other information, including the school’s development plans, school policies and governor minutes. They also considered external reports of the school from the local authority.  The team spoke with pupils about their experience of the school. They took account of parent and carer and staff views through conversations and responses to Ofsted’s surveys.

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Inspection team

Marian Feeley, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Louise Lythgoe Ofsted Inspector 25 and 26 April 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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