Broadmead Lower School

Inspection of Broadmead Lower School Park Crescent, Stewartby, Bedford, Bedfordshire MK43 9NN

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 21 and 22 June 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Broadmead Lower School is a positive and welcoming place for pupils. Pupils enjoy the warm, nurturing relationships they have with staff. Pupils’ parents recognise how these relationships ensure their children feel happy to come to school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel safe in school. Pupils know that if bullying occurs, teachers will act quickly to stop it. Pupils feel confident about going to staff if they have any worries about school or home.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in lessons because they enjoy their learning and want to focus on it. They also behave well around school and at lunchtimes. Pupils are clear about lunchtime routines like tidying up the play equipment and involving pupils who are lonely in their games. Pupils understand how such routines link to the school rules ‘be ready, be respectful, be safe’. Pupils feel that the school rules, rewards and sanctions are fair.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy the range of extra-curricular activities available. This includes sports such as athletics, dodgeball, football and street dance. Pupils also appreciate the many visits that staff organise, including residential trips. Pupils particularly enjoyed the recent residential visit as it gave them the opportunity to develop their independence.

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better?

Leaders are ambitious for the pupils. They have high expectations for themselves and the staff. The curriculum is designed to build up pupils’ knowledge and skills over time. There is high-quality training for staff. The training works to embed consistent, agreed approaches to teach different subjects well.

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better?

The curriculum for the early years is very detailed. Its careful sequence takes into account children’s different starting points. It provides opportunities for the children to play, be creative and think critically. Pupils in the early years enjoy phonics lessons and reading with adults. As a result, children make strong progress from their starting points.

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better?

Teachers use their subject knowledge to explain ideas and address misconceptions. They adapt how they teach pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) so that they meet their needs. Pupils make clear connections between previous and current learning. They can explain what they have learned using technical vocabulary. For example, pupils were confident using terms such as ‘vibration’ when discussing what they learned about sound in science lessons.

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better?

Teachers ensure that there are regular assessments of pupils. This helps teachers to know what pupils know or can do. Teachers do not always use this assessment information well enough. They do not adapt the curriculum well for a few pupils that 21 and 22 June 2023

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are ready to move on. As a result, these pupils do not gain as deep an understanding of some areas of the curriculum as they could.

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The school prioritises reading. Staff want all pupils to be fluent readers by the time they finish Year 4. This includes disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND. The reading curriculum develops in a structured, incremental fashion starting in Reception. It allows pupils to progress from mastering the sounds letters make to developing comprehension skills. Staff carefully assess pupils’ reading to check what they have learned. Skilful questioning by staff allows them to probe what pupils understand about the texts they read.

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Leaders have created a strong SEND provision. They have updated systems and processes for identifying individual needs. This includes breaking down information from professionals into support plans. These plans are easy for teachers to use in their day-to-day teaching. Leaders celebrate a pupil’s progress with their parents, as well as using meetings to plan a pupil’s next steps.

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The school has high expectations of behaviour. Pupils’ attitudes to learning are very positive and low-level disruption is rare. The school has a calm and respectful atmosphere.

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Pupils’ personal development is well promoted. Pupils enjoy learning about faiths such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. They liked going on a faith tour of a mosque, a gurdwara and a church in a local town.

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The success of governance varies. It relies on individual governors having the expertise to check the areas they oversee. Governors do not always request the detail they would need from school leaders around behaviour and attendance. This does not allow them to check and challenge all aspects of the school well.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have created a strong culture for safeguarding. Staff are vigilant. They confidently use the clear systems for identifying pupils who are at risk and recording concerns. Leaders act quickly and work closely with external agencies. This helps vulnerable pupils to get the support they need. Leaders ensure that appropriate checks occur before an adult works at the school.

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Safeguarding

Pupils are safe. The ‘angry, sad or worried’ caterpillars in classrooms allow them to share their feelings with adults. The curriculum helps pupils to learn how to manage risk, such as what information to keep private during computing. 21 and 22 June 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teachers do not use the assessment information they have well enough to move some pupils on quickly enough. This is because they have not had the training to know what to do next once pupils grasp a concept or skill. Leaders need to ensure that teachers are trained to know when to adapt teaching and move pupils on.  Governors do not actively request all the information they need from school leaders around behaviour and attendance. Consequently, they rely on school leaders to pinpoint successes and possible issues, as opposed to playing an active role in rigorous evaluation themselves. Governors should ensure they have the training and systems in place to support them in checking, challenging and celebrating all aspects of the school accurately and confidently.

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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. 21 and 22 June 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10267771 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 25 and 26 June 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 There is a new headteacher and a new chair of governors since the previous inspection.  The school has grown in size since its last inspection.  There is a breakfast club and after-school club for pupils attending the school. They are run by school staff and managed by school leaders.  Currently, leaders do not make use of 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 school leaders and have taken this into account in their evaluation. 21 and 22 June 2023

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 Inspectors met with senior leaders, subject leaders, other members of staff and members of the governing body. Inspectors spoke with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, religious education and science. For each deep dive, inspectors met with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with pupils about their learning, looked at samples of pupils’ work and spoke with teachers. The lead inspector also listened to pupils reading with a familiar adult.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documents with leaders to evaluate the culture of safeguarding, including the single central record of recruitment and vetting checks and records of concerns. Inspectors also held discussions with staff and pupils.  Inspectors spoke with pupils during lunchtimes and observed their behaviour during these times. There were no responses to Ofsted’s questionnaire for pupils.

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 Inspectors had informal conversations with parents at the end of the school day. Inspectors also took account of the 53 responses and 43 free-text responses to Ofsted Parent View.  Inspectors analysed the eight responses to Ofsted’s questionnaire for school staff. They also held discussions with several staff during inspection.

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Inspection team

James Adkins, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Helen Jones Ofsted Inspector 21 and 22 June 2023

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