Cedars Park Community Primary School

Inspection of Cedars Park Community Primary School Pintail Road, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 5FP

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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 27 and 28 June 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending a vibrant and welcoming school. The clubs and trips captivate pupils’ interests, encouraging them to attend school regularly. They are proud of the award they achieved this academic year as the school who sold the most poppies for Remembrance Sunday.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are eager to take on leadership roles. They take pride in being school councillors, house captains and peer mentors. They are resilient if their application proves unsuccessful, trusting that the selection systems are fair. In this way, pupils build an age-appropriate understanding of democracy, preparing them well for adulthood.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils understand and live out the school motto, ‘no limit to learning’. It inspires them to try their best in everything they do. In lessons, pupils typically pay close attention to staff and work hard.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Around school, nearly all pupils behave in a calm, orderly way. They understand the ‘behaviour zones’ which motivate pupils to behave suitably. Pupils benefit from the positive relationships forged between them and school staff. These relationships contribute towards pupils being safe, trusting adults to help them if needed. Pupils know that bullying incidents are few and far between. Pupils believe that staff deal with it well on the rare occasion it occurs.

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better?

Leaders have thought carefully about how learning develops over time so that pupils practise and embed important knowledge and skills. For example, in physical education, younger pupils explain how to cup their hands and track the ball to catch it. Older pupils develop this skill to successfully catch balls at speed while playing team games, such as netball. Teachers have the necessary subject knowledge, using this to break down and explain challenging concepts clearly for pupils. Teachers make regular checks on pupils’ learning. They identify gaps quickly and put additional support in place, when needed. As a result, pupils make sound progress and many achieve highly.

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better?

Leaders are passionate about ensuring pupils learn to read. Staff receive training so they can teach a high-quality reading curriculum. Teachers deliver the systematic phonics programme skilfully. Pupils quickly learn how to pronounce sounds accurately, helping them to read with increasing accuracy and confidence as they grow older. Having books that closely match the sounds pupils know encourages this. They independently use different strategies to read unfamiliar words. Leaders oversee pupils’ progress effectively, using their checks to ensure pupils receive suitable support in an effort to ensure they keep up with the pace of learning. Reading is celebrated in many ways across the school. Pupils thoroughly enjoy the 27 and 28 June 2023

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whole-school events that allow them to engage in reading activities for the entire school day.

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For pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), leaders work supportively with teachers to identify emerging needs and put adaptations in place. These changes help pupils with SEND to access learning in class, making progress from their starting points. As needed, leaders work closely with other agencies to secure support for their pupils.

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The early years curriculum is well designed. Children know the routines and manage themselves well. The outdoor environment supports children to learn. Children make detailed observations, developing their conversation skills. They also weave in learning from lessons, such as counting a creature’s number of limbs. In their effort to ensure children complete activities quickly and to a high standard, occasionally adults provide too much guidance. This limits children’s ability to demonstrate what they know and can do. It also shows in children being less enthralled by what they are learning.

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The personal, social and health curriculum is well planned and supports pupils’ wider development. Learning about people whose faith or culture differs to their own encourages pupils to be accepting. Pupils talk openly about how being different is okay. Pupils have an age-appropriate understanding of consent and healthy relationships. Visits to museums and theatres add to pupils learning in school, as well as broadening pupils’ experiences.

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School leaders work openly with trust leaders and members of the local improvement board. Those involved in governance have the skills and expertise to check procedures and offer appropriate challenge to school leaders. Doing so helps to ensure honest evaluation, identifying and resolving issues well. Staff, including those new to the profession, are proud to work at the school. Leaders contribute to this feeling, being considerate of staff workload and well-being. Though leaders reach out to them, some parents find communication from the school unclear. These feelings of frustration then hinder parents’ involvement in school life, such as how best to support children’s learning in the home.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Keeping pupils safe is a high priority for all leaders. Staff receive training and regular updates to help them identify potential risks. Everyone understands their responsibility to report concerns, however small. Robust systems and checks, including those relating to safer recruitment, ensure nothing gets overlooked.

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Safeguarding

Leaders act on referrals swiftly. They are tenacious at following up with external agencies. This ensures pupils and families receive the help they need. 27 and 28 June 2023

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There is strong pastoral and nurture support for pupils to strengthen emotional well- being. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe as part of the curriculum. They understand risks when online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Sometimes, in the early years, how staff arrange activities hinders children’s ability to apply and demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Consequently, children may complete activities that give the illusion they know more than they do, or the activity may lack sufficient challenge for children. Leaders should ensure that all activities are skilfully set out to enable children to develop the key characteristics of effective learning well.  Some parents think school communication could be improved. They feel out of touch with what is going on in school and their children’s education. Leaders should review their systems for communication and working in partnership with parents to ensure these relationships are as positive as those between leaders, staff and pupils.

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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. 27 and 28 June 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10268183 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection 26 and 27 June 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The current headteacher has been in post since September 2022.  There is before- and after-school childcare for pupils attending the school. It is run by school staff and managed by school leaders.  The school is part of the John Milton Multi-Academy Trust.  School leaders make use of a pupil referral unit that is part of the Raedwald Trust, a multi-academy trust.

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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 had 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.  Inspectors held meetings with leaders, including the chair of the trust, chief executive officer, other trustees and members of the local improvement board, 27 and 28 June 2023

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headteacher, other senior leaders and a school improvement partner engaged by the trust.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, geography and physical education to evaluate the quality of education. For each of these, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers and pupils, and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors observed some younger pupils read to staff and talked to them about their reading. Inspectors also spoke to some older pupils about reading.  To inspect safeguarding, inspectors scrutinised the single central record of recruitment and vetting checks and other safeguarding files. They spoke with those responsible for governance, school leaders, teachers, support staff, pupils and parents to further evaluate the culture of safeguarding in the school.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour and met with groups of pupils to seek their

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views of the school. They also spoke to pupils informally in class, around the school and during break times.  Inspectors reviewed the 71 responses and 51 free-text responses to the parent survey, Ofsted Parent View. Inspectors also took account of the 32 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey. There were no responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Karen Stanton, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

John Crane Ofsted Inspector 27 and 28 June 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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