Stanley Park Junior School

Inspection of a good school: Stanley Park Junior School Stanley Park Road, Carshalton, Surrey SM5 3JL

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Inspection dates: 13 and 14 September 2023

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Outcome

Stanley Park Junior School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are well looked after in this school. They are happy and safe. They are confident to seek help if they have any concerns or worries. Adults in school know them very well. They are quick to support pupils if they are hurt or feel worried.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils rise to the school’s high expectations of them. In most cases, they meet the school’s aims for them to be ‘successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens’. Pupils achieve highly, particularly in English and mathematics. The school is working hard to ensure that pupils achieve strong outcomes across all the subjects that they are studying.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. Staff speak positively about the way that pupils conduct themselves. Pupils are polite, confident and courteous. They treat each other with kindness and respect.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school focuses on supporting pupils to develop their leadership skills. Older pupils take pride in supporting younger pupils as peer tutors. They also experience democracy first hand as they vote for school council representatives.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school enjoys the support of parents and carers and builds positive relationships with the wider community. One parent’s comments echoed those of many: ‘My child has an overall positive experience of school. He feels a sense of pride for being part of it.’

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

Pupils in this school are learning a curriculum that, overall, is well considered and carefully ordered. It identifies the essential knowledge that pupils need to have learned before they are introduced to new concepts. The long-term goals of the curriculum are ambitious and match those found in the national curriculum. In most cases, pupils reach these goals, and in some instances, exceed them. 13 and 14 September 2023

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The curriculum is delivered as planned. In most subjects, pupils get plenty of opportunities to practise and consolidate their learning. In mathematics, for example, pupils start their learning with ‘flashbacks’, where they get to recall and practise what they already know and can do. Their learning also frequently involves talking about and reasoning how they work out number problems. This helps to ensure that pupils become fluent and accurate when solving mathematical calculations.

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In a very few subjects, the curriculum is not clear about the significant knowledge that pupils need to learn and remember. This means that, in these cases, teaching is not as focused as it should be on helping pupils to securely understand important concepts in the subject. When this happens, the curriculum is not as effective at enabling pupils to know and remember more.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive effective support. They are learning the curriculum well. The school has close links with nearby infant schools to obtain helpful information about pupils before they start. This allows leaders and staff to identify the needs of these pupils and to plan effectively for the support that they require.

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Checks on pupils’ confidence and fluency with reading take place as soon as they join the school. This is to identify pupils who are still at the early stages of learning to read. These pupils start learning phonics straight away. The school has trained all staff to deliver its chosen phonics programme. Pupils practise their phonics by reading books containing sounds that they already know. The school’s effective work on reading means that these pupils are catching up quickly. Pupils across the school show a genuine love of reading. They like listening to adults read to them daily.

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Pupils’ positive attitudes contribute to a successful learning climate. They collaborate well in lessons. They are engaged and focused on tasks assigned to them, in most instances, with very little prompting from adults. Disruptions to learning are rare.

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The school provides its pupils with plenty of opportunities to develop more widely beyond the academic curriculum. Each class has eco-representatives, who support the school’s commitment to recycling and efficient energy use. The curriculum is complemented by a wide range of educational visits, which pupils enjoy. They also have access to a wide selection of after-school clubs on offer, and these are very popular.

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The school looks after its staff well. Staff are given ample time to complete tasks that are assigned to them. They feel listened to and supported.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 13 and 14 September 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a very few subjects, the significant knowledge that teaching needs to focus on is not as clearly set out as it should be. As a result, pupils are not knowing and remembering more in these subjects. The school should ensure that the curriculum in these subjects defines clearly the significant knowledge that pupils need to learn.

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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 an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in April 2014.

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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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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 13 and 14 September 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 18 April 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school uses one registered alternative provision.

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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 the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  The inspector held discussions with the headteacher and other members of the senior leadership team.  The inspector also met with members of the governing body, including the chair and vice-chair.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, history and mathematics. For each deep dive, the inspector discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers and pupils and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Other subjects were considered as part of this inspection. 13 and 14 September 2023

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 To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first. The inspector also considered the views of parents through responses to Ofsted’s survey.

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Inspection team

Edison David, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 13 and 14 September 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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