Kingswood Primary School and Nursery

Inspection of a good school: Kingswood Primary School and Nursery Clay Hill Road, Basildon, Essex SS16 5DE

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Inspection dates: 18 and 19 October 2023

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Outcome

Kingswood Primary School and Nursery continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils describe their learning experience as ‘amazing’. They listen attentively in lessons and rise to the high expectations set by their teachers. As a result, many pupils achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils embody the school values of ‘respect, resilience, self-belief, communication, adaptability and being supportive’. They proudly wear the badges they gain as rewards for displaying these values. Pupils are respectful to adults and to their peers. They are happy and safe in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils experience a range of activities that bring their classroom learning to life. They enjoy working with external visitors, for example during recent work on the Great Fire of London. Pupils also take part in local and residential trips, such as those to Charles Darwin’s house and the local Museum of Power.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Many pupils access the wide range of clubs on offer. These include gardening, netball, computer-aided design, Lego, guitar, football, fitness and well-being.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that adults listen to their views. This is through the range of roles and responsibilities they adopt. These roles include school councillors, well-being warriors and bistro buddies. Pupils also apply to be part of the junior management team, whose members work closely with the school leadership team.

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

The school has embedded an ambitious curriculum for all pupils that has the central vision of ‘discover, believe, achieve’.

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

From nursery onwards, learning to achieve in reading is an absolute priority. Children start learning phonics as soon as they join the school. Highly trained staff deliver interactive and fun phonics sessions. They closely track pupils’ progress and put in place 18 and 19 October 2023

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interventions to help any pupils who fall behind to catch up. The books that pupils read at home closely match the sounds they know. Parents attend workshop sessions that help them support their child’s reading. As a result, many pupils, including those who speak English as an additional language, rapidly learn to be confident, fluent readers.

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The school quickly identifies pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. There is an increasing number of pupils with high levels of need attending the school. All adults provide adaptations and interventions for these learners. This enables these pupils to access the same learning as their peers in lessons.

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Across subjects, teachers provide exciting and engaging activities in their lessons. This helps pupils remember new learning and make links to other learning. However, pupils do not always apply their writing skills well. This is because they are not always reminded to use different sentence structures and to check their grammar and spelling. This means that many pupils do not achieve as highly in writing as they do in other subjects. This is particularly the case for disadvantaged pupils.

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The school’s work to enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is of a high quality. The curriculum helps pupils to understand what the world is like beyond this country. They also learn about different cultures and religions within their own local community. In this way, pupils develop a deep understanding of respect and tolerance. The school also engages pupils in activities to help them understand democratic processes. This includes visits from the local MP and voting for their council representatives. They compile their own class rules and abide by them. In this way, the school effectively prepares pupils to be future citizens.

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Pupils learn about the world outside of the school gates. The school has adopted a local area in the community which it uses to enhance classroom learning. Pupils regularly visit this area for a range of curriculum activities. Pupils also attend local church services. These include at Christmas, harvest festival and Remembrance Day. Parents are also invited to celebrate with their children.

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Leaders thoughtfully consider staff’s workload and ensure that they receive the support and training they require. They make staff’s well-being a priority. Staff are proud to be members of staff at this school.

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Governors of the school are also active members of the school community. They are aware of the school’s strengths and areas to develop. They hold leaders closely to account for standards in the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 18 and 19 October 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils, especially those who are disadvantaged, do not write as well as they should. This is because pupils do not always apply their known grammar skills to their writing nor are they reminded to use a range of sentence structures. The school should continue to improve pupils’ skills in writing so they can articulate and share their thinking and ideas across the curriculum.

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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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in May 2018.

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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). 18 and 19 October 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 22 and 23 May 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has a nursery provision with 26 children on roll.  The school provides breakfast and after-school clubs on site, run by school staff.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.  There is a separate on-site provider of out-of-school care for children.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  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.  The inspector met with the headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator, members of the senior leadership team and subject leaders.  The inspector met with members of the local governing body. 18 and 19 October 2023

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 The inspector carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, the inspector met with subject leaders, looked at curriculum plans, visited lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The inspector also listened to a sample of pupils read to a familiar adult.  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 observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and outside during social times.  The inspector viewed a range of the school’s documentation provided at the start of the inspection, including the school improvement plan and minutes from meetings of

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the local governing body as well as the local improvement board.  The inspector considered 72 responses to Ofsted’s online survey for parents, Ofsted Parent View, including 59 free-text comments. The inspector met with staff and considered responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey. She also considered responses to Ofsted’s online pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Rowena Simmons, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 18 and 19 October 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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