Brookfield Park Primary School

Inspection of Brookfield Park Primary School School Lane, Chapel House, Skelmersdale, Lancashire WN8 8EH

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Inspection dates: 13 and 14 September 2023

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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 13 and 14 September 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school fosters warm and respectful relationships between pupils and staff. Pupils are happy. They give teachers and classmates a friendly smile when they move around the school building. Pupils feel safe. They trust staff to help them with any friendship issues that they might have.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has raised expectations for pupils’ behaviour through new systems and the ‘Brookfield Park promise’. This encourages all members of the school community to be kind, resilient and to take ownership. Pupils live out this promise and rise to the school’s high expectations of behaviour.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has begun to set out its expectations for what pupils, including the majority of those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), should learn. In some subjects, pupils achieve well. However, in other subjects and in parts of the early years curriculum, the school is at varying stages of outlining these expectations. As a result, some pupils do not achieve well across the curriculum.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils particularly enjoy using the park area, which sits on the school grounds. They also appreciate the sporting clubs and opportunities that are available to them.

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better?

The school has broadly outlined its expectations for what pupils should learn in many parts of the curriculum. In some subjects, the school has either designed or adopted subject curriculums that clarify the smalls steps of knowledge that pupils will learn over time. This helps teachers to deliver new subject content effectively and in a logical order. In turn, this helps pupils to build a more secure body of knowledge over time. However, this is not the case in other subjects and in parts of the early years.

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better?

The school has appropriate procedures in place to ensure that pupils with SEND have their needs identified in a timely manner. The school has recently set up a specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND. The curriculum for the pupils who access the specially resourced provision is not ambitious enough and it does not tend to pupils’ academic needs sufficiently well. As a result, pupils in the specially resourced provision often miss out on important learning. They do not achieve as well as they should in many subjects.

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better?

The school has not made it clear to teachers how they should assess which knowledge pupils have learned. As a result, in many subjects, teachers are not clear about the gaps which pupils have in their knowledge and understanding.

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better?

The school has recently introduced a new phonics programme. Children learn phonics through this programme soon after a short settling-in period to the Reception Year. Those who need extra help with reading get additional opportunities to practise the sounds that they do not know. However, the school has not kept a 13 and 14 September 2023

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close eye on how well the new phonics programme has been implemented. As a result, the school has not identified and addressed some of the inconsistencies that are present in the delivery of the programme. Additionally, pupils sometimes read books that are not suitably matched to the sounds that they need to learn. This means that some pupils do not become confident, fluent readers as quickly as they could.

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Children in the two-year-old nursery provision through to pupils in Year 6 behave well throughout the school day. They play well with their friends at social times and show a positive attitude to their learning in lessons. Pupils rarely experience disruptions to their learning.

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The school caters for pupils’ personal development well. Pupils learn about maintaining their physical and mental well-being. They develop a positive attitude towards those who are different to them. Pupils develop an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships. They make good use of their ‘pupil parliament members’ to share their thoughts about school life. Older pupils also appreciate opportunities to serve as ‘reading buddies’ to those who join school in the Reception Year.

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Staff are happy at the school. They speak positively about the school’s actions to help them manage their workload well. Governors carry out their roles appropriately. However, in some areas of school operations, governors do not gather the level of information that they need. This includes the experiences of pupils in the specially resourced provision. It also includes the extent to which they gather the views of parents and carers. This hinders governors’ ability to identify some of the issues that are present at the school. It also restricts governors’ ability to challenge the school on the impact of its actions that are intended to improve the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some subjects, and in parts of the early years, the school has not clearly identified the important knowledge that pupils need to know nor the order in which it will be taught. This sometimes prevents pupils from building their knowledge securely over time. The school should ensure that the curriculum, from the early years to Year 6, is well designed, so that pupils learn all that they should and achieve well across the curriculum.  Pupils with SEND, who access the specially resourced provision, do not benefit from an ambitious and appropriately designed curriculum. As a result, they do not 13 and 14 September 2023

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achieve as well as they could. The school should ensure that these pupils have appropriate access to a well-designed curriculum offer.  The school has not outlined its expectations for how staff should assess how well pupils acquire and remember important knowledge. This means that teachers do not consistently identify and close the gaps that pupils have in their knowledge. The school should provide clear guidance for teachers on how they should carry out checks on pupils’ learning, so that pupils learn as well as they can.  The school does not ensure that its phonics programme is implemented consistently well. This sometimes means that pupils are given books that are not well matched to their phonics knowledge. It also means that pupils do not learn to read fluently as soon as they could. The school should ensure that pupils read books that are well matched to their needs. It should also ensure that staff

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deliver the phonics programme consistently well.  In some areas of school operations, including the specially resourced provision, governors do not gather the information that they need to evaluate the impact of the school’s actions. This hinders their ability to provide appropriate levels of challenge and to identify the most important areas for improvement. Governors should review how they evaluate the effectiveness of their work to ensure that their actions are having the biggest impact on pupils’ school experiences.

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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’ 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 23 January 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 A new headteacher has been appointed since the last inspection.  The school has recently set up an informal specially resourced provision.  There is provision for two-year-olds in the early years.  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

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school has received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation. 13 and 14 September 2023

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 Inspectors conducted deep dives in these subjects: early reading, history and mathematics. They met with subject leaders and teachers. They visited lessons, looked at examples of pupils’ work and talked with groups of pupils about their learning. The lead inspector observed pupils read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors also considered the curriculum, spoke with pupils about their learning and evaluated their work in some other subjects.  The lead inspector spoke with a group of governors. Inspectors also talked to staff about their workload and well-being.  The lead inspector spoke with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors met with the leaders who are responsible for attendance, behaviour and pupils’ personal development.  Inspectors spoke with pupils about their wider experience of school.  Inspectors looked at a range of policies and documents related to pupils’ welfare and education. They observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school.

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 To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors: 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.  Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff and pupils.  Inspectors met with parents at the start of the school day and took account of the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text responses.

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Inspection team

David Spruce, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Brown 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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