Dover Park Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Dover Park Primary School Dover Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight PO33 2BN

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Outcome

Dover Park Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their kind and friendly school. They live up to the school’s high expectations in terms of their learning and behaviour. In lessons, they work hard, achieve well, and participate with enthusiasm. Pupils are thoughtful and caring in their relationships. There is a happy atmosphere where pupils feel safe and behave exceptionally well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Over breaktimes, pupils enjoy access to a wide range of fun activities. These include playing with their friends in the ‘multi-use games area’, climbing on the trim trail and sharing books in the outdoor reading area. In the dining hall, older pupils help younger with their social interactions and lunchtime routines.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from wider opportunities which include trips to Portsmouth’s Mary Rose Museum and The British Museum in London. They experience an extensive range of music through the curriculum and additional events. These opportunities bring their learning to life and build their aspirations. Many pupils enthuse about the recent science day and, as a result, make meaningful links with their learning and the wider world.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about many aspects of the school. They appreciate their access to a wealth of useful information via the school’s online communication system.

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

Governors, leaders and staff are united in their ambitious vision for the school. Pupils achieve well yet there is no sense of complacency. There is a school-wide determination to build on every success and achievement. The new leadership team have empowered staff through well-considered training and development opportunities. This work has recently included an extensive review of the curriculum. In every subject, there is a clear progression of the knowledge and skills pupils need to learn, from Reception to Year 6. 26 and 27 March 2024

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This content skilfully embraces and enhances the school’s context, making the most of the local area and beyond.

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Children get off to a strong start in Reception. This is because there are high expectations for their learning and behaviour from the beginning of their school life. As a result, children are ready to learn and take every opportunity to do so. They share and take turns, articulating their feelings well to adults and each other. Interactions between staff and children are consistently of high quality, which results in strong language development.

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Pupils become skilled and confident readers. The school’s strong reading culture starts from Reception, where children enjoy hearing stories and exploring books. Across the school, staff are well trained in delivering the phonics programme, enabling pupils to read with increasing fluency and enjoyment. They are motivated to read a wide range of books as they work towards becoming a ‘Reading Jedi’. Family members enjoy attending regular reading sessions where they share books with their children.

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Teachers have strong subject knowledge and present new information clearly. This helps pupils to remember their learning. Subject-specific vocabulary is explicitly stressed and understood. Across the curriculum, activities are chosen to allow pupils to learn, practise and apply new content. This is particularly effective in mathematics, where a focus on problem-solving and reasoning ensures pupils become confident mathematicians. However, in a few other subjects, changes to the curriculum are recent and are not yet embedded. In these subjects, pupils do not have the same depth of knowledge as they do in others.

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The school has clear processes to identify and support disadvantaged pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The special educational needs coordinator works alongside teaching staff and families to ensure that the provision for pupils with SEND is appropriate and regularly reviewed. There is a genuine sense of inclusion, meaning that all pupils access the full curriculum, with appropriate adaptations, and achieve well. The ‘Rainbow Room’ offers a calm and quiet lunchtime environment for a small number of pupils who need it. Parents and carers are extremely appreciative of the way their children’s needs are met.

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Pupils develop their confidence and independence through a range of interesting leadership opportunities. The pupils on the school council are proud of their achievements and how they contribute to decisions about the running of the school. Their work with their classmates has shaped the school’s club offer and the breaktime activity rota. The ‘Junior Travel Ambassadors’ encourage safe and sustainable travel to school.

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Pupils show respect for and understanding of diversity and difference. The pupils in the recently created ‘Equality and Rights Advocates’ group promote equality and inclusivity. Pupils with particular talents and interests are nurtured and supported, with their achievements outside school celebrated in assemblies. 26 and 27 March 2024

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a few subjects, improvements to the curriculum are in their earlier stages of implementation. This means that subject leaders do not fully know the impact of the curriculum changes and therefore where gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills need addressing. The school should continue with their work to check the impact of these curriculum changes so that all pupils learn all they need to.

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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 October 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, 26 and 27 March 2024

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looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 26 and 27 March 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chairs of governing body Trevor Nicholas and Jo Rees

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 10 and 11 October 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 At this school, the number of pupils who qualify for pupil premium funding is above national average.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.  The headteacher was appointed in September 2023 and the deputy headteacher in January 2023.

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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 senior school leaders and representatives from the local authority and the governing body. 26 and 27 March 2024

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 The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and music. For each deep dive, the inspector held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The inspector also discussed the curriculum in some other foundation subjects.  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 evaluated responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey and spoke to pupils to gather their views.  The inspector analysed responses to the staff survey and spoke to staff about their views of the school.  The inspector took account of the responses to Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire and

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the additional free-text responses. The inspector also spoke with parents at the start of the second day of the inspection.

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Inspection team

Kate Fripp, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector 26 and 27 March 2024

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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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