Queen's Park Infant Academy

Inspection of a good school: Queen’s Park Infant Academy East Way, Bournemouth, Dorset BH8 9PU

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Outcome

Queen’s Park Infant Academy continues to be a good school.

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Outcome

The headteacher of this school is Tracey Edwards. The school is part of Coastal Learning Partnership multi-academy trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Paul Howieson, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Rev Louise Ellis.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and safe. High-quality pastoral support helps pupils to learn how to make friends and be a good friend. Pupils are very proud to be part of school life. They study a broad curriculum and say that learning is ‘fun’. The large school grounds are filled with exciting things to do. The wooden ‘pirate ship’ is a favourite for many.

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What is it like to attend this school?

There are lots of clubs, such as gymnastics, learning about crafts outside and multi- sports. The curriculum teaches pupils about different faiths and values and to be reflective about their own beliefs and emotions. It does this through, for example, whole-school mindfulness sessions and learning about Diwali and the local church.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils learn about big ideas such as climate change and sustainability. The ‘eco’ committee brings this to life by working with local allotment groups and completing important projects, such as litter picking and surveys in the community.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Typically, pupils, including in the early years, behave well. They understand and follow the school rules. Staff listen to and act on pupils’ views carefully. They are always on hand if pupils need support or want to share a worry.

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

The school is highly inclusive. It is well led and managed. School staff use the expertise of trust staff effectively. For example, teachers embrace learning about educational research and do all they can to ensure that the school’s subject curriculums have maximum impact. Leaders identify the school’s strengths and areas for development accurately. The trust and local governing board provide effective challenge and support. 14 and 15 May 2024

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The school community works very closely with parents and carers. Nearly everyone who responded to the Ofsted survey would recommend the school to others. The personal, social and health education curriculum teaches pupils the importance of right and wrong, and how to make a sensible choice. There is a strong commitment to ensuring pupils’ well-being, including their mental health. There are stringent systems in place to support pupils’ good attendance. Persistent absence is rare. When it happens, staff work together to support families and successfully bring about demonstrable improvement.

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The curriculum is suitably ambitious. Pupils learn a lot. Teaching ensures that pupils gain the essential foundational knowledge in reading, writing and mathematics they need to succeed in junior school. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive precise teaching, and this ensures that their learning needs are met well.

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Notably, the wider curriculum is exciting for the young learners it serves. For example, museum visits and the use of artefacts bring the history curriculum alive. Pupils talk knowledgeably about the impact of famous people and events in the past and how this has shaped the world today. Teaching also fosters pupils’ creative side through using clay, painting, craft and experiencing practical music workshops.

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The school reviews the content of the curriculum regularly to ensure continuous improvement. For example, it has ensured the consistent use of practical resources in mathematics from Reception onwards. Pupils like this consistent approach. It helps them make connections across sequences of work and across their time at school. Most pupils, including pupils with SEND, retain mathematical knowledge very well. For example, they can recall number facts quickly and reason in mathematics proficiently for their age.

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In the past, it took too long for pupils to learn to decode the sounds that letters make. Most pupils now progress through the phonics curriculum more quickly and have more practice. As a result, published outcomes are on the rise. By the time pupils leave the school, most read fluently and understand what they read.

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Staff are effective in using the results of assessments to plan whole sequences of work term by term. However, some teaching does not check what pupils know within these sequences of work day by day or within lessons. When this happens, teaching does not address pupils’ misconceptions swiftly enough. In the early years, there remain occasions when staff do not model language effectively or extend children’s talk.

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Staff get to know pupils who speak English as an additional language quickly. As a result, these pupils settle quickly and make friends. However, some teaching does not use assessment proficiently to adapt the curriculum or teach pupils the new vocabulary they need. As a result, some of these pupils find it difficult to understand the context and component parts of some sequences of work in some subjects.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 14 and 15 May 2024

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teaching across some lesson sequences does not prioritise the needs of pupils who speak English as an additional language sufficiently well. These pupils do not learn the essential knowledge and vocabulary they need to know. The trust must ensure that staff develop the expertise to adapt sequences of work so that pupils who speak English as an additional language understand the context and essential component knowledge within sequences of work and make securely good progress across the curriculum.  At times, teaching does not use well enough checks on what pupils know already. In early years, some interactions are not sufficiently precise in modelling and extending children’s language. Further up the school, pupils’ misconceptions are not acted on swiftly. The trust must ensure that teaching is built firmly on what pupils need to know next and any inconsistencies in curriculum quality are addressed swiftly.

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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 July 2013.

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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 SEND; pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local 14 and 15 May 2024

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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). 14 and 15 May 2024

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School details

Local authority Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole

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School details

Date of previous inspection 27 March 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Queen’s Park Infant Academy is a large infant school. There are four classes in each year group. It is part of Coastal Learning Partnership. This is a multi-academy trust of 20 primary schools locally.  There is a much larger than average proportion of pupils with SEND and who speak English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language has increased markedly in recent months compared with the average.  The school uses one unregistered alternative provider.  There is an after-school club that is run by the school.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision. 14 and 15 May 2024

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken that into account in this evaluation of the school.  The inspector met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and other staff during the inspection. She met with the chair of trustees and two members of the local governing body and members of the trust’s school improvement team.  The inspector also held telephone conversations with a local authority representative from the SEND commissioning team at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and one unregistered provider.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, the inspector discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, looked at curriculum planning, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’

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work.  In addition, the inspector reviewed the impact of the English curriculum.  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 conducted a range of activities to confirm whether the independent school standards were met in full. This included health and safety checks of the premises, risk assessments, record-keeping for behaviour management, attendance and supervision during social times.  The inspector considered the responses to the questionnaire for parents, Ofsted Parent View, including free-text comments. The inspector considered the responses to the online surveys for pupils and staff. There were no responses to the pupil survey.

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Inspectors held meetings with school staff and groups of pupils during the inspection to gather their views.

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Inspection team

Julie Carrington, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 14 and 15 May 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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