Parkwood Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Parkwood Primary School Queen’s Drive, Parkwood Primary School, London N4 2HQ

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Outcome

Parkwood Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending Parkwood. They are rightly proud to be part of this inclusive community where people respect and care for each other. Parents and carers value its community feel and many described the way that staff go ‘above and beyond’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for the knowledge and skills that pupils will learn. This starts in early years, where activities are carefully planned to ensure that pupils learn the curriculum well. Language learning is a particular strength. All pupils, from the Nursery class upwards, benefit from specialist Spanish teaching. Year 5 pupils enjoy practising what they have learned during the annual residential visit to Spain.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. This has a positive effect on their learning. At breaktimes and lunchtimes, they cooperate and take turns, enjoying the range of activities available to them. Bullying is rare and quickly resolved if it happens. Pupils are confident to talk to staff about any concerns they may have. The school provides a nurturing and caring environment in which pupils are kept safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

There is a wide range of after-school clubs on offer. These activities are popular with pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Take-up of these activities is high.

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

The school has rightly increased the emphasis on reading. Leaders recognised that there was more to do to ensure that all pupils could read with confidence. Staff strive to develop pupils’ love of reading. The school ensures that phonics teaching is systematic, and staff have received recent training using new resources that the school have provided. Children begin learning phonics in early years. Staff ensure that the books that pupils read closely match the sounds that they know. This helps pupils to read with 2 and 3 July 2024

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increasing fluency. The school ensures that any pupils who are at risk of not keeping up in reading receive appropriate support to catch up with their peers. Changes to the reading curriculum are very recent and not fully embedded. Leaders recognise this and have appropriate plans in place to check the impact of the improvements they have introduced. This includes checking closely the progress of some of the weakest readers through the phonics curriculum.

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The curriculum is ambitious and carefully designed. Leaders have identified the important skills and knowledge pupils need to secure. This is well-sequenced, ensuring that new learning builds on what has been taught previously. Staff help pupils remember essential knowledge. For example, at the start of Spanish lessons, pupils practise the vocabulary that they have learned before. Teachers model precise language and use questioning successfully to challenge misconceptions.

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Pupils’ oracy is prioritised, and discussion used well to extend pupils’ ability to reason and deepen their learning. Pupils enjoy explaining their thinking in regular ‘talk tasks’. For example, in mathematics, younger pupils discuss and apply different methods to identify a right-angle before comparing and ordering angles. Older pupils successfully draw on their knowledge and confidently articulate how to find unknown angles.

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The school has high expectations for all pupils to develop as confident, successful learners. Pupils with SEND are accurately identified. There have been some significant recent improvements in the provision for pupils with SEND. Leaders have correctly identified that more staff training is needed to ensure that teaching activities are consistently well adapted. This will help to ensure that pupils are well supported to access the same ambitious curriculum as their peers.

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Lessons are rarely disrupted. Pupils concentrate well in class and respond quickly to teachers’ instructions. They are excited to share what they have learned and have positive attitudes to their education. Younger children are supported well to settle into school life and quickly understand the daily routines and expectations of them. Older pupils help their younger peers at lunchtime, for example by serving food in the ‘family dining’ system. Attendance is a high priority for leaders, and all staff understand their role in promoting this. Leaders monitor and analyse attendance thoroughly. They work closely with individual families, and because of the many strategies they have put in place, attendance is improving.

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The school promotes pupils’ broader development well. Pupils have access to a range of extra-curricular clubs, such as ballet, karate and sewing. Leaders carefully plan educational trips linked to the curriculum, such as to galleries, museums and places of worship. Pupils value the many opportunities they have to demonstrate their leadership skills, for example through the school council, acting as house captain or eco-monitors. They carry out their roles diligently and with pride.

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Knowledgeable governors provide highly effective challenge and support to school leaders through, for example, regular monitoring visits. Staff feel that leaders have carefully considered their workload and well-being. They benefit from high-quality professional 2 and 3 July 2024

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development, and staff, including those at the start of their careers, receive excellent support.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school’s approach to the teaching of early reading has recently been reviewed and refined. The school is working on embedding these changes into classroom practice. It is too early to see the impact of these changes in full. The school should check that these changes have the desired impact so that pupils who have fallen behind in their reading catch up quickly.  Some of the activities pupils with SEND are asked to complete are not sufficiently adapted. As a result, pupils do not consistently secure the knowledge they need to make sufficient progress through the curriculum. The school should ensure that further training is provided for staff so that the needs of pupils are fully considered when making adaptations to activities.

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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 2015.

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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. 2 and 3 July 2024

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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 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). 2 and 3 July 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 13 June 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not make use of alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education 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.  The inspector held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, teachers and pupils. Discussions were held with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. The inspector also held a meeting with the school’s improvement partner.  Deep dives were carried out in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and Spanish. For each deep dive, the inspector discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning 2 and 3 July 2024

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and looked at samples of their work. The lead inspector listened to some pupils read to staff.  The curriculum in other subjects was also considered.  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 took account of a range of other information, including the school’s improvement plans, policies and minutes of governing body meetings.  The inspector considered the views of parents, pupils and staff, including through their responses to Ofsted’s online surveys.

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Inspection team

Robert Grice, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 2 and 3 July 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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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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