Beech Grove Primary School

- Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Beech Grove Primary School Beechwood Avenue, Middlesbrough TS4 3AP

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Inspection dates: 22 and 23 October 2024

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Outcome

Beech Grove Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Beech Grove are proud of their school, welcoming visitors with exemplary manners and conduct. They understand the school’s ‘next-door neighbour’ principles and the school’s five golden rules well. Pupils consistently show high levels of respect to adults and to one another. They are happy and safe. Highly trained staff put pupils’ needs first in all they do. Pupils thrive in the warm and nurturing environment that the school fosters.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have created a culture of high expectations for pupils’ achievement. Pupils meet these expectations. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) achieve well. Those pupils who are eligible for the government’s pupil premium funding achieve particularly well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils engage well with their learning. Classrooms are calm and purposeful. Behaviour is positive in both the school and the playground. Pupils use the word ‘family’ to describe the relationships between adults and pupils in the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and carers feel part of the school community. They have very positive attitudes towards the school and to how well their children are supported. Parents articulate this clearly. They appreciate the work the school does for pupils’ academic, moral and social development.

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

The school has created a high-quality curriculum that builds on pupils’ prior learning from early years to Year 6. This includes those pupils with SEND. Their needs are identified quickly. Effective support means that these pupils achieve well. 22 and 23 October 2024

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Children in early years make strong progress through the curriculum from what are often low starting points. They settle quickly into well-established routines. Adults promote exciting and engaging opportunities for children to learn through play. Children quickly gain the fundamental knowledge and skills they need. They are able to communicate and use language with increasing confidence. Interactions between adults and children are often of a high standard.

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The teaching of phonics is very effective. This means that pupils at the early stages of learning to read develop the knowledge they need quickly. Pupils read with increasing accuracy, fluency and understanding. This includes those pupils who do not achieve age- appropriate outcomes at the end of early years.

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In other subjects, pupils develop a bank of knowledge and skills. This is generally secure. Older pupils talk about previous geography learning on biomes with clear understanding, for example. Others talk about the work of the artist, Frida Kahlo, and the techniques that other artists use. Staff teach and check pupils’ understanding of knowledge, skills and concepts with care and precision across the curriculum. This means that gaps in knowledge can be addressed quickly and effectively.

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Behaviour across school is of a high standard. Well-trained staff create a purposeful learning atmosphere. Pupils’ learning is not disrupted by others. However, pupil absence from school is an increasing issue. It impacts on pupils’ ability to access the exciting curriculum that the school offers. The number of pupils who are persistently absent from school is too high. These pupils miss out on the high-quality learning which would prepare them well for the next stage of their education. They struggle to catch up.

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The school has crafted a highly effective and very well-considered provision for pupils’ wider development. Pupils get a wide range of rich and rewarding experiences at school. These include explicit opportunities to think deeply about issues around tolerance and the celebration of diversity. For example, pupils wrote insightful letters about the achievements and subsequent treatment of Alan Turing. They confidently debate issues such as climate change and deforestation. Pupils have performed poetry at Middlesbrough town hall. Within the school, there are pupils of many different nationalities and ethnicities. Pupils develop exemplary attitudes to those of different ethnicity, religion or belief. Their empathy for one another is tangible.

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Leaders have taken effective action to sustain the school’s performance. Governors have clear oversight of the school’s priorities. They ask probing questions and hold leaders to account. They fulfil their roles with diligence and understanding. Staff report high levels of support for their workload and well-being. Staff are motivated and committed to improving opportunities for pupils across all aspects of the school’s work.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school is too high. These pupils miss out on important learning and struggle to catch up when they are in school. The school should further develop its work to promote the benefits of attendance to parents and reduce the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 for overall effectiveness on 25 and 26 June 2019.

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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 22 and 23 October 2024

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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). 22 and 23 October 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chairs of governing body Sue Richardson and Craig Wright

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School details

Date(s) of previous inspection 25 and 26 June 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has a specially resourced provision for pupils with a diagnosis of autism. This provision can accommodate sixteen pupils and is split into two bases. One base is for pupils in early years and Years 1 and 2. The other base is for pupils in Years 3 to 6.  The school uses one unregistered alternative provision.  Wrap-around childcare operates on site under the management of the governing body.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation 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 his evaluation of the school.  The inspector spoke to the headteacher, other school leaders, representatives of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. 22 and 23 October 2024

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 The inspector spoke to a representative of the unregistered alternative provision that the school uses.  The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their work and looked at samples of work. The inspector had a tour of the school and spoke to the head boy and head girl.  The inspector listened to pupils from Years 1, 2, 3 and 6 reading 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 te extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspector analysed the responses to Ofsted’s staff survey. He reviewed responses to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments.

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Inspection team

Richard Beadnall, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector 22 and 23 October 2024

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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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