Valley Park School

Inspection of Valley Park School Huntsman Lane, Maidstone, Kent ME14 5DT

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 January 2025

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Sixth-form provision Good Previous inspection grade Good

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The head of this school is David Jones. This school is part of the Valley Invicta Academies Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Richard Hayden, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Matthew Fletcher. 28 and 29 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to say that ‘We are Valley Park’ and act out the school’s values of ‘ambition, respect and kindness’. Pupils agree that the school is a happy and welcoming place to be. Pupils and sixth-form students have warm relationships with adults built on mutual respect and trust. Pupils respond well to the high expectations that the school has for their achievement.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Raised expectations of pupils’ behaviour have had a positive impact across the school. Pupils, staff and parents all say the school is now calm and orderly. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school site. The school provides strong pastoral support. Staff make sure that help is available if pupils need it. For example, the school offers mental health support and counselling. There is encouragement and support for pupils to attend well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are provided with a wealth of opportunities to nurture existing talents and interests and discover new ones. Performing arts clubs are popular, and many pupils show enthusiasm for taking part in music and drama performances. The school offers an array of trips and visits, including to Borneo and Milan. The school ensures that every pupil has the opportunity to benefit from these rich experiences.

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

There are high aspirations for the pupils and students at Valley Park. The school acted swiftly and decisively in making the necessary improvements in response to the lower- than-national GCSE results in 2024. It has strengthened the quality of education provided, reshaping and enhancing the curriculum to ensure it is ambitious for all. Pupils remember key knowledge, particularly in recent lessons and programmes of study. As a result, pupils are now making better progress than has been the case historically.

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

The curriculum has been designed so that pupils’ knowledge builds logically and sequentially. Most pupils benefit from adaptations to the curriculum, which enable them to build their knowledge. Occasionally, the pupils who are ready for more demanding work are not given work that stretches them appropriately. This means some pupils are not achieving as highly as they could.

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

In most lessons, the curriculum is delivered well. Teachers have strong subject knowledge. Pupils try hard and take pride in their work. The school has recently adapted its approach to checking on pupils’ learning. It has ensured that teachers in all subjects carefully check how much pupils have understood over time. The information from these checks is used well to inform future teaching. However, the checks some teachers make on pupils’ learning during lessons are not effective enough. This means sometimes they do not identify or address misconceptions, which hinders pupils’ understanding of curriculum content.

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

Sixth-form students appreciate the wide range of subjects they can choose to study at key stage 5. Staff help students to choose appropriate courses that meet their individual 28 and 29 January 2025

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needs. This includes a range of vocational courses that appeal to students’ interests and help to prepare them for their future lives and work. Sixth-form students are mature and articulate. They talk with confidence and enthusiasm about their learning.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are swiftly identified. Each pupil with SEND has an individual ‘student profile’ giving clear information and guidance about how best to meet their needs. This information is well communicated to staff. As a result, pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as their peers.

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The school ensures that reading is a priority. It provides a dedicated programme to help pupils who struggle to read gain the skills they need. Sixth-form students act as reading mentors for key stage 3 pupils. As a result, pupils develop greater fluency and confidence in reading.

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A comprehensive programme has been designed to support pupils’ personal development. Some parts of this programme, such as the careers guidance pupils receive, are well established and of high quality. Pupils and sixth-form students talk positively about taking part in work experience and learning about a range of further education opportunities and apprenticeships. Other parts of the personal development programme have developed more recently. This includes the curriculum for pupils’ personal, social and health education (PSHE). The school has redesigned and greatly improved this curriculum, but it recognises there are gaps in pupils’ knowledge and understanding that need addressing, particularly about issues such as democracy and the rule of law.

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The school is led very well. Trustees and governors are highly skilled and fulfil their duties well. All staff are unified in their vision for the school. Leaders support staff with their well-being and workload. Staff are overwhelmingly happy and proud to work at this school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some teachers do not consistently check pupils’ learning well enough in lessons. As a result, some misconceptions or gaps in knowledge go unnoticed. The school should ensure that the best practice is shared so that all staff are confident in checking pupils’ understanding at the point of learning and adapting learning accordingly.  Sometimes, teaching is not adapted to the needs of all pupils. As a result, there are times when pupils are ready to move on in their learning, but they are not provided with opportunities to do so. The school needs to embed approaches to adaptive teaching so that the achievement of all pupils is raised.  Some pupils have a limited understanding of some essential content included in the 28 and 29 January 2025

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school’s PSHE curriculum, including democracy and the rule of law. This means pupils do not always have the knowledge they need in readiness for life in school and the world beyond school. The school must ensure that the teaching of the PSHE curriculum addresses any gaps in pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

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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, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 28 and 29 January 2025

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provision

Number of pupils on the school roll 1,651

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form

Dates of previous inspection 4 and 5 March 2020, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the requirement of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.  The school uses two registered alternative provisions for pupils.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form 28 and 29 January 2025

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provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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 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. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, a range of staff, pupils, members of the local school board and trustees.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, history, art and design and computing. For each deep dive, inspectors 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. Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single

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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 met with several groups of pupils and observed their behaviour at breaktime and lunchtime.  Inspectors spoke to staff, including early career teachers, about behaviour and their workload in school.  An inspector held a telephone discussion with a member of staff at two alternative provisions.  Inspectors considered the responses to the confidential online staff survey. They took account of the responses to the online parent survey, Ofsted Parent View, including parents’ free-text comments. Inspectors considered the views of pupils shared in the confidential online pupil survey and through discussions held with pupils throughout the school.

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Inspection team

Ann Fearon, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Julia Mortimore Ofsted Inspector 28 and 29 January 2025

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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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