Lodge Primary School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Lodge Primary School Oak Lane, West Bromwich, West Midlands B70 8PN

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Lodge 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 thrive at this happy and caring school and are at the heart of all the school does. The school is aspirational and wants pupils to achieve well. Pupils gain a love of reading and have a range of key knowledge and skills which prepare them well for their next steps.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a broad and interesting curriculum, which helps them to develop successfully. They are proud of their work. Pupils love coming to school, stating that it is a great place to be.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have positive attitudes to school, are keen to learn, and they behave well around school. Pupils appreciate their differences and make friends because they respect and value each other. They play successfully with their peers on the playground. Pupils feel safe and listened to in school. Staff know the pupils well and respond quickly to any concerns pupils may have.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from the wide range of roles and responsibilities they undertake. They conduct these with pride. These include being school councillors, playground leaders and librarians. Pupils enjoy and gain hugely from a wide range of curriculum enrichment activities, including visitors to school, residential trips and an extensive range of clubs. This helps learning come to life.

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

The school is led and managed well. The school has a clear vision and an accurate understanding of what is working well and what could be better. Staff work as a cohesive and happy team to ensure pupils reach their potential. Parents and carers, pupils and staff are extremely positive about the school. 29 and 30 April 2025

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The school has implemented a carefully planned curriculum that ensures that the pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make strong progress through the curriculum. Children in Nursery get off to a strong start. Early Years staff prioritise ensuring that children have a secure understanding of early reading and mathematics, so they can build on this knowledge through the school. The youngest children learn from appropriately selected texts and find out about the world from their activities. However, the intended learning outcomes for some adult led and independent activities in early years, particularly in the outdoor learning space, are not always clear. This means children may gain little new knowledge from the activities.

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The school prioritises reading and provides opportunities for parents to help their children to read. Children learn phonics from the start of the Reception year. Well-trained and skilled staff make careful checks on which sounds pupils know and help them to quickly gain the knowledge and skills they need to become confident, fluent readers. The school ensures that books are closely matched to the phonics sounds pupils are learning.

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Across the school, teachers have secure knowledge of the subjects that they teach, and they present information clearly. For example, in history, teachers ensure pupils understand the concept of social class using examples of passenger allocation on the Titanic. Activities are challenging, interesting and engaging. Most teachers check what pupils already know through effective questioning and from work in pupils’ books. This enables teachers to identify misconceptions and provide feedback to pupils. However, in some lessons in the wider curriculum, gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not identified and addressed. This leads to inconsistent implementation, meaning pupils do not learn as well as they could. Pupils find this frustrating at times and so become disengaged.

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The school effectively identifies and understands the needs of pupils and adapts activities when needed. Staff have benefited from training to support pupils’ learning, including those with SEND. Pupils with SEND achieve well. Pupils show great interest and enthusiasm in lessons. They contribute well and respond to the questions and tasks given to them.

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Pupils’ personal development is a high priority. This is integrated throughout the curriculum. All pupils benefit from a wealth of enriching opportunities to broaden their experiences. The school develops pupils’ character, confidence and resilience. Pupils have appropriate opportunities to develop leadership and life skills linked to the school values. They have an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships and know how to keep themselves healthy. Pupils engage with the wider community through visits, for example to the local university and museum. As a result, pupils value difference and have a strong understanding of diversity and equality. Pupils confidently assert that at this school everyone is treated fairly and with respect.

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Governors know the school well and are committed to their roles. They are aware of what the school does well and what needs to improve. They are ambitious for all pupils and make effective checks on many aspects of school life. Leaders are mindful of the workload 29 and 30 April 2025

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and well-being of staff. The members of the staff team say they feel like a family and are proud to work here.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school is sometimes unclear what new knowledge and skills they want children to learn during adult-led and independent activities particularly in the outdoor learning space. This means children may gain little new knowledge from the activities. The school should ensure that the intended learning for each activity is identified so that children are engaged in meaningful learning throughout the early years setting.  In some lessons in the wider curriculum, gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not identified and addressed. This leads to inconsistent implementation, meaning pupils do not learn as well as they could. The school should ensure that any gaps in pupils’ knowledge are clearly identified and addressed in order that all pupils engage and learn as well as they can.

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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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in July 2016. 29 and 30 April 2025

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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). 29 and 30 April 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 4 and 5 February 2020, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not currently make use of any alternative provision.  The school has a before- and after-school club operating on the same site. This is managed by the school.

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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 leaders and has taken that into account in this evaluation of the school.  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 held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, 29 and 30 April 2025

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assistant headteachers, early years leader, curriculum leaders and the special educational needs coordinator.  The inspector met with the members of the local governing body.  The inspector also spoke with the local authority school improvement adviser.  The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and breaktimes. He also spoke with pupils about their experiences of school.  The inspector examined a range of school documentation, including leaders’ self- evaluation, improvement plans, records of governance, and documentation relating to attendance and pupils’ behaviour.  The inspector considered the responses to the online survey for parents and carers, Ofsted Parent View. He also considered the responses to Ofsted’s survey for staff.

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Inspection team

Rob Johnstone, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 29 and 30 April 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 looked-after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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