The Japanese School

Inspection of The Japanese School 87 Creffield Road, Acton, London W3 9PU

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Inspection dates: 29 April to 1 May 2025

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Outstanding Behaviour and attitudes Outstanding Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Good

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a happy and caring school. Leaders and staff care deeply about pupils. Staff form positive, professional relationships with pupils. Confidently, pupils share their feelings if they are worried about anything. Pupils are safe and feel safe. Pupils genuinely care about each other. At breaktimes, pupils often take the initiative to help each other use equipment properly or take someone to the medical room if needed. Pupils behave with great maturity.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is highly ambitious for pupils’ academic achievement. Regularly, pupils achieve the school’s expectations. The school is equally ambitious for pupils’ personal development. The school provides pupils who are temporary residents in the UK with wide-ranging experiences. For example, pupils take part in adventurous residential stays in Scotland and Wales. The school uses these experiences to develop pupils’ resilience and strength of character and to visit landmarks in different counties of the UK. The school wants pupils to be self-disciplined and selfless. It provides regular opportunities for pupils to help each other focus and concentrate deeply on tasks. For example, older pupils lead the daily cleaning and tidying tasks with focused concentration for those younger to learn from.

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better?

The ambitious and carefully organised curriculum provides pupils with the essential knowledge they need across a broad range of subjects. The curriculum connects subject content expertly. This supports pupils to make strong links between different subjects and relate ideas to prior learning. For example, through the computing curriculum, the school teaches pupils to use technology to communicate their ideas in different ways. Pupils use this knowledge to design and create detailed presentations about their learning in science.

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better?

The school’s regular checks on the way the curriculum is delivered ensure the curriculum is implemented robustly. Teaching revisits and recap of previous knowledge supports pupils effectively in remembering important information long- term. Systematically, teaching checks how well pupils learn. Teachers use this information to make appropriate adjustments to what pupils learn next. As a result, any gaps in knowledge are addressed without delay. Swiftly, the school recognises pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). It makes effective adaptations to teaching and resources to support pupils with SEND to learn the curriculum successfully.

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better?

Robustly, the school gauges pupils’ proficiency in spoken English and reading when they join the school. Pupils at the early stages of learning to speak and read English as an additional language receive systematic teaching matched to their level of understanding. The regular, focused practice pupils receive helps them become confident and fluent speakers and readers of English. 29 April to 1 May 2025 Pupils behave exceptionally well here. Devotedly, they attend school regularly and on time. In lessons, pupils are focused and eager to learn. This is because they have highly positive attitudes to their learning. Routinely, lessons take place undisturbed by low-level disruption.

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better?

The school prepares pupils for life in Britain extremely well. The school teaches pupils about values and institutions in the UK and explains how these align with Japanese culture. Considerately, pupils are taught to understand and respect wide- ranging religions and traditions. Pupils receive clear messages about right and wrong and the importance of showing kindness and respect to others. The school provides many opportunities for pupils to demonstrate this. For example, as part of the annual whole-school sports and cultural festivals, pupils in Years 8 and 9 lead events for younger pupils. As part of this, the school expects older pupils to act as role models, cheering for and encouraging everyone’s efforts. Pupils receive appropriate information about options for their future education and careers. They are well prepared for the next stages of their education.

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better?

The proprietor body and leaders work collaboratively to ensure pupils receive a highly effective education. Purposefully, they engage with staff to ensure their workload is not too burdensome. Typically, the proprietor body has appropriate knowledge and training to ensure the independent school standards (the standards) are met consistently and securely. It is aware of the risks associated with members holding temporary positions and addresses the issue sufficiently. For example, in recent times, some members of the body were appointed as permanent members. This is to ensure clear and detailed knowledge is transferred to board members who are new to their positions. However, occasionally, the proprietor’s oversight of the standards is not robust enough. For instance, at the start of the inspection, some unmet standards were not noticed by the school. If left unchecked, the failings may pose a risk to pupils’ safety and welfare. During the inspection, the school took

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better?

effective action to address the weaknesses adequately by the end of the inspection.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The proprietor’s oversight to ensure the standards are met consistently and securely is not robust enough. This may pose a risk to pupils’ safety and welfare. The school must ensure robust checks are in place to identify any unmet standards and ensure timely action is taken to address any weaknesses.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted 29 April to 1 May 2025 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. 29 April to 1 May 2025

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School details

Website www.thejapaneseschool.ltd.uk/nihonjinga kko Email address ron-nichi@thejapaneseschool.ltd.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 6 to 8 June 2023 29 April to 1 May 2025

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Information about this school

 The school provides education for boys and girls of Japanese heritage whose parents live and work in London on a temporary basis. The school is partially funded by the Japanese government. Many senior leaders and teachers come from Japan and work in this school for two to three years before returning to Japan.  The proprietor body comprises representatives from a range of Japanese companies. The proprietor body members live and work in the UK. Annually, the school appoints a new chair of the proprietor body.  The headteacher took up the post in April 2024. The chair of the proprietor body was appointed in March 2025.  The school is located at 87 Creffield Road, Acton, London, W3 9PU.  The school follows the Japanese national curriculum, supplemented with parts of the English national curriculum. Almost all teaching is in Japanese. The Japanese academic year starts in April and ends in March.  The previous standard inspection took place in June 2023. Subsequently, the

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Information about this school

school received two progress monitoring inspections. They took place in April and November 2024.  The school does not make use of alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors carried out this inspection under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008. The purpose of the inspection is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent 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.

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Information about this inspection

The school meets the independent school standards. These are the requirements set out in the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, art and personal, social, health and economic education. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, looked at curriculum plans, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also looked at curriculum plans and spoke to leaders about some other subjects. 29 April to 1 May 2025  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors 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.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors toured the premises and reviewed documentation to check compliance with the standards.

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Inspection team

Andrea Bedeau, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Alison Moore Ofsted Inspector 29 April to 1 May 2025 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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