Pimlico Primary

Inspection of Pimlico Primary Lupus Street, Westminster, London SW1V 3AT

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The quality of education Outstanding Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Good Early years provision Outstanding Previous inspection grade Outstanding

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The principal of this school is Pav Chandhoke. This school is part of Future Academies, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Lawrence Foley, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Lord John Alfred Stoddard Nash.

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Until November 2020, the school was exempt from routine inspection because it was judged outstanding for overall effectiveness at its previous inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The school has not been inspected under section 5 of the Act since June 2015. Since September 2024, schools have not been awarded an overall effectiveness grade. 20 and 21 May 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff and pupils work closely together to fulfil the values of ‘knowledge’, ‘respect’ and ‘aspiration’. Leaders have high expectations for pupils’ achievement, captured by the school motto, ‘freedom through education’. Pupils rise to these expectations and achieve well across the curriculum, including in national assessments.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well, displaying kindness and good manners. The school has been through a period of change, and leaders are working effectively in order to reset and raise shared expectations further. Pupils feel safe and are kept safe at school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils become members of one of four houses across the school, each named after a Greek god or goddess. This provides frequent opportunities for older and younger pupils to work together towards shared goals. Pupils are highly motivated to represent their houses.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from the extensive wider offer at the school. For example, all pupils in Years 4 and 5 can learn the violin, trumpet or clarinet as part of the school’s music offer. Pupils enhance their leadership skills as student councillors, house captains, playground buddies and librarians. Pupils readily contribute to their local community by participating in frequent fundraising opportunities and the school food bank collection.

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

Children get off to a brilliant start in early years. The strong focus on communication and vocabulary means that children quickly learn to express feelings, take turns and settle into secure routines for learning. The curriculum is planned to introduce children to rich language. For example, when making toy animals, staff skilfully extend children’s choices of resources and methods. As a result, children are eager to take risks, explore and persist with tasks displaying high levels of concentration.

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

The school follows an ambitious curriculum. The trust supports teachers with resources as well as helps to develop their subject-specific teaching. Staff feel workload is alleviated through this provision. This, in turn, helps pupils to receive a high-quality education. Teachers use their expertise to model vocabulary and techniques so that pupils can practise and learn these effectively. The consistent approach to teaching helps pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to progress successfully through the curriculum in different subjects. As a result, pupils develop a depth of understanding that enables them to achieve highly and be very well prepared for future learning.

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

Leaders identify pupils with SEND effectively and meet needs through a range of approaches. Pupils in the specially resourced provision (SRP) are suitably supported to learn alongside their year group peers, as well as having time in the provision to prepare for or deepen learning. Pupils with SEND are fully included in the wider life of the school. 20 and 21 May 2025

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Reading is a top priority. Children start learning to read as soon as they begin their reception year. Books are matched to the sounds that children know. Opportunities for further training for staff are offered, for example, through ‘live coaching’. Pupils have regular opportunities to read together. For example, pupils enthusiastically act out the characters from the stories they read, such as ‘The Hobbit’, with accuracy, expression and confidence.

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The programme for personal development is excellent. The school, with coordinated support and resources from the trust and its charitable sponsor ‘Future’, provides rich and varied enrichment experiences for all pupils free of cost. Experiences are planned around themes important to the school’s ethos. For example, pupils have opportunities to visit the aspirational Russell Group universities which their classes are named after. The programme is carefully reviewed so that pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, benefit from deepening their learning beyond the classroom.

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The school has high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and conduct. Pupils typically behave well, and lessons are rarely disrupted. In the context of a significant increase in new pupils and staff at the school, leaders have updated policies for behaviour to ensure that expectations are consistent. In places, these policies are not consistently implemented. This means that, at times, some pupils and staff are not fully clear on how incidents have been followed up.

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Raising attendance is a high priority for the school. Leaders have effective systems in place to identify and act on pupils’ absence. Despite this, attendance for some pupils remains low.

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Staff are proud to work at the school. Trustees and local governors work effectively in order to fulfil their roles. The trust has provided extensive support to continue to raise standards during a period of transition in the school community. As a result, pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, flourish at the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some policies and systems for managing pupils’ behaviour are at an earlier stage of being implemented. This means that, in places, expectations for pupils’ behaviour and how staff respond are not fully realised. The school and the trust should ensure that its expectations for pupils’ behaviour are clearly communicated and understood, and that staff have the expertise to enact the agreed approach consistently. 20 and 21 May 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). 20 and 21 May 2025

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School details

Chair of trust Lord John Alfred Stoddard Nash

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 24 and 25 June 2015, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has undergone a period of recent change. Following the amalgamation of two local schools within the trust, Pimlico Primary has enrolled additional pupils mid- year as well as onboarding new staff. It also incorporated an SRP for pupils with SEND into the school over the previous academic year. The current headteacher took up their post in June 2024.  The school has an SRP that caters for pupils with speech, language and communication needs. The provision has capacity for 24 pupils.  The school runs its own breakfast and after-school clubs.  The school currently do not use any alternative provision.

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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 20 and 21 May 2025

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management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years 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 principal, senior leaders, teachers and support staff. Some meetings also involved members of the trust, including the director of education, the trust lead for curriculum, trust lead for SEND, and the trust lead for partnerships and life skills.  The lead inspector met with the CEO; the chair and a trustee of Future Academies; the chair of the local governing body and a local governor.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, history and geography. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject

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leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of their work. Inspectors also considered the curriculum in other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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.  Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation provided by leaders, including their priorities for improvement.  Inspectors considered the views of parents, pupils and staff through discussions and their responses to Ofsted’s online surveys.

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Inspection team

Matea Marcinko, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Stephen O’Brien Ofsted Inspector 20 and 21 May 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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