coloured pencils

Isle of Wight primary school ‘requires improvement’ says Ofsted

The latest Ofsted report for a primary school in Ryde has today been published.

Dover Park Primary were subject to an inspection by Ofsted officers at the end of June 2016. The previous inspection took place in September 2014.

The inspectors rated the school’s personal development, behaviour and welfare and early years provision as ‘Good’, but the effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for pupils all ‘Require Improvement’.

Strengths
The school was found to have the following strengths:

  • Senior leaders and governors are passionate advocates for pupils in the school and the community which the school serves. They ensure that pupils are safe, well cared for and confident that adults support them well.
  • Leaders’ strategies to improve attendance ensure that few pupils miss school regularly.
  • The curriculum excites and inspires pupils to learn. Pupils develop a mature understanding of other traditions, beliefs and cultures through interesting topics in a range of subjects.
  • Children make good progress in early years. Targeted support strengthens communication and language skills very effectively.

Improvement to be made
Ofsted have highlighted where improvements need to be made:

  • Leaders’ actions to improve teaching and learning have not been wholly effective. Teaching is not enabling current pupils to make consistently good progress from their starting points, particularly in key stage 2.
  • Leaders at all levels, including governors, have not fully evaluated how well additional funding is used to narrow gaps with other pupils nationally. In key stage 2, too few disadvantaged pupils make accelerated progress in mathematics and writing.
  • Teaching is too variable. Leaders’ feedback does not focus on the ways that teaching promotes or holds back learning. Consequently, the training teachers receive is not focused on improving their day-to-day teaching skills.
  • Some additional adults are not effectively deployed. They do not contribute to improving pupils’ learning well enough.
  • Performance information is not used to plan learning precisely enough. Some pupils repeat work they can already do, while others do not have all the skills they need to tackle tasks successfully.
  • Pupils’ presentation is inconsistent, particularly in the wider curriculum. Poor handwriting and spelling skills reduce the quality of pupils’ written communication.
  • Boys are not as well prepared as girls in reading and writing when they begin Year 1.

The report
Full details can be found in the report. Click on the full screen icon to see larger version.



Image: masudananda under CC BY 2.0