Blackmoor Park Junior School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 24 February 2026

Pupils enjoy nurturing and caring relationships with staff and with each other. They appreciate the warm welcome they receive each day. This helps pupils to settle quickly into lessons and have a positive start to the morning. Pupils feel safe in school. They know that staff listen carefully when they have concerns and help them sort any problems out. Bullying is rare and quickly addressed. Pupils generally enjoy coming to school, and many are eager to learn. However, many pupils do not attend school regularly, with some being away from school for extended periods. This hampers pupils' sense of belonging and their achievement. More recently, there have been some improvements in pupils’ attendance rates. This is helping to begin to close gaps in pupils’ learning. Up until recently, leaders have not focused their attentions sufficiently enough on ensuring that pupils learn as well as they should. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are disadvantaged. Since this has become more of a priority for the school, pupils have started to make greater progress, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics. However, much of this work is in the early stages, which means that there are still gaps in pupils’ knowledge. Around school, pupils behave calmly because staff remind them gently of their expectations and provide effective support where needed. Kindness to others is a highly valued quality in school. Pupils enjoy trying to earn the weekly ‘kindness cup’ by helping others. Provision for pupils' personal development is effective in preparing pupils for life in modern Britain. For example, they learn about staying safe, including when using the internet. This helps them to make sensible choices when online. Pupils are proud of their roles and responsibilities, such as becoming reading ambassadors, helping younger pupils discover new books and talk about stories they enjoy.

What the school should improve

• Leaders should continue to strengthen the improvements to the curriculum and teaching, so that pupils benefit from consistently effective practice, which builds on recent gains in reading, writing and mathematics and supports them to achieve well across the curriculum over time.
• Leaders should develop staff expertise to adapt their teaching, so that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and other barriers to learning benefit from high-quality, inclusive provision, which precisely meets their learning needs and supports them to progress well.
• Leaders should ensure that staff use assessment information effectively to rapidly address gaps in pupils' knowledge, and to enable pupils to make connections that deepen their learning across the curriculum.
• Building on recently improved rates of attendance, leaders should ensure that pupils’ attendance levels rapidly move closer to national averages.
• Governors should ensure that they robustly hold leaders to account for pupils' academic outcomes, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with other barriers to their learning.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)