The Oaks Community Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 9 July 2024

There is a real sense of community at The Oaks. Pupils are warmly welcomed by staff when they arrive each morning. Pupils are supportive of each other, and they are well cared for by staff. This is a school where everyone is valued. Pupils are polite and welcoming. They value staff's recognition of their achievements and positive behaviours. Pupils work hard in lessons. They enjoy solving problems with their classmates. At breaktimes, pupils are well supervised by staff and they have plenty to do. Pupils said that there is occasionally some bullying in the school but they trust staff to make it stop. Leaders have high ambitions for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The curriculum has been designed to raise pupils' aspirations. However, some pupils have considerable gaps in their knowledge in some subjects. These pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of their education. Pupils enjoy a wide range of activities that enhance their school experience. The school ensures that all pupils have the opportunity to take part in sporting activities. There are a wide range of educational visits. Pupils enjoy the opportunity to visit London, theatres and attend a careers fair.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the school is in the process of finalising the content in the curriculum, including in the early years, to meet pupils' needs. This means that teachers lack clarity about the most important knowledge that pupils should learn. This hinders pupils, including those with SEND, from building a secure body of subject knowledge over time. The school should ensure that the curriculum in these subjects focuses on the most important knowledge that pupils need so that they can build their knowledge successfully.
• In some subjects, the school's assessment information does not enable teachers to identify misconceptions or gaps in pupils' knowledge sufficiently well. As a result, some pupils' knowledge does not build successfully over time. The school should ensure that teachers are equipped to use assessment procedures consistently well to remedy any gaps in pupils' knowledge swiftly.
• The school has not addressed some pupils' weaknesses in spelling, handwriting and grammatical understanding sufficiently well. This hinders the quality of these pupils' writing in English and other curriculum subjects. The school should ensure that these weaknesses are swiftly addressed in the early years and key stage 1 so that pupils are suitably prepared for the demands of key stage 2.

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