Ofsted - October 2023
We are extremely proud to be able to celebrate with you the strengths of our inspection and the provision we provide for children here at Downs View School. The school has been rated as a GOOD school.
The summary evaluation of the inspection is as follows:
Leadership and Management - Good
Behaviour and attitudes- Outstanding
Quality of Education- Good
Personal development- Outstanding
Early Years Provision- Outstanding
Since our last inspection, 12 years ago, there have been significant changes to the Ofsted framework for inspections and the criteria for grading schools. We are pleased that we have achieved Outstanding in more areas (3 out of 5) compared to our last inspection where we received Outstanding in 2 areas.
During the feedback to Senior Leaders and Governors, we were given greater detail than the report has documented as the Inspectors are limited to a word count .
We are very pleased that the inspection team were able to see, in just two days, the factors that make Downs View special. The Ofsted inspectors were able to see that “Pupils love being immersed in learning during their time at Downs View and staff create opportunities to fire pupils’ imagination.”
Our children’s highly respectful behaviour and attitudes to learning were celebrated during the inspection, “pupils show determination and relentlessly positive attitudes”. The inspection team recognised the real strength of the school’s provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities quoting that support is "highly effective".
Being an infant school, our aim is to provide your children with a secure foundation in all subjects to support them in their further educational journey. We see every opportunity as a learning experience and will continue to build on the success of this recent inspection.
The only area identified for improvement was related to foundation subjects. The inspectors acknowledged the strength of oracy in English which enables children to write extensively. The children were also commended for their verbal recall of knowledge in the foundation subjects. We were unable to show extensive writing evidencing this knowledge in these subjects at this stage of the year. There are clear progressive plans in place with Kennington Academy (Junior School) which will enable children who are able to use extensive writing across relevant subjects throughout each year group, from Reception to Year 6.
We would like to thank all of the parents and carers who shared their positive comments with the Inspectors and also those of you who took the time to share your views on Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents.
We continue to stand with high regard in our community, with the following comments made by a parent and member of staff which summarise this:
“We absolutely love this school. It is caring and nurturing, our children are happy, academically, and personally developed. I would recommend it to other parents.”
"We are one big family and support one another"
To read our Ofsted report please click below.
