We had our SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) in November 2024 and we were absolutely thrilled with the outcome. Among the highly positive findings, the inspection concluded that:

• Let your light shine’ brightly illuminates the work of the school. Being part of the school is deeply valued and often transformational. The rich outworking of the vision enables pupils and adults to flourish.
• The broad curriculum powerfully reflects the Christian vision. Spiritual development is intrinsically woven through the curriculum and worship, providing opportunities for pupils and adults to flourish spiritually.
• There is a deep culture of treating each other well. Pupils and adults take responsibility and act to ensure fairness in their shared lives. Extensive partnerships enrich both adults and pupils so that community is built and nourished.
• Leaders and governors use careful and precise monitoring to evaluate the school’s work. Decisions have a positive and rapid impact on its effectiveness as a Church school. As a result, the school is enabling pupils and adults to flourish.
• The careful way the curriculum is created expresses the school’s vision for pupils to be inspired. The Cranford Park graduate concept raises aspirations for what each pupil might be. High quality planning, designed by experts, is used to ensure progression over time. This is particularly impactful for pupils considered to be vulnerable and /or disadvantaged.
• The inclusive vision is expressed through a range of experiences that enable every child to let their light shine. Striking examples include forest school outdoor learning and weekly mixed age ‘Cranford Park University’ sessions.
• Horizons are regularly lifted due to the opportunities within the extra-curricular provision. Pause days provide space and time for deeper learning. Residentials starting in Year 2 broaden learning experiences, ensuring pupils are truly living life in all its fullness. The impact of the curriculum on pupils with SEND is striking. Their experience of school is enriched by the expertise of adults and the variety of activities used in lessons.
• Cranford Park is a deeply nurturing community. This is the result of a culture which shapes how people treat one another. A range of practices such as the buddy system and peer tutoring mean pupils have roles to play and a light to shine. The approach to teaching how to behave is rooted in restorative practice. This effectively expresses the value of compassion.
• Intentional acts of smiling and laughing fill school days, providing energy and courage for adults and pupils to be ever hopeful. Adults demonstrate a deep sense of responsibility and care for pupils which are constantly displayed from classroom to playground.
• Pupil groups such as school council and road safety officers exemplify the wide-ranging contributions to the life of the school. This expresses the vision’s expectation that a positive contribution must be made by all. Justice is maintained by the school custom to always ‘step in’ at moments when rights could be impinged.

There are lots more positive comments and you can find the full report below. The school continues to work on providing personal spiritual opportunities and our year 6 class have plans to create a prayer garden. We are also creating opportunities for pupils to relate our R.E. teaching to their everyday lives.

SIAMS Report Cranford Park CE Primary School – 135885 – 211124

The school received an Ofsted inspection on 7th March 2023, just a few weeks after our new Headteacher had started. There was much to be celebrated and Ofsted said:

“It is a place where children thrive with focused activity and positive relationships. Right from the start, children learn important skills, such as curiosity and resilience…Partnership with parents and carers is strong and built on effective communication.” (Ofsted 2023)

However, there were areas we had not yet developed which we were aware required some improvement. Ofsted gave us five areas to work on and you will see from our full report that they had confidence that we had already started much of the work which needed to be done. We are confident that the issues raised have all now been dealt with as detailed below and we look forward to their return shortly.

Governance

Since the inspection, existing governors have received training. We are also delighted to have welcomed several new governors to the board including a new Chair of Governors. New induction and monitoring procedures have been put into place and the governors visit during the day at least once each term, in addition to their evening meetings, to see the school in action. This gives them an opportunity to see learning in action, to speak with staff and subject leaders, scrutinise work and check that school development plan actions have been completed. In addition, a governor with a deeper understanding of safeguarding completes monthly monitoring checks into safeguarding, while another carries out checks on the Health and Safety elements of our school practice. All are governors are proactive and knowledgeable. The headteacher works closely with governors to ensure that they are well informed about any issues and progress against School Improvement targets. In return they provide a good level of support and challenge as 'critical friends' to the leadership team.

Reading

Since the Ofsted visit, the school have made a switch to the ‘Read Write Inc’ method of teaching reading. All staff attended a day of training for this in September 2023. Children from Year R onwards have a daily phonics session in a group which teaches the specific sounds they need to know. This continues until they are secure in their knowledge of these. We have seen huge impact in our reading outcomes and in our children's speed and confidence when reading.

In addition to the phonics programme, we have introduced ‘Destination Reader,’ a programme developed in Hackney, to Key Stage 2, so that all of our children now receive a high-quality teaching session each day to ensure they continue to make good progress with their reading. A substantial investment has also been made into reading books and other reading resources and each year, we hold a ‘Bounce for Books’ event to ensure that we can continue to invest in reading books. Again, the impact of this work can be seen year on year as our children benefit from these excellent experiences. Moreover, their enjoyment of reading has also improved over time and they now talk with enthusiasm about their learning.

Behaviour

Ofsted were impressed with our children’s behaviour on the playground and around the school. However, they noted that in two of our classes, the standards of behaviour were not as we would expect them to be. Leaders were already aware of these issues and were taking action to resolve them. In addition, we implemented a new Behaviour Management Policy. We do not tolerate disruption in the classrooms or anywhere else in the school.

A new programme for the teaching of behaviour, from gratitude to kindness, resilience to integrity, was implemented in September 2024. Each class learn about and focus on a particular behaviour each half term. 

Our children are also taught to understand the additional needs of others. They show compassion and are courageous advocates, standing up for what they believe in, speaking out to champion causes and stepping in to ensure justice and compassion permeate our school.

We are very proud of recent inspection outcomes for our behaviour, which have been superb.

Curriculum

When Ofsted visited, our work to develop our curriculum had only just begun and so there were subjects where the detail was not available. However, Ofsted were impressed with the work we had already done, such as in Maths and Geography. They wrote, “Leaders should finish the work they have started…” This we have done and our curriculum is now complete and offers a rigorous, exciting education to all of our pupils. See our curriculum pages on this website for more details.

Safeguarding

Ofsted found our safeguarding to be effective and were happy with our current processes. However, they noted some issues with one or two historic cases where the paperwork had been stored in different places, so that the chronology of those concerns was not as clear. Much of this paperwork was rectified during the inspection. Our record keeping is now up to date and thorough and our safeguarding processes highly effective.

To see our last Ofsted Report please click here. We are expecting a visit from Ofsted very soon and are looking forward to showing the how far we have come.