Oakdene Primary School is a family school with a strong sense of identity and tradition. The school is a safe school embedded within the community and parents and carers are very supportive. We actively engage with parents and carers and promote the importance of parents being the first educators of their children. Parents’ and carers’ opinions are welcomed and acted upon, reflecting an honest and genuine home school partnership. Parents and carers know that we act upon comments in the best interests of families and their children. There is an overwhelming energy and team ethos at Oakdene Primary School. The CAN DO culture of the school is positive and progressive and our established shared mission statement of ‘Learning for life’ is embraced by all.
References to Pupil Premium Ofsted Inspection:
“The standards reached and the rate of progress of pupils eligible for the pupil premium and those known to be eligible for free school meals were in line with those of other pupils in school in 2012. Nationally, there is a gap between the standards of these groups, and this shows that the school is effectively promoting equality of opportunity.”
Additional funding is used to support disadvantaged pupils very effectively. The school is recognised both locally and nationally for the range of strategies used to remove any barriers to learning and to ensure that all pupils achieve well. Leaders have delivered presentations and led workshops to share our journey at many prestigious events including: Westminster for the National Education Trust, Seizing Success Conference for NCTL and Transforming Tees.
Leaders supported and committed to the Transforming Tees High Achievement Review programme. As an accredited external assessor, the Executive Head Teacher’s role was key in enabling schools to undertake a thorough analysis of their work with disadvantaged pupils.
Oakdene has also featured as a best practice case study in many published materials including: ‘A Practical Guide to the Pupil Premium’, a guidebook written by Marc Rowland and as an Ofsted research school for disadvantaged pupils.
Leaders thoroughly evaluate how the pupil premium is used to ensure that it has the intended impact. As a consequence, disadvantaged pupils across all year groups achieve the same high outcomes as their peers. The progress of all groups of pupils is similar across each class. This is because leaders have a rigorous system to check and track how well each pupil is doing. Both leaders and teachers intervene rapidly when a pupil may not be on track to reach the
challenging level expected of them. The quality of work in pupils’ books supports this. There is very little difference in the progress of disadvantaged pupils, most-able pupils, pupils who have special education needs and/or disabilities, and boys and girls.
