Riverdale Primary School

Overview

The inspection was significantly constrained by industrial action, with a majority of teachers refusing to cooperate with inspectors. Consequently, the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) states it is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the children.” The report provides limited evaluations, noting that overall effectiveness and key performance areas could not be fully assessed.

Strengths

• Parental responses indicated “high levels of satisfaction with all aspects of the life and work of the school,” praising staff commitment and community spirit.
• The senior leadership team has introduced “innovative practices in literacy and numeracy” and maintains a “clear, shared vision for promoting high standards.”
• The most able children in Key Stage 2 demonstrate a “good and very good level of fluency and accuracy” in reading and possess “secure knowledge” of mathematics concepts.
• Governors are described as “supportive of the work of the school” and committed to developing their monitoring capacity.

Areas to improve

• The school development plan requires targets to be made “more specific and measurable.”
• Governors need to further develop their “capacity to monitor and evaluate the work of the co-ordinators” and their knowledge of pupil outcomes.

Safeguarding

The report states that “satisfactory arrangements for safeguarding reflect broadly the guidance issued by the relevant Departments,” though the ETI was unable to fully evaluate their outworking due to the industrial action.