The school exhibits a relentless focus on closing performance gaps – tracking, measuring and tackling gaps based on pupil premium as well as ethnicity, cultural background and gender – and has made significant progress in doing so. In 2014, 82 per cent of the school’s pupil premium pupils achieved the expected standard in key stage 2 tests at age 11. And 78 per cent achieved at a level above the standard (level 4b+), compared with the national average of 53 per cent.

The school takes a robust and systematic approach to identifying the challenges its pupils face and the impact that these challenges have on their learning by focusing both on academic achievement and wider work such as encouraging aspiration and parental engagement. The judges were impressed by the school’s clear understanding of the specific barriers faced by its pupils, many of which are linked to their cultural context. As a school located within a predominantly immigrant community, Parkfield recognises that many of its parents have English as a second language, or otherwise have language difficulties, and so are less able to support their child’s learning.

The school has taken the initiative to offer parents learning opportunities and engage them in their child’s learning and has seen improved support at home contributing to the high attainment of some pupil premium pupils.

To solve a serious punctuality issue, the school launched a walking bus to enable pupils to arrive at school on time. This has been widely popular and data demonstrate a huge fall in the number of teaching minutes lost to lateness, both at class and individual pupil level.

Analysis of pupil premium pupil performance in mathematics showed those pupils without a computer at home were falling behind, and finding it difficult to complete homework. A maths breakfast club for pupil premium pupils without a computer at home has resulted in significantly increased attainment and a closing of the gap. The evidence shows that extending school time – when used to deliver additional academic support that is stimulating – can be an effective approach.

The school is recognised as a local maths leader, having established a “maths academy” to work with other schools in the region to provide maths education to pupils, and continuing professional development to enhance teacher confidence in teaching maths. It has received training from Services for Education to deliver 1st Class @ Number & Success @ Arithmetic maths interventions from Edgehill University, which have been used successfully to enable pupil premium pupils to make enhanced progress. The school has also focused firmly on long term planning, with the majority of its approaches to closing the gap firmly embedded into the work of the school.