Winhills Primary Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that the proportion of pupils who achieve the greater depth standard increases by:
  • equipping all teachers with the skills and strategies to enable them to help pupils to think in greater depth.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders have markedly improved all aspects of the school since the appointment of the headteacher 12 months ago. Leaders at all levels work with determination and passion to enrich the lives of the children and adults within their local community. Parents are pleased with the improvements made and value the work of leaders. The overwhelming majority reported on Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire that they would recommend this school to another parent.
• Leaders at all levels have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They use their monitoring systems well to identify the priorities for improvement and create well-focused development plans that contain specific targets. Together with governors, they regularly review the progress towards them.
• Leaders have created a strong school community with a ‘can-do’ ethos. Leaders, teachers and pupils work well together to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and to support the progress of all pupils at the school.
• The multi-academy trust has provided strong support for leaders and governors to make the necessary improvements to the school.
• Leaders are committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum. In what the school calls intensive curriculum experiences, pupils study exciting topics independently and in small groups. Pupils successfully develop subject-specific skills across the curriculum, including English and mathematics. They also develop personal qualities, such as resilience and determination, and grow into capable learners. As teachers and support assistants have become better at delivering intensive curriculum experiences, pupils’ achievement across the curriculum has improved.
• Leaders and staff promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils gain a good understanding of different cultures, faiths and beliefs. They show that they value diversity when learning about different cultures and when interacting socially. Pupils learn about British values through the taught curriculum. In history, for example, pupils learn about the growth of democratic values in British society. Outside of lessons, pupils choose the membership of the student council and other student-led organisations via elections.
• Subject leaders and phase leaders precisely monitor their areas of responsibility and take swift action when something in the provision is not achieving the desired result. These middle leaders secure effective training for themselves and their staff and make timely changes in teaching and the curriculum to ensure good progress for pupils.
• Disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their starting points and are catered for well. Leaders carefully target extra funding for disadvantaged pupils and monitor its impact carefully so that they achieve well across the curriculum. Almost all disadvantaged pupils achieve what leaders and teachers expect of them, and many achieve beyond expectation.
• The leadership of the provision for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is strong. They receive good support and full access to the whole school curriculum. As a result, these pupils make good progress.
• The primary physical education (PE) and sport premium is spent effectively. Leaders have used the extra funding to increase the number of pupils taking part in sport and improve the standard of competitive sport at the school. The school has been awarded gold in the national School Games Mark in recognition of its success in PE and sport.
• Some teaching does not match the high ambitions set by leaders. Leaders have not yet ensured that enough pupils reach the greater depth standard.

Governance of the school

• With high-quality support from the multi-academy trust, governors have ensured that leaders have made necessary improvements to the school.
• Governors have a detailed understanding of what is working and what needs to improve at the school.
• Governors closely check the school’s use of additional funding, such as the pupil premium. They ensure that the extra expenditure is having a positive impact, including on pupils’ outcomes. As a result, disadvantaged pupils make good progress.
• Governors ensure that their statutory duties, especially in safeguarding pupils’ welfare, are fully met. Governors work closely with senior leaders and the multi-academy trust to ensure that pupils are kept safe. Governors receive valuable training that helps them to understand their responsibilities linked to keeping pupils safe. They use this training well to hold leaders to account for the work regarding the safeguarding of pupils.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Recruitment checks on staff are compliant with current regulations to ensure that pupils are kept safe.
• School leaders, governors and trustees ensure that staff receive up-to-date training in the safeguarding of children, and this training is put into practice across the school. Records are well kept and staff are knowledgeable about raising concerns they may have about the welfare of a child.
• The school works closely with a range of professionals, including the local authority, to help keep pupils safe and to support families.
• All parents who responded to Parent View reported that their children are happy, feel safe and are well looked after at school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Warm relationships between teachers and pupils help to create positive learning environments around the school. Pupils enjoy learning, work hard and commit to making progress.
• Teachers expect pupils to become curious learners who can find out new information on their own or in groups. Pupils respond well to this. During what leaders describe as intensive curriculum experiences, pupils successfully work unaided and learn with interest knowledge, understanding and skills within the wide range of subjects across the curriculum.
• Teachers have strong subject knowledge. This enables them to teach confidently and effectively so that pupils are interested in what they are learning.
• When questioning pupils, teachers expect them to respond by using sophisticated language. Teachers model good spoken language and insist that pupils learn rich vocabulary to develop their speaking and writing. During class discussions, inspectors heard pupils correctly using words such as ‘metamorphic’, ‘adapt’ and ‘demographic’.
• Teachers provide many opportunities across the curriculum for pupils to practise extended writing, and this has led to improved progress in writing. In science, for example, pupils write formal scientific reports effectively while also learning the skills of scientific investigation.
• Teachers give precise feedback in line with leaders’ expectations. Pupils value this feedback and learn from their mistakes to make good progress in their learning.
• Teachers and support assistants use assessment information to provide timely and effective support for low attainers and pupils who fall behind in their learning. This support ensures that pupils make good progress from their starting points. This has also contributed to the rising attainment across the school.
• The teaching of reading and phonics is good. Pupils enjoy reading a wide range of texts and value the online quizzes they complete to test how well they have understood their reading. When faced with difficult words, pupils use phonics effectively to read them correctly.
• In mathematics, teachers encourage pupils to reason and apply their knowledge of mathematics in many different contexts. Pupils’ work in books shows that they successfully apply what they know about mathematics to solve problems in a range of subjects across the curriculum.
• Leaders have ensured that the school provides accurate information for parents about how well their child is doing in school. All parents who completed Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire reported that they receive valuable information from the school about their child’s progress.
• Teachers benefit from the high levels of expertise that the multi-academy trust provides. Through the trust, teachers have access to specialist leaders of education who help teachers to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment effectively.
• Leaders are aware of the need to continue to improve teachers’ skills so that all teachers get pupils thinking at greater depth. Pupils’ work in books shows that too few pupils are reaching the greater depth standard.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are curious and confident and know what it takes to be successful learners. Within the intensive curriculum experiences, pupils enjoy new challenges, reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses and plan for future improvements in learning. They also work well independently and in groups to complete whatever tasks they are set.
• Pupils live up to the school’s expectation that they behave as responsible citizens. They enjoy taking up positions of responsibility such as head boy or head girl, membership of the sports crew, membership of the student council and helping in the dining hall. Inspectors saw that when pupils do not behave in line with school expectations, other pupils try to resolve matters politely and seek and receive effective support from adults when needed.
• Pupils know what bullying is and report that it is uncommon. Pupils told inspectors that adults at school deal well with bullying when it does arise, ensuring that it is stopped quickly. The majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire reported that the school deals effectively with bullying.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe at school, at home, online and in the community. This is because the curriculum helps them to understand how they can stay physically and emotionally healthy.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• All parents who responded to Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire agreed that the school makes sure that its pupils are well behaved. Pupils told inspectors that pupils behave well and that adults deal effectively with the rare instances of poor behaviour.
• Pupils are friendly, polite and well mannered. During lessons, pupils show determination to learn well and without distraction. This includes when pupils work independently or in groups during the school’s intensive curriculum experiences.
• Adult supervision during break and lunchtime creates a pleasant environment that is well-ordered and safe. Older pupils and adults successfully teach younger pupils appropriate behaviour when at play and when dining with others.
• While absence has been high in the past, leaders have put effective measures in place to reduce it. As a result of these actions, absence and persistent absence are in line with national averages. When absence occurs, teachers work hard to help pupils catch up.
• Leaders rarely use exclusions to manage pupils’ behaviour.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• As a result of improved leadership, teaching, learning and assessment, pupils’ achievement improved markedly from 2017 to 2018. Provisional results for reading, writing and mathematics in 2018 show Year 6 progress as being in line with national averages.
• Improvements in the teaching of reading have resulted in improved outcomes. In 2018, many more Year 2 pupils than in 2017 reached the expected standard in reading. Similarly, a greater proportion of Year 1 pupils in 2018 than in 2017 reached the expected standard in the phonics screening. School information shows that the large majority of pupils currently in Year 1 are on track to achieve the expected standard.
• The school’s assessment information shows that, in comparison with 2017, pupils in almost every year group are now doing as well as expected, and many are doing better than expected.
• In almost all year groups, in reading, writing and mathematics, almost all disadvantaged pupils are making strong progress. Leaders have adjusted spending for those pupils who are making slower progress, and this is starting to take effect. For example, leaders have appointed specialist teachers who specifically help these pupils fill any gaps in their learning.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress overall. Adult support outside the classroom leads to particularly strong progress in the areas of learning addressed during these special sessions.
• Too few pupils achieve the greater depth standard in all subjects and all years, because not all staff move pupils on in their learning from the expected standard.

Early years provision Good

• Children join the early years with skills that are below those typical for their age. Leaders quickly and effectively assess children’s individual needs and ensure that learning activities support their progress. As a result, children make good progress across the early years. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development at the end of Reception has risen sharply over the last two years.
• Provisional results show that in 2018 the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development was in line with the national average. Children in the early years develop well and are well prepared for Year 1.
• Good leadership of the early years provision ensures that learning activities are well matched to the needs of the academic, social and emotional needs of the children. Children benefit from high-quality learning environments, indoors and outdoors.
• Teachers provide a range of well-planned activities that children find exciting and that help children to develop their skills across the different areas of learning. Children enjoy trying tasks that are hard, and understand the value of making mistakes. Inspectors heard a number of children doing challenges in mathematics say, ‘That’s too easy. Let’s go for a hard one.’
• Children respond well to the clear lessons that teachers and support assistants teach about social skills and how to treat others according to the school’s well-established values. Children show the good behaviour expected of them in lessons, when playing on the playground and when moving around the school. They collaborate well, listen attentively and support each other.
• Disadvantaged children are included well within lessons and make good progress in the early years. Additional funding for disadvantaged children is spent well and provides enriching learning opportunities for these children.
• Leaders and teachers work in partnership with parents to ensure that the children make the best start to their education. Parents who spoke with inspectors said that leaders are visible around the school and available for discussions with parents. Leaders access a range of effective external support to help families with parenting challenges.
• Adults ensure that children feel safe and are kept safe in the early years. Children know how to assess risks when they play, and listen carefully to the instructions of adults when doing something risky. All adults in the early years understand safeguarding procedures, and they observe children and inspect the provision carefully to ensure children’s safety.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 138280 Cambridgeshire 10041771 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy sponsor-led 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 237 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Sandra Gill John Turner 01480 211626 www.winhills-cambs.co.uk head@winhills.cambs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 3 March 2016

Information about this school

• Winhills Primary Academy converted to become an academy on 1 July 2012.
• Winhills Primary Academy is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The senior leadership team is made up of the headteacher and the deputy headteacher. The chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust oversees the work of the headteacher.
• The local governing body reports to the trustees.
• The proportion of pupils whose first language is not, or believed not to be English, is lower than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who are supported for SEN and/or disabilities is above average, and the proportion of pupils who have an EHC care plan is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for support through the pupil premium is above the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with the headteacher, the CEO of the trust, the trust’s school improvement advisor and middle leaders. They also held a meeting with the chair of the multi-academy trust, the chair and other members of the governing body.
• Inspectors observed lessons across the school, and a scrutiny of pupils’ books was carried out jointly by one inspector and the deputy headteacher. An inspector listened to a small number of pupils in Year 4 read.
• Inspectors spoke with parents at the beginning and end of the school day. Inspectors also analysed responses from 16 parents to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, and 12 free text responses.
• Inspectors spoke to teachers, support staff and pupils throughout the course of the inspection.
• Inspectors took account of a wide range of information, including the school’s website, development plan, assessment information from its pupil tracking system and leaders’ monitoring of teaching and learning. Inspectors reviewed documentation relating to safeguarding, as well as governing body minutes and information from the multi-academy trust.

Inspection team

Al Mistrano, lead inspector Paula Masters

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector