St Winifred's RC Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Strengthen the wider curriculum, so that activities in subjects such as science are routinely challenging, allowing pupils to deepen their knowledge and understanding.
• Ensure that pupils use their writing skills well in a wide range of subjects.
• Improve disadvantaged pupils’ progress in reading and writing, so that any remaining differences are diminished.
• Ensure that children in early years, particularly the most able, are offered more opportunities to excel in their learning to make the progress of which they are capable.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders have ensured that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good. They provide valuable and accurate feedback to teachers about their work to improve the quality of learning for pupils in their classes. This has led to most pupils making strong progress.
• Leaders have successfully created an inclusive and strong school community. One parent’s comment was echoed by others: ‘Our school is a safe, caring and happy community. Our children enjoy a rich education and pastoral care that is second to none.’ An overwhelming majority of parents and carers say that the school is well led and managed and would recommend it to others.
• Staff feel very well supported by leaders. Teachers and teaching assistants are appreciative of the training opportunities they receive to improve the quality of their teaching. This has contributed to a school community where staff are valued and respected.
• The stimulating curriculum offers pupils learning activities to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in all the subjects of the national curriculum. Learning is enriched through educational visits and clubs. Professionals, such as scientists, visit the school to inspire pupils in their learning and to aim high. All of this broadens pupils’ horizons and supports their personal development. However, although the curriculum is broad and interesting, leaders acknowledge that sometimes planned activities in the wider curriculum are not sufficiently challenging and that this needs to improve further.
• The school’s work to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is effective and is taught in a variety of ways. For example, pupils learn about cultural diversity and know it is important to respect everyone equally. Pupils told inspectors, ‘We are all basically part of the same family.’

Governance of the school

• Governors contribute effectively to the school’s self-evaluation and plans for improvement. They work well with leaders and play a vital role in making key decisions about the strategic direction of the school. They have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and priorities for development.
• Members of the governing body visit the school regularly and talk to pupils, staff and leaders. For example, governors talk to members of the school council to discuss their experiences of school life in the first half of the autumn term.
• Governors regularly question leaders about the progress and attainment of pupils to keep themselves up to date with leaders’ actions to raise standards.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and governors have created a strong culture of vigilance where pupils feel safe. Pupils report that their worries are taken seriously. They are each assigned an adult whom they can talk to, should they need to raise any concerns. Staff spoken to during the inspection know whom to talk to should they be concerned about a pupil.
• Pupils are taught how to keep safe in a range of situations, such as through road and fire safety.
• The vast majority of parents say that their children are safe and well looked after at school.
• Governors make sure that all staff working with pupils are checked appropriately. They meet with leaders to discuss any updates on safeguarding matters to ensure that pupils are safeguarded from any potential risks.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching is consistently good across the school. Class teachers have strong subject knowledge and question pupils well to make sure that they have understood the subject content being taught. This contributes to the strong progress pupils make over time.
• Pupils told inspectors that learning is fun. They share good relationships with each other and staff, which supports pupils’ development of social skills and their self-esteem.
• The teaching of reading is given a high profile across the school. Pupils learn to appreciate the value of reading. They told inspectors that reading inspires them and it is fun. The effective teaching of phonics enables younger pupils to use their skills to read unfamiliar words. Teachers support pupils’ understanding of texts well.
• The teaching of writing is effective overall. Pupils learn to write in a range of different styles and contexts. For example, in history, Year 4 pupils pretended to be evacuees during the Second World War and wrote letters to their parents. However, the quality of writing in subjects other than English is not consistently good. At times, pupils do not apply their writing skills well in these subjects. For example, occasionally, pupils make spelling errors that are not addressed by teachers.
• The teaching of mathematics is good. Teachers model concepts effectively, which helps pupils’ mathematical understanding to grow. Pupils are challenged to think hard and develop their reasoning skills. Pupils are provided with learning tasks that enable them to apply their mathematical skills well to science. For example, in Year 6, pupils used their skills in drawing line graphs to plot different heart rates.
• Teachers and other adults support pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities well within lessons. These pupils receive focused support to meet their individual learning needs and progress well.
• Typically, pupils gain strong knowledge, understanding and skills in the wider curriculum. However, occasionally, teachers set learning tasks that do not challenge all pupils to deepen their learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Leaders provide plenty of opportunities to develop pupils’ physical well-being effectively. The ‘daily mile’ and sports clubs on offer are examples. Pupils spoken to during the inspection demonstrated a good understanding of healthy eating.
• Pupils are confident and talked proudly about their learning and school experiences with inspectors. They listen attentively to each other and show respect.
• Pupils have a very strong voice in the school and their views are listened to through various platforms, such as the school and eco-representative councils. For example, members of the school council designed ‘happiness surveys’, and subsequently introduced a ‘playground friends’ system.
• Pupils say that they are safe at school. They are knowledgeable about how to keep themselves safe when using the internet. For example, they know that a good password includes a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and not to talk to strangers online.
• Pupils say that bullying rarely happens at the school, and that adults deal with it swiftly and effectively, should it happen. This is reflected in the school’s bullying records. Pupils know about the different types of bullying.
• An overwhelming majority of parents say that their children are happy in school.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Parents and staff agree that pupils are well behaved in school.
• Pupils are well behaved during lessons and at unstructured times, such as playtimes and lunchtimes. They play well together in the playground, and at lunchtimes play in small groups and develop sports skills well. On a few occasions, where the teaching does not fully capture pupils’ attention, some off-task behaviour occurs.
• Leaders’ actions to ensure that pupils attend school regularly and on time have paid off. Staff work well with outside agencies to support families where attendance is a concern. Pupils’ attendance is slightly above the national average. The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school is below average.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Consistently good teaching across the school has resulted in almost all pupils making strong progress in English and mathematics.
• The teaching of phonics is effective. This is reflected in the provisional 2018 assessment, which shows that the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard in the phonics screening check was well above the national average.
• At the end of key stage 1, in 2018, the provisional assessment information shows that pupils’ attainment was above the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Pupils’ attainment at the end of Year 6 in 2018 was well above the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics. The proportion of pupils who attained the greater depth standards in reading, writing and mathematics was above the national averages.
• Pupils currently in the school make strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Disadvantaged pupils make strong progress in mathematics. However, inspection evidence confirms that their progress is not as strong as that of other pupils in reading and writing.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress due to the well-targeted support they receive to meet their individual needs.
• Art and design provision is a clear strength of the school and pupils develop good knowledge and skills to create their own pieces of work. There are vivid displays of pupils’ artwork displayed around the school. For example, pupils in Year 3 learned about the work of an Inuit artist, Kenojuak Ashevak, and recreated her paintings.
• Current pupils acquire a range of knowledge, understanding and skills in different subjects of the national curriculum. However, opportunities for them to gain deep learning and understanding in some subjects are variable. Although pupils are given opportunities to write in different subjects, they do not routinely apply and extend their skills well in these other subjects.

Early years provision Good

• Leadership of early years is effective. Leaders know the strengths and areas for improvement well to continually improve children’s learning.
• The learning environment is motivating and supports children’s learning and development. Adults provide effective models for speaking and listening to promote children’s language skills. For example, adults modelled language such as ‘front’, ‘back’, ‘bigger’ and ‘longer’ when children were engaged in role play, using a pretend police car that they had made.
• Teaching is effective. Adults provide a wide range of stimulating activities to support children’s learning. For example, in the investigation area, children were asked to observe and spot stick insects. This raises children’s curiosity about the natural world. In mathematics, children were challenged to build a tower and count the number of blocks used. This supports children’s understanding of number. Phonics is taught well and children are given opportunities to sound out letters to read and write words.
• Children are well behaved. They play and learn together in a safe and happy environment, sharing resources and cooperating with each other.
• Adults share strong partnerships with parents. There are plenty of opportunities for parents to get involved with their children’s learning and development, such as through the use of ‘wow cards’ and by attending meetings with teachers.
• The majority of children enter Reception with knowledge, skills and understanding that are typical for their age. The 2018 provisional assessment information shows that the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development was well above the national average. This denotes strong progress from children’s entry points. However, the proportion of children who exceeded the early learning goals in reading, writing and mathematics was below average. Some children, including the most able, are not sufficiently challenged in their learning to make even better progress.

School details

Unique reference number 142456 Local authority Lewisham Inspection number 10058822 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 423 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair John Ryan Headteacher Margaret Hanrahan Telephone number 020 8857 8792 Website www.swcps.lewisham.sch.uk Email address admin@swcps.lewisham.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• This is a new school that opened in April 2016. The infant and junior schools amalgamated to become one school. The school has a Catholic religious character and the leaders are planning for a section 48 inspection to take place.
• The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils receiving special educational needs support is well above average. The proportion of pupils with education, health and care plans is broadly average.
• The breakfast club and after-school club are managed by a private company and were not part of this inspection.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited lessons to observe pupils’ learning in a range of subjects across the curriculum. Senior leaders joined inspectors on most of these visits. Inspectors scrutinised pupils’ work within and outside lessons.
• Inspectors spoke to pupils to ascertain their views about learning during lesson time. They met formally with three groups of pupils and also talked to pupils at social times, such as breaktimes and lunchtimes. Inspectors listened to pupils read from Years 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.
• Meetings were held with governors, leaders at all levels and staff. The lead inspector met with a representative of the local authority.
• Inspectors talked to parents in the playground at the start of the school day. They analysed the 149 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, including 80 free-text responses.
• Inspectors considered the 18 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 94 responses to the pupil survey.
• Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentation, including documents related to safeguarding, behaviour, the school’s self-evaluation, plans for improvement and information related to pupils’ progress and attainment.

Inspection team

Rajeshree Mehta, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Andy Turnock Ofsted Inspector Peter Wibroe Ofsted Inspector