Wootton Community Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ outcomes by ensuring that pupils make consistently good progress as they move through the school.
• Firmly embed recent improvements to teachers’ use of assessment to ensure that pupils from all starting points have learning tasks that are closely matched to their needs.
• Ensure that pupils deepen their learning across the full range of curriculum subjects in order to strengthen their progress still further.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher joined the school shortly after the previous inspection. She has managed a lengthy period of staff turbulence, working relentlessly to build a strong team around her. The current staff are as determined as their headteacher for the school’s continuous improvement.
• The effective staff team is making a sustainable difference to current pupils’ academic outcomes. Staff say that leaders motivate them well, including in the way that they strongly promote the belief that ‘every child can achieve success’.
• The new leadership team has successfully improved the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and markedly so in mathematics. Although a few inconsistencies remain as a result of staffing changes, these are being minimised. The school now has a wider group of leaders with the expertise to support consistently good classroom practice.
• Helped by their leaders, teachers have moved forward rapidly to implement a rigorous system to assess and check on pupils’ progress. Leaders support teachers in using their assessment information to identify precisely where pupils have fallen behind. Teachers, together with senior leaders, agree the targeted classroom support that will address any gaps in learning.
• Leaders’ new school vision takes into account pupils’ contributions so that they share ownership. Pupils and the large majority of parents strongly support the school. One parent articulated the views of many who praised the school’s ethos, saying: ‘My child is very happy at school and is encouraged to keep learning when she is finding it a bit difficult.’ The headteacher is sharply aware that some parents are concerned about their children’s progress because of recent staff changes.
• Staff say that leaders are receptive to new ideas and they place a high priority on training. Leaders have made effective use of local authority advisory support to help teachers improve their planning and develop strong subject knowledge. Leaders have adapted suggested approaches effectively to meet the school’s own needs. Strong teamwork within the school is supporting staff to share their best practice. Leaders have identified partnership opportunities with other schools in order to develop the school’s work still further.
• The effective leadership coordinates important areas of the school’s work well, such as the curriculum, provision for pupils with SEND, and English and mathematics. The special educational needs coordinator has had a clear impact on the quality of provision for pupils with SEND by working with teachers to develop teachers’ skills and knowledge, and by training teaching assistants.
• Leaders and governors ensure that additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is spent effectively to support improvements to the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers and other adults regularly check that disadvantaged pupils understand their work. Dedicated staff provide effective support for pupils with additional pastoral needs, including pupils looked after and pupils affected by family trauma.
• Teachers have worked collaboratively to develop an engaging curriculum that supports pupils’ progress across different subjects. Links between different subjects, where made, are helpful to pupils. Leaders are currently developing the curriculum with the aim to inspire pupils through learning tasks that seem real and relevant. Teachers engage pupils in stimulating activities; for example, Year 1 pupils clearly enjoyed acting as ‘plant detectives’ in science and as ‘weather presenters’ in geography. The curriculum is extended by a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities, appreciated by pupils, which include visits and after-school clubs.
• The wider curriculum subjects are designed to help pupils to reflect, for example, on global issues, such as how far some of our food travels, and to consider issues of faith. An increasing focus on the arts has enabled pupils to explore the work of famous artists. The school’s values link closely to fundamental British values, and leaders democratically seek pupils’ views to support decision making.
• Funding to promote physical education (PE) and sport is used to good effect to increase the number of pupils who participate regularly, with the aim of pupils being active for at least 30 minutes each day. Pupils now enjoy more clubs and competitions than they formerly did. At least half of them, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, have represented their school in sporting events.
• Leaders are acutely aware that the impact of their work on pupils’ improving academic progress has yet to be proven. Currently, leadership of the different subject areas is variable. Leaders have yet to ensure that learning in all subjects deepens pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding and raises standards to ensure that all pupils have the opportunity fully to meet their potential.

Governance of the school

• Governors know the school well. They have worked closely with their new headteacher to implement the necessary improvements that are resulting in pupils’ increased rates of progress. Governors recognise that, in recent years, pupils have not achieved as well as they could, and they share leaders’ ambitions for all pupils to achieve success. In their visits to the school this academic year, governors have observed for themselves how hard current pupils work and how much they enjoy their learning.
• The governing body diligently fulfils its responsibilities, routinely keeping school finance, policies and procedures under review. Governors maintain a regular overview of safeguarding, and they check that recruitment checks to help keep children safe are comprehensively carried out on all of the adults who work in the school.
• The headteacher is transparent in sharing information about all aspects of the school’s work with governors. Governors appreciate that the headteacher welcomes their challenge and the expertise that they bring to the school. Other leaders report to governing body meetings and help governors to check the impact of additional funding. Governors systematically ask leaders probing questions about the outcomes of different groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders prioritise the school’s role to help keep children safe from harm. They ensure that the school’s referral procedures are meticulously followed and that all records are fit for purpose. All staff know what they need to do if they have a safeguarding concern. As the designated leader, the headteacher knows all pupils well, as does her deputy. Clear lines of communication ensure that key people have the information they need.
• All staff and governors understand their responsibilities. They receive comprehensive training for their roles, and designated leaders keep staff up to date. New staff are robustly inducted into the school to ensure that they understand the signs of abuse and how to keep pupils safe from harm.
• A high level of care for pupils’ safeguarding permeates the school. Pupils say that they always feel safe in school. They trust the adults in school to help them if they have any concern. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when they are online. They have regular reminders about the rules they must use.
• A large majority of parents say that their children feel safe in school. Leaders and governors understand why recent incidents in the school have caused parental concern. Leaders have conscientiously followed these incidents up, leaving no stone unturned, in order to heighten staff’s vigilance and strengthen current procedures.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Following the previous inspection, teaching was very variable. Leaders’ efforts have subsequently resulted in much greater consistency. Recent improvement actions have successfully developed effective teaching strategies, ensuring that assessment information is used to match learning to pupils’ needs and that appropriate curriculum coverage is implemented. Teaching is now typically good.
• Teachers use their assessments sharply when planning lessons. Rigorous meetings with leaders to discuss pupils’ progress help teachers to identify actions that ensure that pupils who have fallen behind have the support they need to be back on track. As a result, the vast majority of pupils now have well-planned learning activities that meet their needs. Teachers are alert to help disadvantaged pupils overcome barriers to learning to achieve in line with their ability.
• Current pupils in Years 5 and 6 have not, in the past, made good progress as they progressed through the school. Many of them had fallen behind in their learning as a result. Teachers have made sure that these pupils now understand basic concepts and can apply these well in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 are catching up rapidly and are clear about what they need to do to be ready for their transition to secondary school. They say that their homework helps them to practise important skills.
• In their learning activities, pupils have opportunities to confront stereotypical views of difference and diversity; for example, they considered the experience of having a disability by empathising with the main character when reading the book ‘Wonder’. They prepared for a visit to London by comparing the diversity of people there with their own community.
• Throughout the school, teachers have maintained a clearer focus on the provision for English and mathematics than on other subjects. Nevertheless, subjects such as history make strong links with pupils’ writing. A Year 3 topic about the Stone Age engaged pupils to deepen their thinking and learning and to write at length, demonstrating an impressive knowledge of the historical period.
• The most able pupils are sometimes not challenged at an early enough stage in their lessons. Pupils with SEND are well supported by the adults in the classroom. However, pupils’ learning activities do not consistently engage or match the needs of lower-ability pupils. Pupils’ science workbooks show that they sometimes move on to the next task too quickly without completing earlier learning tasks. At times, assessment is not used precisely enough to deepen all pupils’ learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils consider issues such as ‘Can kindness change the world?’ through their weekly ‘big think’, helping them to become thoughtful. Such enquiries help them to develop a sense of responsibility beyond their own locality. Leaders welcome hearing pupils’ views about school. Pupils seize the opportunity to receive a ‘golden ticket’, entitling them to talk to the headteacher about their learning and to share their ideas for improving the school community.
• Pupils are adamant that bullying hardly ever happens in their school and they say that there is no discriminatory language. They have recently worked with staff and governors to prepare an anti-bullying charter. They trust the adults in school to listen to them, and to take action wherever it is needed.
• Pupils are rightly proud of their school and the events in which they are involved. They told inspectors how much they enjoyed contributing towards planting a sensory garden. However, pupils’ workbooks indicate that they are not consistently proud of their own presentation of work.
• Pupils enjoy healthy and safe relationships. Increased opportunities for sports and PE help pupils to keep themselves fit. They also learn how to lead a healthy lifestyle. However, the curriculum does not support pupils to learn in depth about healthy lifestyles.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Leaders promote the very highest expectations of pupils’ behaviour. At all times of the day, the school is calm and orderly. Pupils’ positive attitudes towards their learning help them to be industrious in their lessons.
• Staff, pupils and the vast majority of parents are extremely positive about behaviour at the school. Pupils enter the school punctually in the morning, already eager for the day ahead. They and their parents value the importance of learning, which results in attendance being better than it is in most other schools nationally.
• Pupils’ highly considerate behaviour means that misbehaviour is extremely rare, and that when it does happen, it does not recur. Pupils accept responsibility to self-regulate their behaviour and staff help them to do so very successfully. Pupils enjoy having specific roles and tasks that help the school to run smoothly, such as by promoting teamwork and by modelling the school’s values.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• In most year groups, pupils have suffered from a legacy of having made inconsistent progress as they moved through the school. For example, in 2018, key stage 1 standards dropped below the national average and, other than in writing, attainment overall declined in 2018 to be below the national average.
• In recent years, pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 2 has been in line with other schools nationally in reading and writing, although well below in mathematics. There are many examples, however, of pupils’ current good work in English, mathematics and the wider curriculum subjects, indicating marked improvement.
• Pupils’ workbooks show that pupils are currently on track to achieve, and then sustain, higher standards at the end of key stages 1 and 2. An increasingly large proportion of pupils are completing work that meets teachers’ high expectations for their year group.
• From their starting points, disadvantaged pupils achieved better than other pupils nationally last year in reading and writing, but below in mathematics. However, where there are current differences between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils with the same starting points, these are diminishing, particularly in mathematics. Pupils with SEND are sustaining and, on occasion, making even better progress than other pupils, especially in reading.
• Year 6 pupils are keen to learn, telling inspectors that they ‘do not mind working extra hard this year with our teachers’. They know that this is helping them to prepare for their transfer to secondary school.
• In key stage 1, pupils learn phonics effectively. In recent years, a higher proportion than that seen nationally have met the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check, and almost all have met the standard before transferring into key stage 2. Pupils develop their comprehension skills well, being introduced to challenging fiction, and using these books both to inspire their own writing and to make links with their knowledge in other subject areas.
• Relatively few pupils have previously attained the higher standards at the end of the key stages. The most able pupils are currently working in depth in English and mathematics, but they are not consistently challenged.

Early years provision Good

• The teaching staff know all of the children very well. They identify the children’s learning needs accurately and plan activities that are challenging and enjoyable. With leaders, they make robust and timely checks on children’s progress to ensure that learning is carefully adapted to suit their needs. The adults who work with the children ensure that they all make good progress.
• In recent years, the proportion of children who achieve a good level of development has been above the national average. Children are well equipped with the basic literacy and numeracy skills to support their transition to Year 1. They develop strong social and communication skills that help them to become confident and independent learners.
• Pupil premium funding is used effectively to provide disadvantaged and other vulnerable children with opportunities to extend their speech and language skills. As a result, they make good progress and are well prepared for future learning.
• Children play and learn in a stimulating and safe learning environment. The outdoor provision is laid out well for children to be imaginative and practise basic skills. Inspectors observed children cooperatively ‘building a racing car’, and ‘making wedding cakes’ in the mud kitchen. During their child-initiated learning, adults find every possible opportunity to support children’s writing and to apply their phonics skills.
• Adults extend children’s vocabulary effectively, such as by introducing them to five new words every day. One such word arose from story time when a child described how ‘worms slither’. The word ‘slither’ quickly became one selected by all of the children to learn.
• Clear and well-established routines support children’s good behaviour. In whole-class sessions and during group activities, behaviour was exemplary. In their child-initiated activities, children remained focused on their selected tasks.
• Parents are very happy with their children’s progress. Typical of many parents was one who said that children’s reading, writing and mathematical development ‘has come on in leaps and bounds’. Parents appreciate the opportunity to be involved in their children’s learning and development, using the school’s communication system to write about their children’s achievements.
• Children with SEND are supported effectively to make equally as good progress as other pupils. All children are happily meeting the challenge to learn some British sign language in support of children in their class who have a hearing impairment.
• The leader and teaching staff have an accurate view of strengths and weaknesses in learning. They have rightly identified that the provision could contribute more sharply to children’s learning by deepening their mathematical development.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 118172 Isle of Wight 10088133 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 Community 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 189 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Helen Flynn Jane Wilford 01983 882505 https://woottonprimaryschool.co.uk/ admin@woottonpri.iow.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 6–7 October 2016

Information about this school

• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school, with one class in each year group.
• The new headteacher was appointed in April 2017. The senior leader stepped up from her previous position in September 2018. Since the last inspection, there have been a large number of other staffing changes.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is lower than that of other schools nationally. The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is lower than the national average.
• Almost all pupils are of a White British background. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is lower than the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching, learning and assessment in 12 lessons, covering a range of subjects. They also carried out learning walks, making further brief classroom visits to look at specific aspects of the school’s work. Almost all the observations were conducted jointly with a senior leader.
• Supported by senior leaders, inspectors looked at a large sample of pupils’ work in English and mathematics, and in the broader range of curriculum subjects.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders and a mixed group of staff. The lead inspector also met with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors, and met a representative of the local authority.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during breaktime, at lunchtime and around the school at transition times.
• Inspectors met pupils, both formally and informally, to talk to them about their learning, including their reading habits, and behaviour.
• Inspectors looked at documentation, including policies, the school’s improvement plans, self-evaluation documents, records of leaders’ monitoring, minutes of governing body meetings, and attendance and behaviour information. They discussed anonymised safeguarding information.
• During the current academic year, there have been two incidents that have had a high profile with some of the parent community. Inspectors enquired thoroughly to determine how effectively the school has responded to these incidents.
• Inspectors spoke with parents on the playground before school. Inspectors also took account of the 59 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s parental questionnaire, which included 40 free-text comments. They also received a parental letter and took account of a telephone call to Ofsted from a parent. Inspectors considered the 23 responses to the staff questionnaire, and the 44 responses to the pupils’ survey.

Inspection team

Linda Jacobs, lead inspector Christine Bulmer

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector