St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the provision in the early years so that all children, especially the most able, reach their potential, by ensuring that:
  • the quality of teaching is consistently high
  • questioning is precise enough to challenge children, particularly the most able, to progress their learning more rapidly and enhance their vocabulary.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The headteacher and deputy headteacher set a culture of aspiration, learning and respect in which everyone, including staff, governors, pupils and parents, is valued. Leadership is outstanding and the drive for improvement is both relentless and caring.
• Although too modest, senior leaders’ evaluation of the school’s strengths and weaknesses is accurate, sharp and incisive. Following the school’s previous inspection, leaders took immediate and highly effective action to secure rapid improvement. The revised system of assessment now identifies children at risk of underachieving and ensures that they receive timely support to improve. The local authority and the Diocese of Leeds provide strong support to enable effective partnerships with other schools, including extensive professional development for staff. This enables the school to continue to improve all aspects of its work in order to raise standards even further.
• Monitoring and reporting systems are precise, robust and streamlined. All staff clearly understand their roles, responsibilities and lines of accountability because of the strong collaborative working across the school. Teaching remains consistently strong, with increasing examples of exemplary practice.
• All staff carefully analyse the work of pupils. They use raising attainment plans effectively to identify those pupils who may be at risk of slipping behind or those who are not making the progress of which they are capable. Provision of additional support or resources is put swiftly in place. Within a short space of time, leaders check these strategies to make sure that they are working. This rigour and routine make sure that pupils’ progress is rapid, sustained and, in many cases, accelerated.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) provides appropriate, compassionate and effective support for a wide and diverse range of pupils. Funding to support pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is used well. The SENCo identifies and implements suitable provision so that these pupils make very good progress. She rigorously checks the impact of strategies used and, where necessary, changes the response until the pupil makes the desired progress. This demonstrates strong leadership.
• Leaders keep a close eye on the impact of the funding for disadvantaged pupils. They carefully analyse information to identify any barriers to learning for these pupils. Leaders use the additional funding to good effect, making sure that the pupils receive well-targeted support to enable them to make rapid progress across subjects.
• The school places particular emphasis on the achievement of its most-able pupils, including its most-able disadvantaged pupils. Ambitious targets are set for these pupils so that they fulfil their potential. Leaders make sure that these pupils are given the additional support needed to help them reach the higher standards.
• Senior leaders and governors ensure that the additional funding for physical education (PE) and sports is well spent. After-school clubs are well attended. All pupils, regardless of their ability, are given opportunities to represent their school at a range of competitions during the school year. Staff and pupils benefited greatly from the school’s recent sports week, taking part in activities including karate, tennis and tri-golf with specialist coaches. They also enjoyed dance, games and a ‘world cup’ football tournament. Parents were also involved at the end of sports week through their attendance at the school’s sports day.
• The headteacher ensures that staff receive tailored support and training so that they are highly effective in their roles. This enables staff to work together across subjects and classes to ensure consistency in the quality of teaching and assessment. Staff value the support from senior leaders and say that they are proud to work at the school.
• Those new to teaching or leadership feel exceptionally well supported. As a result, teachers flourish and new and aspiring leaders evolve quickly. This is an important and successful feature of leaders’ work. All staff are set challenging targets through the appraisal system to make sure that there is a collective push to meet aspirational targets.
• The curriculum is outstanding. Teaching often ignites pupils’ creative and imaginative skills. Through carefully planned topics, all groups of pupils develop their independent thinking, leadership and life skills. Topics are enriched by a range of visits and themed days. For example, pupils thoroughly enjoyed working alongside a history expert to build and safely set fire to a model of Pudding Lane, which enhanced their knowledge and understanding of why and how the Great Fire of London spread so quickly. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 won the 2017 school travel award for ‘my best school trip’, having submitted high-quality recounts of their trip to Murton Park.
• The promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and the school’s Catholic ethos are woven into the life of the school, including the curriculum. Pupils work hard to receive ‘footprints’ which are proudly displayed in classrooms to represent how individual pupils demonstrate the school’s core values of thoughtfulness, honesty, patience, friendship, courage, fairness and responsibility during the school term. Pupils have a clear understanding of right and wrong and they have excellent social skills.
• Leaders ensure that fundamental British values are included in pupils’ learning. For example, pupils’ visits to a wide variety of museums, places of worship and historic buildings contributed to their deep understanding of justice and democracy in society. Pupils discuss and reflect on current moral and social disasters. For example, when working alongside representatives of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development during ‘refugee week’, pupils from Years 5 and 6 were very mature and empathetic when learning at first hand the issues faced by refugees
• Pupils and parents speak highly of the pastoral care and welfare support offered by the school. One parent represented the views of many by saying, ‘Staff should be proud of what they achieve and what they give to the children they teach.’

Governance of the school

• Governors are committed to the school’s culture of high aspirations, respect for others and for learning. They are uncompromising in their ambition. They share the headteacher’s passion for ‘excellence with humanity’ and they use their role to reinforce the high-quality relationships across the school.
• Governors are active strategic leaders. They have been instrumental in making changes to the school since the previous inspection, working closely with leaders to ensure that every child gets the best education possible at the school.
• Governors’ extensive educational experience is used well. It enables them to ask demanding questions and to follow these up with visits to the school to find out for themselves, and to gauge what progress is being made towards the key priorities for improvement. As a result, their questioning makes an important contribution to raising standards in the school.
• The governing body is diligent in its responsibilities to safeguard pupils and actively tests out procedures in the school to ensure that they are robust.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders ensure that all statutory requirements are met. Appropriate checks are made when recruiting staff. Safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records contain an appropriate level of detail.
• Regular training sessions for all staff ensure that they can identify signs and symptoms of abuse. The training has included identification of pupils at risk of female genital mutilation, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation (the ‘Prevent’ duty). In addition, leaders and other staff are aware of safeguarding issues relevant to their community.
• Pupils said that they feel safe. The vast majority of parents supported this view. Pupils spoke knowledgeably about how to stay safe, including on the internet. Pupils said that safety issues are regularly covered in assemblies and through visits from the fire service and other organisations.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers are adept at teaching mixed-age classes and have a comprehensive understanding of their pupils’ needs. Teachers use information about pupils’ strengths and weaknesses well. They make sure that they regularly assess pupils’ learning and plan lessons that enable them to deepen their understanding. As a result, pupils make strong progress across all subjects and year groups.
• Teachers have very high expectations of pupils and they encourage pupils to work things out for themselves. This was evident in class 4, where pupils from Years 4 and 5 worked together to write imaginative sentences to describe pictures of interesting tropical landscapes, as part of their ‘South America’ topic. The teacher used skilful questioning to encourage pupils to challenge one another to use complex vocabulary, such as ‘venomous snakes’ and ‘tropical, roasting sand’. The high standard of pupils’ writing demonstrated their deep understanding of climate and topographical features of geography.
• Teachers make sure that classrooms are well resourced; pupils make very good use of the guidance included in wall displays and prompt sheets to help them with their work. For example, pupils in Year 1 make strong progress in their understanding and use of phonics because of highly effective teaching and the use of helpful ‘best guess’ and phonics charts. Pupils thoroughly enjoy exceeding their daily scores in the one-minute phonics challenge and hearing the amusing sounds from stimulating, animated resources.
• Pupils enjoy reading. They make good use of the recently refurbished school library as well as the inviting book areas in their classrooms. The most able pupils read with fluency and expression. Pupils in Year 1 who find reading more challenging are tenacious and use their phonics skills well to read accurately.
• Pupils relish the challenges set by their teachers. In mathematics, innovative activities based on real-life scenarios encourage pupils to enjoy discovering the best ways to approach problems and to debate possible solutions. For example, strawberry lace measuring, ‘Royal Wedding’ mathematics investigations, the daily ‘maths eye’ challenges and learning outdoors are just a small sample of the activities available to enable pupils to tackle complex problems and to explain the reasons for their chosen solutions.
• The strong drive to improve pupils’ skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar has led to substantial improvements in their basic skills. The high standard of work displayed around the school and in pupils’ class topic books demonstrates the plentiful opportunities they have to apply their literacy and mathematical skills across a range of subjects, which enhances their learning even further.
• Teachers work together to ensure that their assessments are accurate. Work scrutiny by leaders, regular in-house moderation, as well as effective challenge and support from the local authority, help teachers to fine-tune their assessments. As a result, governors have confidence in the reliability of teachers’ assessments about pupils’ progress.
• Highly effective subject leaders, particularly in English and mathematics, provide excellent support to their colleagues and ensure that teachers are constantly deepening their knowledge and understanding of the subjects they teach. For example, the deputy headteacher who is also the subject leader for mathematics, reorganised the timetable to enable additional time for mathematics to be taught in single year groups. The expertise of skilled mathematics teachers and the smaller classes have resulted in rapid progress for pupils. This is a strength of the school.
• Leaders have identified that an increasing number of pupils who join classes during the school year need to improve the quality of their handwriting quickly. A range of intensive support is provided to enable this group of pupils to improve rapidly and this is clearly evidenced in their writing books. A number of these pupils, however, are unable to reach the highest standards in writing because they do not always have sufficient time to catch up.
• Teachers and teaching assistants work seamlessly together, helping pupils who are falling behind to catch up and moving them on to new learning. As a result, pupils make strong progress and a high proportion are currently working at standards above those expected for their age.
• Parents are kept up to date with their children’s learning formally and informally. Parents appreciate the regular updates about their children’s progress as well as the school’s willingness to meet with them at other times, if they have any concerns.
• Pupils in Year 6 relish the challenges their teachers set them, take great pride in their work, and enjoy taking on different responsibilities across school. Consequently, they are on track to achieve highly in English and mathematics and are well prepared for secondary school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils are looked after extremely well at school. They follow the caring example set by staff and look after each other. A sequence of well-planned assemblies and class prayers provide pupils with time to reflect and consider others less fortunate than themselves. Pupils use the school’s ‘let your light shine’ book to nominate other pupils or members of staff to appear on the school’s ‘kindness tree’ and to receive an award.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in and around school. They understand the different forms of bullying but say that it rarely happens. They know who to go to if they have any concerns and have faith in staff to help them resolve problems or friendship issues among pupils. Plentiful resources encourage pupils to play together happily. Pupils organise games for themselves and they make full use of the vast outdoor space available to them.
• School leaders, particularly the SENCo, know pupils and their families well, and have earned their trust through their determination to help pupils and families who face challenging circumstances. Leaders liaise well with specialist agencies to ensure that pupils receive timely and appropriate support, on both a practical and an emotional level.
• Pupils have many opportunities to make decisions, such as voting for the next school councillors and the head boy and head girl. Pupils celebrate the range of ethnic heritages of pupils on ‘our community tree’ which, is prominently displayed in the entrance to the school. Pupils learn through many visits and visitors about the cultural and religious history of all the key faiths.
• The school has an increasing number of new arrivals joining throughout the school year. A group of these pupils have been elected by their classmates to represent them on the school council. These pupils are happy in school and say that their buddies helped them to settle in and make friends from day one. Children from service families are proud to be chosen to sing at the annual Armistice Day service at Ripon Cathedral.
• Pupils demonstrate extremely positive attitudes to learning. They talk about their learning enthusiastically and articulately. Pupils talk knowledgeably about the different careers they might have and they are ambitious for their futures.
• The school and external organisations provide numerous clubs including karate, sewing, computer, orchestra, multi-sports, arts and craft. Older pupils also enjoy taking part in the daily mile and younger pupils are also taking part during the remainder of the term.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils’ enjoyment of school is reflected in their above average attendance. Pupils understand the importance of coming to school, on time, every day and classes are keen to win the school’s termly award. As a result, attendance has improved significantly since the last inspection and all groups of pupils attend equally well.
• All staff set high expectations for pupils’ behaviour. Pupils display exemplary conduct in lessons and around the school. Older pupils are excellent role models for younger pupils, including those pupils from Year 6 who act as helpers in early years.
• Pupils are exceptionally well motivated and keen to learn. They settle to learn eagerly, listen attentively to their teachers and move from one activity to the next swiftly. This contributes to their strong progress. Pupils are respectful and speak politely to staff, visitors and each other.
• The school supports a very small number of pupils with complex needs. The high-quality provision, strong partnerships with specialist support services and excellent classroom management by teaching staff have helped these pupils to improve their self-confidence, behaviour and progress well.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils achieved well in 2016 and 2017. In reading, progress was in the top 10% of all schools in England. Pupils’ attainment and progress in reading and mathematics by the end of key stage 2 in 2017 was well above average. All pupils reached the expected standard in mathematics and almost half of these pupils exceeded it. The school’s outcomes in mathematics in 2017 were in the top 1% of schools. The headteacher is rightly proud to have received a letter from the Department for Education congratulating the school on pupils’ achievement. The progress that pupils are currently making across the school in reading and mathematics is similarly strong.
• A high proportion of pupils reached the highest standards in writing in 2017. Overall, pupils’ attainment and progress in writing by the end of key stage 2 improved to reach the national average. Leaders have identified a range of strategies to enable pupils to achieve as well in writing as they do in reading and mathematics. It is too early to demonstrate a positive impact on the outcomes in writing for pupils overall.
• Pupils currently in key stage 1 are making consistently good progress from their starting points. In 2017, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard at the end of key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics rose significantly and was above the national average. The proportion of pupils achieving greater depth in these subjects also improved to be above average.
• Pupils’ attainment in the Year 1 phonics screening check has improved greatly over time and is now above the national average. Pupils show a clear progression in their reading skills as they move up the school. They enjoy reading regularly and, by the end of Year 6, they have developed a wide range of skills and read as much for pleasure as for learning.
• A significant feature of pupils’ achievements is that they achieve highly regardless of their starting points. Pupils develop a wide range of knowledge, understanding and skills to make strong progress in a range of subjects across the curriculum. Disadvantaged pupils, including those who are most able, do at least as well as others nationally and often better. This is the result of the extremely effective use of the pupil premium funding and the support that pupils receive to help them catch up with their learning.
• The most able pupils, and middle- and lower-attainers, all make rapid progress during their time at the school. This is because teachers have an in-depth knowledge of each pupil’s learning and how to support them. It is also because of the well-devised systems for checking pupils’ progress and the way leaders thoroughly analyse assessment information and work in books.
• Those pupils who speak English as an additional language make rapid progress. The strong focus on developing reading and writing skills, and the expert teaching of phonics, all make a strong contribution to pupils’ mastery of the English language.
• Many pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make similar progress to others. This is because of teachers’ understanding of their needs and the effective support they get from teaching assistants. In addition, the school’s culture, in which everyone is able to excel in something, builds pupils’ confidence and self-esteem.

Early years provision Good

• Children start Reception with skills and knowledge which are typical for their age. The proportion of children reaching the expected good levels of development has been consistently above the national average for three years. Consequently, children are well prepared for Year 1.
• Leaders have ensured that the early years curriculum is interesting, engaging, broad and balanced. Children develop curiosity and want to find out more. Most activities have a clear purpose behind them and build upon what the children have previously learned to do. For example, children enjoyed planning and writing questions for the farmer in preparation for their visit to the local farm park. Nursery children thoroughly enjoy their daily ‘squiggle wiggle’ sessions and listen carefully to the adults’ instructions, which help them to develop their fine motor skills continuously.
• The Nursery and Reception classrooms are vibrant, with stimulating displays and exciting areas for the children to investigate and explore. Children learn well indoors and outside, whether they are being taught directly or working on their own. They are almost always totally engaged in their learning.
• Children develop perseverance and resilience through the range of activities on offer. They behave very well and cooperate well with each other. For example, three girls took turns to telephone guests and invite them to a birthday party in the role-play area. Another group of children shared glitter, stars and paints as they decorated boxes. One girl proudly announced, ‘We’re being creative.’ Boys shared in the water play as they poured water down the chute and discussed how the air bubbles were formed.
• The teaching of early reading skills is effective. Staff are well trained to help pupils to use the sounds that they learn in their independent writing. As a result, pupils make good progress.
• Children have access to a wide range of opportunities that develop their handwriting skills and accurate letter formation. There are many activities where children write for a purpose and practise their early literacy skills. Children enjoy using the new writing shed outdoors.
• The development of children’s language and communication skills is given a high priority. However, questioning is not always precise enough to challenge children, particularly the most able, to deepen their learning and further enhance their vocabulary.
• Children who are in need of additional support for their learning are identified quickly. They achieve many of the early learning goals because they receive timely and effective support.
• Adults are highly vigilant and ensure that safeguarding procedures are followed rigorously. Children are taught how to keep themselves safe and what to do if they are ever worried.
• Parents comment that their children are well cared for and safe in the early years. They value the information given to them before their children start school. Despite several changes in the leadership of the early years, parents feel well supported by the new early years leader and the very experienced teaching assistant.
• Parents enjoy looking at the learning journals, which contain photographs and descriptions of how their children are developing. Parents are pleased to be involved in their children’s learning. For example, parents were looking forward to attending the garden centre sale that staff and children were busy preparing for them.
• School leaders have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the early years and have already taken action to ensure that there is a consistently high standard of teaching across the Nursery and Reception classes. The majority of children make good progress. However, few of the most able children exceed the standard expected by the end of their Reception Year.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 121638 North Yorkshire 10048222 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 Maintained 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 155 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Simon McCudden Jill Allen 01765 603232 www.riponst-wilfrids.n-yorks.sch.uk headteacher@riponst-wilfrids.n-orks.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 21–22 April 2016

Information about this school

• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The school is organised with mixed-age classes.
• The large majority of pupils are of White British or Any Other White background.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are known to be eligible for the pupil premium funding is lower than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is below that seen nationally. A very small number of these pupils have an education, health and care plan.
• An increasing number of pupils join classes during the school year. Many are the children of servicemen and women.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress.
• The school provides both part-time and full-time places for children in the Nursery class and full-time places for children in the Reception class.
• There have been changes in staffing since the time of the last inspection, particularly in early years.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors undertook a series of short, focused visits to classrooms and longer lesson observations in each class. A number of these were conducted jointly with senior leaders.
• Formal and informal discussions took place with senior leaders, including governors, and with subject leaders, pupils, parents, the local authority and a representative of the Catholic diocese.
• Documentation relating to the school’s website and safeguarding, including the record of recruitment checks, was scrutinised.
• The school’s self-evaluation, plans for improvement and analysis of current pupils’ attainment and progress were evaluated.
• Inspectors, together with senior and middle leaders, scrutinised pupils’ work in different subjects.
• Inspectors listened to several pupils read individually.
• Pupils’ behaviour was observed by inspectors in lessons and during break and lunchtimes.
• Inspectors considered the 18 parents’ responses to Ofsted’s free-text service and the 35 parental responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors spoke with parents and considered the school’s own surveys of parents’ views. Inspectors also took account of the responses to questionnaires from 14 members of staff. No pupils responded to the online survey.

Inspection team

Cathy Morgan, lead inspector Catherine Precious Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector