Westgate Primary School

Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 23–24 May 2012 Inspection number 395752 Westgate Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 125559 Local authority Warwickshire Inspection number 395752 Inspection dates 23–24 May 2012 Lead inspector Peter Kerr

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 137 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Roger Smith Headteacher Lynne Daniels Date of previous school inspection 3 December 2008 School address Bowling Green Street Warwick CV34 4DD Telephone number 01926 492015 Fax number 01926 497728 Email address admin2322@we-learn.com achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

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after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspector observed eight lessons taught by six teachers. Meetings were held with groups of pupils, the Chair of the Governing Body and senior members of staff. The inspector observed the school’s work, and looked at curriculum planning, samples of pupils' past work, records of pupils' progress and the school’s self-evaluation. He also took into account the 42 responses to the parents’ and carers’ inspection questionnaire that were received.

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Information about the school

The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. An average proportion of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. Most of these pupils are fluent in English. An above-average proportion of pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs who are supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is higher than in most primary schools. The great majority of these pupils have behavioural, emotional and social needs. A smaller number have physical disabilities or autistic spectrum disorders. The proportion of pupils joining and leaving the school bewteen Year 1 and Year 6 is higher than in most primary schools.

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Information about the school

The school meets the current floor standards, which are the minimum standards for attainment and progress expected by the government. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Key findings

 This is a good school. It is not yet outstanding because the promotion of mathematical investigation, creative skills and some aspects of pupils' personal development is under-represented in curriculum planning. Provision for the Early Years Foundation Stage is outstanding.

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Key findings

 Pupils achieve well, particularly in writing. Pupils regularly write at length and some have recently won local and regional awards for their stories. Achievement in mathematics is good. However, opportunities for pupils to discuss their own thinking and extend their learning through open-ended investigations are limited. Pupils' creative work in response to curriculum enrichment is good, but not enough time is devoted to learning creative skills on a daily basis.

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Key findings

 Teaching is good, especially in literacy. Reading, spelling and writing are taught effectively and pupils are encouraged to read widely and write creatively. Pupils with disabilities and those with special educational needs achieve well because their work is closely matched to their individual requirements and resources and equipment adapted as necessary to facilitate learning. Challenging behaviour is managed well so that disruption to learning is minimised.

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Key findings

 Behaviour is typically good. Pupils feel secure in school and know how to stay safe. They have positive attitudes to learning and very good relationships. They appreciate that some pupils have difficulties with behaviour but do not have enough opportunities to discuss this and other sensitive issues in class.

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Key findings

 The school is well led and managed. The headteacher provides strong leadership and is enthusiastically supported by the staff and governing body. Good performance management improves teaching, so all staff are highly motivated to contribute to whole-school improvement. Curriculum enrichment, including in sport and music is good, but insufficient emphasis is placed within the timetable on developing creative skills and on learning about the diverse Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils' achievement in mathematics by:  enabling pupils to talk more about their own ways of solving problems  including open-ended investigations more extensively and consistently into routine lesson planning  extending cross-curricular learning in mathematics into creative areas, for example by exploring mathematical patterns in art and music.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils' creative skills by:  including creative subjects such as art, music and drama more extensively in the regular timetable  planning systematically for the development of skills in these subjects.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Enhance the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, by:  planning regular opportunities for them to express and discuss their feelings and views with their peers  making more use of the range of cultures and experiences represented in each class to enrich pupils' understanding of the diversity of the wider world.

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Achievement of pupils

Achievement is good. Parents and carers agree that their children make good progress. Achievement is outstanding in Reception, particularly in personal, social and emotional development, and communication, language and literacy. Attainment is lower than age-related expectations on entry and at least average by the end of the year. Children show excellent initiative. For example, they decided that their café needed a first-aid box and recycling bin and made these themselves.

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Achievement of pupils

Attainment is broadly average in reading, writing and mathematics in Year 2 and Year 6. Progress is good for pupils who remain in the school from Year 1 to Year 6, but the high movement of pupils into and out of the school over this period introduces much variation in attainment. A significant proportion of pupils joining the school have below average attainment for their age. This has a negative impact on data for attainment because of the small cohorts.

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Achievement of pupils

Progress is particularly good in reading and writing because these subjects have both been the focus of recent effective improvement drives. Pupils learn rapidly in the daily group lesson on sounds and letters. This has had a very positive impact on their reading and spelling. In Key Stage 1 they confidently tackle unfamiliar words when reading and accurately spell an increasing number of difficult words. During Key Stage 2, pupils read widely and write increasingly extended and mature prose. Most Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Achievement of pupils

write correctly and neatly with good expression. Three pupils’ recently won prizes in a local story-writing competition and many more were highly placed.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils' make good progress in most areas of mathematics but do not learn through investigation regularly enough. Outstanding progress was seen in Key Stage 1 when pupils were given the opportunity to experiment with weights as well as to tackle the set-task. Learning slows when teachers explain one method rather than allow pupils to explain their own. Pupils' past work includes occasional examples of open-ended investigations but this method of learning is not embedded across the school.

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Achievement of pupils

All groups of pupils, including those known to be eligible for free school meals, make good progress relative to their starting points. New arrivals, including those who speak English as an additional language soon become confident learners. More-able pupils reach appropriately high levels of attainment in English and mathematics because of extra tuition within school and special projects in collaboration with local primary and secondary schools.

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Achievement of pupils

Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make good progress because their individual needs are provided for well. The nurture group has had a major impact on progress for pupils with the most severe behavioural and emotional difficulties by enabling them to build confidence and self-esteem in a supportive environment. This has led to a sharp decline in incidents of disruptive behaviour in lessons.

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Quality of teaching

Outstanding teaching in the Reception class enables children to become confident and independent learners. The brief taught sessions stimulate children to try out new skills in their play and staff show excellent judgement in their interactions with the children as they play. For example, in conversation with children in the café the teacher pointed out plastic objects in the food recycling bin and one of the children immediately went off to make a new bin for plastic.

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Quality of teaching

The inspection confirms the view of parents’ and carers that their children are taught reading, writing and mathematics skills well. Reading and writing are taught particularly well as teachers have received much guidance in this area since the last inspection. Drama is used well to support writing in some classes. For example, pupils in Years 3 and 4 developed dialogue by acting out stories they had written based on Greek myths. The pupils sustained independent, enjoyable learning because the teacher had prepared them well beforehand with stimulating resources and skilful guidance.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching in mathematics is good. Most areas are taught well, but investigative skills are not taught consistently enough. Outstanding teaching in Key Stage 1 led to highly enjoyable and effective learning when pupils enthusiastically consolidated their times tables because the tasks were practical, collaborative and against the clock. Very effective teaching was also seen in upper Key Stage 2 when more-able pupils Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Quality of teaching

had to find their own methods of scaling up a complicated recipe using ratios and found the task challenging. In less effective lessons pupils are guided towards answers too readily, reducing the level of challenge and interest. Teachers plan the use of mathematical skills such as data-handling well across the curriculum, but overlook opportunities to explore mathematical patterns in art and music.

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Quality of teaching

Lessons provide well for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. Specially adapted computers are used to facilitate equal access for pupils with visual impairment, for example, and appropriately simplified tasks are provided for pupils with learning difficulties. Pupils with the most severe behavioural, emotional and social difficulties receive effective support in the nurture room. They are re- integrated into lessons as appropriate and the facility is used well as an occasional respite. This arrangement helps the pupils concerned to make good progress and minimises disruption to lessons.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers support pupils' personal development well during lessons. For example, they facilitate work with partners or in groups, which encourages good relationships and social skills. Not all aspects of the pupils' personal development are as effectively supported. For example, pupils say that teachers explain actions taken in response to challenging behaviour but that they do not have regular opportunities to discuss their own feelings and views on such issues.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Behaviour is typically good, and is excellent when lessons are challenging and interesting. Pupils enjoy working and show good perseverance and good collaborative skills. Older pupils expressed mature and sympathetic views about the occasional interruptions to lessons caused by a small minority of pupils with behavioural difficulties These rare occasions are dealt with well so that the impact on learning is minimised. Lunchtime supervisors say that the systems for handling unacceptable behaviour during lunch-breaks are effective and that incidents are rarely serious enough to refer to the headteacher. Attendance has improved markedly this year because of much lower persistent absences among pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Parents and carers say that their children are safe in school, that behaviour is good and that bullying is dealt with effectively. One wrote, ‘Westgate is a happy, safe environment in which our daughter can learn well’. Nearly all of the pupils say that behaviour is good. They understand about different kinds of bullying, and say it is dealt with well. Some told the inspector that name-calling and other kinds of minor misbehaviour sometimes happened but, if it worried them, they could tell staff and it would be stopped. Pupils talked confidently about being safe in school because of all the security procedures and know what do if they find themselves in an unsafe situation.

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Leadership and management

Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Leadership and management

The school has improved steadily since the last inspection and has a good capacity to continue improving. The headteacher provides very effective leadership and involves all staff in school improvement. Staff with leadership responsibilities fulfil their roles well. The Early Years Foundation Stage leader models exemplary practice and supports the professional development of her team. The reading manager makes sure that the daily letters and sounds sessions are effective through regular monitoring and staff training. The special educational needs coordinator manages a very clear system for supporting individual pupils and regularly evaluates the success of interventions.

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Leadership and management

Performance management is good and contributes to steadily improving teaching throughout the school. The governing body has a clear picture of the school and fulfils its role well. Outside agencies and partnerships are used wisely to enhance provision. A sports coach supports learning in physical education throughout the school, for example, and visiting authors have helped to raise standards in writing.

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Leadership and management

The pupils' achievements are supported well by a broad and balanced curriculum and a wide range of enrichment activities. Pupils say they enjoy art and music and would like to do more. The inspection confirms that the development of skills in creative subjects is under-represented in curriculum planning. The pupils' books show that they have learned a lot about different religions, but the religious and cultural traditions represented by pupils in the school are not fully represented in planning for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Leadership and management

The school meets all statutory obligations, including those relating to the safeguarding of pupils. It rigorously tackles discrimination and strongly promotes equality of opportunity. Incident log-books show that occasional incidents of bullying or racist name-calling are taken very seriously and dealt with effectively.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 54 42 2 2 Primary schools 14 49 32 6 Secondary schools 20 39 34 7 Special schools 33 45 20 3 Pupil referral units 9 55 28 8 All schools 16 47 31 6

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously. The data in the table above are for the period 1 September to 31 December 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk ). The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstanding schools. Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance: the regular attendance of pupils at school and in lessons, taking into account the school’s efforts to encourage good attendance.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour: how well pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils’ punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Floor standards: the national minimum expectation of attainment and progression measures.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school’s overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils’ attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety: how safe pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils’ freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Westgate Primary School, Warwick, CV34 4DD

Thank you for welcoming me into your school and for all the help you gave me during the inspection. Yours is a good school where good teaching helps you to achieve well. Your headteacher is a good leader and your teachers, teaching assistants and other helpers are a good team. In the Reception class, the children learn really well because they have so many interesting play activities. You are particularly good at writing because it is taught so well. Congratulations to you all for representing your school so successfully in the recent story-writing competition. You do well at mathematics but do not have enough opportunities to explain your working out and explore mathematical patterns. I have asked your teachers to help you do more of this kind of work. You have a good curriculum that includes lots of extras, which you enjoy. I have asked your teachers to plan more art and music lessons in so that you can get even better at these subjects.

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Inspection of Westgate Primary School, Warwick, CV34 4DD

Nearly all of you behave very well. You are polite to adults and kind to each other. Just a few of you find it hard to behave well and sometimes behave in ways that distract others from learning. Your teachers make sure that, when this happens, the pupils concerned are given the help they need so that the rest of you can quickly get back to work. You had very sensible things to say about this subject when you spoke to me and I have asked your teachers to make sure you have plenty of opportunities to talk about such things in class. Your school is a very welcoming place and takes in children from lots of different countries. I have asked your teachers to help you learn more about each other’s cultures and traditions.

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Inspection of Westgate Primary School, Warwick, CV34 4DD

You can help your teachers do the things I have asked them to do by always being willing to talk about your ideas and to try new things out.

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Inspection of Westgate Primary School, Warwick, CV34 4DD

Peter Kerr Lead inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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