Wattville Primary School

Wattville Primary School Wattville Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, B21 0DP

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  From low starting points, all groups of pupils make good progress over time to attain broadly average standards by the end of Key Stage 2.  The high number of pupils who enter the school who are new to learning English, those with disabilities or special educational needs and those known to be eligible for the pupil premium make good and at times outstanding progress. This is because of the good quality support they receive.  Teaching is good. Teachers get on well with the pupils, make learning fun and use support staff effectively. This means pupils are keen to learn and achieve well.  Pupils have a strong understanding of right and wrong and are encouraged to see what they can do and are given the self-confidence to work hard and aim high.  The headteacher and staff have built a harmonious learning community. Pupils’ behaviour is good and at times exemplary. They have good attitudes to their work and say

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

they feel completely safe at school.  Different subjects are well organised and help pupils to develop into thoughtful, independent and confident young people.  Leaders give the school a strong sense of purpose and have been a vigorous driving force in improving the quality of teaching and ensuring that all groups of pupils succeed.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 There is not enough outstanding teaching and the existing best practice is not shared enough among staff.  There is some unevenness in the rate of progress pupils make in some year groups, especially the more able.  The school does not do enough to make sure that children acquire language skills rapidly in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was carried out with a half days’ notice.  Inspectors observed 23 lessons or parts of lessons, amounting to 26 hours in total. All 15 classroom teachers present at the time of the inspection were observed teaching.  Discussions were held with senior and middle leaders, staff, members of the governing body and different groups of pupils.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at the school’s self-evaluation and planning documents, external evaluations of the school’s work, policy documents, pupils’ work and questionnaires returned by seven members of staff.  In planning the inspection, inspectors noted that there were no responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View), but looked at four comments posted during the inspection. Discussions were held with groups of parents at the beginning and the end of the school day during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Michael Merchant, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Michael Lafford Additional Inspector Rosemarie McCarthy Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a larger than average-sized primary school. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are taught in the nursery and in two reception classes.  The proportion of pupils supported through school action is above average, as is the proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs.  Nearly all pupils are from a wide range of minority ethnic groups and there is a very high proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.  Just under half of all pupils are known to be eligible for the pupil premium, which is much higher than that typically found nationally.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  Very high numbers of pupils join or leave the school mid-way through the school year.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that all children in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1 acquire the language skills necessary for them to succeed in their learning more rapidly by: – making the nursery a vibrant and exciting place for learning – using a wider range of techniques to enable pupils to make faster progress in spoken and written English.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise the good teaching to outstanding by: – reducing the amount of over-direction in lessons and increasing pupils’ independence in their learning – making sure that teachers plan activities that always ‘stretch’ the more-able pupils to learn at a swifter pace – sharing more widely the outstanding practice that is already present in the school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children enter the nursery with low skill levels, with many at the very early stages of speaking English. As a result of good teaching they make good progress through the Early Years Foundation Stage, particularly in their communication skills, but still enter Key Stage 1 with skill levels below expectations. They make good but variable progress across the rest of the school and rapid progress towards the end of Key Stage 2.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The very high numbers of children that enter the nursery and reception class speaking English as an additional language make good progress at developing their speaking, reading and writing skills. All teachers in these years regard themselves as teachers of English as an additional language and they and other adults play an important role in supporting the children.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Teachers are careful to distinguish English as an additional language from special educational needs and their approach is flexible to allow children to move to higher-level groups when their progress starts to accelerate.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The progress of these pupils is not outstanding, however, because the nursery classroom is uninspiring and does not have enough resources to give children an appetite for language. Teachers in the reception and Key Stage 1 classes have not fully kept pace with the wide range of strategies used successfully across the country to boost the progress of pupils new to learning English even further.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils’ reading skills at the end Key Stage 1 and 2 are broadly average for those pupils who have been at the school since nursery. This is because of the detailed and structured programme for teaching reading in Key Stage 1 and the guided reading sessions which have been introduced across the school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs and those whose circumstances make them vulnerable to underachievement make good and occasionally exceptional progress. This is as a result of high quality care and attention as well as good teaching and well-directed additional support.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The high numbers of pupils who join the school mid-way through the school year often have reading skills that are well below those expected. Support that is just right for them ensures that they quickly make up lost ground over the key stage and make progress similar to their classmates.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well in relation to their starting points and an increasing proportion of pupils are reaching or exceeding the levels expected for their age in reading, writing and mathematics by Year 6. Attainment at the end of Year 6 is improving strongly and is broadly average overall and is above average in writing. Older pupils have a good understanding of formal and informal language and many can write at length across a wide range of subjects.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The quality of teaching overall is good, but there is some variability across the year groups.  Typically, teachers plan well and change their lessons quickly in response to how well pupils are understanding them. Most teachers use questioning well to draw the pupils into discussion.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Effective use of talking partners, drama, role-play and letters-and-sounds activities help pupils, including those new to learning English, to make good progress in their speaking and reading.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers mark books and set targets for improvement thoughtfully and carefully. The school has set up very thorough systems to check on pupils' progress. These are used well by most teachers to ensure that no pupil is in danger of falling behind, and to enable teachers to consistently set the next steps for each pupil's learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching assistants have a good understanding of how pupils learn and use a range of methods to help pupils develop their skills and knowledge.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is not yet outstanding because in some lessons teachers use information about the levels at which pupils are working to set activities, but do not gauge well enough the level of challenge, particularly so for more-able pupils. Often, the work of these pupils is too similar to that of other groups of pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Some teachers talk too much and over-direct the tasks pupils undertake. The time pupils are actively and independently learning is therefore limited and gives less opportunity for pupils to say what they have learnt.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils’ attitudes to their learning are good and they show enthusiasm for learning in different subjects. On occasions there is minor off-task behaviour when in a few lessons pupils have to wait, for example listening to instructions for other pupils, before they can begin their own learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Positive relationships between staff and pupils, as well as the interesting activities teachers plan, generally keep the pupils focused on their learning. The school’s positive promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a key factor in pupils’ good and sometimes exemplary behaviour.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils’ understanding of right and wrong and social skills are developed well so that pupils work cooperatively and develop an awareness of their similarities and differences. As a result pupils get on together well and show considerable support for one another regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. Pupils say this is typically the case and think behaviour is good.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance is below average but is rising year on year, the result of the school’s actions, particularly its effective support for those families who may otherwise find attending school regularly difficult.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils have a good understanding of risk and how to keep safe. This is supported well by the school’s input on personal and internet safety. All parents spoken to agreed the school kept the pupils safe.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Incidences of bullying, such as name calling and cyber bullying, are very rare. Pupils and parents are positive that the school deals with behaviour and bullying well and pupils know who they could turn to for help if they needed to.

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The leadership and management are good

 Senior leaders, staff and the governing body share a determination to make Wattville an exciting school that aims for the highest standards of attainment. Leaders have kept the school doing well since its last inspection and make their high expectations clear to staff so that everyone has a shared sense of direction and feel part of a successful team. Consequently, this effective school has received ’light touch’ support from the local authority in recent years.

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The leadership and management are good

 Staff are expected to perform consistently well and the training of all staff is good. Careful checks are made on the quality of teaching and this has enabled prompt actions to be taken to ensure any weaker teaching is tackled.

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The leadership and management are good

 The senior team uses its strong coaching and mentoring skills to offer constructive advice and training. In this way, the quality of teaching and learning is steadily improving, although the team does not use its most effective teachers well enough to extend and share their good practice with others.

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The leadership and management are good

 At the time of the inspection there was no evidence of any discrimination and the school makes sure all pupils are treated equally. Progress for all groups of pupils, given their different starting points, is broadly similar, indicating that the school’s commitment to equal opportunities is borne out by its practice. The school fosters good relations with parents and other agencies.

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The leadership and management are good

 The skills of middle managers are being developed effectively. As a result they are very committed and through their checks increasingly know what needs to be done to build on current improvements. This process has highlighted the need to focus next on tackling those inconsistencies in teaching that remain as well as sharing best practice already seen in the school in order to increase the proportion of outstanding teaching.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governing body is highly supportive but also has considerable ambition in the pursuit of excellence. Governors are knowledgeable and increasingly confident to challenge the school and hold senior leaders to account, especially when any groups of pupils are not appearing to make better than expected progress or are starting to fall behind others.

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The leadership and management are good

 Governors have ensured that the school meets all statutory obligations, including those relating to the safeguarding of pupils. They have ensured the school’s pupil premium money has been used to good effect, through, for instance providing additional support in classrooms. Consequently, there is no gap between the achievement of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium and other pupils in the school.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 132201 Local authority Birmingham Inspection number 403645

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 455 Appropriate authority Birmingham Chair Michael Blake Headteacher Joanne Roach Date of previous school inspection 02 October 2007 Telephone number 0121 5542768 Fax number 0121 5151928 Email address j.roach@wattvilleprimary.bham.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', 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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School details

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 and as part of the inspection.

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School details

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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School details

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 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

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School details

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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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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