Weyford Nursery and Primary School

Weyford Junior School Washford Lane, Bordon, GU35 0ET

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Achievement is not yet consistent enough over time, despite some recemt improvement.  Teaching does not provide more able pupils with sufficient challenge to make consistently good progress.  Pupils lack specific individual targets that give them a clear understanding of the skills they are trying to develop.  The needs of pupils are not always identified quickly enough when they join the school.  The governing body does not hold the school to account with enough rigour, or effectively review the impact of the work of the school on the achievement of the pupils.

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The school has the following strengths

 The work of the leadership team is starting to improve the quality of teaching. As a result, most pupils are now beginning to make at least the expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  The headteacher has a clear vision which is shared with the pupils and supported by the staff. All staff are committed to improving this school.  Pupils enjoy school, feel safe and well looked after by the adults around them. Behaviour is good and the school is a harmonious community.  The day-to-day marking of pupils’ work and the feedback pupils receive is exemplary.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 14 lessons, some of which were observed jointly with the headteacher or the deputy headteacher. This included a learning walk to review intervention work. Inspectors observed a whole school assembly.  Meetings were held with groups of children, representatives of the governing body and local authority, and with senior leaders.  Inspectors took account of the eight responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) and held informal discussions with parents and carers during the inspection. They also took account of the views of staff through meetings and through the responses to 12 staff questionnaires.  Inspectors listened to pupils read and scrutinised samples of the pupils’ work books.  Inspectors looked at the school’s own data for the current academic year as well as previous years, planning and monitoring documentation, and records related to pupil safety and welfare

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Information about this inspection

including the school’s single central record of checks on staff, behaviour logs and attendance data.

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Inspection team

David Hogg, Lead Inspector Additional Inspector Diane Wilkinson Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Weyford Junior School is a smaller-than-average junior school.  The proportion or pupils eligible for support from the pupil premium (extra money provided to schools by the government) is higher than the national average.  The proportion of pupils supported through school action is double the national average.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement or special educational needs is above the national average.  The proportions of pupils from minority ethnic groups and those who speak English as an additional language are both just over half the national average.  The school meets the current floor standards, which are the minimum standards for attainment and progress expected by the government.  After a number of years of staffing problems, due partly to long term illnesses and other lengthy absences, the school has a more settled teaching team with new appointments to the

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching so that, by July 2013, it is consistently good by: – ensuring all pupils have specific targets to work towards so they have a clear understanding of what they must do to improve – using clear examples of work to show pupils of different abilities what they are aiming to achieve in lessons – ensuring that lessons provide greater challenge for higher ability and more confident learners and that they are provided with more opportunities to find things out for themselves.  Ensure that leaders and managers idenfify the needs of all pupils clearly and quickly when they first join the school.  Improve the impact of goverance by extending the skills of governors to hold school leaders to account better for the progress made by pupils.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Achievement requires improvement because over time there has been too much variability in attainment and pupils’ rates of progress, especially in English.  Occasionally, more able pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable and there are too few opportunities for them to find things out for themselves.  Attainment in writing is below that in reading and mathematics. This is because of their lower skills on entry to the school in this aspect. Spelling and the quality of handwriting are too weak in some cases.  Recent unvalidated assessments for 2011 to 2012 indicate that the decline in pupils’ achievement has been halted and reversed. The school’s own assessment information indicates most pupils now make progress in line with national expectations from their starting points. This progress is consistent across all of the year groups.  Progress for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is similar to other groups

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

of children. This is a result of more effective targeting of support partly funded by pupil premium and provided by skilled teaching assistants.  The progress of pupils in mathematics has generally been better than average over the last two years. The improved progress in English is more recent.  Written work by older pupils shows strengths in the use of interesting vocabulary and sentence construction to develop empathetic descriptions.  Reading is supported well by staff and the development of reading skills is seen as a high priority by teachers and leaders. Younger children are able to use their understanding of letters and sounds (phonics) to good effect when reading. The reading skills of older pupils are not as strong. It is not always clear what Year 5 and Year 6 pupils are expected to have achieved in guided reading sessions and this limits progress.  Attainment on entry to Year 3 is higher in mathematics and reading than in writing and this is

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

reflected in pupils’ attainment by the end of Year 6. By Year 6, most pupils can interrogate pie charts and line graphs. In addition, they can use place value from hundreds to thousands and have a secure understanding of fractions and decimals.  The pupil premium grant has supported booster sessions which enable targeted pupils to make similar progress to their classmates in reading, writing and mathematics throughout the school.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching requires improvement because it is not consistently good overall and the quality of learning in some classes is too variable.  In all lessons the teachers try to ensure that the pupils are aware of what they are going to learn. However, pupils do not always understand what they are expected to produce in a given activity because the expected learning is not always clearly illustrated or modelled by teachers.  Staff are confident users of information about pupils’ previous learning to plan lessons. Work that is matched to the abilities of the learners is a feature of most lessons. However, the work given to more able pupils is not always sufficiently challenging and, consequently, they are not effectively stretched by all activities.  Pupils have general targets that they work towards. However, these targets are not matched to individual pupils and are not reviewed systematically. As a result, pupils are unclear of what

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

skills they are trying to develop.  The marking of pupils’ work provides learners with very good next step guidance. This is acted upon by them and a true learning dialogue is developed between teacher and pupils. The quality of marking has been recognised by the local authority which is rightly using Weyford as an example of model practice.  Teachers use a range of resources to engage and interest pupils. In a Years 5/6 literacy lesson, photographs were used effectively to stimulate reflective writing. One pupil wrote, ‘From a distance I could hear the poor tired soldiers shouting for help and could smell the dirt and burning from the guns.’  Teaching assistants provide good support for pupils. Teaching assistants have a good knowledge of phonics and use their skills well to teach pupils the skills that they need to develop and improve their reading.  The school uses visits from outside groups and takes the pupils on visits to significant places of

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

interest to widen their experiences and enhance the curriculum experiences. The school runs a wide range of creative and sporting clubs which the pupils enjoy attending.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Weyford is a happy school where the pupils really enjoy learning. They work cooperatively and sustain this for extended periods without adult support. They discuss ideas well and effectively collaborate on the tasks set.  The pupils know what is right and wrong. Although some disagreements take place, pupils are able to resolve issues by themselves or through peer mediators. Pupils feel well looked after by the adults who they can approach for support when needed.  Behaviour is rightly viewed as being good by all of the school’s community – pupils, staff, parents and carers.  Pupils have a good awareness of personal safety including related to road safety, ‘stranger danger’ and cyber safety. Parents feel their children are safe at school.  The school has worked hard to improve attendance, which is broadly average and improving. Pupils are aware of the target the school is aiming for and enthusiastically celebrate if their

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

team has the best attendance of the week.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because neither achievement nor teaching are good. The headteacher has striven to improve how well pupils achieve during a number of years of significant staffing turbulence. The newly established senior leadership team has been effective in beginning to raise pupils’ attainment and accelerate their progress and this is seen in the latest national assessments.  The school works closely with other providers to ensure accurate moderation of pupils’ work during Key Stage 2. Links with Key Stage 1 providers to ensure a common approach to judging attainment are not well developed. As a result, the identification of specific needs of some pupils and the deployment of targeted support are delayed.  The staff are fully behind the leaders and mangers in their efforts to improve the quality of teaching and to tackle underperformance that has occurred in the past. Increases in salary are

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The leadership and management requires improvement

now starting to reflect teachers’ classroom performance better, despite the variable quality of teaching over time.  Subject leaders have been the driving force behind the recent improvements to teaching through effective use of training opportunities. However, it is still too early to see the full impact on pupils’ learning and progress. The school’s own records indicate accurate assessments of the overall quality of teaching. The judgements of the joint observations by the headteacher and deputy were accurate.  The school leaders demonstrate a determination to further raise the quality of teaching and the achievement of pupils and show the school has the capacity to move forward and improve.  Curriculum developments, such as the adoption of a more theme-based approach, have contributed to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Assemblies challenge the children to ‘never settle for less than your best’. Opportunities to provide awe and wonder are

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The leadership and management requires improvement

seized, for example a news clip of Felix Baumgartner’s leap from space drew gasps of excitement and applause when he landed. Pupils were asked to reflect and discuss his feelings and to consider challenges they might have had to overcome and might yet face.  School leaders carefully review the use of the pupil premium grant in raising achievement for targeted learners.  Safeguarding procedures are thorough and pupils are kept safe.  The local authority has provided good support for the headteacher and the new leadership team. It has been effective in supporting the improvements in teaching which have resulted in an improvement in the achievement of the pupils.  The governance of the school: – The governing body is now better able to challenge the leadership team but is not yet sufficiently rigorous in holding senior leaders to account. – Although the governing body is much better placed to help the school improve pupils’

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The leadership and management requires improvement

achievement than at the time of the previous inspection, it does not review the school’s work with sufficient tenacity.

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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

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Grade Judgement Description

is 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 116018 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 401550

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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 Junior School category Maintained Age range of pupils 7–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 176 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Derek Beesley Headteacher Jillian Myers Date of previous school inspection 9–10 February 2010 Telephone number 01420 473142 Fax number 01420 478915 Email address lesley.steele@weyford-jun.hants.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,

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School details

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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School details

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

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