St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton

St Bartholomew's C of E Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton Common Field, Wigginton, Tring, HP23 6EP

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school.  Pupils achieve extremely well and reach standards that are significantly above average in English and mathematics.  Teaching is consistently good with much that is outstanding, especially in the quality of learning experiences planned for children in the Reception class.  Teachers know their pupils particularly well. They use this information very effectively to ensure that the pupils’ individual needs are fully met.  Marking of the highest quality celebrates pupils’ achievements and ensures that all pupils know what they need to do next to improve. This includes improving the handwriting of older pupils and the presentation of their work.  Excellent support for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs ensures they make very good progress.  Pupils’ behaviour is excellent. They love being at school and they are enthusiastic about what they are learning both in class and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

outdoors.  Bullying is extremely rare. Parents agree the school keeps pupils safe.  The headteacher sets very high expectations of staff and is passionate about ensuring that all pupils do as well as they can.  School leaders and managers, including the governing body, know what needs to be done to sustain the high standards achieved and continually improve how effectively all pupils learn.  Information about how well pupils are doing as a result of the teaching they experience is used extensively to support the highly effective performance management of teachers.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development is outstanding. Pupils reflect very carefully on an extensive range of issues and have a very clear understanding of the school’s values. Pupils put this into practice in all that they do at school, showing high levels of care and respect towards each other.  Pupils do not always have enough opportunities to get to know pupils from

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

different cultural backgrounds in the United Kingdom or abroad. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 2 of 10

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed eight lessons and several parts of lessons.  The inspector spoke to pupils from Year 6 about their views of the school. He held discussions with the governors, the headteacher and deputy headteacher and teachers with responsibility for aspects of the school’s work in subjects such as design and technology.  The inspector also met a representative of the local authority, listened to pupils in Year 2 read, checked pupils’ writing and looked at displays of work around the school.  The inspector reviewed the assessment information for all pupils, school planning documents, the school improvement plan, self-evaluation documents, governing body minutes and documents related to safeguarding and the performance management of school staff.  The inspector also took account of 37 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View), discussions with parents before school and 23 questionnaires completed by staff.

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Inspection team

Philip Mann, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 3 of 10

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Information about this school

 St Bartholomew’s CE Primary School is much smaller than the average-sized primary school. Most pupils attend from the local community and surrounding area. The school has a Reception class and three mixed aged classes.  Almost all pupils are of White British heritage.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below average. The proportion of pupils who are supported through school action is below average, as is the proportion supported at school action plus and those who have a statement of special educational needs.  The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for extra government funding (the pupil premium) is below average.  The school meets government floor standards, the minimum standards expected for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school holds several nationally recognised awards including, Healthy School status, Active Award for Physical Education, the Inclusion Mark and the local authority’s Quality Standard for

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve the quality of pupils’ handwriting and presentation skills by ensuring that:  older pupils continue to develop a joined-up style of handwriting  the presentation of pupils’ work is always neat.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further extend the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of their place within a changing world by:  ensuring that pupils have regular planned opportunities to learn about people in contrasting communities and places around the world  providing greater opportunities for pupils to interact with pupils from other cultural backgrounds both locally and abroad. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 4 of 10

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils make outstanding progress from broadly average starting points when they start school in the Reception class. Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make similar and sometimes very rapid progress because their programmes of support and additional help, from highly effective support staff, ensure that their needs are fully met.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children in the Reception class achieve very well because of high quality teaching and the extensive range of stimulating activities both within the classroom and outdoor play areas. This is especially so in the children’s personal development and early literacy and mathematical development. They therefore start in Year 1 at levels well above that seen for children of this age.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 This excellent start is built on further in Key Stage 1 where outstanding teaching ensures that these pupils’ continue to make rapid progress. Through short bursts of teaching, pupils quickly learn the sounds that letters make to support reading and writing and the mathematical skills they need to complete simple calculations. Consequently, these pupils gain quickly in confidence and the ability to attain well above average standards by the end of this key stage in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils in Key Stage 2 continue to build on these excellent achievements. By the time they leave school at the end of Year 6 attainment in English and mathematics is very high and significantly above that seen nationally. Results in the national tests confirm that these very high standards have been sustained for the last three years, reflecting the improvements made since the last inspection.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Boys and girls make equally rapid progress because teachers ensure that planning focuses on the specific needs and interests of different groups of pupils and individuals. For example, in the questions used by teachers in lessons and themes of the topics taught to stimulate their interest.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The small number of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium make at least good and often better progress. Their needs are fully identified. As a result, carefully matched adult support and extra resources are allocated to help these pupils to do as well as they can in lessons. Some of the extra funding is allocated to ensure that they can join in extra activities made available to all other pupils.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils throughout the school read well. The sounds that letters make are taught systematically on a daily basis to all children in the Reception class and all ability groups in Key Stage 1. These skills are taught alongside handwriting to ensure that pupils quickly develop a neat joined-up style in their writing. This joined up style is developed further by older pupils but their handwriting is not always as neat as it could be.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils make consistently good and often outstanding progress. This is a common feature across all subjects, including music, design and technology and information and communication technology. For example in music, all pupils in Key Stage 2 can sing extremely well in two-part harmony during lessons and assemblies as a result of expert tuition. In another example, as part of their project work, pupils in Year 2 took many digital pictures of simple toys to create a short animated film to illustrate the start of the ‘Great Fire of London’. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 5 of 10

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Much of the teaching is outstanding and never less than good. Teachers and support staff make high quality learning an extremely positive experience in lessons. Parents told the inspector that, ‘The teachers are a key strength of the school!’ Classrooms are stimulating places to learn and this is especially so for those children in the Reception class. For instance, even on a very wet morning three children were determined to complete their testing of a tricycle in the outdoor ‘garage area’. The completion of their checklists supported their early writing skills extremely well.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The pace of learning in all lessons is brisk and this is especially so in the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing in Key Stage 1 and how to use mathematics in Key Stage 2. For instance, all mathematics lessons start with a short burst of number work to reinforce the pupils’ knowledge of tables and their ability to complete addition and subtractions mentally while jumping up and down. The repetition of number facts as a group helps them to learn quickly and remember what they have learnt.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The teaching of English and mathematics lessons to groups of pupils according to their ability makes very effective use of the expertise of both teachers and teaching assistants within the school, while ensuring that teaching effectively meets the needs of all pupils including those known to be eligible for the pupil premium. Teaching assistants provide very high quality support to disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs during lessons and small group work.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers and support staff use questions very well to check what pupils know already and to help them to learn more. For instance, in an outstanding Year 6 numeracy lesson the teacher matched her questions carefully to the ability of pupils so that more-able pupils could explain how they would use a simple formula to calculate the distance around a rectangle.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Resources are used very effectively to capture pupils’ interests and support effective learning. For example, in an outstanding literacy lesson for pupils in Year 2, the teacher used technology extremely well to reveal slowly an exciting image of a house in order to stimulate the pupils’ imagination in readiness for writing their story. Space around the school is used very efficiently to provide extra teaching areas for literacy and numeracy lessons.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The quality of marking throughout the school is outstanding in all classes. Pupils’ work is regularly marked in considerable detail to provide personalised comments and extra tasks. Pupils say that this is very helpful because it tells them exactly what they need to do next to improve. This, combined with opportunities for pupils to mark each other’s work, has a very positive impact on the rate of progress they make in lessons.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Behaviour is outstanding both in class, around the school and in the playground areas. Relationships are extremely positive between pupils and adults and pupils themselves. Pupils respond very well to the many opportunities planned for them to discuss their ideas with other pupils, either with a partner or in small groups.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils enjoy being at school very much. Older pupils accept responsibilities readily such as helping to solve any minor disagreements between younger pupils in the playground and operating equipment in assemblies. Pupils are very proud of their school. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 6 of 10

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils attend well and the small number of pupils who are late is falling as a result of efforts by the school to encourage punctuality. There have been no pupil exclusions for several years.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils say that they feel very safe in school. Topics covered in well-taught personal and social development lessons for pupils in Year 5 and 6, such as that on bullying, using text messages and computers, gives them the necessary knowledge to keep themselves safe while using the internet at home.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 All pupils have very positive attitudes about learning. This is because teachers plan an extensive range of interesting and challenging things for them to do. For example, the involvement of a specialist in making felt provided Year 6 pupils with the opportunity to make their own felt from wool. They used this to make a pair of slippers in a design and technology lesson. These creative experiences inspire pupils constantly to learn about new things.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils have a very clear sense of what is right and wrong. They respond extremely well to the school’s promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. They take a pride in helping others less fortunate than themselves, such as donating a box of gifts for children in a school in Africa as part of a campaign run by a national charity. However, they do not have much direct experience of pupils from cultures different from their own.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 School leaders have built very effectively on the strengths identified at the last inspection. There is a common sense of purpose and vision for excellence that is shared fully amongst the staff team and governing body. As a result, the school has achieved and sustained a trend of very high outcomes for all pupils.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher sets very high expectations of staff. Lessons are checked regularly to identify strengths in teaching and any further areas for improvement. This ensures that performance management is robust and teachers are given the necessary support to improve their skills and expertise further through specific training matched to their targets.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school’s self-evaluation of how well it is doing is very accurate and based on a detailed analysis of strengths and weaknesses. Information about pupils’ progress is analysed carefully to identify any sign of underachievement and support further improvement.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leadership responsibility is shared extremely well amongst a small team of staff who focus well on improving the quality of pupils’ learning. For example, under the expert guidance of the deputy headteacher, they are planning more creative opportunities for pupils to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding across all subjects.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Pupils benefit from an extensive range of experiences that happen outside of normal lesson time, such as a cross-country running club and work experience for pupils in Year 6.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school is successful in providing equality of opportunity for all pupils. Discrimination in any form is tackled swiftly and effectively. Accurate assessment information is checked very regularly to ensure all pupils have the chance to succeed. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 7 of 10

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 A wide range of experiences, including visits to different places of worship, promotes the pupils spiritual, moral and social understanding extremely well. Assemblies provide some excellent opportunities for pupils to consider important values such as care and tolerance. Visits to museums and other local places of interest fully support the development of the pupils’ own cultural heritage. Opportunities for pupils to learn more about the cultures of people in other countries are more limited and need to be developed.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The local authority continues to regularly monitor the school’s success. It supports the induction of newly qualified teachers, monitors the performance of the headteacher and provides training for individual governors when required. It actively encourages staff from other schools to observe good work in this school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Excellent communication exists between parents and carers of pupils and the school. Parents and carers are very positive about the school and agree that their children are extremely happy and safe there.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  The governing body is led extremely well. Governors fully understand the strengths and needs of the school and how performance management is being used to improve teaching and learning further. They make regular visits and each visit has a specific focus. The findings from these are recorded in detail and used to provide challenge and support for the headteacher in making any improvements needed. The governing body understands performance data and how the school is doing compared with other schools. The governing body makes very efficient use of its limited resources so that all pupils have the best chance to succeed. Governors ensure that additional funding through the pupil premium is used extremely well and is successful in reducing any gaps in achievement between different groups of pupils. Governors take their responsibilities very seriously and ensure they receive the professional

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The leadership and management are outstanding

training they need. As a result, there are secure safeguarding procedures in place. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 8 of 10

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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. Inspection report: St Bartholomew's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Wigginton, 20– 21 November 2012 9 of 10

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School details

Unique reference number 117463 Local authority Hertfordshire Inspection number 403325

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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 Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 113 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair David Moore Headteacher Julie Ann Kemp Date of previous school inspection 10 April 2008 Telephone number 01442 822364 Fax number 01442 828230 Email address admin@stbarts.herts.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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