Wheatcroft Community Primary School

Wheatcroft Community Primary School Hollbeck Hill, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 3BW

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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

 Although improving slowly, achievement requires improvement, especially in English where pupils do not make enough progress from their starting points.  Teaching requires improvement because it varies too much in quality. Over time, teaching has not been good enough to make sure pupils make good progress in all subjects.  Leadership and management, including governance, require improvement. This is because the checks that leaders make to improve teaching and monitor pupils’ progress have not been thorough enough. This means that, while there have been improvements, they have been slow.

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The school has the following strengths

 Behaviour and safety are good throughout the school. Pupils are courteous and polite to each other and to adults and feel safe in school.  The quality of music making is excellent. The majority of pupils play a musical instrument well, which adds to pupils’ enjoyment of school.  In the Reception class the outdoor area is used well to enliven children’s experiences and develop their language skills.  Improved recording of pupils’ progress in Key Stage 1, introduced through work with staff from another school, has led to improvements in achievement in Key Stage 1.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection team held meetings with subject leaders, groups of pupils and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Governing Body. The lead inspector also spoke to a representative from the local authority.  Ten lessons or part-lessons were observed by the inspection team, of which two were jointly observed with the headteacher. Several pupils were heard reading.  Inspectors took account of the 55 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection. The lead inspector received one letter from a parent.  A range of documentation was scrutinised, including records of behaviour and attendance, the minutes from governing body meetings, school development plans and records of the school’s monitoring of teaching.

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Inspection team

Robert Jones, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Jan Lomas Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is an average-sized primary school.  An average proportion of pupils are eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for those pupils in local authority care, for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children from service families.  The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and supported through school action is below average.  The proportion of pupils supported through school action plus or statements of special educational needs is below average.  The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.  There has been significant turbulence in senior staffing arising from long-term sickness.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality and consistency of teaching and raise achievement, particularly in English, so they become at least good by:  using the information that is gathered through assessments to carefully tailor tasks to match pupils’ different abilities and make sure all pupils are well challenged  giving pupils every opportunity to become independent and resourceful learners rather than becoming too reliant on the teacher to provide them with answers  ensuring that teaching assistants are always deployed effectively in the classroom and do not give pupils too much support so that they are too dependent on them  giving teachers planned opportunities to learn from those who teach at a consistently good or outstanding level.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership at all levels, including governance, so that the quality of teaching improves at a faster rate by:  setting more challenging targets for pupils, particularly in Key Stage 2, and regularly checking the progress pupils make to reach these targets so that no pupils fall behind  reviewing development plans, both for subject leaders and for the whole school, so that they include achievable, measurable milestones for success  ensuring that all staff learn how to improve their teaching after senior leaders have checked its quality  improving arrangements to check the performance of teachers so that they understand precisely what they need to do to improve their teaching  improving the information that is given to the governing body on matters relating to the achievement of pupils who are currently in the school.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Over time, pupils’ progress from their starting points has been slow, particularly in English. A key reason is that older pupils in the school did not develop good skills in reading and writing when they were in Key Stage 1.  The progress pupils make during their time at the school is uneven. In some classes pupils make rapid progress but in others it is slow. This is because the quality of teaching varies too much throughout the school.  The teaching of how sounds relate to letters and reading in the Reception class and Key Stage 1 has improved since the last inspection. This means that pupils are better prepared for the next stage of their education than they were previously.  The standards pupils reach in Key Stage 1 have been rising steadily. This is because pupils’ progress is tracked carefully using a system of personal targets for pupils which was introduced as a result of collaborative work with another school.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils make slower progress in Key Stage 2, which means that the standards they reach by the time they leave school remain below those typically expected of 11-year-olds in English and mathematics.  In Key Stage 2 pupils make better progress in mathematics than they do in English. This is the result of a successful drive to improve pupils’ skills in calculating and mental mathematics across the school.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make as much progress as their peers. Those who struggle with reading are given prompt attention to their needs.  The school has managed to decrease any gap in progress between those who are and are not known to be eligible for funding from the pupil premium. This is because funding has been used to provide these pupils with additional support and better access to experiences designed to enhance the curriculum, such as residential trips.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching varies too much across the school and is a key reason why pupils’ achievement has not risen quickly.  Teachers regularly assess pupils’ work but they do not use these assessments well enough to make sure work is carefully tailored to pupils’ different abilities. This means that pupils sometimes find the work too easy or too difficult.  Teaching is sometimes heavily led by teachers, which does not help pupils to find out answers for themselves. Often, pupils rely too much on teachers to provide them with answers. Too few opportunities are taken to encourage pupils to become independent and resourceful learners through, for example, taking part in group work or discussions.  Moreover, teaching assistants are sometimes not deployed well in the classroom. As a result, they sometimes sit with pupils and give them too much support rather than encourage them to be independent.  There are examples of consistently good and outstanding teaching in some classes, but there

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

are too few planned opportunities for teachers to learn from this expertise.  Where learning is most successful, teachers make it abundantly clear to pupils what they must do in the lesson to be successful. These teachers regularly check to make sure good-quality learning is taking place and make sure pupils have ample opportunities to demonstrate how they have improved in the lesson.  In one lesson, where teaching was outstanding, the teacher constantly gave pupils a series of ‘top tips’ which enabled pupils to check for themselves if their work was good enough and helped them to become independent. The teacher used detailed knowledge of the pupils to carefully tailor the feedback to them so that they were able to make excellent progress by the end of the lesson.  Staff in the Reception class use the outdoor area to enliven children’s experiences and develop their language skills well. For example, the children really enjoyed looking for words the teacher

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Inspectors were impressed with pupils’ good behaviour and manners in classrooms and around the school.  Pupils are well aware of the dangers of bullying and how to stay safe on the internet. They say there is always a caring adult to turn to should the need arise.  Parents who responded to the online Parent View survey were overwhelmingly happy with behaviour in the school.  Where teaching does not fully challenge pupils or they are not fully involved in their own learning, they sometimes lose concentration or become passive.  The school has recently improved the way incidents of poor behaviour are recorded and there is a pattern of improving behaviour over time.  Attendance has improved over the past year as a result of better communication with parents on the school’s expectations of attendance and it is now at an above-average level. Pupils arrive punctually to the school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Since the last inspection systems to set targets for pupils in Key Stage 1 and in the Reception class have improved as a result of measures introduced by a temporary leader of Key Stage 1.  This system has enabled senior leaders to check the progress of Key Stage 1 pupils carefully so that a greater proportion are now making the progress of which they are capable.  However, in Key Stage 2, class teachers hold all the information relating to pupils’ targets and this means senior leaders do not have a good overview of how well pupils are progressing at any given time.  Meetings are held between senior leaders and teachers to discuss the progress of their pupils. However, these meetings are not sufficiently thorough to make sure any pupils who do not make enough progress are followed up in subsequent meetings and actions taken to arrest any underachievement.  As a result, pupils’ targets, particularly in Key Stage 2, are sometimes not challenging enough

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The leadership and management requires improvement

and their progress is not checked carefully by senior leaders to ensure no pupils fall behind.  Some subject leaders are new to their posts and so are in the early stages of checking the quality of teaching in their subjects.  Subject leaders’ development plans and also the school development plan do not contain clear, measurable milestones so that the school can gauge the success of the improvements made to the curriculum. This means that, when the school introduces a new initiative, it is not clear how it has benefited the pupils by raising their achievement.  The school promotes equality by making sure all pupils do equally well in school and there is financial assistance for those who need it. The school tackles any discrimination whenever and wherever it occurs.  Senior leaders and subject leaders regularly check the quality of teaching, although these checking activities do not enable all teachers to improve their practice well enough.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Arrangements to improve the performance of teachers are in place but teachers’ targets for improvement sometimes lack clarity.  The high quality of music making is a distinctive feature of the school. Throughout the school day, high-quality music making can be heard emanating from different corners of the school. During the inspection the very large school orchestra gave several high-quality performances to pupils and parents.  The high profile of music, along with opportunities for pupils to explore the local area through visits and visitors, helps with pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, which is good.  The local authority is well aware of the school’s strengths and its areas for development. Staff from the local authority have worked closely with the school, particularly in developing staff expertise in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1.  The governance of the school:

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governing body has rightly identified that its members need to have regular, improved information on pupils’ achievement if they are to increase the level of challenge they can offer the school. To date, this information has been lacking in detail, which has been a contributory factor in standards not rising at a faster rate. Governance has improved in holding the school closer to account for the spending of the pupil premium and this is apparent in the improved progress of pupils who are known to be eligible for this funding. The governing body ensures that all procedures to safeguard the welfare of pupils meet requirements. However, it has not been able to gauge the success of any enhancements to the curriculum because success is not clearly measured in the school’s development plan.

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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 121349 Local authority North Yorkshire Inspection number 402019

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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 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 221 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Chris Baxter Headteacher Jennifer Hartley Date of previous school inspection 3 February 2010 Telephone number 01723 375704 Fax number 01723 365053 Email address admin@wheatcroft.n-yorks.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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