Widecombe-in-the-Moor Primary

Widecombe-in-the-Moor Primary School Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ13 7TB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected 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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This is an outstanding school

 The driving force behind the school’s success is clearly the inspirational headteacher and her excellent team work with the school’s staff and governors and with colleagues across the academy.  Strong leadership and a united commitment to bring high quality teaching and learning have made full use of the academy’s specialist expertise to secure excellent provision.  High standards in national assessments and significantly above-average attainment by the end of Year 6 reflect pupils’ outstanding achievement.  The quality of teaching is outstanding and is typified by teachers’ challenging questioning and very good knowledge of their subjects and of the needs of individual pupils. These strengths enable pupils to extend their understanding.  Children starting school in the Reception class progress extremely well across a stimulating range of practical learning activities.  Excellent progress continues through the

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This is an outstanding school

school because, as staff and pupils say, ‘We are incredibly proud to work at Widecombe where everyone knows each other and works so hard to help each other to do well.’  All staff provide high quality care, fully safeguard the pupils’ welfare and treat them equally and value their efforts.  Consequently, pupils readily give of their best and strive just as hard to help each other learn. Their behaviour is exemplary.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector visited 10 lessons and was accompanied by the headteacher during all of these observations.  The inspector observed morning playtime and lunch breaks and also attended two assemblies.  Meetings were held with members of the school council, and many other pupils were spoken to during lessons and breaktimes. The inspector met with governors and had a telephone conversation with the School Improvement Partner employed by the Academy. .  The inspector held meetings with school staff, including senior leaders.  The inspector also took account of 20 parents’ responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning and undertaking the inspection and also received 12 staff questionnaires and two letters from parents. The inspector also spoke informally with a number of parents as they brought their children to school.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the

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Information about this inspection

school’s own data on pupils’ progress, planning and leaders’ checks on the quality of teaching, records relating to behaviour and attendance, and documents relating to safeguarding.

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Inspection team

Alex Baxter, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is below average in size.  All pupils attending the school are of White British heritage.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported through school action is below the national average. The proportion supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium (which provides additional funding for children in local authority care, children from service families and those known to be eligible for free school meals) is very small.  The proportion of pupils joining or leaving the school at other than the normal times is above average. The school does not use any alternative educational provision.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set out the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school is a member of the South Dartmoor Academy Trust, which at present comprises four

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Information about this school

primary schools and one community college. The school retains its own governing body and has representatives on the academy’s board of directors.  When its predecessor school was last inspected by Ofsted it was judged to be good overall.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ handwriting and presentation of work by:  more frequently displaying pupils’ writing to enthuse pupils and celebrate their achievement  using examples of pupils’ good writing to draw pupils’ attention to the importance of neatly presented work.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The pupils’ well-above-average attainment in English and mathematics at the end of Year 6, clearly seen in national assessments, is reflected in their workbooks.  Discussions with pupils and observations of their responses in lessons show that pupils, across the range of abilities, make excellent progress. This includes disabled pupils, those who have special educational needs and those arriving from other schools, and shows the school’s success in meeting pupils’ individual needs and securing equal opportunity for all.  Most of the very few pupils aided through pupil premium funding also have support for their special educational needs. They make very good progress in developing their confidence and communication skills. However, because there are so few and given the depth of their needs, relevant comparisons with non-free-school pupils based on average points of progress made are not possible.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children’s skills on entry usually match those expected for their age, but this picture changes within the very small year groups across the school as the number of pupils with special educational needs or those entering at other times varies.  Children make an excellent start in Reception, where their enthusiasm for school and confidence in learning together are nurtured extremely well by talented teaching staff.  Excellent progress continues through the school and becomes even more impressive in Year 6 as pupils’ ability to reflect and discuss ideas and to use and apply their skills matures. For example, in the Years 5 and 6 class pupils knowledgeably and confidently exchanged examples of comparative and superlative words to enrich their writing.  Focused action to strengthen the teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds they make) quickly secured above-average reading skills in Years 1 and 2 last year. Currently in all classes, pupils

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

make excellent progress in reading during phonics and guided reading sessions and by frequently using computers and reading at home.  By the end of Year 6, pupils read very competently. Their excellent breadth of vocabulary is evident in their speaking, listening and expressive writing skills. Pupils’ handwriting and presentation skills are less well developed.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching is highly effective in promoting pupils’ enthusiasm and in developing their ability to learn for themselves as they move through the school. Pupils are taught how to respond to teachers’ supportive marking and how to check their own work and progress towards their targets. For example, during mathematics in the Years 5 and 6 class the pupils responded in an exuberant manner to the teacher’s precise questioning. This highly positive reaction quickly sharpened pupils’ understanding of three-dimensional shapes.  Children in Reception and Year 1 benefit from a great deal of individual attention and are very quickly taught how to make their own learning choices and how to extend their ideas by discussing them with each other. As a result, they learn very well by sharing ideas in the ‘hospital’ role-play area, writing patient notes and choosing names and writing labels for their soft toys.  Such typically motivating, practical learning experiences are developed in all classes and across

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

the full range of subjects. For example, the teacher of the Years 2, 3 and 4 class successfully developed pupils’ understanding of the place value of number through a series of games and challenges displayed on an interactive whiteboard.  Teachers and their skilled assistants show excellent subject knowledge and by frequently checking pupils’ progress make sure that planned learning activities meet their differing abilities and needs. For example, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs – and, increasingly, those with more ability – often receive additional adult support to secure their equally successful progress.  During guided reading sessions staff also ensure that pupils in all classes have their particular reading, comprehension and writing skills developed at the level that matches their ability. Pupils’ writing in books is full of expression and grammatically correct and is frequently praised

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

by the teachers. However, opportunities are not always taken to improve pupils’ handwriting and presentation skills, for example, by displaying and using more examples of their written work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Behaviour and relationships are exemplary and greatly enrich pupils’ learning and enjoyment throughout the school. Comments from staff, pupils, parents and governors all indicate that these continue to be typical strengths of the school.  Pupils have an excellent understanding of how to keep themselves and each other safe.  Pupils know what bullying is and of the different forms it can take, for example, cyber bullying. They say that there is no bullying here, for ‘We are friends and look after each other.’  Pupils also show great consideration for each other, evident in the way older pupils so readily and caringly help younger pupils and include them in their activities at break times.  Pupils make excellent contributions to their learning and generously strive to help each other achieve their targets. For example, pupils spontaneously applauded each other’s efforts during role play in assembly and showed genuine pleasure in each other’s success in answering

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

teachers’ questions, posing their own questions and offering their ideas in lessons.  Pupils undertake their various responsibilities diligently. They give close support to others when acting as play leaders and work hard on the school council to gain sports equipment for break times. Pupils also organise fund-raising events for ‘Red Nose Day’ and children in Africa.  The staff’s very supportive links with parents and the stimulating and often practical learning activities underpin the pupils’ great enjoyment of school. As a result, attendance has improved and is now above average.  By the time they leave, the pupils’ very responsible attitudes to learning reflect their excellent preparation for the next stage in their education and life beyond school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The very well-respected headteacher provides a clear lead in improving the school. She is strongly supported by a small but dedicated staff team and by governors at the school.  They cooperate very effectively with skilled colleagues across the academy. For example, the academy’s school improvement and health and safety specialists make key contributions to securing outstanding teaching and safeguarding pupils’ welfare respectively.  Governors of this school are very well represented on the single board of directors, which oversees the work of all the schools in the academy. Widened expertise and teamwork ensure that statutory duties, such as vetting of staff and child protection procedures, are fully met.  Since joining the academy in April 2011 the school has gone from strength to strength and continues to show a strong capacity to improve further. For example, the sharing of teaching expertise and continuing excellent partnerships with parents, the community and outside

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The leadership and management are outstanding

agencies have lifted the quality of teaching. They have also widened the range of learning activities provided for the pupils, and raised their academic achievement.  Leaders and managers manage finances efficiently, including by making sure that pupils are treated equally and are kept free from discrimination. For example, additional well-targeted adult support helps disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and more recently the few pupils in receipt of the pupil premium achieve as well as their peers.  Additional specialist teaching of sports and expressive arts and of science at the community college for more-able pupils further reflects the excellent learning activities across a full range of subjects. Sports fixtures and events across the academy and links with the local church and with a school in Sierra Leone further enrich the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural

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The leadership and management are outstanding

development.  The governance of the school:  Capable governors make full use of the widened expertise available across the academy and within the academy’s board of directors to keep a tight hold on the budget. By sharing skills across larger schools, governors ensure that staff appraisal links pay to performance and brings improvement, for example by rewarding and promoting high quality teaching. Similar sharing of expertise also enables governors to safeguard pupils’ welfare. Governors take part in regular training, often from specialist staff within the academy. This ensures that their systems for checking the school’s effectiveness give them the reliable information they need to develop the school and help pupils to achieve even better. Several governors also frequently visit the school to support pupils’ learning, for example, hearing readers and talking to teachers and pupils. Academy directors frequently meet headteachers, and the Chair of the

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The leadership and management are outstanding

Governing Body, members of the standards committee and the headteacher of this school to examine information about pupils’ achievements. By these means governors gain a very good knowledge of the quality of teaching and how it impacts on pupils’ progress. Governors know that pupils’ achievement at this school compares very well with that nationally when measured in average point scores at the end of Year 6. Governors also check that pupil premium funds are used effectively to employ additional staff and that they meet pupils’ communication and emotional needs, so that these pupils make the same outstanding progress as their classmates.

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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 136563 Local authority Devon Inspection number 403671

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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 Academy converter Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 70 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Martin Hibbs Headteacher Kate Edwards Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01364 621261 Fax number 01364 621261 Email address admin@widecombe.devon.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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