Setting

Mrs Pat Boyle Headteacher Wigginton Primary School Westfield Lane Wigginton York YO32 2FZ

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School

Following my visit to your school on 18 July 2013, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the outcome and inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the school’s most recent section 5 inspection.

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School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to have serious weaknesses in May 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Evidence

During this inspection, meetings were held with the headteacher, acting deputy headteacher and the newly appointed deputy headteacher who takes up the post in September, two members of the governing body and two representatives of the local authority. The local authority’s statement of action and the school’s action plan were evaluated.

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Context

The headteacher was in post prior to the inspection carried out by Ofsted. At that time there was an acting deputy headteacher in post who is to become an assistant headteacher in September and a deputy headteacher has also been appointed for September. Since the inspection, which judged the school to have serious weaknesses, there has been no change in the number of teaching staff in the school CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View White Moss Business Park Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566855 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email : rcowley@cfbt.com planned to be in post in September 2013. There have been some changes in roles and responsibilities of middle leaders and the teaching staff.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The school has responded positively to the judgement of serious weaknesses given at the recent Ofsted inspection. The response, in the form of the strategic improvement plan, has been made in collaboration with the local authority to good effect. The plan is coherent and well-structured such that the response of the school is given to each point for improvement cited in the inspection report. The detailed plan for implementation has actions, staff responsibilities, time scale, resources and the responsibility and means for monitoring clearly set out. The report from Ofsted has been a catalyst for planning for improvement.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The plan can be characterised as focusing on increased rigour of monitoring and increased accountability for performance. The school is already carrying out more rigorous monitoring in association with the newly appointed school improvement partner. There have been some changes to roles and responsibilities in senior leadership to bring about change in a more strategic way. From September there will be a newly appointed deputy headteacher and a newly designated assistant headteacher with clear roles and responsibilities. When fully in place the planned more rigorous monitoring will provide increased feedback to teachers and a closer tracking of pupils' learning and progress. Complementing the changes in leadership there are new appointments of two literacy coordinators for Key Stages 1 and 2 who will work collaboratively to oversee this area of improvement.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Close collaboration with the school improvement officer is laying the foundations for improved teaching and learning through modelling good practice and through coaching. Local authority consultants are contributing to these improvement activities in literacy and numeracy. This effort is consolidated through the formation of the monitoring and evaluation group that consists of the headteacher and five governors. Three members of the governing body formed a task group with the headteacher to support the action planning process.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The good collaboration with the local authority is a strength. The local authority gives a clear account of their monitoring of provision over recent years which led to some improvement planning. The inspection by Ofsted happened when existing improvement plans had not been worked through. The local authority and school's response has been to modify improvement plans to accommodate Ofsted findings. There is a strong correlation between the local authority's statement of action, the school's action plan and the areas for improvement given in the inspection report. The local authority has put in place a range of measures to support and challenge the school. The activities of the new school improvement officer, the work of consultants, collaboration with an outstanding school, partnership with a consultant headteacher have all been brokered by the local authority which has involved some funding. There is a clearly positive response from the governing body and they regard the

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

inspection report as giving a true picture of the school. There is a new Chair of the Governing Body who demonstrates a desire to provide increased challenge and support to the school. There has been an audit of skills of the governing body and there is an evident determination to match the expertise of governors to particular roles and responsibilities. The governing body is changing its committee structure to bring about improvement and has formed groups with clear functions such as the monitoring and evaluation group. There is also a monitoring group that involves the local authority, the school improvement officer, the Chair of the Governing Body and senior leaders of the school. A plan for training is being developed to match skills of individual governors to their roles building on generic training already received, such as that on interpreting the performance data published in RAISEonline. There needs

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

to be clear links in planning documentation to governing body plans to address the points for improvement given in the report.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

Following the monitoring inspection the following judgements were made:

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The school’s action plan is fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

The local authority’s statement of action is fit for purpose.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

I am copying this letter to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body and the Corporate Director Children and Young People’s Service for York.

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The quality of leadership and management at the school

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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