West Witney Primary School & Nursery

School report West Witney Primary School

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Edington Road, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 5FZ

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils enjoy learning and are enthusiastic about the activities that teachers present to them. As a result they make good progress in all subjects.  The school has developed an effective system that allows staff to measure accurately the progress made by pupils and the standards they attain.  Teaching is good because teachers make their lessons interesting for pupils and then mark their work in a way that helps pupils to extend their learning.  Behaviour and safety are good. This leads to a calm, purposeful learning environment for all pupils.  The headteacher has provided strong leadership and is at the heart of the school’s improvement programme.  The leadership of the school regularly checks on the quality of teaching to ensure that it is continuously improving and that teachers know what they need to do to improve.  Children receive a good start to their school life because the early years team provides them with a

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

range of well taught activities that allows them to make good progress. 

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 There is not enough outstanding teaching to ensure that pupils make outstanding progress across all subjects.  Pupils’ cultural awareness is not as strong as their spiritual, moral and social development.  Senior and middle leaders have not yet fully developed their roles in checking teaching across the subjects to ensure enough impact on improving pupils’ achievement.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 19 lessons and also visited some classes for shorter periods of time. Many of these lessons were joint observations with members of the senior leadership team who then gave feedback to these teachers. In addition, inspectors heard some pupils read and observed the support given to small groups of pupils.  The inspectors held a range of meetings with groups of pupils, senior and middle leaders, teachers, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  During lessons inspectors looked at the work pupils were doing. They also collected pupils’ books to see the work that pupils had completed at other times.  A wide range of written evidence produced by the school was reviewed, including the schools’ records of how well the pupils are doing, minutes of governors’ meetings, teachers’ planning, the school’s evaluation of how well it is doing and the school’s plans for further development. Inspectors also looked at the

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Information about this inspection

information the school had gathered on the quality of teaching in the school and how that was being improved, and how the school measures the performance of teachers.  Inspectors talked to parents at the start of the school day and also at other times around the school. The 100 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) were also considered.

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Inspection team

Martyn Kitson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 West Witney Primary School is larger than the average primary school and provides full time education for children from the age of three to 11.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for children in local authority care, pupils eligible for free school meals and children from service families, is below the national average.  Most pupils are White British with few pupils from ethnic minorities or who speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of pupils with special educational needs or disabilities is below average.  Pupil mobility is lower than that seen nationally and the school serves an area of lower than average deprivation.  In 2014, the school exceeded the government’s floor targets. These set the minimum expectations for the standards reached and the progress made by pupils by the end of Year 6.  The school operates a small breakfast club for the benefit of children attending West Witney Primary

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Information about this school

School.  There have been significant changes in staffing, particularly teachers, since the previous inspection.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the amount of outstanding teaching so that pupils make rapid progress by: - ensuring that teachers plan work that is challenging for all pupils and that teachers intervene in lessons to check that this is the case - equipping teachers and teaching assistants with the necessary expertise to extend pupils’ knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of learning at all times during lessons - improving the quality of marking so that it has an immediate impact on pupils’ understanding of what is being taught in lessons.  Improve pupils’ progress and attainment by: - developing the roles of senior and middle leaders so that they have a greater impact on the quality of teaching and on pupils’ achievement - taking more opportunities in all subjects taught in the school to develop skills in reading, writing and mathematics - providing more opportunities for pupils to learn about different faiths and cultures.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher has provided particularly strong leadership through her clear understanding of how to improve the school. Her role has been key to the recent improvements that have been made.  All leaders have high expectations of the school and the pupils in it and work hard to ensure that these expectations are met. Senior and middle leaders have a clear understanding of their roles, but this is not sufficiently well-used practice to have as much impact as it should on improving the quality of teaching and the pupils’ achievement.  The school has a rigorous programme for checking the quality of teaching across the subjects taught. There is also a robust programme for the performance management of teachers which closely links each teacher’s performance to their pay. Pay rises are only awarded to teachers whose performance warrants it and there are clear expectations of what teachers must do in order to justify their pay.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has a good understanding of its strengths and where it needs to develop further, and it has a detailed plan that it is working on to ensure this development happens.  The school has enthusiastically adopted the new National Curriculum, which is both broad and balanced. It has taken the lead in producing its own system for assessing pupils’ achievement. This is beginning to provide the school with accurate information on pupils’ progress and the standards pupils reach. Pupils are involved in the planning of their topics and saying what they want to learn. Topics often include a special event, such as a trip or a visitor. However, opportunities have been missed to develop pupils’ skills in reading, writing and mathematics through all subjects taught in school.  Assemblies, religious education lessons and personal, social and health education lessons help to provide a rounded programme to support pupils’ spiritual, social and moral development. The cultural development

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The leadership and management are good

of pupils is promoted less well, although ideas about tolerance and understanding aspects of democratic life in modern Britain are covered effectively.  Parents are very positive about the work of the school, highlighting the quality of communication with them. The school has good links with local schools, particularly local secondary schools, where Year 6 pupils go to for enrichment classes in English and mathematics.  Additional funds for disadvantaged pupils are helping these pupils to perform at a level much closer to that achieved by other pupils. Funding for primary physical education (PE) and sport is used to enrich the teaching of PE and to improve the skills of teachers through them working alongside PE specialists.  Safeguarding meets statutory requirements, with all necessary safeguarding procedures appropriately carried out.  The local authority has provided some limited support to the school which has been helpful in bringing

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The leadership and management are good

improvements.  The governance of the school: Governors provide strong leadership. They have a good knowledge of the school’s strengths and areas for development and regularly challenge the school on what it is doing about these. Information on pupil achievement is regularly given to them and they know where the teaching in the school is strongest and where it needs to improve. They are aware of the school’s procedures for linking performance to pay and how any underperformance is dealt with. Governors regularly visit the school to check on its performance and they are involved in evaluating the school and planning for its development. They manage the budget effectively and know the impact of the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils and for primary PE and sport.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good as seen in lessons and around the school.  Pupils show positive attitudes towards their learning, particularly when it is presented in ways that are relevant to real life. They work and cooperate well to discuss their learning and explore their thinking. In a Year 3 class, they used their knowledge of ‘acts of kindness’ to organise themselves into groups to present a play script. A few pupils are not always as actively involved in their learning as they should be in some lessons.  Pupils are well behaved and are courteous to adults and to each other. Some pupils report that there can be some boisterous play on the playground, but this is not common. Most pupils respond quickly to requests from staff, and disruptions, which are only ever minor, are rare.  Incidents of poor behaviour are recorded in detail and regularly analysed – this has led to changes in practice and expectations which have reduced the number of incidents. Combinations of the use of external

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Behaviour

support, very occasional fixed-term exclusions and the engagement of parents have led to positive outcomes.  Incidents of bullying are rare and pupils have a good understanding of different types of bullying, including cyber-bullying. The school’s efforts in this area are effective.  The large majority of pupils are very positive about their contribution to the culture of the school. Parents are very positive about behaviour and express few concerns about bullying. Tolerance is promoted in school, resulting in no discriminatory or derogatory language being used, apart from the occasional minor name calling on the playground.  Attendance is above average and is the same for different groups in the school. Persistent absence is well below national figures and has improved over time as a result of the school’s expectations and routines.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good.  Pupils feel safe at school because they are confident that adults will support and help them. They know how to keep themselves safe through programmes such as e-safety, ‘Stranger Danger’ and road safety.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The good teaching that takes place in the school ensures pupils make good progress.  Teaching mostly engages pupils and interests them in their learning. Many teachers link the learning to real-life situations, such as in a Year 6 mathematics lesson that used home decorating as a way to teach area and perimeter. Pupils remain on task and engaged because teaching is usually challenging enough and sufficiently well matched to their needs.  All teachers have developed positive learning relationships with their pupils through clear expectations and established routines for behaviour. Lessons are rarely affected by even low level disruption and this enables pupils to learn well and make good progress.  Teachers use a range of strategies to find out how well pupils are learning, including the use of whiteboards, effective questioning and paired learning. All of these strategies are effective in moving

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The quality of teaching is good

learning forward.  Teachers ask appropriate questions to find out what pupils know and use this information to plan the next steps in learning. They also effectively model what they want pupils to do and this clarity accelerates pupils’ learning.  Marking and feedback to pupils, especially in writing books, make a strong contribution to pupil progress. Pupils like the green and pink marking that is used throughout the school, as well as the opportunities that are given to them to assess their own and others’ work. However, sometimes pupils’ responses to marking are not checked carefully enough and do not ensure that pupils have consolidated their learning.  High expectations contribute to the well presented books for all age groups. Pupils take pride in their work and learning.  In a few lessons, pupils are passive in their learning when the teaching is not at an appropriately challenging level.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching assistants provide good support to pupils when they are working independently, but they are not always well deployed for the entire lesson which limits the impact they have on learning.  Assessment is used effectively to plan lessons with continuity, enabling pupils to make good progress over time.

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is good

 Children enter the school with levels of development that are generally typical for their age. They make good progress in the early years due to the good teaching and broad range of activities they experience.  Pupils make good progress in Key Stage 1 in all subjects and reach levels that are often above national averages. They perform well in the national check on phonics (the sounds letters make) at the end of Year 1 due to the good quality teaching that they receive in this area in both the early years and Key Stage 1.  The work in pupils’ books shows the good progress pupils are making in Years 1 and 2, in particular lower ability pupils, and demonstrates that the standards pupils reach are higher than the national average for reading, writing and mathematics.  Pupils’ books and teaching show that pupils’ progress slows down slightly in Years 3 and 4, but then accelerates again in Years 5 and 6. Results from 2014 show that Year 6 pupils did not make the progress

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is good

they should have due to issues around the quality of teaching in previous years and staffing changes. However, the school’s own data show that pupils currently in the school are making good progress and are on track to attain higher standards. Progress is accelerating for current pupils and standards are being raised.  Effective support for pupils with special needs means that these pupils make progress at a similar rate to other pupils. Most able pupils make progress which is at least as good as other pupils and the school’s information shows that they are on track to attain levels well above national figures.  Pupils who are eligible for additional funding are making progress in line with other pupils. In 2014, this was not the case, but these pupils are now receiving better teaching and their progress is carefully watched by the school. Consequently, these pupils currently in the school are now making better progress

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is good

than previously.  Pupils are making good progress because teachers are planning lessons that engage them more by using real life situations and because staff have high expectations of pupils. Marking is detailed and provides good feedback to pupils, although this is not always used well by pupils. The detailed systems the school has established to check how well pupils are doing enable teachers to see exactly what progress pupils are making and to provide extra support if necessary.  There has been a marked improvement in the quality of writing across the school due to the new way writing is taught in all classes.

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is good

 Children enter the early years with skills typical for their age, although there are year-on-year variations in this, where many have skills below that expected. They make good progress from their starting points because of the good teaching and relevant activities that they enjoy, and at the end of the early years reach levels in line with those achieved nationally.  There are good opportunities for children to develop their language and social skills both inside and in the large, well-resourced outdoor area. Children’s communication skills develop well because all adults encourage children to talk about their learning and model new vocabulary well.  Children are well prepared for Year 1 and leave the early years with achievement that is at least in line with national expectations.  The leadership of the early years is good and opportunities for staff development are effective, especially with training on teaching the sounds that letters make. Staff work well as a team with a common purpose

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is good

for the good of the children.  There are positive links with other local nursery providers. Parents are confident in the staff and school and comment positively about the way new children are prepared for early years classes.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 123084 Local authority Oxfordshire Inspection number 453551

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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 3 − 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 310 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Malcom Hardie Headteacher Nancy Darby Date of previous school inspection 20-21 February 2013 Telephone number 01993 706249 Fax number 01993 706251 Email address head.2601@west-witney.oxon.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 and 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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