Wykeham Primary School

Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils achieve extremely well. Over the last five years, pupils’ attainment has been consistently and significantly higher than average at the end of Years 2 and 6.  All groups of pupils make rapid progress, often from low starting points, including the disadvantaged, those with special educational needs and those who speak English as an additional language.  The most able pupils achieve exceptionally well and this is evident in the high proportion reaching the higher Levels 5 and 6 in mathematics and writing. These pupils do not do quite as well in reading at Level 6.  Teaching over time is of a very high quality. Teachers really capture the imagination of pupils and provide activities that enable all to make rapid gains in their learning.  The management of teaching is of high quality. Leaders have high expectations of teachers and check regularly to make sure that teaching is enabling pupils to make rapid progress.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Provision in the early years is excellent. Children are very well prepared for Year 1.  The school promotes its values very strongly, based on respecting the rights of the individual and taking responsibility for one’s own actions.  The headteacher, governors and other leaders have a united vision to give all pupils the best chances in life through education. They have worked successfully since the previous inspection to improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement.  Pupils’ behaviour is outstanding. They have a maturity beyond their years in the way they conduct themselves in and around school. They have excellent attitudes to learning.  Pupils’ high achievement and excellent behaviour are rooted in confident self-belief. From the headteacher down, adults in the school believe passionately in each pupil’s ability to excel and they tell pupils that they can achieve very highly.  Pupils’ safety is extremely secure. This is because

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

governors take pupils’ safety very seriously and they ensure that all aspects for keeping pupils safe are of the highest standards.  The required improvements identified in the previous inspection have been successfully carried out, showing the school’s very strong capacity to improve.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 20 lessons. Four were carried out jointly with either the headteacher or the deputy headteacher.  They looked at pupils’ workbooks to see how well they learn.  They talked to pupils to find out from them how safe they feel and how well they are taught.  Inspectors talked to parents and carers.  Inspectors looked at key documents used for the management of the school, including the school improvement plan, the school’s self-evaluation, the policies on behaviour management and those for keeping children safe.  They talked to teaching and non-teaching staff. They met with the Chair of the Governing Body and the Chair of the Finance Committee; they also met with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors took account of responses by 19 parents and carers to the online questionnaire Parent View, and they considered the responses of 56 members of staff to the anonymous staff questionnaire.

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Information about this inspection

 Parental, staff and pupil surveys organised by the school were also considered.  A survey by the local authority on the use of the pupil premium grant was also considered by inspectors.

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Inspection team

Mina Drever, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Inspection team

Peter Lacey-Hastings Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is more than twice the size of the average-sized primary school.  Pupils can join the school either in the Nursery or in Reception. They can attend either the morning or the afternoon session in the Nursery. Reception is full time.  There are some 18 ethnic backgrounds represented among the pupils. The largest three groups are African, followed by Caribbean and Other White. Other groups consist of very few pupils in each.  Nearly two thirds of the pupils speak English as an additional language. This is a much larger proportion than average. Between them, pupils speak some 30 different languages. Many pupils join the Nursery speaking little or no English. Several of these pupils join the school after Reception during Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs is much smaller than average.  About half of the pupils are eligible for the pupil premium grant. This is a much larger proportion than

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Information about this school

average. This is additional government funding used to support those pupils eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the local authority.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in mathematics, reading and writing.  The school works with five other schools in the Willesden cluster to share good practice in teaching and to moderate assessment systems and outcomes.  The headteacher was asked by the local authority to serve on a committee approved by the Department for Education to support another school in difficulty. After resolving these he was invited to become a governor of that school.  The school is visited by managers of other schools in England and from abroad, at the request of the local authority, as part of an improvement programme.  The school will be joining a training school alliance in the summer term of 2015 to carry out school-based

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Information about this school

teacher training.  The school is twinned with a primary school in Madrid.  There is a breakfast club and an after-school club run by the governing body.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the proportion of pupils attaining the highest levels of attainment in reading by providing activities that challenge the most able pupils apprpriately.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher has played a key role in establishing a climate of ‘belief’. He tells staff and pupils that they each can achieve the highest standards because they have the ability to do so. As a result, staff and pupils alike develop a strong self-belief which plays no small part in the school’s high performance.  Governors want the very best for all pupils because ‘it’s the very least they deserve’. To this end, all leaders and managers work as one body to provide high-quality education. They are fully supported in this endeavour by parents, carers and staff. As a result, pupils’ attainment and progress have been above the national average for the last five years. In 2014, results were even higher, significantly above average.  The school’s ethos and vision are underpinned by the principles of equality of access to education and equality of opportunities. Everyone has a right to learn. With that right goes the responsibility to behave in

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The leadership and management are outstanding

such a way that the highest standards are achieved by everyone.  The school evaluates its strengths and weaknesses very rigorously and accurately. The school’s improvement plan is regularly re-evaluated to raise standards and to close gaps in attainment for different groups of pupils.  Subject and phase leaders fulfil their roles very effectively because they share the school’s vision. Their capabilities in keeping a close eye on pupils’ progress have improved considerably since the previous inspection. They feel confident in how they do this because leaders and managers have given them opportunities for appropriate training.  The quality of teaching is checked regularly through observations and scrutiny of pupils’ books. A very stringent and regular check of teachers’ individual performance identifies areas they need to improve and training is provided to help them. Teachers’ targets are linked to raising pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Pupils’ progress is checked regularly through informal and formal assessments. Pupils in danger of falling behind are identified on a weekly basis and support put in place immediately. This may be one-to-one extra lessons or support with teaching assistants in lessons. The impact of support is checked carefully to ensure that these pupils catch up quickly.  The school’s curriculum is systematically planned. Subject learning is enhanced by project work on different topics each term. Through this, pupils get a window to the world beyond the school’s boundaries. A link with a primary school in Madrid, for example, gives pupils a perfect opportunity to exchange their cultural and linguistic knowledge. They enjoy ‘skyping’ their partner classes to sing to one another in Spanish and English and share their artistic creations which represent one another’s cultures.  The development of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural consciousness of pupils is entrenched in the

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The leadership and management are outstanding

school’s motto of ‘commitment to excellence and equality’. Pupils learn about other religions and other people’s artistic and literary traditions. By studying philosophical ideas such as democracy, citizens’ rights and responsibility in British society, they are well prepared for life in modern Britain.  Equal opportunity underpins the provision for pupils with special educational needs. The school provides statutory provision via very well-planned programmes, from identification of individual needs to putting together appropriate individual educational programmes of learning. As a result, these pupils make rapid progress.  The pupil premium grant is extremely well spent and directed towards support programmes with excellent results for pupils. One-to-one support, small-group support and attendance at the breakfast and afternoon clubs raise achievement in literacy and mathematics. Pupils’ self-confidence and sense of self-worth are

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The leadership and management are outstanding

raised by funded participation in cultural activities such as visits to the theatre and learning musical instruments. These programmes contribute in no small way to these pupils’ achievement being much higher than other pupils’ nationally.  The primary sports premium grant is impressively spent. A full-time specialist teacher has been recruited and new sport equipment has been purchased. It has transformed provision and outcomes. Outdoor adventurous activities and competition between schools have increased.  The local authority has worked very effectively with the school for a long time. Now the school’s leaders and managers help the authority in spreading this school’s good practices to other schools in the authority and abroad. The local authority’s Schools’ Partnership has invited this school to be a specialist school on assessment.  Safeguarding is stringent at all levels. Governors make sure that all aspects of keeping pupils safe are

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The leadership and management are outstanding

properly in place. As a result, the school is a very safe place to be, for both pupils and adults.  The governance of the school: Governors are very effective in all aspects of holding the school to account. They are supportive of the leaders and managers, but equally they hold them to account for pupils’ achievement. They scrutinise test results carefully and know that the most able pupils need to be stretched more in reading. They have the appropriate training and skills to analyse the progress pupils make and the results they attain. They are already familiar with the new assessment system to accompany the new National Curriculum. They monitor the quality of teaching by scrutinising the management of teachers’ performance by senior leaders. Governors make sure that teachers are rewarded, or not, in terms of both salary progression and promotion based on the progress of their pupils. They manage the headteacher’s performance equally

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The leadership and management are outstanding

strictly, which is firmly linked to raising pupils’ standards. They manage a very efficient budget so that resources are purchased for pupils’ education.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils have exceptionally positive attitudes towards learning. They enjoy learning for its own sake but also because it will give them opportunities to go on to higher education and good training for jobs in the future. For this reason attendance is very high and consistently above average.  Behaviour is underpinned by the values of equal rights and responsibilities in order to maximise chances of success. Pupils know that this right to learn goes with the responsibility of making sure that their behaviour does not stop other pupils from reaching the highest standards. As a result, disruptive behaviour in class is extremely rare.  Pupils have a very good knowledge of all kinds of unacceptable behaviour such as bullying, racism and offensive language. They say these occur extremely rarely. If they observe unacceptable behaviour they know to speak to an adult immediately, who will deal with it promptly.

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Behaviour

 Parents, carers and staff agree that behaviour is very good in school because there are very clear systems in place which are checked regularly by managers for their effectiveness.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Governors and leaders make sure that all systems are very sound. All staff are appropriately trained.  Pupils know they need to play carefully in the playground. This area is very well equipped with very safe apparatus, some of it designed by pupils themselves with the help of local artists.  The site is very safe. All gates for pupil entrances are properly manned by adults. Electronic systems are reliably used for the safety of pupils. Risk assessments are rigorous.  Safety is very secure. Pupils feel very safe and parents and carers agree that their children are very safe. They are particularly aware of the dangers of internet use. E-safety is carefully regulated by all adults.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching over time is very well planned and very well delivered. As a result pupils’ levels of attainment are very high. Workbooks show that over time pupils make rapid progress.  In lessons, pupils are often enraptured by the content and the way it is delivered. Whole-class discussions promote very good acquisition of knowledge and skills. For example, when studying a ballad in which a policeman and a magistrate appear, pupils were expertly guided by the teacher in a class discussion about the laws of this country which are upheld by the police.  Pupils read very well and widely, with good expressive intonation. They enjoy reading for pleasure and for information gathering. Their understanding of texts is very accurate. However, the most able pupils are not always given more challenging tasks to raise their achievement in reading equal to that in writing and mathematics.  Marking is consistent with the school’s policy and carried out regularly. Homework is marked consistently

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

too. Pupils say that they appreciate teachers’ comments because they help them to improve.  High levels of literacy are expected in all types of writing. Teachers comment on pupils’ use of correct grammatical features in, for example, written tasks in history and written scientific experiments. Creative writing is a very strong feature of the whole curriculum. ‘The writing wall’ celebrates pupils’ writing from Reception to Year 6.  Mathematics is taught thematically through the curriculum, as well as a subject. Pupils know when they are applying mathematical concepts in other areas of learning, for example, when a Year 1 class investigated if toy cars travelled at different speeds on different surfaces.  Pupils who need support make very good progress in lessons because teaching assistants help them in their tasks extremely well. They are very well trained and work very well with teachers in checking pupils’

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

progress. They make sure that pupils understand what they are doing.

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is outstanding

 All pupils achieve very well from their different starting points. Attainment has been consistently and significantly above the average at the end of Years 2 and 6 over the last five years in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils of all abilities make rapid progress.  Children join the early years with very low levels of development, not typical for their age. They make rapid progress and are very well prepared for the start of Year 1.  In 2014, there was a big increase in the number of pupils attaining at higher levels in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Years 2 and 6, although the increase was a little smaller in reading than in writing and mathematics.  Current pupils are making very good progress in all year groups. For example, those in Year 6, in one term, made the equivalent of nearly two terms’ progress in writing and in mathematics. Progress in reading is a little bit slower, but still very strong.

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is outstanding

 The most able pupils perform exceptionally well. In 2014 at the end of Year 6, many more of them than in 2013 gained the higher Levels 5 and 6 in mathematics, and the higher Level 5 in reading and writing. This was significantly above the average, although no pupil attained the higher Level 6 in reading. At the end of Year 2, more than a quarter of pupils attained the higher Level 3 in all subjects.  Pupils with special educational needs achieve very well from their different starting points. Their attainment at the end of Year 6 in 2014 showed them to be over one year ahead of the average.  The achievement of disadvantaged pupils is excellent. At the end of Year 6, they were more than one year ahead of other pupils nationally in 2014. They also did better than others in the school and more of them attained the higher Level 5 in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils leaving the school in 2014 had

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is outstanding

made better progress than others in the school in reading and writing and similar progress in mathematics. Throughout the school these pupils make as much, or better, progress as others.  Pupils who speak English as an additional language achieve very well. In 2014, their attainment was well above that of other pupils nationally and nearly one year ahead of other pupils in school. This is because they benefit from intensive and consistent teaching strategies to learn subject-specific English. For example, teachers constantly check that pupils know the meaning of mathematical language very well.  All ethnic groups achieve very well in all areas of learning.

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is outstanding

 Pupils join this school with levels of development well below those typical for their age. They make very fast progress. More of them than the national average reached a good level of development at the end of Reception in 2014.  Provision is excellent. Teaching is of high quality, very well planned and appropriately pitched to children’s level of understanding. As a result, they learn very well and make very fast progress.  Teachers work very closely with parents and carers in assessing accurately their children’s progress, from entry into Nursery to the end of Reception. The assessment process is thorough and very detailed. It is based on continuous observation of pupils’ work which is recorded in great detail.  Leadership and management of teaching and learning in Nursery and Reception are very strong. Leaders have a very good knowledge of children’s developmental stages and how to plan for them so that pupils

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is outstanding

make continuous progress.  Pupils behave exceedingly well, both in lessons directed by teachers and when they are at play. When they choose activities they do so with consideration towards other pupils. They play very well together, and very safely.  The outdoor area is very impressive and planned with meticulous attention to detail so that the learning never stops, even when children think they are playing. Every area of development is well catered for. Children love the bicycle track in particular, which is very safe because adults supervise it very well.

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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 101518 Local authority Brent Inspection number 448225

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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 585 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mr Colin Adams Headteacher Mr Everton Sharpe Date of previous school inspection 26–27 January 2010 Telephone number 020 8450 8425 Fax number 020 8450 8425 Email address esharpe@wykeham.brent.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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