Woden Primary School

Woden Primary School Springfield Road, Wolverhampton, WV10 0LH

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected as an academy 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

 All leaders, governors and trustees have high expectations for the quality of teaching and for pupils’ achievement. They have taken all necessary actions and allocated the resources required to ensure that all pupils achieve these expectations.  Pupils across the school are making outstanding progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  Attainment has risen rapidly. From well below average levels at the time the school became an academy, attainment is currently average.  The attainment of pupils who stay at the school for two years or more is above average.  Pupils who are new to the school and who speak English as an additional language are given highly effective individual support to enable them to quickly access learning in lessons.  Children in Nursery and Reception classes make exceptional progress in their speaking skills and personal development. They are extremely well prepared for learning in Year 1.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Teaching is outstanding. Pupils enjoy the challenging tasks they are set and they persevere until they complete them. When given the choice, pupils often choose the most challenging task.  Teachers ask questions that encourage pupils to talk about and explain their learning. This helps to deepen the pupils’ understanding and to consider reasons for their answers.  Pupils’ outstanding attitudes in lessons support their learning exceptionally well. Pupils across the school have a thirst for learning in whatever subject is being taught.  Pupils receive clear guidance about how to complete the challenging tasks and activities in lessons through individual support or by following the steps to success. As a result, almost all pupils are successful.  Teachers and teaching assistants have regular conversations with selected pupils during and after lessons to review, consolidate and extend learning. Written feedback is not always of the same high

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

quality.  Topics and homework activities provide interesting opportunities for pupils to apply their learning and to practise computing, reading, writing and mathematics skills in a number of different subjects.  Pupils say they feel safe and are happy in school. They cannot recall any incidents of bullying and say pupils hardly ever fall out.  Behaviour is exemplary at all times of the day. Pupils show great respect to adults and each other, and are polite and courteous at all times. All pupils move around the school sensibly, with little supervision required.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in 22 lessons taught by 16 teachers. Eight were carried out jointly with the headteacher or deputy headteacher. In addition, inspectors made a number of short visits to lessons to observe work in computing, reading, personal, social and health education and physical education.  The inspectors looked at past and current information about pupils’ progress and the work of current pupils in books and on display.  The inspectors also looked at the school’s own assessments of its strengths, school improvement planning and documents relating to behaviour and safeguarding.  The inspectors met formally with small groups of pupils as well as meeting pupils informally at playtimes and lunchtimes to talk about their learning and to find out what they thought of the school. Inspectors also met with staff, a group of governors and a representative of the Central Learning Partnership Trust.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors talked to parents informally at the start and end of the school day. There were too few responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, for inspectors to consider. Inspectors took into account the 42 parent responses on the school’s own survey conducted at the end of 2014.  The inspectors took note of the 33 questionnaires submitted by staff.

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Inspection team

Georgina Beasley, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Inspection team

Martin Shufflebottom Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Woden Primary School is larger than the average-sized school.  Nursery children attend for three hours in the morning or in the afternoon and are taught in one class. Reception-aged children are taught together in two classes and attend full time.  The school became a sponsored academy in April 2013. It is part of the Central Learning Partnership Trust and works in partnership with one local school. The academy’s predecessor school was last inspected by Ofsted in March 2012, when it was judged to be inadequate.  Pupils are from a number of different minority ethnic backgrounds. A high proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language.  More pupils than in other schools nationally join and leave the school throughout the year. Many are new to the country and speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is high. This is additional

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Information about this school

government funding provided to give extra support to those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and to children who are looked after.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.  The breakfast and after-school clubs that are run on the school site were inspected at the same time as the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that the written guidance pupils are given on how to improve their work is of the same high quality as the feedback given to pupils during individual conversations with teachers and teaching assistants.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leaders have secured very substantial improvement in the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement since the school became an academy. All staff, governors and trustees share in the drive for improvement. Expectations for pupils’ achievement are consistently high.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher and deputy headteacher have established positive relationships and have provided effective training and support to secure a strong commitment from all staff to improve the school’s performance. Teachers welcome feedback about their practice and take immediate action to improve their teaching if the progress of pupils in their classes slows.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The leadership of subjects, special educational needs and for pupils learning English as an additional language is outstanding. Leaders have established clear systems for checking on pupils’ progress. They work closely with teachers and teaching assistants to ensure that pupils whose progress slows receive immediate and effective support.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school uses additional funding for the pupil premium effectively to ensure disadvantaged pupils are able to take part in all relevant school events and activities. Additional adults are employed in the classrooms to enable teachers to give extra attention to pupils who need it. As a result any gaps in their learning in reading, writing and mathematics are closing rapidly across the school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The Central Learning Partnership has given the school excellent support, especially in improving the quality of leadership and the quality of teaching when the school first became an academy. The local partnership school has p rovided staff to lead improvements, including the current headteacher and deputy headteacher. The support is now mostly through consultancy and training because rapid improvement is being sustained.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school celebrates the diversity that pupils bring to the school. There are numerous opportunities to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through assemblies, lessons and an exciting range of topics and additional activities. Pupils are developing a very good understanding of British values, including being respectful of individual beliefs and religions. They learn about the rule of law and democracy by creating and following school rules, and by voting for school council members. As a result, they are prepared very well for life in modern Britain.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 All staff follow the school’s robust safeguarding policies and procedures and share the school’s high expectations for pupils’ safety and welfare. As a result, parents who spoke to inspectors feel that their children are safe and pupils feel very safe.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school ensures that every pupil has an equal opportunity to succeed. Those who are new to the country and who speak very little English receive effective individual and small-group support to help them access learning in lessons quickly. Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs work with adults individually to support effectively their emotional and academic development.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school has used additional funding for sports to employ two sports coaches to provide staff training and to teach sport and physical education in school. More pupils than previously take part in a range of sports and after-school clubs, including cricket, football, tag rugby and netball.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The breakfast and after-school care clubs are managed very well. Staff ensure pupils are safe. They plan a varied range of activities that allow pupils to relax, to take part in sports and games, and to benefit from support with homework.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  Governors have high expectations for the school. They are fully involved in checking how well the school is doing and so know the school’s strengths and areas for improvement exceptionally well.  Governors make regular visits to the school to observe the work of the school at first hand As a result, governors have a very clear picture of the quality of teaching. The information is used to inform their discussions and decisions about pay.  Governors ask school leaders challenging questions about attendance, pupils’ achievement and the quality of teaching.  Governors keep a close eye on the school’s budget and, in particular, how pupil premium funding is being used to support eligible pupils’ progress and how sports funding is promoting pupils’ increased participation in sport.  The governing body ensures that statutory requirements are met, particularly with regard to the

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The leadership and management are outstanding

safeguarding of pupils. Governors have attended all relevant safeguarding training, including child protection and safer recruitment training.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Behaviour at all times is impeccable. Pupils walk sensibly to assembly and settle quickly with little supervision. Pupils are quick to walk to class at the start of the day and after playtimes. As a result, lessons always start on time.

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Behaviour

 Pupils are respectful and polite to all adults and to each other. They thoughtfully hold doors for each other and always remember to say please and thank you. Pupils take turns in conversations, listening respectfully to each other and politely waiting for others to stop talking before giving their ideas.

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Behaviour

 Attitudes to learning are exemplary. Pupils concentrate extremely well in lessons, staying on task throughout until tasks are completed. They relish challenge and show great tenacity when tasks make them think hard. One pupil was pleased to be, ‘finding it easier and easier’, after sticking with a particularly challenging task in a mathematics lesson.

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Behaviour

 Pupils say that they enjoy school. Work in books, including homework is always presented neatly. Pupils often find things out for themselves to broaden their knowledge and understanding of a particular subject or topic. Freedom to present homework in any way they wish results in creatively and imaginatively presented learning.

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Behaviour

 Pupils have numerous opportunities to take responsibility. Peer mentors offer advice and guidance to their schoolmates at playtimes. Members of the school council consult their classmates and confidently share with school leaders their views about school activities.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. The small number of pupils with emotional issues or concerns meet daily with an adult if necessary to talk about and to identify strategies for dealing with any negative feelings. As a result, pupils always leave these sessions feeling positive.

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Safety

 Pupils have an astute understanding of the different types of bullying, including cyber-bullying and name- calling of a racist, homophobic or sexist nature. Pupils are adamant that bullying does not occur. They are equally clear that, if it were to happen, then it would be dealt with quickly. Pupils are confident to share any concerns with any adult in school.

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Safety

 Pupils who spoke to inspectors said that they feel very safe. Pupils are fully involved in assessing personal risk. Topics, activities and visitors to school to talk about safety ensure that pupils know how to stay safe when outside the school; they learn, for example, about road safety, ‘stranger danger’ and the hazards of using the internet and mobile phones.

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Safety

 The school’s drive to improve attendance has been successful. Attendance is now close to the national average. Absence figures are compounded by the number of pupils who leave the school during the year and who remain on the school’s register until they arrive at a new school.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers ensure that pupils thoroughly enjoy their lessons and want to learn. Pupils love challenging themselves and gain a great sense of accomplishment when they manage to complete the challenging tasks they choose or are given.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers ask questions that encourage pupils to talk about and explain their learning. This helps to deepen their understanding and to consider reasons for their answers. In turn, this helps them to complete the tasks. Teachers constantly check pupils’ understanding in lessons and quickly give pupils additional support if they are finding tasks too difficult or more challenge when they are finding the tasks too easy.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers plan reading, writing and mathematics lessons extremely well to ensure the needs of all pupils are met. Regular reading in class for research and for enjoyment fosters a love of reading. Varied opportunities for pupils to develop specific phonics knowledge in a systematic way helps them to put together letter sounds into words, to spell accurately and write fluently. Their writing in different subjects helps them develop their creative skills as well as practise their good spelling, punctuation and grammar. Teachers’ clear and precise explanations in mathematics lessons help pupils to develop good calculation skills. Pupils are required to explain how they solve problems and this deepens their mathematical understanding.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The ‘steps to success’ provided by teachers in lessons help all pupils to follow a series of instructions to understand what to do. This particularly helps disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, the least-able pupils and those at an early stage of learning English to quickly acquire new knowledge and skills. The most-able pupils are expected to create their own ‘steps to success’ to help them to plan their learning and to complete tasks themselves.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The excellent relationships between teachers, teaching assistants and pupils mean that pupils are confident learners, prepared to choose the most challenging tasks and know that they will learn from making mistakes. Older pupils often challenge themselves in homework tasks by extending their research or thinking up harder problems to solve in mathematics.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Pupils assess their own learning in lessons. This helps them to understand what they are learning and how to improve. Teachers and teaching assistants talk to individual pupils about their work during and at the end of lessons, and they give clear advice to pupils about how to improve. Written feedback is not always of the same high quality to encourage pupils to make the improvements without meeting with an adult first.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils across the school have made outstanding progress over the last two years in reading, writing and mathematics. Attainment is rising rapidly throughout the school. Standards were well below average when the school became an academy almost two years ago. Attainment is now average in all year groups. The attainment of pupils who stay at the school for two years or more is above average.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The proportion of pupils making expected or better than expected progress is higher than pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. This includes boys and girls, pupils who speak English as an additional language, pupils of all abilities, pupils from different minority ethnic groups, disadvantaged pupils and disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Disadvantaged pupils have closed the gap with their classmates in reading, writing and mathematics and are closing the gap with other pupils across the country. In 2014, at the end of Year 6, disadvantaged pupils were well ahead of their classmates in reading, writing and mathematics. They were half a term behind pupils nationally in mathematics, a term behind in reading, but they did as well as pupils nationally in writing. The school’s information about attainment and progress indicates that these gaps are closing further this year.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs receive effective support in lessons from skilled teaching assistants and teachers to help them make good and sometimes outstanding progress.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The most-able pupils enjoy the challenging tasks set in lessons. They show great tenacity in thinking through how to solve mathematics problems. About a quarter of pupils in the current Year 6 have been entered into the higher Level 6 test this year.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils’ progress in reading has increased significantly. Pupils enjoy reading every day for pleasure or to find information to support their learning in other subjects. Pupils’ secure skills in phonics (letters and the sounds they make) help them to work out unfamiliar words and to understand what they are reading. An average proportion of pupils who had not joined the school during Year 1 reached the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics check last year.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils who are new to the country and learning to speak English quickly grow in confidence due to the individual and well-targeted support they receive. They develop the skills and strategies they need to understand learning in lessons and so acquire new knowledge quickly.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils develop and apply good speaking, reading, writing and mathematics skills in a range of subjects, including science, history, geography and computing. Pupils’ work in books indicates secure knowledge and understanding in science, and artwork displayed around the school is of good quality. Pupils develop fit and healthy lives through street dance activities and a wide range of sports, including football, tag rugby, netball.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Outstanding leadership and management has led to rapid improvement in teaching and to children’s achievement in both the Nursery and Reception classes over the last two years. From starting points that are well below those typical for children’s ages, an average proportion reach typical levels for their age in all areas of learning by the end of the Reception Year.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children make excellent progress in the Nursery and Reception classes. They receive excellent support from skilled adults in helping them to learn to speak English, which prepares them well for learning. Daily reading and writing lessons build the children’s skills systematically so nearly all are confident readers and writers by the time they start in Year 1.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Teachers and teaching assistants make sure that activities are interesting and respond to children’s particular learning needs. Children become absorbed in learning because activities motivate them to want to learn. Daily individual support is given to any child, including disabled children and those who have special educational needs, to help build the knowledge or skills with which they are struggling.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The most-able children are challenged to try harder work, such as using their knowledge of letters and sounds to spell words themselves when writing, and thinking of their own ways to solve number problems in mathematics.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Very positive relationships between staff and parents and the well-established routines help children to feel safe and to settle quickly. Learning starts as soon as the children enter the classroom. They go quickly to an adult-led activity to work on a particular skill or to choose another activity from those set out in the classrooms. Children behave extremely well when learning in the classroom or outside in the well- equipped outside areas.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Adults make constant checks on children’s learning. They use the information to join in with children’s play at just the right moment to ask a question or to develop ideas and learning. Parents are fully involved in sharing with the school what their children can and cannot do. As a result, there is a good understanding about each child’s learning which teachers and teaching assistants use well to plan each day’s activities and experiences.

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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 139199 Local authority Wolverhampton Inspection number 449846

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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 sponsor-led Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 422 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Joan Collins Headteacher Helen Vernon Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected as an academy Telephone number 01902 558880 Fax number 01902 558879 Email address enquiries@wodenprimary.org 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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