Wootey Infant School

Wootey Infant School Wooteys Way, Alton, GU34 2JA

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 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 achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics from their starting points.  Effective teaching ensures pupils learn well. Teachers plan interesting and engaging lessons that motivate pupils and ensure they make good progress.  Children in the early years achieve well due to excellent relationships, effective teaching and stimulating learning experiences.  Pupils’ achievement is checked thoroughly and regularly. Support is put in place for those not doing well enough, to ensure they catch up quickly.  Pupils behave well and support each other in a caring fashion. The school ensures they are kept safe. Pupils feel safe in school.  The curriculum provides a good range of interesting topics and visits that pupils enjoy; these support their learning well.  The headteacher fosters strong, caring relationships between staff and pupils and a positive climate for learning. This promotes pupils’ personal, social and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

emotional development effectively, as well as their successful achievement.  Leaders and governors have ensured the school’s effectiveness has been maintained since its previous inspection. They have created an effective staff team and a well organised learning environment.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers’ questioning does not always extend pupils’ ideas or deepen their understanding enough, especially for the most able.  In mathematics, teachers do not alwaysprovide enough opportunities for problem solving. Their feedback to pupils in mathematics is not regular enough or of consistently good quality.  School improvement targets are not always precise enough for their success to be easily monitored by leaders and governors. In addition, the impact of measures to secure improvements is not always clear enough.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed pupils’ learning in 15 lessons, some of which were whole lessons and others part lessons, of which one was jointly observed with the headteacher.  Meetings were held with: one group of pupils; the Chair of the Governing Body and five other governors; the headteacher and other senior staff; and, a representative of the local authority.  The inspector took account of the 35 responses to the online Parent View survey. She also spoke to several parents when they brought their children to school. The inspector considered responses to the 27 staff questionnaires.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents including: the school’s own information on pupils’ current progress; planning and checks on the quality of teaching; assessment; the new curriculum; the school’s self-evaluation; records relating to behaviour and attendance; the sport premium action plan; and, documents relating to safeguarding.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector listened to pupils reading in Reception and Year 2.

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Inspection team

Janet Sinclair, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Wootey is a below-average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is well above average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is above average. This is additional government funding for pupils who are looked after or are known to be eligible for free school meals.  Children attend the Reception classes full time.  The school serves a very mixed community, with pockets of significant deprivation. A small proportion of pupils attend for short periods of time only before being re-housed, so there is significant mobility within classes and year groups.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching and learning further by ensuring that:  questioning extends pupils’ ideas and deepens their understanding, particularly for the most able  in mathematics, there is greater consistency and regularity in the quality of feedback and more opportunities for problem solving to strengthen mathematical understanding  all school improvement initiatives have clear and specific targets that can be easily monitored by leaders and governors to check how effective the strategies have been.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have ensured that good teaching, achievement and behaviour have been maintained since the previous inspection. They have dealt with any issues promptly and thoroughly to ensure the school’s good overall effectiveness is maintained. Leaders have created a capable staff team with the common goal of promoting pupils’ learning and well-being effectively. This shows that there is clear capacity for further improvement.  Middle leaders are effective. They support their colleagues well and have used a variety of different strategies to carefully assess pupils’ level of knowledge and skills in order to target gaps in their learning. Much useful work has been done to improve literacy through a variety of programmes targeted at developing pupils’ language skills. In addition, there has been a successful whole school drive to improve pupils’ phonic (the shapes and sounds of letters and words) skills.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school carefully monitors pupils’ achievement to make sure all pupils do well. This aspect is now more closely checked by leaders and teachers than in the past.  The school improvement plan is regularly reviewed, but key targets sometimes lack the precision to enable them to be easily monitored by leaders and governors. This also limits the school’s ability to check precisely how successful improvement strategies have been.  Leaders’ regular checks on teachers’ planning and detailed lesson observations have ensured a good level of consistency in the quality of teaching.  Senior leaders set clear expectations for the performance of staff. Teachers know the evidence that they have to provide to show the quality of their work and that their effectiveness will be measured against how well targets have been met.  The school tracks pupils’ achievement carefully to ensure any pupils falling behind get the support they

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The leadership and management are good

need to help them catch up. This helps to ensure equality of opportunity.  Disadvantaged pupils receive good support, both academically and personally, enabling them to achieve well. For example, they benefit from work with an art therapist, additional pastoral support and extra help in lessons.  The school makes effective use of the primary physical education and sport premium. The school has purchased new equipment, organised new playground markings for physical activity, become involved in inter-schools sporting competitions and provided additional training for staff. These provide a good base from which to provide sustainable sporting activity within the school, promoting pupils’ physical well-being effectively.  The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development extremely well. Pupils have good opportunities to reflect on the importance of being kind and helpful in assemblies, clearly know right

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The leadership and management are good

from wrong, and have many cultural opportunities through art and music. They develop an appreciation of life in modern Britain through the school’s core values, such as cooperation and respect, through understanding of school rules and through their role as school councillors.  The new curriculum is in place, with a good emphasis on the development of literacy and numeracy; this enables pupils to achieve well. Creative use of topics, such as ‘Location, Location, Location’ and ‘The Gruffalo,’ provide effective learning experiences that fully engage pupils and support their learning across subjects well. Visits, visitors and lunchtime clubs enhance the curriculum. Pupils say that they find school trips exciting and they particularly enjoyed their visits to the zoo and to St Paul’s Cathedral.  Parents are very happy with the school and what it provides. A particularly strong feature is the way parents are encouraged to bring their children into school at the start of the school day and share their

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The leadership and management are good

early morning learning activities with them.  The local authority increased its low level of support to the school after the lower-than-expected results of 2014. However, the school’s very rapid response and determination to learn any lessons quickly and effectively mean this has not been needed.  The school ensures that good relationships exist within the school community and that any discrimination which might occur is tackled vigorously.  Safeguarding policies and procedures are robust, effective and securely in place. As a result, pupils are kept safe in school at all times.  The governance of the school:  Governors are very supportive of the school and are fully committed to ensuring pupils achieve well within a caring school community. They fulfil their statutory duties effectively and ensure all policies are in place and up to date. Governors know how well pupils are achieving because they receive regular

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The leadership and management are good

updates from the headteacher, and through their committees who scrutinise the progress information carefully. They know how effective teaching is through regular updates from the headteacher and through their visits. The governing body is fully involved in setting targets for the headteacher’s performance and, through their pay committee, is fully aware of the financial rewards for all staff. Governors are also aware that, if staff underperform, leaders will take the necessary actions to secure improvement. Pay progression only occurs if performance is at least good.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils typically behave well in lessons, during assemblies, at play and around the school. Only occasionally, when lessons do not engage them fully, does a small minority become fidgety and lose interest.  The school has clear and effective policies and procedures in place for monitoring behaviour; these are consistently applied by staff.  Pupils say that behaviour is good, with only ‘minor fall outs’, mainly at playtimes. They are aware of the sanctions that apply if they misbehave. Mostly, they want to behave well because they do not want to miss their special activities time (known as golden time), which they prize highly.  Pupils enjoy taking on responsibilities, such as being school councillors or assembly monitors, and are pleased with the contribution they make to the school.  The school makes good use of personal, social and health education sessions and a focus on rights,

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Behaviour

respect and responsibility to encourage pupils to be kind, caring and thoughtful towards each other.  Attendance is broadly average. The school has effective systems in place to monitor attendance and follows up any concerns quickly, especially any pupils who are persistently absent.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good.  Pupils say that they feel safe in school and confident that adults will help them if they need it. They particularly like ‘bubble time’, where they can share any concerns or particular successes with an adult.  Pupils are clear about what constitutes bullying and have posters around the school to remind them that it is not kind. They say that there is very little bullying in the school and, when it does occur, it is dealt with quickly by staff. There are no recorded incidents of bullying.  Pupils move around the school safely and sensibly. They know about using computers safely and how to use the apparatus safely in physical education. They learn useful information about road and water safety. They also are aware of ‘stranger danger’ through the adults who come to talk to them about it from outside school, together with the good emphasis put upon it by school staff.

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Safety

 The school conscientiously supports its many disadvantaged pupils and makes effective use of a wide range of outside agencies. These include the community partnership and the Southern Domestic Abuse Service. This ensures that this group’s specific needs are fully addressed.  Parents are confident that the school keeps their children safe and that they behave well.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching over time is good, enabling pupils to achieve well.  Well organised and well-managed lessons with interesting content engage pupils well and ensure they learn effectively.  Teachers have good subject knowledge and make effective use of technical vocabulary such as ‘suffix’, ‘alliteration’ and ‘time connectives’ in literacy. Consequently, pupils understand and use the vocabulary in their work to good effect.  Teaching assistants provide effective support for pupils. They form strong relationships with the pupils and support them well in their learning. This helps pupils’ confidence and promotes effective learning.  Teachers plan well for reading sessions. They are particularly successful when focusing on developing key reading skills, enjoyment and discussion.  Teachers make good use of interesting activities and technical vocabulary in mathematics, so that pupils learn well and enjoy the subject. However, although teachers give feedback to pupils, it is not always

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The quality of teaching is good

regular enough or sufficiently effective to move pupils’ learning on quickly. Additionally, teachers do not always provide enough opportunities for problem solving to extend pupils’ use of their mathematical knowledge.  The teaching of writing, which has been a focus for school improvement, has improved in all aspects. Teachers mark pupils’ work carefully and regularly and give pupils helpful feedback.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are well taught, nurtured and supported according to the nature of their needs. Pupils who receive one-to-one support flourish due to the high level of care they receive.  Teachers typically set work at the right level for the most able pupils. However, teachers’ questioning does not always extend or challenge pupils sufficiently. On these occasions, pupils’ progress is slower.  Teachers use reading, spelling and topic homework appropriately to support learning in school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The attainment of pupils at the end of Year 2 has been slightly better than the national picture over several years, although it dipped in 2014. This was mainly due to the very low starting points of this cohort of pupils, many of whom had significant special educational needs.  The attainment of pupils currently in Year 2 is slightly better than national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics; their progress is good. Pupils in Year 1 also make good progress.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs have carefully selected programmes to support their identified needs. This helps them to make good progress towards the targets set for them.  The most able pupils mainly achieve well due to work that meets their needs. Good links exist with the junior school to provide extension work for the small number of pupils working at higher levels.  The attainment of disadvantaged pupils supported by additional funding in 2014 was almost two terms

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The achievement of pupils is good

behind that of other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. Their progress was similar to that of other pupils in the school. The progress of pupils currently in the school is at least as good as that of other pupils. Consequently, gaps are narrowing consistently.  Pupils achieve well in reading due to regular reading sessions that focus on the development of key skills. Additionally, pupils respond well to reading texts within literacy lessons.  Boys’ writing had been a relative weakness in the past. The school has successfully encouraged improvements through the use of more boy-friendly topics. For example, in science, boys were asked to write about irreversible change linked to burning the models of houses that they had made. This stimulated them to write at length about the experience. Additionally, specific programmes linking talk, language and writing have been introduced, as well as a higher focus on the teaching of spelling and

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The achievement of pupils is good

punctuation. Boys and girls now both achieve equally well in writing.  Pupils achieve well in mathematics. Despite some limitations in the provision of problem-solving activities, they have good understanding of shapes, calculations and measurement.  Pupils’ achievement in phonics has improved due to a more structured, active approach and regular lessons that help them to achieve well.

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The early years provision is good

 Children make especially rapid progress in reading, number and making relationships. They make good progress across all the other areas of learning. Consequently, the vast majority are well prepared for their entry to Year 1.  Staff create a stimulating learning environment for children. This engages them well in their activities and helps them to be confident, inquisitive learners.  Teachers ensure children develop their reading skills, through well-focused reading activities that help to engage them in reading. This, coupled with effective phonics teaching, helps them to make rapid progress.  Excellent relationships and high expectations promote children’s confidence and well-being and ensure the children behave well. Very occasionally, children’s boisterous behaviour limits their learning.  Children play well together and enjoy the many activities that help them to develop their social skills.

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The early years provision is good

Additionally, they enjoy the opportunities they get to explore their environment, developing their understanding of the world.  Teachers make sure children develop their number skills through a variety of activities, such as ordering door numbers and counting the children in their class. They also give children sufficient opportunities for investigating numbers, for example finding different ways of making 10.  Although all staff interact well with children, on occasion they do not question children in a way that extends their knowledge and understanding enough; this slows theirprogress.  Teachers plan childrens’ learning thoroughly and, through their regular assessments, clearly target the work well at individualchildren’s specific needs.  Staff make sure that the children are safe.Children behave in a safe and sensible manner.  There are good links with parents, particularly through early morning activities and curriculum talks. There

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The early years provision is good

are also effective partnerships with playgroups and nurseries, that enable a smooth transition in to school.  The early years provision is well led. The leader is clear about what needs to improve and sets challenging targets both for achievement and provision. Thorough involvement of all staff in planning and assessment ensures a good level of consistency in the provision.

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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 115985 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 456200

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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 4–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 149 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Tim Duddridge Headteacher Ella Palmer Date of previous school inspection 11−12 July 2012 Telephone number 0142083656 Fax number N/A Email address adminoffice@wootey-inf.hants.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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