Wilbarston Church of England Primary School

Wilbarston Church of England Primary School School Lane, Wilbarston, Market Harborough, LE16 8QN

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected as an academy 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 Requires improvement 3

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The good leadership and management of the headteacher and governors have led to the development of a happy and friendly learning environment where pupils achieve well academically and develop well socially.  The strong leadership of the headteacher and the support and challenge from governors, has resulted in good quality teaching and learning. Pupils’ achievement is good, as a result. In mathematics, teaching and learning are particularly good as a result of the school’s recent focus on this as an area for improvement.  The wide range of sporting, artistic and musical opportunities within lessons and clubs make a good contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. As a result, pupils make good progress in developing self-esteem, consideration for others and confidence to undertake new challenges.  The range of subjects taught is made interesting and exciting by teachers and is used effectively to

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

support pupils’ learning in literacy and numeracy.  The leaders’ view of the school’s effectiveness is accurate and incisive. The planning for improvement which leads from this is relevant and linked to the most important things the school needs to do to raise standards further. As a result, the school has a good capacity to continue to improve.  Provision for keeping pupils safe is good. Great care is taken to ensure pupils’ well-being at all times. Pupils and their parents agree that pupils feel safe and are happy in school.  The way in which all adults treat pupils and manage their behaviour ensures that the conduct of pupils is good and contributes to their good progress. Attendance is above average and punctuality is good because pupils enjoy school.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Assessment systems in the early years identify children’s starting points and final attainment, but do not give a clear picture of on-going progress throughout the year in all of the areas of learning for young children. As a result, monitoring by senior staff and governors does not give them incisive enough information to ensure children always make good progress.  Planning of work for children in the early years is not linked closely enough to what they can already do to enable them all, especially the most able, to make consistently good progress.  Agreed policies and procedures in the early years, such as planning to focus on the achievements of three children each day, are not consistently carried out in practice.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed teaching and learning in six lessons, five of which was seen together with the headteacher.  Meetings were held with the Chair and two other representative of the Governing Body.  Account was taken of the 12 responses to the staff questionnaire and the 23 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View).  Pupils were spoken to formally and informally.  The school’s work was analysed and the inspector looked at a range of school documents, including records of the school’s checks on the quality of teaching, the school improvement plan and records relating to behaviour, attendance, safeguarding and the tracking of pupils’ progress. The inspector also looked at pupils’ work in books and heard pupils read.

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Inspection team

Sheelagh Barnes, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is smaller than average-sized primary school. It became a sponsored academy as part of the Community Learning Partnership Trust in 2013.  Virtually all pupils are from White British backgrounds and very few speak English as an additional language.  Children in the early years in the Reception class attend full time.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below average.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is below average. This additional funding is to support looked-after children and those known to be eligible for free school meals.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for the attainment and progress of students in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching and learning in the early years so that it is consistently at least good by:  ensuring assessment systems provide clear and easy to read information of the progress of children in all areas of learning to staff and senior leaders  using information gathered from assessment when planning activities, to enable all children, including the most able, to make the progress of which they are capable.  ensure that all policies and procedures are consistently applied in practice.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher, senior staff and governors have established high expectations of the work of all staff and pupils. They have created a positive atmosphere for learning, where pupils feel safe and behave well. Pupils all enjoy the same good opportunities to succeed. Discrimination of any form is not tolerated.

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The leadership and management are good

 Subject and senior leaders check pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching carefully and systematically. They use the information gathered to form the school’s development plans and training programme. This has brought about improvements in teaching, and good achievement for all groups of pupils in reading and writing, but most particularly in mathematics, which was a recent focus for improvement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders are working effectively with other schools in the Trust partnership to develop new arrangements for assessing pupils’ achievement, to reflect recent changes in the National Curriculum. Subject leaders monitor teaching and pupils’ progress effectively. They check progress information regularly, to ensure that any slowing of progress is remedied quickly.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral social and cultural development is provided for effectively. Pupils have a good understanding of a range of religions and cultures, through the subjects they are taught and the trips and visits they make. They learn about British values of democracy which enables them to develop tolerance and fairness. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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The leadership and management are good

 The subjects taught include a broad and exciting range of topics. These are supplemented by a very wide range of clubs and other activities. This helps pupils to develop their basic reading, writing and mathematics skills as well as sporting, artistic and musical skills. In addition, it offers opportunities to broaden their cultural development, health and well-being. As a result, pupils develop confidence in their ability to succeed.

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The leadership and management are good

 The pupil premium funding has been used to provide disadvantaged pupils with extra support in class. It also supports visits and access to professional assessments where required. These measures have been successful in accelerating the progress of disadvantaged pupils so that gaps in achievement have closed with other pupils.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has used the primary sports grant to provide training for school staff in physical education. As a result, staff are much more confident about teaching physical education. Money has also been used to take pupils to sporting events and to provide extra tuition for the weakest swimmers. As a result, all pupils in Year 6 have attained the 25 metres swimming award. It has also been used to provide coaches for a range of different sporting activities. Virtually all pupils in Years 1 to 6 have attended at least one club, including archery, cross-country, netball, football, hockey, basket ball and multi-skills.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders take great care to ensure that pupils are kept safe. All staff and governors are appropriately trained. As a result, they know how to keep pupils safe, including carrying out appropriate checks before staff are appointed or visitors admitted. The school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils are effective and fully meet statutory requirements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The Trust has given effective support to the school through regular reviews of its work.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  Governors carry out their statutory duties effectively, including those to ensure the safety and well-being of pupils.  They have a clear overview of the school’s strengths and areas for development. They check the school’s work rigorously to make sure that it is improving. Governors know how well the school compares to others nationally.  Governors use the appraisal system to hold leaders to account for the progress pupils make. They make sure that targets give the greatest importance to the continuous improvement of teaching and achievement. They use the outcomes from the appraisal system to make decisions about teachers’ pay and career progression. They support leaders in addressing any teaching which does not lead to at least good achievement. Governors make sure that financial management is secure and any funds, such as the pupil premium, are used effectively.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils enjoy school and are keen to come; as a result, attendance is above average and punctuality is good.

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Behaviour

 Staff and virtually all parents who expressed a view say that pupils’ behaviour is good and the atmosphere is a happy one. Pupils say that ‘behaviour is really good!’

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Behaviour

 In lessons, pupils show that they are very eager to learn and willing to work hard. They are enthusiastic and readily concentrate on the tasks teachers set them, quickly settling to tasks and listening carefully to instructions. For example, in a mathematics lesson on equations pupils became engrossed in working out the various missing values in the problems they were set.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ positive attitudes to learning extend outside the classroom and the great majority attend at least one club or extra activity, such as music tuition, sport or art. Pupils are keen to take on responsibility, such as house captains and school council roles. This all has a very positive impact on their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Behaviour

 Inappropriate behaviour is rare and none was observed during the inspection. The school is quick to take action if behaviour is less than good and all staff work to resolve any issues speedily. When pupils come together as a whole school, for instance in assemblies or concerts, their behaviour is extremely good and they listen attentively.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Effective risk assessments ensure that activities are carefully planned when undertaking trips and visits. All those parents who responded Parent View said that their children felt safe and happy in school.

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Safety

 Care is taken to ensure that those who work in the school and those who visit are suitable to work with children and are checked and monitored as appropriate. All visitors are given clear instructions on fire and safeguarding procedures.

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Safety

 The school aims focus on treating all people with respect. Derogatory and discriminatory language is not tolerated. Pupils say that name calling is extremely rare. They say that sometimes they fall out, but they know what to do to resolve disagreements.

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Safety

 Pupils are encouraged to take an active role in maintaining a safe and happy environment, through groups such as the pupils’ anti bullying committee. The ‘Buddy’ system, whereby Year 6 pupils all mentor a child in Reception, is greatly enjoyed and benefits older pupils and younger children alike.

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Safety

 Pupils are taught to evaluate and understand the risks in daily life, including risks using the internet. They are regularly reminded, through visiting speakers as well as through lessons, of how to keep themselves safe.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is good and pupils make good progress in their learning as a result. Lessons are planned carefully to meet the needs and interests of pupils. Careful assessments of what pupils know and can do are used well by teachers in Years 1 to 6 to ensure that work is suitably challenging and the level of support meets their needs. As a result, pupils successfully acquire and develop a range of skills, including a belief in their ability to succeed.  Teachers’ management of pupils’ behaviour is effective. They are consistent in their expectations of behaviour and application to work. As a result, pupils know what is expected of them at all times and settle quickly into lessons. They develop good attitudes to work and to each other and very little time is wasted.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers use questioning very effectively during lessons to check pupils’ understanding and to make them think more carefully. They ask questions in different ways, if necessary, to ensure that pupils think deeply about what they are doing and how to make their work even better. Pupils are also encouraged to evaluate their own and each other’s work and do so constructively and with consideration. This helps them to refine and improve what they do.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ marking of pupils’ work follows the school’s marking policy consistently, enabling pupils to have time to learn from their mistakes and understand how to improve their work further.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers are aware of the importance of pupils developing good skills in literacy and reading and ensure that opportunities to develop reading skills, vocabulary and pencil control are included in lessons in other subjects. For example, time was taken to remind pupils of correct pencil grip in an art lesson and pupils’ vocabulary was reinforced and extended in the discussion on art related to canals.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers have placed a particular focus on improving skills of teaching and learning in mathematics over the past year. As a result of recent work, including a review of what is taught and when, teachers’ confidence has improved and lessons take very good consideration of what pupils need to do to make the best possible progress. This has resulted in pupils making good progress overall and, for pupils in Year 6 this year, their progress and achievement in mathematics has been excellent.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Support staff make a positive contribution to pupils’ learning. They help pupils to understand what they need to do and encourage them to complete the work they have been set.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils are prepared effectively for the next stage in their education. Teaching successfully promotes in pupils the belief that they can aspire to and attain the highest possible standards.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Throughout Key Stages 1 and 2, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, achieve well and make good progress. This is because of good teaching, which is well planned to meet their needs and the interesting range of subjects they are taught.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils are given suitable challenge and so their achievement is good. On occasion progress of these pupils is excellent, particularly in mathematics for pupils in Year 6, several of whom attained the highest Level 6. This is as a result of a whole-school focus on improving standards and teaching and learning in mathematics over the past year.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Attainment on entry to school in the Reception class varies very slightly year-on-year, due to the small numbers in each year group. Attainment on entry currently is slightly above what is typical for children’s ages. Children settle into school happily and make good progress in developing early reading skills. However, their achievement overall requires improvement as most-able children do not always make the progress of which they are capable.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Results of the phonic assessment in Year 1 in 2015 were good and improved from the previous year. All of the pupils attained the level expected, which is higher than the national average in 2014. Pupils read with enthusiasm and enjoyment. As a result of the strong emphasis on reading, standards are consistently above average by the end of Year 2 and Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The pupil premium funding has been well spent on providing extra adult support to accelerate progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Eligible pupils are making good progress and, the gap between pupils supported by the pupil premium funding and other pupils has been virtually eroded. As there were very few eligible pupils in Year 6 last year and in the previous year, no comment is made on their attainment.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils make good progress in writing, because teachers provide them with plenty of opportunities to write about different subjects. Pupils are told how to improve their writing and make good use of ‘red writing’ time, at the start of lessons. Attainment is above average in writing at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Because of the high standards pupils achieve, they are well prepared for the next stage of their education by the end of Year 6. Their attitudes to learning are good and they are keen to do their best.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Senior leaders and governors of the school have identified the early years as an area for improvement in the school development plan. Further renovation of the building and training for staff are already planned.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 The quality of teaching requires improvement. Adults form good relationships with children, who come into school happily as a result. Teachers monitor children’s progress and know individual children well. They make assessments of children’s progress over time. However, the system used to record and track on-going progress is cumbersome and does not allow for a speedy overview of how much progress children are making in each area of learning by staff or senior managers. The progress and attainment of the most-able children is not as good as it should be. Overall, progress requires improvement.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 The leadership of the early years requires improvement. Information from assessment is not used well enough when planning activities to ensure that children from all groups, including the most able, make good progress in all aspects of their learning. Appropriate policies and systems are in place for the early years, but not yet consistently applied.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Children settle happily into class with pupils in Year 1 and make steady progress in most areas of learning for their age. Children’s progress in developing reading skills is good because of the good quality of teaching in that aspect of learning. Disabled children and those who have special educational needs are supported well to make progress in line with their classmates. The proportion of all children attaining a good level of development by the end of their time in the Reception class has increased from below average and is now broadly average.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 The behaviour of children in the Reception class is good and they make firm friendships with older pupils because of the ‘buddy’ system. As a result, they confidently take part in whole school activities, lunchtimes and playtimes. This has a positive impact on their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. There are appropriate systems to ensure that children are kept safe and secure.

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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 140094 Local authority Northamptonshire Inspection number 450354

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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 converter Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 128 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Lawrence Dale Headteacher Andrea Green Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01536 771252 Email address head@wilbarston.northants-ecl.gov.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted. 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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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