Westbrook Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr Melvyn Tatters Headteacher Westbrook Primary School Westbrook Road Heston Hounslow TW5 0NB

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 1 March 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty‟s Chief Inspector of Education, Children‟s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since your predecessor school was judged to be good in March 2013.

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since it opened. Leaders and governors have ensured that there is an atmosphere of focused learning throughout the school. Pupils want to learn and are enthusiastic about coming to school. One pupil explained, „We aim to live up to the school motto, “I promise to aim high, learn together and feel proud of everything I do.”‟

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

The vast majority of parents feel highly welcome at the school. One parent explained, „The school cannot do enough to support my child or my family.‟ Parents spoke of the effort the school makes to help pupils improve their behaviour, attendance, punctuality and learning. Furthermore, many parents commented on the support they had received to further improve their understanding of how to support their child at school and home. A very small minority of parents expressed some dissatisfaction with the school in the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. However, this view was not shared by the overwhelming majority of parents or any who spoke to me during the inspection. One parent summed up the close relationship with the school when he explained, „I will be begging for my son to stay here when it is time for him to go to secondary school. Nothing is ever too much trouble; they will always support us as parents.‟

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

Pupils enjoy their learning across the school‟s curriculum. They have a clear understanding of how they are progressing in their learning and feel well supported to achieve their best. They receive regular homework and this builds on the work they learn in school. Regular trips enhance the pupils‟ learning in school and deepen their understanding of life in modern Britain. For example, Year 6 annually visit their Member of Parliament in the House of Commons to conduct a pupil parliament. This extends their existing knowledge of democracy, elections and free speech. Pupils enthuse about the range of sporting opportunities available at the school, including the extra-curricular clubs and competitions. Equally, pupils enjoy learning about other countries around the world through the school‟s international curriculum. This makes a strong contribution to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

Your school moved into its new building in October 2015. At this time, you formally opened a new resource provision for 10 pupils with a visual impairment. The building and classrooms are well resourced, and the pupils can work alongside their peers throughout the curriculum. You have ensured that the pupils from this provision are very successfully integrated into mainstream classrooms. You have employed and trained well-qualified and highly skilled teachers and support staff. This has been key in quickly making this provision a significant strength of the school‟s work.

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

Support staff from the resource provision for visually impairment and class teachers enable pupils to work with their sighted peers. Paired work is in part successful due to the use of high-quality resources, for example books with braille and words. This resourcing allows sighted and visually impaired pupils to read together from the same book. The use of tablets and other technology ensures that adapted resources are used to help visually impaired pupils access all aspects of class work. As a result, pupils with a visual impairment make as good progress as their peers and those who have other special educational needs or disability. Additional work with visually impaired pupils helps them to make better use of the sight they have over time. This aspect of the school‟s work has quickly become a key strength, and you offer outreach to support a range of other primary and secondary schools in London.

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

Leaders have created a culture that is doggedly focused on the protection of children from safeguarding risks. Staff are regularly trained in a range of safeguarding issues to ensure that they fully understand the potential signs of abuse and neglect. They have ensured that staff have a thorough knowledge of the recent „Prevent‟ and female genital mutilation duties.

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

The leadership team has created a culture of early intervention. It aims to support families before issues become a significant concern. This can be seen in its work to successfully improve attendance, punctuality and to address more serious child protection concerns.

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Short inspection of Westbrook Primary School

The designated safeguarding officer has ensured that she works well with external agencies to support and challenge families. She is tenacious in following up concerns, for example working with the local authority to examine cases of children who may be missing from education. Detailed and well-maintained records are kept about individual child protection cases. The designated safeguarding officer works well with the governor responsible for safeguarding. Together they ensure that the school‟s child protection policy is complied with and where necessary improved for the future. This reflective approach to safeguarding helps to ensure that leaders are not complacent and always looking to improve their practice.

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Inspection findings

 Behaviour has improved since the school opened. Leaders have ensured that pupils are mature and sensible in their conduct around the school. Pupils want to achieve well and they support each other to achieve their goals. There are still isolated instances of misbehaviour and bullying. Where incidents do occur, leaders rigorously follow these up and check to ensure that there is no repetition from individual pupils. However, these have declined significantly and there have been no exclusions in the past two academic years. Pupils know the expectations for their conduct and nearly always live up to them around school and in classrooms.  Pupils‟ improved attitudes to learning and the school‟s strong partnership with parents are helping to ensure that attendance and punctuality are improving throughout the school. Attendance is now slightly above the national average for 2015. Pupils are now very rarely late for school with a

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Inspection findings

tiny number of instances per term. However, the significant improvement in attendance masks the fact that White British pupils on average are still attending school less frequently than the national average. Leaders agree that this is a priority to ensure that each pupil makes the progress they are fully capable of over time.  Leaders rightly identified the need to improve further the reading outcomes for pupils. They have worked with staff to improve the teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds they make) in the early years and Key Stage 1. Teachers and teaching assistants are now more consistent in their teaching of phonics. They are helping pupils to make better progress. Those who have underachieved in the past – for example, did not meet the expectations of the Year 1 phonics screening check – are making accelerated progress. These pupils are being helped to catch up with their peers and the expectations for their age.

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Inspection findings

 Reading is given a high priority in school. Books are evident throughout the school. Pupils talk with maturity about why they choose to read particular authors or novels. A more focused approach to the teaching of guided reading is ensuring that recent improvements in reading across the school are being maintained. The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in school is continuing to close over time.  The outcomes for Year 2 and 6 pupils in 2015 showed improvement for all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils. Teachers are successfully helping pupils think what makes effective writing, through skilled questioning and feedback. Support staff and teachers work well together to provide feedback tailored to the needs of individuals and groups. This helps to ensure that pupils are clear about how to improve their writing. As pupils are given the time and space to achieve this, writing has improved since the school

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Inspection findings

opened. Pupils are confident in using language about language, for example talking about connectives, adjectives or similes.  However, leaders are aware that too few pupils are attaining the highest levels of achievement in writing by the time they leave the school. Leaders agree that this is in part due to pupils not transferring their taught writing skills to other subjects. The writing of pupils in other subjects and their theme work is weaker than they are capable of producing.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 a greater proportion of pupils achieve the very highest standards at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2  the pupils from a White British heritage quickly improve their attendance so that it is as high as their peers across the school.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Director of Children‟s Services for the London Borough of Hounslow. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I met with you, your deputy headteacher, your assistant headteachers and a range of other senior and middle leaders. I also met with three governors, including the Chair of the Governing Body, three class teachers, two teaching assistants and a group of parents. I visited a range of classrooms from the school‟s Nursery to Year 6. Some visits were made with your deputy headteacher and your head of resource provision for visually impaired pupils. I also visited a range of rooms on my own to scrutinise pupils‟ books and consider typical behaviour at the school. I met with a group of Key Stage 2 pupils and talked with pupils in and around school. I evaluated the school‟s most recent information on the progress of pupils, attendance and punctuality. I reviewed the school‟s records of bullying, racist incidents and exclusions. I took into account the 38 responses to Parent View.

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