Saint Winefride's Catholic Voluntary Academy, Shepshed, Leicestershire

St Winefride’s Catholic Voluntary Academy Britannia Street, Shepshed, Loughborough LE12 9AE

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Overall effectiveness Good

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is a good school

 Senior leaders and the governing body have worked purposefully and effectively since the previous inspection to establish a climate at the school that is focused on securing good teaching and learning.  As a result, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is now good, including in the early years.  The pupils find the school’s curriculum stimulating, from the early years through to key stage 2. They have many good opportunities to learn about a broad range of subjects and topics.  The pupils behave well. Typically, they are polite, friendly and respectful towards others.  The pupils achieve well. They make good progress and reach standards that are above average by the time that they leave the school. This means, when combined with their positive attitudes to learning and well-balanced approaches to life and the world around them, that they are well prepared for moving on to secondary school.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 The teaching does not ensure that the most-able pupils are provided consistently with work that stretches them and enables them to achieve fully at the levels of which they are capable.  The work of the teaching assistants is not focused sufficiently on the pupils’ precise learning needs.  The leaders, managers, and the governing body are not stringent in analysing and evaluating all aspects of the school’s work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership, management and governance by carrying out searching analyses and evaluations of the impact of all aspects of the school’s work on the progress and welfare of the pupils, including in relation to the use of additional funding received by the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Deal with the aspects of teaching, learning and assessment that remain as requiring improvement, including, by: enabling teaching assistants to make a full contribution to the academic progress of the pupils, including in the early years ensuring that the most-able pupils are given work in lessons that enables them to work routinely at the high levels of which they are capable.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The headteacher has injected a sense of vision and aspiration into the school. She demonstrates quiet, but steely determination in pursuit of unequivocal and well-defined priorities to improve the quality of teaching.  She is supported increasingly well by other leaders and managers at the school. There have, for example, been notable and important improvements since the previous inspection in the provision for pupils who have special educational needs or disability, in the teaching of mathematics and in the early years.  The senior leaders operate a thoughtfully designed process for managing the performance of the teachers. The process makes use of information and evidence about the quality of teaching, drawn from an appropriate range of activities. The information supports detailed conversations with the teachers and leads to focused training and development opportunities that have been instrumental in bringing about the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

improvements in the quality of the teaching.  The senior leaders have made good use of professional development and training opportunities for the teachers. In particular, they have made full use of suitable opportunities afforded by the multi-academy trust of which the school is a part. They have supplemented the support from the multi-academy trust by tapping into a variety of other sources of support in a planned and systematic drive to bring about improvements as quickly as possible.  The multi-academy trust ensures that the school has access to development and training opportunities that it would not otherwise be able to afford.  The teaching assistants, however, have not received sufficient professional development or training so far to enable them to make a full contribution to the pupils’ achievement.  The school offers a broad and balanced curriculum. The range of themes, topics and enrichment activities

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

captures the imagination of the pupils and plays a significant role in developing the positive attitudes to life and to learning that they demonstrate.  Many of the themes, topics and activities in the curriculum support the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of the pupils well and promote fundamental British values. For example, the pupils learn about and show respect for a range of faiths. Work that they have undertaken recently about the forthcoming referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Community resulted in some carefully considered views and debating points, on which the pupils produced some good pieces of writing and about which they still enjoy talking.  The pupils develop a clear sense of values appropriate for life in modern Britain. They get multiple opportunities to learn about and to discuss various social and moral issues, which helps them to appreciate important matters connected with equalities and to respect and to tolerate other people and beliefs different

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

from their own.  Leaders and managers have not, however, analysed, or evaluated rigorously the impact of the school’s work to promote equalities. As a result, for example, its knowledge about the extent to which different groups of pupils, such as pupils who have special educational needs or disability, benefit from the full range of things that the school has to offer is rudimentary.  The governance of the school The governing body has made significant strides since the previous inspection. The governors demonstrate passion for and much commitment to the school. That is evident in the extent to which they are now prepared to question and to challenge the senior leaders. As a result, the governing body is effective in promoting improvements. The governors question the senior leaders vigorously about the school’s work. They do not take at face value information that they are given and have a range of appropriate mechanisms for verifying what they are told.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

The governing body can show that things have got better in areas on which it is has turned a spotlight. For example, its scrutiny of the school’s safeguarding procedures is particularly rigorous. The governors check regularly on the progress of certain groups of pupils, such as those eligible for the pupil premium and pupils who have special educational needs or disability. Their analyses do not, however, routinely include the most-able pupils at the school. The governing body maintains appropriate oversight of the school’s finances and ensures that additional funding, including the pupil premium and the physical education and sports premium, is spent appropriately. The governing body has not, however, demanded searching analyses and evaluations of the impact on the pupils of the particular things for which such funds have been used. As a result, it does not know securely which approaches have been most beneficial and which have not.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Safeguarding is given an appropriately high priority. The staff are trained regularly, ensuring that they are kept up to date with the current government guidance, including, for example, in relation to the ‘Prevent’ duty. They are familiar with and operate as intended the school’s systems for noting and reporting any concerns. The required records are kept conscientiously.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 The teachers assess the pupils’ learning with some precision, including in the early years, and keep good records. As a result, they know accurately what the pupils need to achieve.  They use the knowledge to good effect. Learning is planned for carefully, including teaching the pupils skills to manage their own learning successfully. The result is that the pupils gain a more secure understanding of the things that they are learning.  In the most effective examples of practice observed by the inspectors, the teachers identified examples of good learning during lessons and used the examples as a basis for conversations with the pupils, which helped the pupils to learn more.  The pupils are given feedback on their work that helps them to correct errors and to add in elements that they have overlooked. While this helps the pupils to make secure gains in their learning and to consolidate what they have learned, the feedback does not help them routinely to correct errors and misunderstandings,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

or to undertake other tasks that challenge them to work on more difficult, or more complex things.  The teachers are equally careful in providing appropriate work to meet the needs of pupils who have special educational needs or disability and for pupils eligible for the pupil premium. As a result, these pupils make at least as much progress in lessons as others.  The teaching of writing is particularly effective. Beginning in the early years, the pupils develop good writing skills rapidly and produce a good variety of high-quality work in all year groups. They are able to talk knowledgeably about technical aspects of writing, such as sentence construction and the use of adverbs and adjectives.  Phonics is taught effectively. The pupils gain confidence as readers quickly because they are able to use their knowledge of phonics to help them with unfamiliar words; occasionally, they are a little too keen and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

rush, making slight mistakes with words that they have not looked at carefully enough.  Changes in the school’s approach to providing for pupils who have special educational needs or disability have ensured that priority is given to those pupils learning predominantly within lessons along with their classmates. The effect has been that the pupils who have special educational needs or disability are now making greater gains in learning than previously and sometimes more so than some of their classmates, particularly in the older year groups.  The work of the teaching assistants is not focused sufficiently on supporting the academic achievement of the pupils. The teaching assistants are helpful in chivvying the pupils, encouraging them to make the necessary effort, so that the pupils stay on task, but this is not sufficient to support the pupils’ progress as much as they could. For example, the questions that they ask the pupils are often not probing enough and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

the teaching assistants do not identify often enough opportunities to deepen the pupils’ learning, including in the early years.  The most-able pupils at the school relish high levels of challenge on the occasions when they are provided. For example, in a mathematics lesson the pupils were lapping it up, solving equations, recording the solutions on grids, telling the inspector, ‘I’m loving it!’  The teaching is less successful overall, however, in ensuring that the most-able pupils make as much progress as they could in lessons. That is because, sometimes, the teacher has not recognised the full extent of the pupils’ capabilities, or has allowed the pupils to begin working on tasks that they find easy (and the pupils do know when they have chosen themselves to do so), or the pupils lose time waiting to be given the next piece of work.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. For example, the school carries out careful risk assessments into aspects of health and safety and puts in place appropriate measures accordingly, such as for using of the public right of way that connects the school with one of its playgrounds. As a result, the pupils feel safe at the school and enjoy being there.  In particular, the pupils value greatly the friendliness of the school, which results in pupils from all of the different backgrounds and circumstances represented feeling safe and part of a community. They regard it as possibly the school’s most important and salient feature and that reflects and encapsulates some of the school’s core values.  The school’s culture promotes confidence in the pupils successfully, as learners and as young members of society. They show good awareness of how to keep themselves safe in a range of circumstances, such as

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Personal development and welfare

when using the internet and mobile phones, as a result of a wide variety of opportunities provided by the school to learn about such things.  The pupils’ attendance matches the national average. There are no significant difference between the attendance of different groups and, where differences are apparent, they can be explained as the result of individual and particular circumstances.  The school’s family support worker, shared with a local group of other schools, extends the range of support that the school can offer to pupils experiencing difficulties, including with attendance at school. This work makes an important contribution to the school’s efforts to safeguard pupils.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. The school is calm and orderly.  The pupils are open and welcoming. They cooperate well with each other, when learning and when playing.  Pupils enjoy learning, particularly when it is challenging, picking out French lessons as an example, and also when they are given the opportunity to be creative, such as in art and in music lessons.  Pupils’ books and work around the school are well presented, show care and attention to detail.  Pupils’ punctuality is good and they respond well to established routines at the school, such as lining up for lessons and when the teachers are organising activities.  The pupils understand how the school’s systems for managing behaviour work and the sanctions used when necessary are typically effective.  The pupils do misbehave sometimes. They can be silly and noisy when lessons do not gain their attention, or such misbehaviour is not dealt with effectively, but examples of serious misbehaviour are few.

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Behaviour

 Instances of bullying are rare, though not unknown, and the pupils express confidence in the staff in dealing with such matters. The pupils do not, however, demonstrate a good understanding of the different forms that bullying can take, such as racism, or homophobia.  Exclusions are very rare.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 The pupils achieve well and increasingly so. Their attainment is above average and generally they make at least the progress that is expected and above average proportions often make more.  The leaders and managers have worked successfully to remove past variations in the pupils’ achievement in different subjects.  Pupils eligible for the pupil premium make less progress than others at the school, but the difference is reducing well.  Pupils who have special educational needs or disability have also made less progress than others in the past, but they too are now making similar progress to their peers and, as they reach the older year groups, sometimes more progress than the others.  The most-able pupils make good progress. The school has introduced initiatives working, for example, with teachers from a secondary school that have resulted in more pupils reaching level 6 in mathematics. Nevertheless, the inspectors found evidence that these pupils are still not being enabled to make as much

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Outcomes for pupils are good

progress as they could.  The pupils are fluent, articulate and confident speakers. They develop good skills as readers and become particularly adept as writers.

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Early years provision is good

 The leaders have worked effectively to deal with previously below average achievement in the early years.  They have developed an attractive and well-organised environment that supports all aspects of the children’s learning well, both indoors and out. The early years area is busy, with children focused well on purposeful activities.  The staff pay good attention to teaching all areas of learning.  The children, manifestly, enjoy learning and the positive attitudes to learning noted throughout the school are nurtured from the beginning. They are able to sit, to listen and to focus on formal activities, needing little prompting.  The staff assess the children’s current levels of learning and needs thoroughly, clearly and accurately, from an early stage. They use what they find out to devise meaningful tasks for the children.  They use the assessments also to identify pupils who may have special educational needs or disability, or

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Early years provision is good

other particular needs, such as children who speak English as an additional language, and to provide effective interventions and individualised support that enable the children to make up for any losses in learning, or to acquire the knowledge that they need. As a result, the children make secure gains in their knowledge, skills and understanding.  The priority given to teaching writing skills means that the children make a good start, on which the school is able to build subsequently. The children make good progress with cursive handwriting, which helps them to become confident as writers.  Similarly, the teaching of phonics has been improved well. As a result, the children are better prepared than previously to enter key stage 1. As a result, the proportion reaching the required standard in Year 1 is now notably above average.  The school’s close attention to safeguarding is replicated in the early years. The children feel safe and

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School details

Unique reference number 138299 Local authority Leicestershire Inspection number 10011722

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School details

This inspection 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 172 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mrs Cathy Lawe Headteacher Catherine Murphy Telephone number 01509 503353 Website www.winefrides-rc.leics.sch.uk Email address office@winefrides-rc.leics.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 14–15 January 2014

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Blessed Cyprian Tansi Multi-academy Trust.  The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is low.  The proportion of the pupils who speak English as an additional language is well-below average.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is average.  There have been major changes in senior leadership since the previous inspection.  The school meets the current government floor standards.  The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed lessons in all phases of the school and in all classes, accompanied sometimes by senior leaders. They also scrutinised examples of the pupils’ work.  The inspectors held meetings with leaders and managers, representatives of the governing body, and with other members of staff. They spoke with pupils in groups, in lessons, and around the school. They looked at the results of questionnaires completed by the staff.  The inspectors checked the responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and spoke with parents at the beginning of the school day.  The inspectors looked at a range of documentation, including the school’s development plan and self- evaluation, policies and records relating to safeguarding, records relating to the pupils’ behaviour, the school’s information about the pupils’ achievement and attendance, and records of the activities of the governing body.

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Inspection team

Clive Moss, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Jayne Ashman Her Majesty’s Inspector guidance 'Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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, further education and skills, 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. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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