Weetwood Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mr Jon Iglesias Headteacher Weetwood Primary School Weetwood Lane Leeds West Yorkshire LS16 5NW

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 17 January 2017, 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 the school was judged to be good in March 2012.

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. As the new headteacher, you have hit the ground running and quickly gained an accurate and detailed understanding of what is working well in school and what needs improving. You and your deputy headteacher have worked hard to ensure that all staff are clear as to what your priorities are and the role you expect staff to play in achieving these.

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

Staff and parents comment on the good quality of leadership in the school. The vast majority of parents are positive about the ethos and culture within the school and rightly comment on the friendly, inclusive and happy climate that exists. Staff recognise that you have ‘raised the bar’ in terms of what is expected of them. You and your deputy headteacher have been successful in stressing to all teachers their role in ensuring that all pupils continue to make good progress.

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

You and your deputy headteacher work very well together and staff comment on the good, clear levels of communication that exist within school. Consequently, staff morale is high, and staff feel well supported and challenged to make the school even better. You have a detailed and secure understanding of how well pupils are doing. This is because of the quality checks you make on how well pupils are progressing. You rightly identify that some pupils, including the most able, could be making more progress, especially in writing. You and your staff are working hard to tackle this. However, there are not enough opportunities across the curriculum for pupils to practise and develop their writing. Governors are committed, ambitious and determined to see the school do even better. They have a good understanding of the strengths of the school and the areas to improve. They provide a good blend of challenge and support and are not

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

afraid to ask difficult questions of leaders. Governors are keen to improve and develop their own skills. They have used a skills audit effectively to identify the need to develop their understanding of pupils’ assessment and progress information. Governors recognise that they need to make sure that important school policies are reviewed, amended and ratified in a timely manner. This is sometimes not the case and as a result, the school’s website does not comply with Department for Education (DfE) guidance on what schools should publish on their website.

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

You and your leadership team take your safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. Staff have taken to heart the key messages from the DfE’s guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ and the role these play within school to make sure that pupils are kept safe. Staff I spoke with understand the need to remain constantly vigilant to any potential signs that children may be at risk of harm. Staff valued the safeguarding training. It proved useful in reminding staff of potential signs of abuse, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. Staff I spoke with are clear whom they report their concerns to and are confident that any concerns they have will be taken seriously by leaders.

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Short inspection of Weetwood Primary School

You have made very good use of the findings from a recent safeguarding audit led by the local authority. This has helped you to further improve safeguarding practices and procedures. The record of checks carried out on staff meets requirements. However, it is not always easy to read. Staff responsible for maintaining this record benefit from your up-to-date knowledge of what should be contained within the record. However, more work is needed to ensure that those staff responsible for maintaining this document keep themselves well informed as to what the latest requirements are.

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Inspection findings

 Subject leaders have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They are able to demonstrate that through their own monitoring of teaching and learning they have brought about further improvements. For example, in mathematics, which was the key area for improvement at the previous inspection, effective steps have been taken to improve and develop pupils’ reasoning and problem-solving skills.  Children in the early years get off to a flying start. Teachers and other adults provide exciting and engaging activities to help children develop their understanding of phonics. There is a wealth of opportunities for children to develop their writing and mark-making skills both inside and outside the classroom. As a result of high-quality teaching, most children are ready for the demands of Year 1.  Pupils are developing their love of reading. Those pupils I heard read demonstrated good levels of fluency. They were able to use different punctuation

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Inspection findings

to help breathe life into their reading. They showed good levels of comprehension and enjoyed the opportunities to read regularly both at home and at school.  Effective morning intervention and catch-up sessions run twice a week. Pupils work purposefully and productively in these sessions. These sessions have proved very effective in helping particular pupils improve their progress.  Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They are happy and enjoy coming to school. You have stressed to both pupils and parents that ‘every day counts’. As a result, attendance rates are high over time and persistent absence rates remain well below the national average.  As a result of improved teaching and monitoring of pupils in Year 1, outcomes for the 2016 Year 1 phonics screening check were well above the national average. Elsewhere, attainment remains above the national average but you and your leaders are not complacent and rightly recognise the need to accelerate the

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Inspection findings

progress of some pupils, including the most able.

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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

 some groups of pupils, including the most able, make even faster progress, especially in writing  governors review, amend and ratify school policies in a timely manner and ensure that the school website contains the latest up-to-date versions of these policies, stating clearly when they are to be reviewed  those responsible for maintaining the record of checks carried out on staff receive appropriate training and updates to help ensure that the record remains compliant in the light of any future amendments to guidance.

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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 Leeds. 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 and a group of subject leaders. I also met with a group of governors and a local authority school improvement adviser. Together with you and your deputy headteacher, we visited all classrooms to observe teaching and to look at pupils’ work. I also listened to some pupils read. Consideration was given to 72 free-text responses from the Ofsted online questionnaire (Parent View) and to staff survey responses. I evaluated recent information in relation to pupils’ progress, the school self-evaluation document, the school improvement plan and a range of documentation about how you keep pupils safe. I also sampled vulnerable children’s case files.

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Information about the inspection

The key areas I looked at during the inspection were how effective safeguarding arrangements are and the progress pupils are making in key stages 1 and 2, especially the progress of the most able. I also looked at whether governors are meeting their statutory duties.

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