Wyvern Primary School

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

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Michelle O’Dell Headteacher Wyvern Primary School Wyvern Avenue Leicester Leicestershire LE4 7HH

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 24 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 April 2013.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your senior leaders have maintained an aspirational, inclusive and caring culture. You and your teachers regularly check pupils’ progress and their welfare to ensure that they are secure in their learning, are safe, and are prepared for life in modern Britain. The school’s motto, ‘share, strive, succeed’, is at the very centre of what you and your staff do for your pupils.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

Since the last inspection, you have successfully restructured your leadership team to ensure that leaders at all levels have a clear understanding of pupils’ progress and welfare across the whole school. You have also continued to work closely with other schools and the local authority to secure the accuracy of your evaluation of the effectiveness of the school’s provision for its pupils. Because of this, you and your leaders have an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and the areas where further improvement is necessary.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

At the last inspection, you were asked to develop the quality of teaching and learning further by:

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

 ensuring that pupils are consistently challenged by the work that they do  developing greater independence in pupils and taking more opportunities to give them greater responsibility for managing their own learning  enriching pupils’ experiences consistently in all classes so that they have more ideas to use in their learning, particularly in writing. You have undertaken much work to address these areas for improvement. You have ensured that pupils are clear as to the work they must complete in their lessons to ensure that they are secure in their learning. You have also ensured that, at the beginning of each topic, pupils receive a variety of experiences from which they can generate ideas to help them to complete their work. You have also made sure that teachers work closely together to plan lessons and to assess pupils’ work. Consequently, teachers have a secure understanding of what constitutes good

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

progress. These actions enable teachers across all year groups, including the early years, to set activities that are suitably challenging and that enable pupils to become secure in the development of their knowledge, skills and understanding. In the lessons that I observed, pupils engaged well with their work and were able to talk about what they were learning with confidence and enthusiasm.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

You have rightly recognised that, in last year’s Year 6, too few pupils in some pupil groups made the progress they should have. These groups included the middle ability pupils, disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, and those who speak English as an additional language. You have taken effective action to address this issue for current pupils in all year groups within the school. You have raised the profile of these pupils among your teachers by providing them with training to help them to meet these pupils’ needs more effectively. You have also ensured that you monitor the progress of these pupil groups through checking pupils’ books and visiting lessons. Through this, you are ensuring that teachers meet these pupils’ individual needs when setting work. These actions have led to increased proportions of pupils within these groups now making at least the progress they should across reading, writing and mathematics. However, you recognise that in some year

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

groups, particularly Year 4, there is still work to do to ensure that these pupils make sufficient progress.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

You place great store in ensuring that pupils recognise each other’s rights. You have built a culture that ensures that pupils respect each other’s right to be different, to be safe and to learn. Through the assemblies, the curriculum and the displays around school, you promote pupils’ understanding of how people are different, and how it is important to respect these differences. For example, you celebrate a different foreign language each month. Those pupils I met were clear that they should accept everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, culture or sexual orientation.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

Governors play an important role in ensuring that you maintain the quality of the school’s provision. Governors provide effective support and challenge to you and your leaders. They undertake their own visits to the school to check on the quality of the school’s provision for themselves. Governors regularly review their own skills to ensure that they are effective in the support that they, as a body, provide you with. Furthermore, they undertake training, including in safeguarding, to ensure that they fulfil their duties effectively.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

Senior leaders have created a culture of vigilance among the staff. Staff have received up-to-date safeguarding training, including training related to child protection, preventing radicalisation and extremism, and female genital mutilation. Staff are fully aware of the different types of abuse, and the signs to look for in monitoring their pupils’ welfare. Staff are fully aware of the actions they should take where they have a concern about a pupil’s well-being.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

You and your senior leaders work closely with parents and local agencies where you have a concern about a child’s welfare. You are tenacious in working with local agencies, to ensure that pupils receive the support they require. You ensure that staff receive regular updates regarding any safeguarding concerns about the pupils. This includes making staff aware of any issues that arise in the local area that may affect your pupils’ welfare. You ensure that all staff understand their responsibility to ensure that pupils at your school are safe, and learn how to be safe.

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Short inspection of Wyvern Primary School

You and your senior leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders have taken effective action to ensure that disadvantaged pupils, including the most able of them, receive the necessary support to ensure that they make the progress they should. Because of this support, increased proportions of disadvantaged pupils across all years are now making at least the progress expected of them from their individual starting points.  Leaders have ensured that all teachers plan activities that provide middle-ability pupils with appropriate levels of challenge and support to enable them to make good progress in their learning. For example, leaders have ensured that teachers ask effective questions of these pupils in order to explore and secure their understanding. This work has led to greater proportions of these pupils making at least the progress expected of them, including in Year 6. However, leaders rightly recognise that more work is necessary to ensure that middle-ability pupils in

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Inspection findings

Years 4 and 5 make the progress they should.  The leader who has responsibility for checking on the progress of pupils who speak English as an additional language has taken effective action to improve the outcomes for these pupils. For example, she has ensured that staff have received training on meeting these pupils’ needs. Because of this work, increased proportions of these pupils are now making at least the progress they should in reading, writing and mathematics. However, the progress of these pupils in Year 4, while improving, remains too low.  Children enter the early years provision demonstrating skills that are well below those expected for their chronological age, particularly in their use of language. The leader of the early years has undertaken effective action to assess children’s level of skills upon entry to Nursery and Reception. He has also introduced new systems for teaching the children reading, to ensure that they are more secure in

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Inspection findings

this skill, and can apply their learning more effectively to writing. As a result, increased proportions of children are now making the progress they should in their learning, including in reading, writing and mathematics.  Those pupils that I met said that they felt safe at the school. They said that they had people they could go to if they had any concerns, or, alternatively, could use the worry boxes that their teachers regularly check. These pupils told me that they were confident staff would help them to resolve their concerns.  Nearly all parents who expressed a view agreed that their child was safe and happy at the school. Nearly all agreed that their child makes good progress at the school, and that they would recommend the school to another person.

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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

 teachers provide appropriate support to all middle-ability pupils, particularly those in Years 4 and 5, to enable these pupils to make at least the progress they should in mathematics, reading and writing  they further embed the support pupils in Year 4 who speak English as an additional language receive, to ensure that they make at least the progress they should in mathematics, reading and writing.

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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 Leicester. 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 senior leaders, the chair of governors, a selection of staff and a representative of the local authority who supports the school in its improvement work. I observed seven lessons within the early years, key stage 1 and key stage 2. I conducted these with you in your role as headteacher. I observed pupils’ behaviour before school, during break and at lunchtime. During these occasions, I spoke with pupils. I also met formally with a selection of pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6, and I heard pupils read, including some most-able pupils. I spoke with parents at the beginning of the school day and took into account the 22 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I also took into account the seven responses to the staff questionnaire. I examined a range of documents, including those related to safeguarding, attendance, the school’s use of pupil premium funding, achievement and governance. I also took into account the

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Information about the inspection

school’s own self-evaluation and school improvement plan. I scrutinised the school’s single central record and the school’s recruitment procedures. At the end of the day, I gave feedback to you, senior leaders and members of the governing body.

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