Wawne Primary School

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

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Phil Sainter Headteacher Wawne Primary School 10 Greens Lane Wawne Hull HU7 5XT

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 31 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 November 2012.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Because of your leadership, the staff team have maintained a purposeful commitment to the principle that ‘the individual counts’. Staff know every pupil’s strengths, interests and the areas where they may need additional help. Teachers and teaching assistants use this knowledge to plan lessons and activities that are well matched to pupils’ needs. As a result, pupils are challenged to move on to the next step in their learning.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

Pupils are motivated and keen learners. Most are particularly keen to learn with the different technologies made available to them. Equally, pupils are keen to read books and write in ways that are more traditional. They are tolerant and respectful young people. As one pupil thoughtfully pointed out to me, ‘You wouldn’t tease anyone because they were different, because teasing anyone is wrong.’

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

Your inclusive approach to supporting pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is highly effective. Parents were keen to make sure that I knew about this successful work and its impact, particularly on their children’s social and personal development. One mother’s pride that her son is ‘one of the pack’, rather than separated out or mollycoddled, said it all.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

The small number of disadvantaged pupils in each class are well supported through effective class teaching or specific small-group and individual work focusing on reading, writing or mathematics. This year you have identified pupils who need more precise support, particularly in mathematics. The use of tests to identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge or understanding of different aspects of mathematics, followed by intense teaching to ensure that these gaps are filled, is increasing the progress that pupils make.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

The vast majority of parents appreciate all that you and the staff team offer to their children. They were particularly keen to tell me how approachable staff are and how well any concerns are addressed.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

Teachers and teaching assistants are proud to be part of the school and all accept responsibility for the leadership of different aspects of the school’s work. This includes checking that teachers are meeting the agreed expectations for teaching, including using the newly developed assessment system.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

Since the last inspection, you have successfully addressed the recommendation to ensure that pupils are challenged more in lessons, particularly the most able, to increase the standards achieved and to increase the opportunities for pupils to write at length. Work seen in pupils’ books and during lessons confirms the positive impact of the work you have done in these areas. Pupils’ enthusiasm for working together to produce an online report was clear to see. Importantly, pupils knew that they were learning from each other’s use of different grammatical structures and understood that this improved their writing when working in a more traditional way.

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Short inspection of Wawne Primary School

You and the staff ensure that the up-to-date training you all receive is fully understood and used to keep pupils safe and well. Your in-depth knowledge of pupils who face difficult circumstances in their lives means that you can provide the right support for them and their families. You work well with other agencies, for example the school nurses, when additional support is needed. The records of concerns about any aspect of a pupil’s well-being are of a good standard and easily accessed when needed.

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Inspection findings

 Wawne is a small school and, consequently, the published information about the progress pupils make varies every year, especially in relation to the most able pupils and the very small number of pupils who are disadvantaged or who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. However, your detailed knowledge of each pupil, the records you keep and the work in pupils’ books demonstrate that, overall, pupils make good progress from their different starting points.  Importantly, you demonstrated a very reflective and thorough response to the dip in the standards reached by Year 6 pupils in mathematics in 2016. You have galvanised the staff team and everyone has worked together to strengthen and develop your approach to teaching mathematics. As a result, your assessment information and the work in pupils’ books show that they are making faster progress. A healthy proportion are working at the standards expected for their

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Inspection findings

age and an increasing number are working at higher standards.  The dip in the proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the foundation stage in July 2016 was also a concern. You know that the progress that this group of children made was not as good as it should have been. Unfortunately, your substantial efforts to change the provision being made were not successful at that time. Changes to the team and new approaches from September 2016 have made the much-needed difference. Now the vast majority of children are making good progress from their different starting points and are on track to reach and exceed a good level of development. Equally important, the children affected by the poorer provision in 2016, now in Year 1, are making good progress and making up lost ground due to the effectiveness of teaching in key stage 1.  Since the last inspection, you and your team have developed a fresh approach to

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Inspection findings

assessing pupils’ progress against the new national expectations. The online system involves teachers checking pupils’ own assessments of their skills. It also allows parents to track how well their children are doing. You are keen to develop the system further and recognise that it would be more effective if it clearly recorded pupils’ progress from their different starting points.  The governors have the school’s and individual pupils’ best interests at heart. They are working on plans to develop the nursery and wrap-around day-care provision. They see this as an effective way of maintaining the number of pupils on roll and, in part, of securing the long-term viability of your small village school.  However, governors do not ensure that they get detailed information quickly or often enough about the progress pupils are making. This makes it difficult for them to hold you robustly to account. Your self-evaluation and subsequent improvement

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Inspection findings

plan do not reflect the thorough analysis or effective action you and the staff team are taking, particularly in response to the dip in outcomes last year. The plan does not give governors a precise way of checking that progress is being made.  Governors have not ensured that the school website meets all the requirements for publishing information online. Governors need to accept responsibility for this statutory duty, particularly for publishing an accessibility plan and making sure that policies are based on the most up-to-date guidance.

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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

 governors develop a more systematic and robust approach to supporting and challenging the headteacher and staff, so that they know when progress made is in line with their agreed plans  governors ensure that they keep up to date with statutory guidance about all aspects of the school’s work.

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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 East Riding of Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I meet with the headteacher, teachers and teaching assistants responsible for developing mathematics and the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, four members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.

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Information about the inspection

I visited all the classes at least once with the headteacher, talked with pupils and reviewed the work in their books.

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Information about the inspection

At playtime, I talked with pupils about their views of the school. I also talked with parents as they brought their children to school and considered the 26 written responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire.

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Information about the inspection

I considered the 14 responses to the online staff survey and four responses to the online pupil survey. I reviewed a wide range of documents relating to the school’s work.

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