Woore Primary and Nursery School

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

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Michelle Ward Headteacher Woore Primary and Nursery School London Road Woore Crewe Cheshire CW3 9SQ

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 21 March 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 October 2012.

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

You have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since you became the headteacher, you have brought sweeping changes across the school. You have restructured your teaching team, developing them through focused professional development, including working in partnership with outstanding local schools and nurseries. You have reviewed and sharpened school systems so that pupils‟ progress in reading and writing is rapidly improving. Consequently, the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection have been tackled effectively.

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

Staff are proud to work in the school, they are highly motivated and trust your vision for the school. Parents paid tribute to the way you and your staff care for and value their children. One parent‟s comment on Parent View reflected the general positive views they have of the school: „The school has an “extended family” feel with links in the local community, to the church and to other groups. All children have access to play numerous sports and participate in competitions and the opportunity to play a musical instrument. After-school clubs can range from gardening, art, cooking and varied sports. This school has provided all three of my children a happy, safe place to learn, grow and have special memories.‟

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

Governors rightly praise you for your dedication and ambition. They explained how you are constantly finding ways to make the school even better and are tenacious in your approach to ensuring that your initiatives to improve the school happen and are effective. During the inspection, I saw plenty of evidence of the impact of these initiatives. Examples of this are the way in which you are now training the adults in the early years classes very successfully to teach phonics and mathematics. This has impacted positively on the current outcomes being achieved by children by the end of Reception and by the end of Year 2. The newly qualified teacher described your support as „brilliant‟ and „helpful‟.

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

The broad and balanced curriculum is enriched well by many extra-curricular activities ranging from forest school, music with visiting musicians, sports provision, art and new-age curling. These contribute to pupils‟ enjoyment of school and their health and well-being. Pupils thrive in the stimulating indoor and outdoor areas. The school has a very well-resourced forest school provision that allows pupils multiple opportunities throughout the school day to experience practical applications and problem-solving within science, art, English and mathematics.

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

You have a clear understanding of the school‟s strengths and the things that need to be developed further. Your action plans are well thought out and the impact of actions taken is monitored robustly by you and evaluated by the governing body. You have rightly identified the need to accelerate the rate of pupils‟ progress in mathematics and to support this you are developing a school curriculum map for mathematics that ensures coverage of the new mathematics national curriculum and embeds the further development of pupils‟ thinking and reasoning skills.

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

Pupils‟ personal development, behaviour and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness are strong. Pupils are polite, kind and thoughtful to each other. The older pupils „buddy up‟ with younger pupils to look after them at playtimes and five older pupils have trained to become sports leaders, leading games over the lunchtime period. When asked about the buddy system one pupil said: „The older ones always look after the younger ones. Our teachers say we have to set an example for them.‟

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

Safeguarding is a key strength of the school. Procedures for keeping pupils safe are robust. Leaders and governors have ensured that all safeguarding procedures meet the latest guidance and that staff are appropriately trained. You ensure that all adults working with pupils have been subject to the appropriate checks. Governors and senior leaders regularly monitor and update policies and ensure that staff are aware of the latest guidance. Records of concerns about pupils and referrals to the local authority are detailed and kept securely.

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Short inspection of Woore Primary and Nursery School

Pupils say they feel safe in the school. You ensure that the curriculum provides pupils with the necessary skills to keep themselves safe, including when online. One Year 2 pupil explained that if they have any worries they just go to the people in charge of safeguarding, whose photographs are on the walls, and they will help them.

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Inspection findings

 Teachers plan and deliver interesting and engaging lessons that help pupils make rapid progress in reading and writing. They ask probing and pertinent questions to check pupils‟ depth of understanding and provide helpful feedback to pupils on their work. One Year 6 pupil explained: „We know if we are doing well because our teachers do “live” marking. They come and mark while we are doing our work and this helps us improve it.‟  Governors ask probing strategic questions and regularly challenge you to ensure that the school continues to improve. They have detailed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school and despite having very few disadvantaged pupils, governors are prudent about how the additional funding is spent on these pupils. Governors monitor effectively the school‟s use of the pupil premium funding and the impact of the additional sports funding.  Pupils from Year 2 and Year 6 read to me during the inspection. They read with

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Inspection findings

confidence and fluency. They made good use of their phonics knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words and consider the punctuation to add expression to their reading. They talked with self-assurance about the style of books they like and enjoyed discussing preferred authors. The school colour codes books at particular levels and pupils are allowed free rein to choose their favourite book within that colour range.  Pupils are given many opportunities to learn about life in modern Britain. Assemblies focus on developing pupils‟ knowledge and understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. Visitors that expand the cultural knowledge of pupils are carefully chosen. An example of this is when you invited a visitor to discuss his family‟s experience of moving to Britain from the Caribbean.  Attendance is monitored regularly. You identify what the barriers are to regular

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Inspection findings

attendance and provide families with focused support. As a result, attendance is consistently in line with the national average.  The proportion of pupils who passed the Year 1 and Year 2 phonics check in 2016, while improving, was below national averages. You demonstrated to me through the pupils‟ assessments that standards are set to rise this year. The pupils in Year 2 who I heard read also supported this view, showing an ability to build unfamiliar words using letters and blends of sounds.  The local authority considers Woore Primary School to be a „light touch school‟ in terms of the support it offers the school. The discussion with the local authority advisor indicated they have confidence in your leadership and the impact you are making in moving the school forward.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  opportunities to develop pupils‟ thinking and reasoning skills in mathematics are embedded across the school in order to accelerate pupils‟ progress and ensure that the standards they reach in mathematics match those in 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 Shropshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, and four governors, including the chair. I spoke informally to pupils in the playground and in lessons and to parents as they collected their children from school. I looked at the 17 responses to the Parent View survey. We visited lessons together including in the forest school area. I read with pupils from Year 2 and Year 6 and I looked at the work in a selection of pupils‟ books. I considered the school‟s self-evaluation and its plans for development. I took into account pupils‟ standards of attainment and rates of progress. I read a range of school policies, including those for safeguarding and child protection. I met with a newly qualified teacher and spoke with a local authority adviser. I evaluated the school‟s website and found it to meet requirements on the publication of specified information.

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