Setting

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

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Mr Martin Grant Headteacher Wellington Primary School Wellington Way Bow London E3 4NE

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Following my visit to the school on 28 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 May 2012.

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The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection.

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You are an effective and committed headteacher with a passion and drive to secure the highest expectations and outcomes for your pupils. You are proficient in identifying and mentoring future leaders and you have worked closely with your leadership team to strengthen outcomes since the last inspection.

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You have been successful in the support you have given to local schools and you have strong capacity to continue this work through local partnerships, including the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership, the local authority and the London East Teacher Training Alliance. Your commitment to initial teacher training has enabled you to develop and maintain a strong and dynamic teaching team.

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Your chair of governors is a national leader of governance and she works in strong partnership with governors and school leaders to maintain successful outcomes for pupils. Governors are very active in the school and they are skilful in the support they offer to senior leaders.

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Classrooms and corridors are filled with attractive displays designed to reflect the rich diversity of the school community. Parents are very supportive of the school and pupils’ attitudes to learning are very positive. Pupils are considerate, respectful and caring to each other’s needs and well-being. Pupils’ progress is monitored very carefully to ensure that they are making good progress. A wide range of intervention groups are available for pupils who may require additional support to boost their learning.

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At the time of the last inspection, inspectors identified a need to practise key literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. You have addressed this through the introduction of a thematic curriculum to enable pupils to transfer key skills across subjects. This cross-curricular approach encourages pupils to access tasks independently and to apply skills acquired through their prior learning.

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You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of a high quality. Checks for the recruitment of staff are fully in place and safer recruitment practice is robust.

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Training on child protection has given staff a strong understanding of potential risks and they are confident in following agreed procedures to report initial concerns. The school has a close working relationship with key agencies and the local designated officer for safeguarding to ensure that referrals are dealt with swiftly.

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Parents feel that their children are safe in school and pupils report that they are happy and well cared for. One pupil reported proudly, ‘My school is special because it gives me opportunities to develop my skills, to think deeply about things and to understand different points of view.’

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Inspection findings

 Inspection evidence demonstrates that you have been successful in strengthening outcomes for all pupils since the last inspection.  Your team had identified reading as a school development focus to ensure that a greater number of pupils at key stage 1 attain higher levels in their learning. We agreed this to be a key line of enquiry to explore what action the school is taking to ensure that all pupils make good progress in reading.  The school has invested in high-quality reading materials to encourage pupils to read widely. Skilful choices of reading books for each class have extended pupils’ vocabulary skills and you have appointed a school librarian to support pupils’ reading choices.  Guided reading and comprehension tasks are offering clear support in the development of the specific skills needed to answer complex questions about a text.  Clear progression in the teaching of reading is seen across year groups and

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Inspection findings

achievement is strong. A wide range of reading support is available for pupils who need to read aloud more frequently.  The teaching of phonics and high frequency words is effective. This enables pupils to tackle unfamiliar words for themselves. However, those pupils who are confident in these skills and are therefore ready to apply and rehearse them in their writing do not always get sufficient chance to do so.  My second line of enquiry examined the level of challenge available for all groups of pupils in key stage 1. You track the progress of pupils carefully and you have agreed progress targets that pupils must meet each term.  Regular pupil progress meetings ensure that provision is tailored well for the needs of all groups of pupils, including the lower-attaining and the most able.  Adults skilfully support those pupils who require additional help and the activities for the most able are planned to challenge pupils’ thinking and to deepen their

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Inspection findings

understanding. However, in Reception and Year 1, the most able pupils are not always presented with tasks that challenge them enough in their writing.  My final line of enquiry was about pupils’ attendance. The most recently published data shows that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities had higher persistent absence than was the case nationally.  You keep detailed records on the absences of all pupils and it was quickly established that the persistent absence of this group was related to a range of complex medical issues.  You are working closely with parents to improve medical absence and you have clear and effective procedures in place to monitor and improve attendance.

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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

 pupils have greater opportunities to practise key skills in writing in Reception and Year 1  most-able pupils in key stage 1 are presented with further challenge in their writing activities.

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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 Tower Hamlets. This letter will also be published on the Ofsted website.

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Ofsted Inspector

During this inspection, I carried out the following activities:

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Ofsted Inspector

 Meetings with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher.  Meetings with governors and a representative from the local authority.  Meetings with the school business manager to scrutinise the school’s single central record and the headteacher to view safeguarding procedures and systems to track pupil absences.  I met with parents in the playground before school.  Senior leaders accompanied me on my visits to the classrooms. I talked to pupils about their learning, looked at their books and listened to a range of pupils read in Year 2 and Year 6.  I viewed 11 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I also looked at 19 online surveys completed by staff and 12 surveys completed by pupils.

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