Worlingworth Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Worlingworth Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Worlingworth, Shop Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP13 7HX

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Outstanding

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders have continued to provide excellent provision for all pupils since the previous inspection. The school has grown substantially in size in the last two years, with parents actively choosing to send their children to the school.  Many pupils enter the school at non-standard entry points and with low attainment for their age. Once at Worlingworth, the excellent teaching and support means that these pupils make substantial and sustained progress over time.  Pupils who have been at the school for a longer time also make very strong progress. Many pupils in lower key stage 2 are working above the attainment targets for their age.  Staff work very closely together and there is a real sense of family. All adults know every pupil as an individual and, equally, all pupils know each other well. Staff quickly pick up on any pupils’ additional needs and seek support from each other in how to meet these in the best

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

way.  Pupils are highly supportive of each other. There is no bullying and behaviour is excellent. Pupils have many opportunities to take leadership roles, from the early years onwards. They take these seriously and have been able to influence whole-school decisions.  Governors are exceedingly supportive of the school on a day-to-day basis, by volunteering, and in a strategic role. They keep a high focus on raising attainment further.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Teachers are skilled at ensuring that within mixed-age classes, there is strong challenge and support as appropriate.  All teachers are also effective leaders of curriculum subjects and work closely with each other to share good practice.  Children in the early years receive an exceptional start to their education and make excellent progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that the sustained and rapid progress that pupils are currently making continues and leads to a greater proportion of Year 6 pupils attaining the higher standards and/or greater depth in the key stage 2 national tests.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

 Since the previous inspection, the school’s partnership with Stradbroke High School has ended and the previous head of school has become the executive headteacher. The executive headteacher, new head of school and curriculum leaders have ensured that the outstanding teaching and curriculum on offer at Worlingworth have continued.  The school has grown rapidly, with a third of the school joining in the last two years, out of the normal school admission cycle. Many parents actively choose to send their children to this school. Leaders have ensured that during this rapid expansion pupils still receive an extremely high quality of education.  All teachers have additional responsibilities and they lead regular professional development for their peers. They are outward-looking and have welcomed a new partnership with Thorndon Primary, working together on some projects and taking on mentoring responsibilities for newly qualified teachers in that school. This creates a

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

reflective staff who are not complacent and actively look for ways to further improve the education on offer.  Pupils’ progress is checked on an individual basis. Some groups are too small for group-level analysis of attainment and progress to be useful or meaningful to leaders. With this in mind, leaders look regularly at the precise needs of pupils on a one-to-one basis. The special educational needs coordinator is brought in from the local secondary school and works closely with teachers to ensure that needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are met.  Use of additional funding for pupils with SEND is planned out carefully to maximise its impact. Pupils with SEND are supported extremely well. This varies pupil by pupil to meet their personal circumstances. Support in class by the teacher or teaching assistant is discrete but effective. Leaders check that extra teaching or specially

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

planned learning programmes are making the intended difference to outcomes for pupils with SEND.  The pupil premium is used effectively to meet disadvantaged pupils’ needs and to support them in making strong progress. A high priority is placed on high-quality teaching, with small teaching groups in place to reduce the number of year groups in each English and mathematics lesson.  The physical education (PE) and sport premium is also used extremely well. It enables pupils to take part in activities beyond Worlingworth and has upskilled staff confidence in delivering the PE curriculum.  Leaders ensure that British values are threaded through the entire curriculum. Pupils take them seriously, understand them and abide by them.

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Governance of the school

 Governors have been with the school for a number of years, seeing the journey from historically poor-quality education through to its current outstanding quality. They have been excellent in supporting and challenging leaders to maintain the highest expectations for pupils’ academic achievement and personal development.  Governors are highly involved in the day-to-day life of the school. They volunteer to help on trips and hearing readers and they are known to staff and pupils alike. However, they are also challenging to school leaders on a strategic basis. Leaders are held to account for the low achievement of some pupils, checking that those pupils are indeed making substantial progress from their individual starting points.  The governing body seeks advice from the local authority when needed and governors keep their training up to date.  Governors fulfil all legal responsibilities to a high standard.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  All staff are aware of their own responsibilities to keep pupils safe. They are kept up to date with regular training and communication from the headteacher about safeguarding.  Leaders deal with any concerns about pupils promptly and thoroughly.  Pupils feel extremely safe. Parents spoken with agreed that this is the case. Pupils are clear about how to keep themselves safe online.  All appropriate checks have been made on adults who are regularly in the school.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

 Teaching is of an exceptionally high standard across the school. Teachers ensure that lessons are both engaging and well-structured to enable pupils to learn well. They have extremely high expectations of what pupils can achieve.  In the mornings, pupils in key stages 1 and 2 are taught in smaller classes. Teachers plan with individuals in mind to make sure that they make strong progress.  The school chooses to teach mathematics with a high emphasis on the use of practical equipment and pictorial representations. This is well embedded across the whole school and it is working extremely well. Pupils are regularly asked to explain their thinking and all pupils attempt this to a high standard.  The teaching of reading is enhanced by daily group reading sessions with the grouping changed on a regular basis to meet interest, challenge and support needs. The teaching of phonics is particularly strong. Pupils read confidently and accurately. Pupils

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

with SEND enjoy reading and are happy to read out loud. Reading is emphasised across the curriculum, with teachers sharing books with pupils in different subjects and a wide range of books available for pupils to read in every classroom.  Teachers use drama, role play and modelling to develop pupils’ skills for writing. Teachers plan steps to developing extended pieces of writing extremely carefully. Pupils write at length and with confidence.  Teachers and support staff continually check on pupils’ understanding and adapt teaching and activities as needed. Teachers have strong subject knowledge and leaders make excellent use of timetabling to make use of individual teachers’ strengths.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Each term there is an overall theme that the whole school follows, which creates a sense of cohesiveness and enables visitors and trips that would otherwise be unaffordable for the small numbers. Within each topic,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

the individual subjects are carefully planned out to ensure appropriate challenge and support for the different ages. Teaching emphasises the importance of correct use of subject-specific vocabulary and pupils use it appropriately in their work.  Teachers regularly ask pupils to apply their knowledge in follow-up questions after completing a piece of work, for example applying what they had learned about the human skeleton to make comparisons with that of a frog, taking into account the adaptations it has to its own environment.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  From the moment that pupils enter the playground in the morning, they are valued as individuals. However, there is a real sense of being a close team and part of the wider community. Both pupils and staff start the day with a ‘wake up, shake up’ dance on the playground, choreographed and led by pupil ‘sports’ ambassadors’. All pupils, even the very youngest Nursery children, take part enthusiastically. Then they go into school happily, with the youngest children showing great independence as they do so.  Leaders have created an extremely strong ethos of caring for each other. Pupils readily support each other when they are finding something tricky. The school motto of ‘cherish all, achieve together’ sums this up. Pupils are taught to have a ‘growth mindset’ and they understand that if they are to master something they will not

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Personal development and welfare

necessarily succeed the first time they try.  The school is a core part of the village community. Pupils take part in regular events, such as the flower festival, welcome village members to their productions and raise money for local charities.  Pupils have a keen sense of doing the right thing. The school council is currently concerned about the use of plastic and are actively working to reduce this in school. There is a school nutrition action group, who took part in discussions about choosing a new caterer with a view to eating more healthily. Leaders and governors listen to pupils’ views and directly act on them, for example in securing additional funding to refurbish the toilets following pupils’ feedback.  There have been no incidents of bullying in recent years. Pupils listen carefully to each other’s views and are respectful of differences between them. The school is a diverse community and pupils celebrate different backgrounds and cultures as part of

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Personal development and welfare

assemblies and religious festivals.  There is a welcoming breakfast club, where pupils eat healthy breakfasts and enjoy using the school library area. Pupils access a wide range of extra-curricular activities for the size of school, ranging from construction through to sports.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Pupils want to do well. They listen carefully to their teachers and to each other in discussion. They work hard in lessons.  Around the school, pupils show extremely high levels of independence, particularly the very youngest, moving around the site with confidence.  Pupils are very polite and welcoming to visitors.  At playtimes, pupils play happily in mixed-age and gender groups. They take turns with the play equipment. Pupils are proud of the garden they have created and are careful to not damage the plants.  Attendance and punctuality are excellent.

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Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

 Pupils, many of whom joined the school with low prior attainment, make excellent progress in reading, writing and mathematics that is sustained over time. This is because of the outstanding teaching they receive.  All pupils, including those with lower starting points, become confident readers by the end of key stage 2 because the teaching of reading is particularly effective. All pupils in Year 1 can read at a good standard for their age.  Pupils’ workbooks and their responses to questions show the depth of their understanding of subjects, such as history and geography, as well as the high quality of work that they are producing. Pupils discuss issues with careful thought and are able to reason and debate across the curriculum.  Pupils’ scientific knowledge is also highly developed. They apply their knowledge to different contexts and explain the findings of investigations using accurate scientific

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Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

language.  Attainment in art is particularly high. Pupils are taught skills well, which they apply and rehearse over time and use to great effect in their accomplished final pieces.  Pupils with SEND and those who entered the school at non-standard points with low attainment are making exceptional progress and most are catching up rapidly with their peers.  Children in the early years and pupils in Year 6 are very well prepared for the next stage in their education. Reception children are reading and writing to a high standard. They are independent and ready to be in a mixed group of key stage 1 and 2 pupils next year. Year 6 pupils are confident and looking forward to the challenge of the larger secondary school environment but have been well prepared for this by many visits to the high school and working with the teachers there.

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Early years provision Outstanding

 The early years provision consists of a mixed Reception and Nursery class. Nursery children attend up to 30 hours; some are part-time, and the school admits from age three. The two groups are exceptionally well integrated. They play and learn together but with appropriate adaptations for the very youngest.  Teaching typifies very high expectations for children. Reception children take part in daily writing and mathematics activities both independently and with adults. They have many opportunities to practise these skills and consequently virtually all are now confident writers and early mathematicians. They are encouraged to experiment; for example, children were seen building towers of number tiles, then counting them in multiples of two or 10.  Phonics is taught very well. Nursery children take part in outdoor ‘sound hunting’ and quieter activities inside. Reception children are confident with their sounds and are

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Early years provision Outstanding

stretched towards more complex phonic patterns as soon as they are ready.  Reception children often take part in activities altogether. They have strong patience and perseverance as they keep going with a task, rather than finishing too quickly and moving on. For example, the whole of Reception and Nursery painted animals linking their visit to the zoo with the story of creation. Children were careful and took time to think about what they would do. The teacher skilfully supported individuals as needed, in this example encouraging paint-mixing, naming of key body parts, such as hooves on a zebra, and sharing.  The children also access a well-resourced outside area, they enjoy physical activities, such as racing cars around a track and quieter activities, such as searching for minibeasts in the plants.  The curriculum takes close account of children’s interests, but also expands their knowledge of the wider world. They go on many trips to places that are different to

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Early years provision Outstanding

their village and have visitors in, for example an artist who paints in an African style.  There are close links with the local playgroup and the school hosts a monthly toddler session, which starts a close relationship with parents before the children are of school age.  Children are kept extremely safe in the early years and safeguarding is of the same high standard as elsewhere in the school.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Executive Headteacher Victoria Gascoyne-Cecil

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School details

Email address admin@worlingworth.suffolk.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 24–25 February 2016

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Information about this school

 This school is voluntary controlled and of a religious character, that of the Church of England. The last section 48 inspection took place in November 2017.  The school is part of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.  This school is much smaller than the average primary school.  The number of pupils on roll has grown substantially in the last two years.  Pupils are taught in four mixed-age groups in the mornings, and three classes in the afternoon, consisting of Reception/Nursery, Years 1 to 3, and Years 4 to 6.  The executive headteacher is also executive headteacher of Thorndon CE Primary School.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed teaching and learning in every class. Most of these observations were undertaken alongside members of the senior leadership team.  A wide range of pupils’ workbooks were looked at by the inspector.  The inspector met with representatives from the governing body. She spoke with a representative of the local authority by telephone. She met with senior leaders and teachers.  A group of pupils and the school council met with the inspector. She also spoke to pupils informally in lessons and at playtimes.  The inspector scrutinised the school’s website and a range of documents, including assessment information and the school’s self-evaluation.  Pupils read to the inspector and talked about their reading preferences.  The inspector spoke with parents before school.

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Inspection team

Tessa Holledge, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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