Willoughby Road Primary Academy

Willoughby Road Primary Academy Willoughby Road, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire DN17 2NF

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders’ careful and accurate self-evaluation and their resulting actions for improvement have ensured that the school now offers a good quality of education for its pupils.  A shared vision between governors, trust and school leaders, a clear delegation of responsibilities and an in-depth view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school have brought clarity and diligence to school improvement.  Leaders’ strategies for improvement are consistently applied by teachers and teaching assistants. Effective teaching ensures that most pupils make strong progress: more pupils are now working at the expected standard for their age. However, teaching and resources are not consistently as well matched to the needs of the most able pupils.  Leaders have prioritised reading for improvement. Strategies have had a positive effect on pupils’ enjoyment of a wide range of texts and their comprehension. There is more work to be done to develop pupils’ language so

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

that they can understand and use vocabulary across all subjects.  Strong leadership and effective teaching in early years ensure that children make good progress from their starting points.  Work to improve pupils’ writing is well under way. However, tasks in key stage 1 do not consistently give pupils enough opportunity to write independently at length across subjects.  School and trust-wide policies for behaviour are very well understood by pupils and staff. Pupils know exactly what is expected of them. The vast majority behave well in lessons and at breaktimes.  Improved systems for behaviour, effective nurture provision and an understanding that supporting pupils in achieving good behaviour is everyone’s responsibility have underpinned a significant reduction in exclusions. However, the proportion of pupils excluded from school is still greater than the national average and remains high on leaders’ improvement agenda.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders’ actions to promote and reward good attendance, and to address persistent absence, have ensured that pupils’ attendance has improved and is now just below the national average. Leaders rightly keep securing pupils’ good attendance as a school priority.  There is an effective culture of safeguarding within the school. Effective policies and procedures, strengthened by good relationships between staff and pupils, ensure that pupils feel, and are, safe.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to improve teaching and learning, by: – helping pupils to rapidly improve their understanding and use of a wide range of vocabulary across different subjects to enable them to read and understand more challenging texts – ensuring that teaching and resources fully support the most able pupils in making strong progress and reaching higher standards – making sure that pupils, particularly those in key stage 1, have opportunities to develop and practise their writing skills so that they can write at length in a range of subjects.  Strengthen the effective work taking place to ensure pupils’ good personal development and behaviour, by working with pupils, their families and staff to: – reduce the proportion of fixed-term exclusions – further improve pupils’ attendance, particularly of the small proportion who are persistently absent from school.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Senior leaders, wholly committed to the hard work needed to improve the school, have worked closely with personnel from Delta Academy Trust. Together, school and trust leaders have defined and implemented strategies that have resulted in improvements in teaching, safeguarding, pupils’ behaviour and the progress pupils make.  Leaders have supported teachers and teaching assistants in the challenge of improving teaching, learning and assessment with a wide range of comprehensive and accessible training. Staff members have valuable opportunities to work alongside colleagues from other schools in the trust to share good ideas for improvement and to check their view of pupils’ progress.  Leaders have been proactive in addressing pupils’ lower outcomes in mathematics. Leaders can demonstrate how the appointment of a ‘learning champion’ and the introduction of same-day interventions, alongside tasks with different elements of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

challenge, are having a positive effect on pupils’ progress in mathematics.  The leaders for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have been proactive in strengthening arrangements and support for pupils. Leaders keep a close eye on the progress that pupils with SEND are making. This means that intense support is given when it is needed, such as access to the nurture provision, and then carefully diminished as pupils’ needs are addressed. Work with external agencies is effective in addressing pupils’ varied and complex needs.  Considerable work has taken place to help pupils to improve their behaviour. New strategies employed have been supported by staff professional development sessions and are applied consistently. Careful analysis of the needs of pupils who have the greatest challenge in managing their behaviour means that staff are consistent in the strategies they use to support individual pupils. This has resulted in a substantial

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

reduction in the previously high number of fixed-term exclusions. For example, last year 35.5 days were lost due to exclusion. This year, the figure is 14. Leaders show determination to continue to reduce this proportion, which is still higher than the national average.  Curriculum leaders have a clear rationale for subject development. Enrichment opportunities, visits and visitors are planned to make learning meaningful and memorable for pupils. Leaders have identified what they want pupils to know in each subject and what vocabulary they want them to learn. However, leaders know that, currently, pupils’ progress in different subjects varies. They have identified that their next stage of curriculum development is to check that pupils with different starting points are building their knowledge and skills successfully over time in different subjects.  Leaders have ensured that curriculum planning ensures that pupils develop their

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding over their time in school. Throughout the inspection, pupils, particularly those in key stage 2, talked confidently about their learning about different religions and how adults in school teach them to be good citizens.

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Governance of the school

 Governance is strong. The trust board, with overall responsibility for the governance of the school, has delegated specific governance roles and responsibilities to the academy advisory board. Governors are knowledgeable and tenacious in their work. They hold school leaders to account and use their wide range of skills to provide challenge about any aspect of the school’s work that is not strong enough. Since the last inspection, governors have supported leaders well in their ambition to secure significant improvements.  Governors undertake their financial responsibilities effectively. They check that additional funding is targeted successfully to meet the needs of those pupils it is designed to support.  Governors have made a successful strategic contribution to improving the quality of teaching and learning, which was a weakness at the last inspection. Minutes of governors’ meetings show that governors provide strong challenge in the area of

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Governance of the school

pupils’ standards. They ask probing questions of leaders and staff members who give regular presentations to explain teaching strategies and the impact on pupils’ progress and attainment.  School leaders provide a wide range of performance information so that governors can check that pupils are achieving as well as they should be in all areas of the curriculum. For example, governors know that the progress of the most able pupils needs improvement in specific year groups.  A well-planned delegation of responsibilities results in governors checking and reporting back information about all aspects of the school’s work to the whole governing board. For example, the designated governor for safeguarding completes a detailed report of all safeguarding aspects, ensuring that all statutory requirements are met. These are reported back effectively so that all governors understand how leaders and staff ensure that pupils are kept safe.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders ensure that all appropriate employment checks are finalised to ensure that staff and visitors working with children are fit to do so. All relevant information is recorded securely within a central record and updated regularly.  Staff undertake regular training and have timely briefings to ensure that they understand the important role they have in keeping pupils safe. Staff know and understand the procedures to follow if they have any concerns.  Strong relationships and effective communication enable staff to quickly respond to any situation that arises and take effective action. Designated staff act quickly to report concerns, liaising with external agencies in a timely manner to ensure that pupils receive any support that they need.  Safeguarding systems are thorough and systematic. Leaders have introduced an electronic system to store evidence securely. They carefully monitor concerns so that

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Safeguarding

members of staff are quickly made aware of any issues and actions as appropriate.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Leaders’ precise strategies to improve teaching are applied consistently by teachers and teaching assistants. Comprehensive systems for checking pupils’ progress ensure that everyone knows what pupils need to learn next, where they are successful and where they need further support. As a result, pupils make good progress overall. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment are good.  Where pupils have lower starting points, or where progress has historically been weak, a range of effective strategies is in place to ensure that pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, make good progress. Teachers model new learning effectively and check pupils’ progress in lessons. They quickly identify where pupils need further support and give this effectively in the lesson, or later in a follow-up activity with another adult. A focus on lower-ability pupils has resulted in them making stronger progress to catch up with peers. For some higher-ability pupils, work in

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

lessons does not consistently present the same amount of challenge and support.  In mathematics, leaders have worked to implement a more consistent approach to teaching across all year groups. Strategies such as same-day intervention and the use of gold, silver and bronze challenges now ensure that pupils access work that is mostly appropriate to their abilities. Separate arithmetic lessons support the children’s understanding of fluency, problem-solving and reasoning. Evidence in books shows that pupils make good progress from their starting points, including disadvantaged pupils. In some lessons, mathematical resources are not used effectively to support learning.  Improvement in reading has been underpinned by a trust-wide strategy. Pupils talk eagerly about the class texts they are reading. Teachers use clear routines and structures for supporting pupils in retrieving information from the text and answering

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

questions. Pupils’ work about different books from each class is celebrated in corridors and classrooms. This celebration of work keeps expectations high of what pupils can achieve over their time in school.  Texts are now chosen to provide opportunity to develop pupils’ knowledge and application of vocabulary. This work is in its early stages and leaders and teachers have identified that emphasis needs to be given to extending pupils’ vocabulary understanding and choices across all subjects.  Leaders identify a growing staff knowledge and confidence in the teaching of phonics. This is particularly evident in Year 1 pupils’ work and is confirmed by the improving proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. The books pupils read in the early stages are carefully chosen by teachers to enable them to practise the sounds that they have just learned.  To improve pupils’ writing, teachers consistently apply leaders’ strategies of a step-by-

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

step, well-scaffolded approach to a range of different writing types. This has helped pupils to have a good understanding of how to structure different pieces of writing. It has ensured that expectations in the presentation of written work are high across all classes. Now that pupils are more confident writers, this style sometimes inhibits pupils, particularly those in key stage 1 and the most able, in writing independently and at length about different subjects.  Pupils’ books give evidence of leaders’ ambition to develop pupils’ knowledge across a range of subjects and activities. Links are made between subjects but there is a focus on subject-specific knowledge. For example, in Year 6, pupils’ work about evacuees in the Second World War focused primarily on knowledge in history. However, it also linked to geography, exploring the countries involved, and to an English activity, where pupils wrote a letter to their parents from the viewpoint of an evacuee.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Across subjects, teachers have the same high expectations of pupils’ presentation of work as they do in English and mathematics. Currently, pupils’ depth of knowledge and quality of work is stronger in some subjects, such as geography and history, than it is in others, such as science.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils speak confidently about how they are encouraged to be thoughtful, reflective learners. They give a good account of their learning in religious education and describe how they find out about other cultures. They give super examples of understanding that people have different backgrounds and needs, and they show respect when they are speaking about others.  Around school, pupils of all ages are seen sporting the ‘Willoughby Role Model neckers’. These are awarded to pupils to wear for the week when they have excelled in learning. One girl in Reception was proud to tell an inspector, ‘I can wear this because I am trying really hard with phonics. I am learning to read.’  Pupils have a good understanding of different types of bullying, including of cyber bullying. They speak, without inhibition, about language they should and should not

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Personal development and welfare

use, about tolerance and democracy and about different types of potential discrimination. Many other pupils agreed when one pupil said, ‘We should accept everyone as they are.’  Leaders’ effective work with vulnerable pupils, including the access some pupils have to the nurture provision, supports pupils in their emotional and behavioural development, making sure that they are well placed to make progress academically.  Many pupils take up the offer for all of a light breakfast when they come to school in the morning.  Most parents have a positive view of the school and feel that their children are safe and well supported.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Throughout the inspection, in classrooms, during breaktimes and during transitions throughout the day, pupils were seen behaving well, responding quickly to adults’ requests and showing courtesy to visitors and to each other. Pupils are proud to say that their behaviour is good and talk about improvements that have taken place over recent times.  Leaders have comprehensive systems in place that encourage the best behaviour from the vast majority of pupils. These systems are well understood and consistently applied by staff. Carefully planned training and support for staff, as well as extremely thorough plans of how to best support individual pupils, have contributed to this understanding.  The school and trust policies are very well understood by the pupils, who rise to the high expectations set. A small group of pupils, who present more challenging behaviour, access the whole-school behaviour system alongside their peers, but have

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Behaviour

their own, carefully considered plans that are pertinent to their needs. Communication with parents is, the headteacher says, essential in securing improvements in pupils’ behaviour, and high priority is given to this.  Where pupils have been at risk of exclusion, leaders have worked closely with pupils and their families to ensure that the provision is best meeting the pupil’s needs. Exclusions have therefore reduced substantially, but are still higher than the national average, so remain a priority for improvement.  After higher than national average rates of absence last year, particularly for pupils who are persistently absent from school, leaders have taken decisive action to work with pupils and families to secure improvement. Attendance figures so far this year have improved and are just below last year’s national average. The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school has substantially reduced and is now similar to

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Behaviour

last year’s national average. Leaders know that pupils need to be in school every day to maximise learning time. They continue to keep this work high profile.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Pupils’ outcomes have improved over time and are now good.  From their lower than typical starting points in early years, most children make good progress through early years and key stages 1 and 2. Most pupils leave school well prepared for the next stage of their education.  Pupils’ current work, checks on pupils’ learning, internal assessment information and listening to pupils read demonstrate that progress has improved for pupils in all year groups in reading, writing and mathematics this year.  In mathematics, pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage 2 have improved over the last two years, and pupils’ current work shows that this improvement continues.  Pupils’ progress in reading has improved over the last three years, but the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard was still below the national average in 2018. Leaders’ direction in reading comprehension activities, using high-quality texts, has

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Outcomes for pupils Good

engaged pupils in reading for enjoyment and helped them to make stronger progress.  The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check has improved. Where progress has been slower in the past, for example for boys and disadvantaged pupils, adults have refined their planning and teaching to ensure that these pupils are supported in catching up quickly.  Work to support disadvantaged pupils gets off to a strong start in early years. A prompt start is now made to working with families so that barriers to learning can be identified and addressed successfully. Throughout school, the consistent application of well-structured strategies in reading, writing and mathematics has resulted in a greater proportion of these pupils now working at standards expected for their age.  Improved provision for pupils with SEND in the classroom, in timely intervention activities and in the nurture sessions, ensures that the vast majority of these pupils

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Outcomes for pupils Good

make good progress in their learning; emotionally, behaviourally and academically.  Pupils’ progress in other subjects is good overall. The emphasis that subjects such as history and geography are given ensures that pupils develop their knowledge and skills well over time in these subjects. Progress in some other subjects, such as science, is more varied across the school.  Leaders’ attention to ensuring that a greater proportion of pupils are working at the standard expected for their age is seen in improving end of key stage assessment information and the current work of pupils across year groups. Even so, the proportion of pupils reaching higher standards at the end of each key stage is below the national average.

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Early years provision Good

 Positive relationships between children and staff, adults’ accurate understanding of children’s needs and abilities, and well-planned activities ensure that children get off to a good start to school life. From their lower than typical starting points, children make good progress through early years.  The early years leader has a good understanding of the children’s starting points and how the indoor and outdoor areas of learning can be planned to support their needs. Particular consideration has been given to the boys’ needs, so that the activities on offer engage and support them in making equally strong progress to the girls.  Knowing how important it is to get children off to a strong start in extending their vocabulary, the early years environment and sessions throughout the day provide a wide range of activities for children to test out their reading and writing skills. Adults make timely interventions in children’s learning to model the use of vocabulary in a

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Early years provision Good

variety of contexts.  Adults teach phonics right from the start so that children learn to decode words successfully. During the inspection, Reception children were learning and practising sounds effectively in a phonics session. This was because of the excellent techniques and routines that the teacher used to engage them and swiftly address any misconceptions they had. Later, children were eager to join in with a phonics activity led by an adult outside, quickly picking up, sounding and reading the words on the ground when they ran under the parachute held by their friends.  Leaders have developed a rich, broad and balanced curriculum, which prepares children well for the next stage of their education. Teachers plan visits and visitors so that children can successfully ‘hook into’ their learning, including boys and disadvantaged pupils. Careful planning of activities ensures that children develop their

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Early years provision Good

skills across all areas of learning.  A wide range of activities is available in the outdoor provision, including a strong focus on language development and practising of phonics, writing and mathematics skills. During the inspection, a group of children enthusiastically painted the wooden fence with ‘foamy water’, working well together and making sure that the logs were covered in the ‘magic potion’. Adults use skilful questioning to help children understand, learn and progress.  Developing partnerships with parents and carers has been a significant area of leaders’ and the early years team’s work. Opportunities for parents to be involved in their children’s learning include reading mornings and shared access to the school’s online learning records. This helps parents to understand and support their children’s learning.  As in other areas of school, the safeguarding of children is given very careful

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Early years provision Good

consideration in early years. Welfare requirements are met. Work with families is particularly important to ensure that they and their children get support when it is needed. As well as keeping children safe, the early years team makes sure that children are taught how to keep themselves safe. This includes work such as internet safety, learning about positive, healthy relationships and how to stay safe in the sun.

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Date of previous inspection 25–26 January 2017

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Information about this school

 The school became an academy in January 2015 and is part of the Delta Academy Trust. The trust has overall responsibility for the governance of the school and has delegated some of its duties to a sub-committee, the academy advisory board.  About half of pupils in the school are eligible for support through the pupil premium funding.  The proportion of pupils who are identified as receiving support for SEND is below the national average, as is the proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan.  The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in all year groups and spoke to pupils about their learning. An inspector and the headteacher undertook several lesson observations jointly.  Views expressed through the Ofsted questionnaire, Parent View, were considered and 11 parents’ free-text responses were also taken into account.  Inspectors listened to pupils read, scrutinised their work and talked with pupils during lesson observations. The views of pupils were also considered during more formal discussions with the inspectors.  Meetings were held with senior and middle leaders, the director of learning and executive principal of the Delta Academy Trust and the chair and two members of the academy advisory board.  Inspectors reviewed a wide range of the school’s own information and documentation, including: information on children’s progress; school development plans; minutes of governing body meetings; and, the school’s review of its own performance.

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Information about this inspection

Information and documentation relating to the safeguarding of pupils and their behaviour and attendance was examined, along with policy documentation.  The opinions of staff were taken into account through formal and informal discussions and examination of the findings from the 48 staff questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Elaine Watson, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Kate Rowley 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

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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