Wormegay Church of England Primary School

Inspection of Wormegay Church of England Primary School Stoke Road, Wormegay, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE33 0RN

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 23–24 January 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and safe. They enjoy a wide variety of experiences, including residential visits, trips to historic houses and places of worship. Pupils go swimming and they compete in speed stacking. Many recently travelled to Birmingham, singing with the Young Voices choir. Clubs range from dodgeball to healthy eating and cookery. Leaders prioritise opportunities to broaden pupils’ horizons.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils usually conduct themselves well, concentrating hard in lessons and moving sensibly around the school. At lunchtimes, they are busy and active, especially when games are organised for them by adults, including the sports coach. Pupils say that bullying is rare. Specialist support staff are skilled in dealing with pupils’ social and emotional needs. Attendance and punctuality have improved.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff work hard and are committed to improving the quality of education for pupils. Teaching assistants make a positive contribution to learning. Nevertheless, the quality of teaching across the school is inconsistent, particularly in mathematics. As a result, pupils often have gaps in their understanding. Leaders have begun to address this, but improvements have not been quick enough and too many pupils continue to struggle. Governors have not done enough to hold leaders to account.

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better?

Leaders have introduced new approaches to the curriculum, designed to make learning deeper and more relevant. In some subjects, such as physical education (PE) and geography, improvements are advancing well. In these subjects, teaching is well organised, and learning intentions are clear. French is also delivered well, by a practitioner with a strong knowledge of the subject.

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better?

Other subjects, however, are at a much earlier stage of development. Plans to ensure that all subjects are taught in a logical sequence have not yet been established. Teachers need more help to improve their subject knowledge. As a result, pupils’ knowledge of the wider curriculum is patchy. During the inspection, pupils struggled to recall information about the work they have been doing in subjects such as computing, history and religious education (RE).

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better?

Adults have received training in phonics and reading, and pupils are generally making good progress. In Reception, however, phonics teaching did not start at the very beginning of the school year, and this means that some children are not as advanced as they should be.

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better?

Pupils enjoy reading. They especially enjoy the books teachers read to them. In writing, however, opportunities to correct pupils’ misconceptions are sometimes missed. Also, pupils’ reading choices are not guided carefully enough. Pupils do not read a sufficiently wide range of books, and they have limited knowledge of stories 23–24 January 2020

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by different authors. This means that their vocabulary is too narrow, and this restricts their progress.

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The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) keeps a careful eye on the progress of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). She provides effective training for adults working with pupils with education, health and care plans. Pupils with SEND are included in all aspects of school life.

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Disadvantaged pupils receive effective support. Leaders use additional funds wisely, catering well for pupils’ academic, social and emotional needs.

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Pupils care for each other and contribute to the daily life of the school. Pupils learn how to stay safe, and they can explain how to keep themselves fit and healthy. They have learned about people with different faiths and beliefs.

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The teaching of mathematics is weak. Pupils do not make enough progress and too few meet national expectations. Too many pupils have gaps in their understanding, and leaders have not acted quickly enough to improve the situation. The newly appointed curriculum leader has a clear understanding of the need for improvement, but she has not had time to make the necessary improvements. Governors have not addressed the situation with sufficient urgency, and they have not done enough to hold senior leaders to account over standards.

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In the early years, children learn in the same class as pupils in Year 1 and Year 2. However, the balance between delivering the early years curriculum and meeting the needs of older pupils is not always achieved as successfully as it could be. Opportunities for Reception children to learn outside, where they can access vital parts of the curriculum, are not organised often enough. Outcomes at the end of Reception vary hugely, due to the very small numbers of children and because of their different starting points. However, they do not all make progress which is as strong as it could be. Children’s work is carefully assessed. Adults know the children well and provide good care and welfare.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff receive regular safeguarding training sessions. They know about the risks pupils may face. Appropriate checks are made on new staff and volunteers to ensure that everyone is safe to work with children. Adults understand how to report any concerns if they are worried about a child. Staff communicate effectively with external agencies. Pupils are taught to stay safe, including when using the internet.

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Safeguarding

The trust has appropriate procedures in place to check that the culture of safeguarding in the school is effective. 23–24 January 2020

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In the early years, children do not start phonics as early in the autumn term as they should. Also, there are not enough opportunities for children to play and learn in the outdoor area. This means that children are not able to make the most of their curriculum. Leaders should support teachers to improve their planning for these activities.  Too few pupils are reading high-quality books from different genres. As a result, opportunities to improve pupils’ vocabulary are being missed. Leaders should broaden the range of books pupils read across all year groups, particularly in key stage 2.  Leaders have started to introduce new approaches for delivering the curriculum. This is a work in progress. Leaders need to do more to develop teachers’ skills and update their subject knowledge, in order to improve the quality of education.  There are weaknesses in the teaching of mathematics. There are big gaps in

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

pupils’ understanding, some of which are a legacy from historically weaker teaching. Pupils who have fallen behind are still not catching up fast enough. Teachers should address children’s misconceptions more quickly. Senior leaders must address these shortcomings as a matter of urgency, and monitor improvements more closely.  Recently, governors have started to hold leaders to account more effectively. Before this, some priorities had not been acted on with enough determination. Governors must ensure that leaders set and share with them appropriate, precise targets for pupils’ outcomes. Governors must ensure that they challenge leaders on all aspects of the school’s performance.  In the past, support from the trust has not had as much impact as it should have had. Trustees must ensure that their support for school improvement is successful so that the quality of education improves, and standards rise.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted . 23–24 January 2020

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

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. 23–24 January 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10121372 Type of school Primary

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School details

Chair of governing body Jacqueline McCamphill

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School details

Date of previous inspection 29–30 November 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Wormegay Church of England (VA) Primary School is located in the Diocese of Ely. The religious character of the school was inspected under section 48 of the Education Act (2005) in April 2015, and it was judged to be good.  This school is part of The Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust.  The headteacher is also the headteacher of another local school, within The Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust.  The school is a much smaller-than-average sized school.  The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.  The school has a breakfast club, which is led by school staff.  The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than average.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 23–24 January 2020

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 As part of this inspection, we met with the headteacher, the trust school effectiveness officer, teachers, teaching assistants and curriculum leaders. We also met with office staff.  We met with the chair of the governors’ standards and ethos committee.  We met with the SENCo and the trust school effectiveness officer for inclusion.  We gathered the views of parents on the playground before school.  We analysed the 12 responses to Ofsted’s Parent View system, including parents’ free-text comments  We analysed responses from members of staff to the Ofsted survey for staff.  We observed playtimes and lunchtime and spoke to pupils about their school experiences.  Reading, mathematics, PE, geography and French were given particular consideration as part of this inspection. We spoke to curriculum leaders, visited lessons, carried out work scrutinies and met with teachers and pupils to learn about the quality of education.

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 To inspect the school’s safeguarding arrangements, we spoke to the designated safeguarding leader, members of staff, parents and pupils. We checked the single central record and a sample of safeguarding records.

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Inspection team

Nick Rudman, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

James Richards Ofsted Inspector 23–24 January 2020

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regulates and inspects to 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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