William de Yaxley Church of England Academy

Inspection of William de Yaxley Church of England Academy Landsdowne Road, Yaxley, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE7 3JL

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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 Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 4–5 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at William de Yaxley. They enjoy positive relationships with adults and each other. This ensures that they feel safe and secure while at the school. Pupils behave well in lessons and when playing outdoors. They understand that it is important to show care and support one another. One pupil commented to us: ‘Respecting each other is important here because that is how we get along together.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils act with surprise when you ask them about bullying. ‘It rarely happens at this school,’ they told us. However, they are confident that if they had any worries adults would act quickly to resolve their concerns.

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What is it like to attend this school?

In the last few years, pupils have not achieved well enough. Pupils learn a range of subjects but do not have the knowledge they need to have in all of them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils’ personal development is promoted well. Pupils take pride in the contribution they make to the life of the school. Members of the school council shared with us their recent success in designing a trim trail for the school playground. Pupils have opportunities to learn about their roles and responsibilities in the local and wider community. For example, they hold fund-raising events for different charitable organisations.

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better?

Since the previous inspection, pupils’ attainment has been persistently low, especially in reading and mathematics. Leaders’ and governors’ actions since the previous inspection have not been successful in raising standards. A recent change in the support provided by the trust and the return of the headteacher are bringing improvements in the school. Governors are now holding school leaders to account, so that the quality of education is now improving quickly.

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better?

Curriculum leaders are thinking more carefully about the subjects that they want pupils to learn. Leaders look for opportunities to join subjects together. This helps pupils to remember the things that they learn about. For example, one pupil told us about using his mathematical skills while learning about space.

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better?

In some subjects, such as science, leaders’ plans identify the order in which pupils should learn about different concepts. This is not consistent for every subject. Where the order has not been identified, teachers are not clear on what pupils need to know before they are able to tackle new ideas. This means that the activities planned by teachers do not deepen pupils’ understanding. In the foundation subjects, leaders have not identified how they check what pupils have learned. Leaders are not able to see if their subject plans are helping pupils to remember more. 4–5 February 2020

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Leaders place high importance on reading. They encourage pupils to read widely, through rewards and incentives. Pupils are enthusiastic about reading. They discuss the range of books they enjoy and their favourite authors. However, the curriculum for reading is not fully developed. It does not identify the prior knowledge teachers need to know to build pupils’ comprehension skills. As a result, pupils are making slower progress with their understanding of texts.

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Leaders have improved the teaching of mathematics. They have introduced new approaches and resources to support staff planning. Many gaps in pupils’ understanding are being filled. However, these strategies are quite recent. Pupils are not provided with tasks that challenge their deeper thinking about mathematics.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive good support. The special educational needs coordinator knows the needs of individual pupils well. She works with teachers to ensure that their plans are adapted to help meet pupils’ targets. However, in the subjects which require further development, pupils with SEND are not yet achieving as well as they could.

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Pupils’ personal development is a strength of the school. Pupils spoke excitedly about the residential trips that enrich their life experiences. They take their responsibilities as prefects, buddies or school councillors seriously. Pupils know about British values and how they are helping them prepare for life in modern Britain.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders place a high priority on safeguarding. They make sure that staff understand the policies and procedures for reporting concerns. Staff are provided with regular information to keep their knowledge up to date. This ensures that adults are alert to any warning signs regarding a pupil’s safety or welfare. Leaders follow up any concerns appropriately and work with external agencies to provide additional support where it is needed.

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Safeguarding

Leaders carry out the necessary checks on staff who work in the school. They receive good support from the trust and governors, who carry out regular audits of safeguarding processes to check that they are robust.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Curriculum planning across some subjects is not well sequenced. Leaders’ plans do not provide teachers with specific guidance about the key knowledge pupils need to build their ideas and to help them remember more. Pupils do not achieve well in these subjects. Leaders should ensure that curriculum plans provide teachers with this guidance. Leaders should check that teachers have confidence 4–5 February 2020

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and understanding in how to teach these plans so that pupils are successful in their learning.  In the foundation subjects, there are no consistent approaches to assessing what pupils know. This means that leaders are not clear about what is working and what needs to improve. Leaders should ensure that they know how to check the effectiveness of their plans, so that the quality of education for pupils is good.  Leaders have ensured that pupils develop a love of reading. However, leaders’ plans do not provide a clear sequence for developing pupils higher-order reading skills. This means that pupils do not develop the depth of understanding in their comprehension. Leaders must ensure that plans for reading provide information about what pupils need to learn at key points, so that pupils make stronger progress in reading.  The approaches used in the mathematics curriculum have been recently introduced. Teachers are starting to implement these plans. However,

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opportunities for pupils to apply their learning to more complex mathematics is limited. Leaders must check that teachers understand how to plan activities that are challenging pupils to think deeply about their learning, so that more achieve the higher standards in mathematics.

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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 .

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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. 4–5 February 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10121369 Type of school Junior

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School details

Website www.williamdeyaxley.cambs.sch.uk/

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School details

Date of previous inspection 11–12 October 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust.  The headteacher has been full time since September 2019. Previously, she was working as an executive headteacher with oversight of another school.  William de Yaxley Academy is a Church of England faith school in the Diocese of Ely. The religious character of the school was inspected under section 48 of the Education Act 2005 in May 2017 and was judged good.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 We met with the headteacher, the head of school and the assistant headteacher, who is also the leader of English. We met with curriculum leaders, the special educational needs coordinator and the person responsible for attendance.  We had meetings with four members of the local governing board, including the chair and the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust. 4–5 February 2020

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 We reviewed a range of documentation provided by the school. We looked at self- evaluation plans, the school development plan, curriculum plans, and documents relating to attendance and behaviour.  We reviewed a range of safeguarding information, including the school’s checks for those who are employed at the school.  We considered 54 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and 28 free-text responses. We also reviewed six responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 83 responses to the pupil survey. We also met with staff to discuss their views about the school, including the newly qualified teacher.  We informally met with parents as they brought their children to the school in the morning.  We focused on reading, mathematics, science and history as part of the inspection. We held discussions with subject leaders, reviewed pupils’ work in these subjects, spoke to teachers about pupils’ learning, visited lessons and spoke

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to pupils while in lessons and separately.

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Inspection team

Steve Mellors, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Kay Tims Ofsted Inspector 4–5 February 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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