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Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Ellie Griffiths Headteacher Wool Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School High Street Wool Dorset BH20 6BT

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Ofsted visit to Wool Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

Following my visit with Heather Barraclough, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 20 October, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted visit to Wool Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

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Ofsted visit to Wool Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted visit to Wool Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the special educational needs coordinator and the leads for English and mathematics. We did not speak to pupils because of the protective measures in place.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

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Context

In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 The school opened to all pupils on 7 September 2020. There are some pupils on part-time timetables.  Attendance is above the normal attendance for this time of year. There were no ‘bubbles’ isolating at the time of the visit.  You intend to offer the usual range of subjects by the summer of 2021. Currently, you are not offering swimming or the full curriculum in music.  Leaders have checked pupils’ new starting points in English and mathematics.  Reading is a priority and you have extended the time given to the teaching of reading. In Years 3 and 4, the teaching of phonics is being revisited.  You have identified gaps in pupils’ writing. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 are relearning basic punctuation, such as capital letters and full stops. Older pupils, in Years 5 and 6, are revising how to write a range of sentences.  In mathematics, you are focusing on number work.  Personal, social, health and economic education retains a high profile,

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

alongside physical and religious education.  Remote learning is at an early stage. You said that, when planned fully, it will align with the usual curriculum.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the diocese of Salisbury, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Dorset. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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