Eileen Wade Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Eileen Wade Primary School High Street, Upper Dean, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 0ND

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Outcome

Eileen Wade Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending and learning at Eileen Wade Primary School. The school is a small, friendly community. Pupil feel safe and happy. Everyone is made to feel welcome and valued. Pupils learn to respect others’ opinions and beliefs. They know why this is important.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are ambitious for what they want pupils to achieve. They want pupils to experience things they might not otherwise do. Staff share leaders’ vision that the school is, ‘a little place with a lot to offer.’ Pupils want to do their best. They told inspectors that the adults make learning interesting and enjoyable. Pupils enjoy learning a wide range of subjects. They participate in learning activities enthusiastically. Pupils leave well prepared for secondary school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. Learning is rarely disturbed by poor behaviour. When pupils have disagreements, they trust adults to help sort these out quickly. Pupils told inspectors that bullying hardly ever happens. When it does, adults take it seriously and deal with it well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils spoke about the range of clubs, activities, and visiting speakers that help them follow their interests and learn new things. They understand why some of these activities cannot take place currently. Pupils are happy that some activities have started again.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Across the curriculum, leaders have organised learning carefully, in a way that builds upon what pupils already know and can do. By the time they leave in Year 6, pupils have a good foundation for learning at secondary school.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Teachers skilfully break down learning into smaller steps. They use their checks on learning to spot where pupils are less secure in their understanding. Teachers adjust their plans to give pupils the chance to revisit and use knowledge in different contexts. This helps pupils to remember important knowledge. Leaders ensure that teachers get the 11 June 2021

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training they need to teach different subjects effectively. This helps pupils to learn well across the curriculum.

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Leaders give great importance to the teaching of reading. Children in Reception Year start learning about reading and phonics right from the very start. Adults teach phonics and reading effectively. Pupils read frequently. Books are well matched to the phonics that pupils know. This helps pupils to read with fluency and understanding. Pupils who start to fall behind with reading quickly get the extra help they need to keep up. Pupils enjoy reading. They know it helps them learn about new things and to use their imaginations.

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Mathematics is taught well. Teachers know what works well to help pupils learn and remember important mathematics knowledge. Children in Reception Year learn about numbers and shapes, make comparisons, and start to learn about simple fractions of objects. This prepares them well for learning mathematics in Year 1.

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Staff have high expectations for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers adapt learning so that pupils with SEND get the help they need to access the same learning as their classmates. Pupils with SEND apply their learning with increasing independence and achieve well.

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Pupils’ personal development is a strength. Pupils learn about relationships, and to respect different cultures and religions, through the curriculum and assemblies. Before the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, pupils benefited from a wide range of sports activities, educational and cultural trips, and visiting speakers. This opened pupils’ minds to opportunities outside of their own community. Leaders have sought alternatives to make up for what they are not doing currently because of COVID-19.

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Staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and attendance. Pupils respond well. They rarely make the wrong choices about how to behave. Few are regularly absent. Pupils are courteous and respectful to others.

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Leaders consider staff well-being and workload. Staff feel valued and cared for. Governors are knowledgeable. They ensure resources are used well and for pupils’ benefit. During the pandemic, governors focused on remote education and the safeguarding of pupils. They are now starting to return to providing the level of support and challenge about the quality of education that they had done previously.

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While there are many strengths in the curriculum, leaders have identified that there are some curriculum plans in the foundation subjects that are not yet as well developed as they need to be. For example, in design technology, pupils do not routinely get the chance to learn and use their knowledge across a range of contexts or materials. Occasionally, in subjects such as history and geography, teachers do not emphasise the knowledge that pupils are learning or using in planned activities. When this happens, pupils remember the activity they have completed rather than the knowledge that teachers wanted them to learn. 11 June 2021

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure safeguarding is always at the forefront of staff’s thinking. Staff are well trained to recognise the signs that a pupil may be at risk of harm. Staff are confident to report concerns and know they will be acted upon so that pupils are safe. Leaders ensure pupils and their families get any help that they need. Governors check regularly that procedures to keep pupils safe are effective.

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Safeguarding

In personal, social and health education, pupils learn how to stay safe in a range of situations. They learn, for example, about healthy relationships and friendships, and how to stay safe online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Curriculum planning in some foundation subjects is still developing, most notably, in design technology, geography, and history. Some plans focus overtly on the tasks pupils should complete, rather than what teachers want pupils to learn. Other plans do not give pupils sufficiently wide breadth in the subject. Leaders should continue to develop these curriculum plans so that pupils have the full breadth of experience in the subjects, and so teachers clearly identify the knowledge that they want pupils to learn.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that a good school could now be better than good, or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good on 12 and 13 January 2012.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Parent View 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. 11 June 2021

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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 here .

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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. 11 June 2021

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School details

Inspection number 10196884 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 19 May 2016, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Eileen Wade Primary School is part of a federation with Milton Earnest Church of England Primary School. The schools share a single governing body. The headteacher is the executive headteacher of both schools.  About half of the staff were not working at the school when it was previously inspected.  A breakfast club and after-school club are managed by the school.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school, and have taken that into account in their evaluation.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other staff. Inspectors met with two members of the governing body and reviewed minutes of governing body meetings. Inspectors held a telephone meeting with a local authority school improvement adviser who has supported the school.  To evaluate the quality of education, inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, and design technology. In each subject, inspectors 11 June 2021

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visited lessons, scrutinised pupils’ work, this included listening to pupils read, and held discussions with curriculum leaders, teachers, and pupils. Inspectors also reviewed curriculum plans and policies, and pupils’ work in a range of other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors reviewed school policies, procedures, and records. Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, as the designated safeguarding lead, to review examples of actions taken to keep pupils safe. Inspectors also checked staff members’ and governors’ understanding of how to keep pupils safe from harm.  Inspectors gathered pupils’ views on the school by speaking to groups of pupils from the lessons that they had visited. Inspectors considered the 28 responses to Ofsted’s online pupil questionnaire.  Inspectors reviewed a range of information and documents about pupils’ behaviour and attendance. They also observed pupils’ behaviour before school, in lessons and at

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lunchtime.  Inspectors considered the 17 responses and 13 free-text responses submitted to Ofsted’s online parent survey, Parent View.  In addition to speaking to staff, inspectors reviewed the 10 responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey to gather staff members’ views of the school.

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Inspection team

Paul Wilson, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Damian Loneragan Her Majesty’s Inspector 11 June 2021

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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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