Wood's Foundation CofE Primary School

Inspection of Wood’s Foundation CofE Primary School Lingwood Lane, Woodborough, Nottinghamshire, Nottinghamshire NG14 6DX

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

This school was last inspected 14 years ago and judged ‘Outstanding’ under a previous inspection framework. This reflected the school’s overall effectiveness under the inspection framework in use at the time.

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

From then until November 2020, the school was exempted by law from routine inspection, so there has been a longer gap than usual between inspections. Judgements in this report are based on the current inspection framework and also reflect changes that may have happened at any point since the last inspection. 9 and 10 March 2022

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say they feel safe in school. They like their teachers. The say that the other pupils are kind and that everyone gets on well. Pupils rarely have any concerns about bullying. If they are worried, they know there will always be an adult in school who will help them to sort their problems out.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are excited about the trips, visitors and clubs that are now on offer. Pupils say that recently learning has become much more fun. Pupils enjoy regular forest school sessions. Pupils love dressing up for World Book Day and seeing their teachers dressed up too.

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What is it like to attend this school?

While pupils get on well together, their learning behaviour varies across the school. Leaders have not developed a consistent approach to managing poor behaviour or rewarding good behaviour. Some staff do not address low-level disruption and learning time is lost.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and pupils welcome the actions the interim headteacher has taken to improve the school. Staff also agree. They feel supported to try new things that will improve pupils’ education. Staff morale has improved considerably. However, parents and staff continue to be anxious about the future of the school after a lengthy period of uncertainty.

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better?

Leaders’ actions mean that the school is now going in the right direction. Pupils’ education is improving. The governing body has appointed an interim headteacher who has identified the many issues that need to be addressed to improve the school. Many governors, including the chair of governors, are new to their roles at the school. They have the skills needed to hold leaders to account for the progress the school makes. However, staff and parents say they do not know who the governors are.

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better?

The school’s current curriculum is not resulting in pupils receiving a good quality of education. Leaders recognise that developing a curriculum that is exciting for pupils, and that will help them to remember prior learning, needs to be prioritised. In a large number of subjects, existing plans do not lay out exactly what pupils need to learn in each year group, starting in the early years. Teachers are still getting to grips with fulfilling their roles as curriculum leaders. This means that they are not monitoring their subject, or supporting their colleagues, as well as they should. One result of this is that teachers’ subject knowledge is not consistently strong. Curriculum leaders are keen to improve their work. They say they are now being given time and support to do their job well.

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better?

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have plans in place which identify how they are supported to access the curriculum. The support they 9 and 10 March 2022

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receive is appropriate. However, a significant number of parents of pupils with SEND do not feel that the school communicates well with them about how their child’s needs are being met.

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Leaders are ambitious for all pupils to read well. Pupils are provided with opportunities to read high-quality literature. Reading is promoted through the English curriculum and activities in school. For example, parents were invited into school on World Book Day to read with their children. Everyone agrees that this was great fun and that the school was ‘buzzing’.

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Right from the start of the Reception Year, pupils are taught phonics. Teachers follow a clearly structured programme. This programme sets out exactly which sounds pupils should learn, and when. It is suitably ambitious. Teachers check that pupils remember new sounds. Pupils who need more help to remember new sounds are supported well. Pupils are given reading books that match the sounds they are learning. As a result, many pupils are learning to read well. However, some staff knowledge is not strong. Pupils are not always taught accurately. This results in pupils making mistakes which are not corrected by teachers.

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A curriculum is in place for personal, social and health education. Pupils learn about healthy relationships and lifestyles, valuing differences and how to manage their feelings. Pupils experience a range of activities to promote their personal development. For example, clubs have resumed, older pupils go on residential trips and pupils raise money for charities. Despite all these positive experiences, leaders have not strategically planned how the school’s provision for personal development will meet the needs of the pupils in this school. The school’s vision and values are not matched to the characteristics that leaders would like pupils to develop. This means that pupils are not as well prepared for life in modern Britain as they could be.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The interim headteacher has prioritised improving the school’s arrangements for safeguarding. Staff have received training. They know how to spot pupils who may be at risk of harm. Leaders have introduced robust systems to record concerns. Staff pass their concerns on promptly. These are followed up by safeguarding leaders without delay. Vulnerable families and pupils receive help from external services.

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Safeguarding

Pupils are taught about how to keep themselves safe. They know that they should never give out personal information while using the internet. They say that there are adults in school they would talk to if they were worried or upset. 9 and 10 March 2022

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 While many parents express confidence in the leadership of the interim headteacher, a significant number of parents continue to raise concerns about the school, in particular parents of pupils with SEND. Parents and staff do not feel that they are given up-to-date information. They do not know who governors are. Leaders and governors must ensure that staff and parents are reassured that the school is taking effective steps to address the concerns they raise in a timely manner.  Curriculum plans are in place for all subjects. However, these plans do not precisely identify the key knowledge that pupils need to learn. They do not include what pupils in the early years will learn. This means that teachers are not clear about precisely what needs to be taught to pupils, and when. Leaders should review existing plans to ensure that they provide sufficient detail. This will enable teachers to be clear about

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

what they need to teach and how this builds on what pupils have learned previously, as well as how it will prepare pupils for the next stage of their education.  Pupils’ learning behaviour is not always strong. Some pupils are not clear about how their teachers expect them to behave. There is no consistent approach to the rewards and sanctions that pupils receive. This means that expectations of behaviour vary across the school. In some classes low-level disruption is not challenged and pupils are distracted from their learning. Leaders must raise expectations of some pupils’ attitudes to learning and ensure that a behaviour system is consistently applied across the school.  Curriculum leadership varies across the school. Not all subject leaders have the confidence and skills to lead their subject effectively. Staff subject knowledge is not consistently strong in all subjects. Leaders must provide staff with the support they

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

need to provide strong subject leadership. This will enable subject leaders to support their colleagues to teach each subject well.  Leaders have not clearly matched the characteristics and values they want pupils to develop to the content of the curriculum. As a result, pupils do not have a well- developed understanding of fundamental British values. Leaders must ensure that a strategic plan is developed to ensure that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted 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. 9 and 10 March 2022

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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.

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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. 9 and 10 March 2022

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School details

Local authority Nottinghamshire County Council

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School details

Inspection number 10217336 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.woodsfoundation.notts.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 21 January 2008 under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this school

 At the time of the inspection the headteacher was absent from the school.  An interim headteacher was appointed in November 2021.  The chair of governors was appointed in January 2022.  The school is a Church of England school in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham. Its last section 48 inspection for schools of a religious character took place in May 2018.  The school uses one registered alternative provider.

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Information about this inspection

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

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 9 and 10 March 2022

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 Inspectors held meetings with the interim headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator and the early years leader.  The lead inspector met with governors, including the chair of governors. She met with the diocesan director of education and held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, geography and art and design. For each deep dive, inspectors met with subject leaders to discuss the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Pupils were also observed reading to a member of staff.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and at breaktime and lunchtime. They spoke to pupils and staff about their views on behaviour.  Inspectors checked the school’s arrangements for safeguarding through

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discussions with leaders, staff and pupils. Inspectors scrutinised a range of safeguarding documents including the school’s single central record.  Inspectors reviewed the staff and parental responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire. Inspectors also spoke to parents at the start of the school day.

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Inspection team

Caroline Poole, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Steve Tague Ofsted Inspector 9 and 10 March 2022

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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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