Woodcroft Primary

Inspection of Woodcroft Primary 37 Woodcroft Lane, Waterlooville, Hampshire PO8 9QD

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 15 and 16 June 2022

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff put pupils first at this school. Pupils are well cared for and are known as individuals.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have worked hard to ensure the school is a calm, orderly place where pupils can learn. Pupils and parents all recognise the improvements leaders have brought about. They value the positive impact the headteacher has had on improving behaviour at the school. Pupils say, ‘We are all learning now, our classroom is calm. We listen to our teachers because we have school values which help us.’ Adults support pupils effectively when incidents of bullying occur. This quick action stops it from happening again.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have many opportunities to participate in a wide variety of clubs and trips. These include trips into London, visits to farms, outdoor learning opportunities, sporting clubs and residential visits. Pupils enjoy these. Many pupils say, ‘The best part of school is all the trips we go on.’ The trips and clubs inspire pupils, encouraging curiosity and building aspirations.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders know that pupils have not made the academic progress they should in the past. Leaders have well-considered plans to address this. Where leaders have already introduced changes, these have had a positive impact for pupils.

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better?

Leaders have designed a broad curriculum. In all subjects, they have identified the skills that pupils need to learn from Reception to Year 6. In some subjects, for example mathematics, leaders have also identified the key knowledge that pupils need to remember. Here, teachers know exactly what to teach and they provide tasks that enable most pupils to achieve well.

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better?

However, this is not the case in all subjects. In some, for example art and geography, leaders have not identified the essential knowledge pupils need to learn. The curriculum does not build in a logical sequence from Reception to Year 6.

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better?

Teachers do not routinely check pupils’ understanding in lessons or how well they are remembering learning over time. Pupils do not readily recall information from lessons they participated in earlier in the academic year. Activities pupils do are often memorable, but they do not always enable pupils to recall or apply subject- specific information. This prevents them from deepening their understanding and making accurate connections within subjects and across the curriculum. For example, in Year 1, pupils were taught about how artists use blue to represent sadness. However, pupils could not justify their own use of blue to show this emotion when making a collage. 15 and 16 June 2022

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Leaders prioritise reading. They want all pupils to read with fluency and comprehension and to love reading. Leaders have recently introduced a phonics programme to enable pupils at the early stages of learning to read to become fluent readers quickly. However, there is variability in how well this programme is delivered. A few teachers do not use effective strategies to teach reading. This is because they have not received appropriate training. Also, books given to pupils to practise reading do not always match the sounds they know. This means that some pupils do not learn to read quickly enough.

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Adults support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Leaders have clear processes to identify pupils with SEND. Leaders use a wide range of strategies to meet the learning needs of pupils, including using external agencies when appropriate. Leaders regularly check the impact of support and review this to ensure that pupils with SEND achieve as well as they should.

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Leaders’ work to support pupils’ personal development is a strength. Leaders ensure that all pupils are prepared fully for life in modern Britain. For example, in lessons, pupils enjoy opportunities to debate important questions. Through this, they learn how to listen to each other and take others’ views into consideration. Through taking part in outdoor activities, pupils learn to care for the environment and how to grow their own food. Trained adults ensure that all pupils know how to keep healthy both physically and mentally. Pupils state that they really appreciate this support.

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Leaders and governors work closely together to develop a school which serves the local community. The headteacher has taken steps to improve the school in a systematic manner. Leaders know what needs to be done to continue this improvement journey. Staff are proud to work at this school. They are fully committed to working together to ensure that the school continues to improve.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have established a strong culture of vigilance. They work as an effective team to ensure that all pupils and families in need of extra support receive the help they need swiftly. Detailed record-keeping and weekly safeguarding meetings identify the actions staff take to help pupils. Pupils are confident that they will be helped. They say that staff teach them how to stay safe and ask for help.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn about online safety in assemblies and through computing lessons . They know how to keep themselves safe online and how to report concerns when exploring the virtual world. 15 and 16 June 2022

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Phonics is not taught well across the school. Staff do not always use the most effective strategies to teach pupils to read, including ensuring that pupils read books that match their phonic knowledge. Leaders need to ensure that all staff are trained to implement all aspects of the chosen phonics programme effectively.  Curriculum planning does not give teachers precise guidance in each subject about the knowledge pupils need to learn from Reception to Year 6. As a result, pupils are not achieving as well as they should. Leaders need to ensure all subjects are ambitious in content and that knowledge is developed in a coherent sequence from Reception to Year 6.  Teachers do not provide opportunities for pupils to use and apply their knowledge within subjects. Pupils do not remember their learning over time as well as they should. Leaders need to ensure that teachers’ subject and pedagogical content

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

knowledge improves so that they can use effective strategies to enable pupils to transfer knowledge into long-term memory.

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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.

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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. 15 and 16 June 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10227048 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Marie Hattersley

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School details

Date of previous inspection 28 February and 1 March 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 This is a single form entry, smaller than average primary school.  The school has recently de-federated. The governing body is newly formed.  The school is not currently using any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with school leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation.  The lead inspector met with the headteacher, members of the senior leadership team and the governing body, including the chair. He also had a telephone conversation with a school improvement adviser from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives into these subjects: early reading, mathematics, art and geography. This involved discussion with leaders about these subjects and 15 and 16 June 2022

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the curriculum plans, visits to lessons, scrutiny of pupils’ work and discussions about the subjects with pupils, teachers and teaching assistants from the lessons visited.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors spoke with staff and pupils. They met with members of the designated safeguarding team to examine leaders’ knowledge, records and actions. This included reviewing checks on the safer recruitment of staff. Inspectors sampled case files to explore how the school identifies and supports pupils at risk of harm.  Inspectors spoke to pupils from different year groups.  The views of pupils, including the 31 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey, were considered.  The views of staff, including 18 responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey, were considered.  The 20 responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the same number of written responses, were also taken into account.

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Inspection team

Francois Walker, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Mo Galway Ofsted Inspector 15 and 16 June 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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