Otley the Whartons Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Otley The Whartons Primary School The Whartons, Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 2BS

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Inspection dates: 9 and 10 November 2022

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Outcome

Otley the Whartons Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Otley The Whartons is a caring school that is well regarded by its community. There are high expectations of all pupils. Pupils are proud of their school and enjoy attending. Pupils say they feel safe and trust the adults to look after them. Parents and carers agree.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils conduct themselves sensibly around school. There is a calm and purposeful atmosphere. Typically, pupils behave well in lessons. Pupils listen carefully and work hard. They have positive attitudes to learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The support for pupils’ personal development is a strength of the school. Leaders make sure that pupils develop an awareness and appreciation of diversity and respect for others. The curriculum for personal, social and health education (PSHE) develops pupils’ understanding of healthy relationships. Pupils respect that others can be different to themselves. Many pupils said it is good to be different as difference is to be celebrated.

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What is it like to attend this school?

While a small minority of parents shared concerns about how clearly staff communicate information, all praise the school’s efforts to develop pupils as responsible and active individuals. One parent represented the views of many when they said: ‘My children have blossomed and are developing in confidence every day. This is down to the care and nurturing ability of the school’.

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

The school is well led and managed. Leaders, including those with responsibility for governance, are committed to the school and its pupils. They know the school’s strengths well and have sensibly prioritised school improvement initiatives.

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

Leaders have designed a curriculum that helps pupils develop a detailed understanding of subject content. Expectations are high for all pupils. Pupils frequently revisit and recap concepts that have already been taught. Leaders have set out what they expect pupils to know by the end of each year. However, for those pupils with special educational needs 9 and 10 November 2022

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and/or disabilities (SEND), it is not evident if the wider curriculum identifies the crucial knowledge they need to learn. Leaders recognise this is a next step for them.

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Leaders acted to ensure that reading was a priority by changing their approach and ensuring they were providing their pupils with a recognised phonics and reading programme. Pupils love reading and enjoy listening to teachers read to them every day. Leaders prioritise reading and teach phonics to pupils as soon as pupils start school. Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong and most pupils achieve well with specialist support in place to enable this to happen. Most pupils read fluently by the time they reach Year 3.

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In mathematics, pupils know that their multiplication facts help them to understand many other aspects of mathematics including how to quickly and accurately answer problems. The youngest children in early years and Year 1 easily identified a number of objects without having to count them, as they recognised the pattern they make. Teachers and pupils use precise subject vocabulary in lessons. This ensures pupils develop accurate knowledge. The presentation of pupils’ work is good in mathematics, which helps pupils as they look back on their work and use it to support their learning.

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Pupils are knowledgeable and enjoy talking about their learning in a range of subjects. They can explain how the knowledge and skills they have previously been taught help them with current learning. They can also use relevant, subject-specific vocabulary when in discussion. For example, in music, pupils talk about pitch, tone and notation and how the music they were listening to and playing inspired their own compositions. Leaders have considered carefully the musical instruments they want pupils to learn to play. Their skills build progressively over time by them learning to play more-complex instruments, such as the ocarina in Year 2 to the recorder in Year 3.

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Leaders have ensured that training and support for staff are priorities. Teachers and other adults know how to teach and support the pupils with the curriculum they want to deliver. This includes those staff new to the school or those less experienced than others.

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The school has high expectations for behaviour, and on the whole these are met. A revised behaviour system has been introduced, and while it is followed some pupils were unclear about how it works. Pupils say there are few behaviour issues and bullying: while they agree it happens, it is infrequent. Pupils are treated fairly and are very accepting of the difficulties that others face.

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Children are respectful and very polite to one another and to others. They represent the school well. They are proud of the school and proud to attend the school. Attendance is good. This view of positive behaviour is also held by staff and by the vast majority of parents.

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The school has an effective personal development programme. Leaders ensure pupils have access to a wide range of activities and enrichment opportunities. These include science club, football, dodge ball, choir and drama. Pupils make an active contribution to their school and the local community. They act as monitors, class buddies and members of the school council. Pupils are proud that leaders allow them to plan and run school clubs and golden time activities for the benefit of others. 9 and 10 November 2022

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The development of the enterprise work and ‘youth social action’ projects highlights the importance leaders put on pupils being responsible citizens of the world they live in. From the youngest children supporting a local baby bank for families in need to older children fundraising for a national animal charity, all pupils develop a sense of social responsibility.

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Staff spoken to say that their workload and well-being are well managed by leaders. They recognise that with being in a small school there are additional roles that leaders and staff play. Despite this, they know that they are very well supported to undertake additional work or developments for the school. This includes work towards the achievement of the Primary Science Quality Mark and development of curriculum plans and overviews.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

There is a strong culture of safeguarding that permeates through the school. This includes through the curriculum, where children learn about keeping safe online. Action is taken swiftly by leaders to address any issues or to raise awareness within the school community of any safeguarding changes.

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Safeguarding

Staff receive safeguarding training on a regular basis. There are clear processes in place for staff to log concerns. Leaders ensure any such concerns are addressed in a timely fashion, working closely with local services when appropriate. Staff are aware of the potential risks pupils face. They address the importance of safe relationships, for example, through the PSHE curriculum.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have not yet consistently identified within all curriculum plans what crucial skills or knowledge pupils with SEND should learn and how this knowledge should build over time. By identifying this knowledge, this will enable teachers to check to make sure that pupils with SEND remember the necessary subject content, so they are ready for future learning. This will enable additional adults who work with these children to be clear of their next steps, so they support pupils as effectively as they can.  When implementing change, leaders have not always ensured that it is communicated in a clear or timely fashion. This leads to confusion. Leaders need to ensure that all communication about and changes to how the school works are explained in a timely and consistent manner to pupils and families. This will help to address the small minority of parents who considered communication to be a problem.

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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 an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in June 2017.

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How can I feed back my views?

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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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 November 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10240455 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 27 – 28 June 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The proportion of pupils with SEND is above the national average.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.  There is a before- and after-school club on site. The breakfast club is managed by the school’s governing body. The after-school club is not managed by the school’s governing body.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector spoke with the headteacher, assistant headteachers, subject leaders, a range of school staff, a representative from the local authority and members of the governing body.  The inspector discussed the school’s records on attendance and behaviour with leaders. 9 and 10 November 2022

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 During the inspection, the inspector spoke to pupils about their work and school life. She observed pupils’ behaviour at playtime and lunchtime.  The inspector spoke to parents and considered the responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View. She also considered the responses to the online staff survey. There were no responses to the pupil survey.  The inspector carried out deep dives in reading, mathematics and music. She talked to leaders of these subjects, visited lessons, listened to pupils read, reviewed pupils’ work, spoke to teachers and talked with pupils.  The inspector considered a range of information and documentation provided by the school, including curriculum planning for a range of subjects, the school self-evaluation documents and plans for improvement. She also looked at information available on the school’s website.  The inspector met with the leaders responsible for safeguarding. Together they looked

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at a range of documents. Pupils’ safeguarding information was discussed and evaluated.

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Inspection team

Nicola Shipman, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 9 and 10 November 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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