Wateringbury Church of England Primary School

Inspection of Wateringbury Church of England Primary School 147 Bow Road, Wateringbury, Maidstone, Kent ME18 5EA

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 7 and 8 March 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this calm and orderly school. They feel safe and quickly develop respectful relationships with staff and with other pupils because staff make expectations about behaviour very clear. In lessons, pupils show positive attitudes to their learning and are proud of their work.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s values weave through every aspect of school life and are important to pupils. Pupils are proud to show tolerance and respect for others. They strive to make sure that everyone is included in activities. They enjoy learning about different cultures and places. They talk with enthusiasm about the books they have read and discussed that have helped them to develop this knowledge.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Bullying is rare in the school, and pupils say that they would speak to adults in the school if it happened. They trust adults to listen to them and to take their concerns seriously.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Though pupils enjoy lessons, not all are learning as well as they could. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), can struggle because they are sometimes given work that does not match what they can do and what they need to learn next.

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better?

Leaders are ambitious for pupils and have recently developed a new curriculum to make sure that pupils learn important knowledge and skills to prepare them well for life. In some subjects, this curriculum is still at an early stage of development. In these subjects, teachers are not clear about what knowledge pupils need to learn. Additionally, teachers do not check well enough what pupils can do and what knowledge they remember. This hinders pupils’ learning because it means that activities are not closely matched to what they need to learn next.

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better?

Leaders are keen for pupils with SEND to follow the same curriculum as their peers. Teachers mostly reshape activities to support pupils to access this learning. However, pupils do not routinely get the precise support they need in all lessons. This means that, sometimes, they cannot achieve what their teachers intend for them.

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better?

Children experience a positive start to their school life in early years. This is because leaders have carefully designed the early years curriculum. Staff successfully create a love of learning. They know the children well and match learning activities to their needs effectively. Staff make sure that children have the knowledge they need to be ready for Year 1.

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better?

Leaders prioritise the teaching of reading so that children learn to be confident and fluent readers from Reception. Leaders have made sure that extra support is given 7 and 8 March 2023

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to pupils who struggle to read well. However, they have not made sure that all staff who listen to children read know what specific support each pupil needs. This means adults do not go back to revisit and recap these gaps in learning to help pupils become fluent readers.

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From Reception onwards, pupils follow the well-established routines in the classrooms and around the school. There is a calm and orderly atmosphere, which pupils and staff recognise as being typical of the school. In the early years, this makes it easy for children to select learning activities and to cooperate with each other through play.

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Leaders support pupils to develop their talents and interests through the wide variety of extra-curricular activities. The variety of clubs encourages pupils to be active, thoughtful and creative. The comprehensive trips and visits programme provides pupils with opportunities to enjoy and appreciate art, music and the benefits of being outdoors.

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Pupils enjoy leadership roles within the school. These include the ‘positivity prefects’, which has been set up by pupils to recognise kindness by other pupils, and ‘leading lights’, who are the ‘spiritual leaders for their class’, involved with planning and delivering worship for other pupils.

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Leaders and governors have high ambition for the school. They have identified where the curriculum needs to improve and have put processes in place to address this. Parents and carers believe that the school is improving and speak highly about the work of the headteacher and the care shown by all staff for their children.

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Governors have an accurate view of the school. They use information from school leaders, external adviser reports and visits to the school to check this. They hold leaders to account and support them well, where needed. Staff at the school are positive about the work of leaders. They recognise that leaders are mindful of staff’s workload and care about their well-being. As a result, staff enjoy working at the school and are proud to do so.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have embedded a culture of vigilance to make sure that staff know how to identify and report concerns about pupils’ welfare and safety. Robust systems are in place for staff to report worries. Leaders take prompt action to work with other organisations to provide support for pupils and their families, where needed.

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Safeguarding

Recently, new staff have been appointed to provide additional support. These staff build positive relationships with parents. This is beginning to have an impact on improving the attendance of some pupils where it is low. 7 and 8 March 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The main knowledge that leaders want pupils to learn and remember is not coherently planned and ordered from Year 1 onwards. Leaders should ensure that curriculum planning allows staff to know how to build up pupils’ knowledge and skills so that learning builds in a systematic way.  Assessment information is not used consistently to identify gaps in pupils’ learning. This means that teachers cannot plan next steps in learning or plan to recap and review gaps in pupils’ knowledge. This hampers pupils’ progress across the planned curriculum. Leaders should ensure that teachers know how to identify precisely what pupils know and can remember and adapt learning activities accordingly.  Sometimes, staff do not adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Consequently, this group of pupils are not learning as well as they could. Leaders should ensure that all staff have the knowledge to meet the needs of all

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

pupils and do so as part of their routine processes.

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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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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. 7 and 8 March 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10256391 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 8 and 9 November 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The current headteacher was appointed in September 2021.  The school does not currently use alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded 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.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, senior leaders, governors and a local authority representative. They met with a range of teaching staff, support staff and pupils. 7 and 8 March 2023

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 Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, science and physical education. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. They also met with the subject leader for computing and design and technology.  Inspectors evaluated the effectiveness of the safeguarding arrangements in the school by speaking with leaders, staff and pupils. They reviewed safeguarding records and the school’s single central record.  The views of parents were taken into account by undertaking an online survey and speaking with parents at the start of the school day.  The views of staff were considered through a staff survey and meetings.  Inspectors spoke to pupils, formally and informally, in lessons, small groups and on the playground.

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Inspection team

Paul Hemmings, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Jenny Ashley-Jones Ofsted Inspector 7 and 8 March 2023

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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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