Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Ed Birkett Headteacher Wyke Primary School Deane Avenue Gillingham Dorset SP8 4SH

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of Wyke Primary School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection of your school that took place on 23 June 2023, on behalf of His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005 and took place because the school has received two successive judgements of requires improvement at its previous graded (section 5) inspections.

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of Wyke Primary School

During the inspection, I discussed with you, your special educational needs coordinator, subject leaders, the acting chair of governors and the local authority the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also visited some lessons, listened to a selection of pupils read, scrutinised a range of documentation, spoke to some pupils and reviewed some pupils’ work. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Wyke Primary School continues to require improvement. Leaders have made

insufficient progress to improve the school.

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Main findings

Since the last inspection, there have been some changes to the teaching team, some relating to maternity leave. You have appointed an early careers teacher in key stage 2. The school has been given a directive academy order. You have an acting chair of governors.

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Main findings

Following the inspection, you rightly prioritised reading. You have introduced a new scheme and teachers feel more confident teaching pupils to read. However, the use of assessment means that sometimes, pupils still have books that are not well enough matched to their reading abilities, particularly those at the earliest stages of reading. These pupils know their sounds, but struggle to blend them effectively, because not enough is expected of them.

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Main findings

Your work on the wider curriculum is slow and so has had insufficient impact. You recognise that subject leadership is underdeveloped. Subject leaders lack expertise in their areas of responsibility. They have not been provided with robust curriculum leadership training. This means they are unable to ensure that planning and assessment help pupils to learn as well as they should. As a result, pupils follow the school’s curriculum, but they do not learn the knowledge within each subject that is detailed in the national curriculum. For example, pupils learn a range of useful facts about history and how to research information. However, they also think learning in history is about researching information and making comparisons, rather that evaluating evidence to make judgements about the past. Overall, pupils are still not well enough prepared for the next stage of their education.

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Main findings

Your plans for improvement lack a systematic approach and sharp focus. Furthermore, governors do not hold you to account well enough. They are overly forgiving for the slow progress being made. This means that, although there are small steps of progress to improve the school, this is not happening at a quick enough pace for the school to be judged good at its next inspection.

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Main findings

You have successfully improved access to the curriculum for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Following the last inspection, the processes for monitoring provision and supporting learning have been changed. As a result, leaders now have a much sharper understanding of how well SEND pupils are learning. Pupils’ targets are much more focused and appropriate to their needs, and enable teaching that helps them to meet their small steps of progress, particularly in English and mathematics. This means you and other leaders are better placed to check the effectiveness of additional support and teaching for these pupils. However, SEND pupils’ learning across the curriculum is equally hampered by the lack of robust assessment and clear end points in planning.

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Main findings

Your work to help pupils learn more about different cultures and fundamental British values is in its infancy. You have revisited the school values. However, pupils do not understand how these relate to British Values. There is little evidence that pupils learn about a range of cultures in their work. Pupils agree that they are not taught enough about the lives of people different to their own.

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Main findings

You have not made sufficient use of external support. The local authority has not implemented their normal level of support for a school with two consecutive requires improvement judgements. This means that, although the reports it provides are useful and accurate, they have not been focused enough on the breadth of areas identified for improvement at the previous inspection. Where the local authority has identified weaknesses in planning and assessment across the curriculum, leaders have been too slow to respond to this feedback. This has all contributed to the slow progress being made to the quality of education at the school.

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Main findings

I am copying this letter to the acting chair of the governing body, the Department for Education's regional director and the director of children's services for Dorset Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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