Windsor Community Primary School

Inspection of Windsor Community Primary School Upper Hill Street, Toxteth, Liverpool, Merseyside L8 8JE

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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 Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

This school was last inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 nine 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 graded inspections under section 5 of the Act. 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 graded inspection. 5 and 6 October 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school helps all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to feel that they are recognised and valued. Pupils behave well. They are happy and said that they make many friends at the school. Pupils are optimistic about life and learn to believe in themselves. They feel safe and said that the school is a refuge for them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from a range of learning experiences at breakfast club, in classrooms and during after-school clubs that help them to be responsible. Pupils on the school council said that they are thrilled with helping the school to make ‘big decisions’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has thought carefully about the questions that it wants pupils to be able to answer. For instance, How can we be a good friend? What do I need to do to keep myself healthy? Pupils have many opportunities to learn about these topics and much more.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including pupils with SEND, enthuse about their learning. However, the variable quality of the curriculum, including in early years, means that more work is still required to fully realise the school’s high expectations for pupils’ achievement.

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better?

The school is ambitious to help pupils, including children in the early years, to overcome obstacles that they may be experiencing, such as poverty, prejudice or SEND. The school therefore provides pupils with many well-considered opportunities to develop their personal skills, talents and interests. It helps pupils to understand what makes people equal yet different to one another. Pupils’ efforts and achievements, their culture, language and family heritage, are valued and celebrated at this school.

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better?

Published information about the school does not fully explain pupils’ achievements. For example, pupils who start at the school in the Reception Year and stay until the end of Year 6 learn well in some subjects. Pupils respond positively to the interesting learning opportunities that staff provide. Mostly, pupils remember their learning. However, a few subject curriculums do not include all the required information set out in the national curriculum. Consequently, pupils are not taught all the information that they need to know and are not prepared well enough for the next stage of their education.

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better?

In the main, the school makes effective use of assessment strategies to review pupils’ learning in lessons, as well as at the end of key units of work. Staff identify the needs of pupils with SEND quickly and accurately. The school uses assessment information to identify changes to make in the curriculum to help all pupils to learn more successfully. 5 and 6 October 2023

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Due to the school’s positive work, the delivery of a well-thought-out phonics programme is helping pupils to read with increasing speed and fluency. Staff benefit from the coaching and advice that they receive to teach early reading. The school considers the needs of pupils who speak English as an additional language carefully in helping them to learn phonics. It has invested in many high-quality books that pupils enjoy reading and that staff select to teach pupils to read. Staff ensure that pupils learn to write letters and words accurately in phonics sessions.

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Staff in the early years provide children with enjoyable learning experiences. For example, children learn to be physically active, use books, listen to stories and develop a knowledge of new words. They learn through play in well-organised, attractive classrooms as well as in a spacious and well-considered outdoor area. Staff are gentle and supportive, using words and questions skilfully with the children to extend their thinking. However, in some areas of learning, the school has not identified with enough clarity the small chunks of knowledge that staff should teach or when this should happen. This means that children do not learn all the information that they need to understand.

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Where pupils, including some pupils with SEND, find it difficult to manage their feelings and actions, staff remain calm, positive and supportive. Pupils know the school rules and behave well, which means that disruptions to pupils’ learning in classrooms are rare.

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The school’s actions to ensure that teachers have a reasonable workload mean that staff can focus on teaching their classes. The school provides parents and carers with many opportunities to learn about their children’s education, for instance through stay-and-play sessions in the early years. This equips parents to better support their children’s learning at home.

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The governing body does not hold a clear enough understanding of the actions of the school to improve the curriculum. This holds back governors’ ability to provide the support and challenge needed so that the work of the school improves further.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some subjects, the school’s curriculum does not match all the national curriculum. This means that pupils are not taught some key information that they need to know. The school should review the content of subject curriculums carefully and ensure that the scope of each subject meets the requirements of the national curriculum. This will ensure that pupils are better prepared for their future learning. 5 and 6 October 2023

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 In some areas of learning, the school’s curriculum in the early years does not consider well enough the small chunks of knowledge that staff should teach and when. This means that children are not equipped with some of the knowledge that they need to understand. The school should identify the component knowledge that staff will teach to children and when, to enable them to be even more successful.  The governing body does not have a clear enough oversight of the actions that the school is taking to improve subject curriculums. This limits the impact of the governing body on reviewing and challenging the work of the school. Governors should ensure that they are fully informed about the school’s improvement work.

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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 ’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 5 and 6 October 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 5 and 6 March 2014, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not use any alternative provision for pupils.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language has risen significantly since the previous inspection. Current pupils at the school speak at least one of 29 languages. In some year groups, all pupils speak English as an additional language. The most frequently spoken languages are Arabic, English, Kurdish and Somali.  Many pupils join or leave the school at different times of the year.  The number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities joining the school has risen to above average in the past year.  Two-thirds of staff are new to the school since the previous inspection. The headteacher is also new to her post since that time.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 5 and 6 October 2023

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 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, and physical education. For each deep dive, they held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. An inspector listened to some pupils read to a familiar member of staff.  Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects with the school and pupils and considered examples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors met with the school to discuss early years, SEND, pupils’ behaviour

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and the provision for pupils’ personal development.  Inspectors considered responses from pupils to Ofsted’s online survey. Inspectors spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at school.  Inspectors reviewed responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text responses, and spoke with some parents about the school.  An inspector met with the school’s improvement partner.  The lead inspector met with some representatives of the governing body, including the chair of governors.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record, took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.

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Inspection team

Tim Vaughan, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Helen Friend His Majesty’s Inspector 5 and 6 October 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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