Westwood Farm Infant School

Inspection of Westwood Farm Infant School Fullbrook Crescent, Tilehurst, Reading, Berkshire RG31 6RY

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 November 2023

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Good

This school was last inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 12 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 Good

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. 28 and 29 November 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love attending Westwood Infants. The ‘Westwood Way’ is known and followed by all. Leaders’ expectations are evident in the school’s calm and purposeful learning environment. Pupils benefit from the excellent guidance and support staff give them. They feel safe and are well cared for by adults who know them well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Strong relationships, based on mutual respect, flow throughout the school. Pupils are polite and considerate of each other. They behave consistently well. In lessons, they engage well with their learning and are keen to do their best. They work hard on tasks and are rightly proud of their accomplishments. Pupils learn collective responsibility, earning house points for their team in order to win the house point trophy.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders plan a range of enrichment activities to build on learning across the curriculum. Pupils relish trips and planned experiences, such as visits to Windsor Castle and Cotswold Wildlife Park. Participation in after-school activities is high. Pupils enjoys clubs, such as science where they learn how to build exploding rockets.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents are highly complimentary about the work of the school and the education and care their children receive. One parent summed up the views of many when they stated, ‘I wouldn’t want them to be anywhere else.’

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better?

Leaders have prioritised pupils’ personal development. Pupils benefit from an age- appropriate personal, social and health education curriculum that helps them develop positive relationships. They learn how to be a good friend and know the difference between secrets and surprises. In the early years, children learn how to play cooperatively with their friends and about the importance of healthy eating. Across the school, pupils learn about different cultures and faiths through studying important festivals, such as Diwali and Holi. They understand the importance of respecting others’ views and beliefs, knowing these may differ from their own. As a result, pupils are curious and are developing an age-appropriate understanding of the world around them.

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better?

Pupils love reading. Leaders prioritise giving pupils the skills they need to unlock a world of exciting stories and characters. Adults expertly deliver the school’s phonics programme. This begins in early years where children learn to read their first words using their growing knowledge of the sounds letters make. Across the school, pupils are given lots of opportunities to practise reading books with the sounds they know, and they quickly become fluent readers. High-quality literature is promoted throughout the curriculum. Pupils relish the daily story time as well as the multiple opportunities they get to hear stories throughout the day. 28 and 29 November 2023

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In lessons, most pupils achieve well, particularly in the core curriculum. Leaders ensure that staff are provided with ongoing training to help them refine their practice. Teachers, in turn, value the guidance and support they receive. During learning, they plan activities that build on pupils’ prior learning and make sure tasks are adapted appropriately for pupils with additional needs to help them learn well. They ensure pupils have regular opportunities, such as using ‘flashback 4’, to revisit important knowledge and develop quick recall. In the early years, children benefit from a vocabulary-rich environment that develops their early language and communication skills. Assessment is used well in the core curriculum. However, assessment in the foundation subjects is not yet fully established. As a result, gaps in pupils’ understanding are not always identified consistently, and key learning is not revisited sufficiently well in these subjects.

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This is a wholly inclusive school. Leaders are passionate that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities access the best provision and are well supported. Pupils in the school’s resource bases are provided with high-quality tailored support from expert staff. Throughout the school, leaders ensure pupils with additional needs are accurately identified. They work in partnership with parents to build highly effective plans. As a result, adults provide pupils with skilled guidance that helps them successfully learn and achieve well.

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The school has ambitious aims for what pupils should learn and achieve. Leaders, including governors, regularly review how well the curriculum is being taught. They carefully consider the impact on workload of any new initiatives. The core curriculum, such as reading and mathematics, is well established, and most pupils achieve well. This is because leaders have identified the building blocks of knowledge that pupils are to learn from the early years onwards. More recently, leaders have prioritised refining aspects of the foundation curriculum. While much of this work has been accomplished, this is not yet complete. Where this work has been finished, plans are new, and although pupils can recall more recent learning, they are less clear about what they have previously learned.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Work to refine the foundation curriculum is currently under way or very recently completed. Consequently, some pupils have gaps in their prior knowledge, which are yet to be addressed. The school should ensure that the updated curriculum identifies vital knowledge consistently well.  Assessment across the foundation subjects is not as effective as in English and mathematics. As a result, sometimes it is unclear what knowledge pupils have retained. The school needs to ensure that teachers can confidently use the 28 and 29 November 2023

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assessment processes to review what pupils have learned, adapting future learning so that pupils know more and remember more across the curriculum.

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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). 28 and 29 November 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.westwoodfarmschools.w- berks.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 9 June 2011, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher is also the headteacher of the Westwood Farm Junior School.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  The school hosts specially resourced provisions for the local authority. The hearing resource provision is currently catering for one pupil from the infant school, and the moderate learning resource base is supporting 11 pupils.

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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

 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. 28 and 29 November 2023

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 Inspectors met with the headteacher and other senior leaders. They also met with members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, history 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.  During the inspection, inspectors met with a range of pupils to discuss their views about the school and talked to them informally during social times.  To inspect safeguarding, inspectors spoke to the safeguarding leader and scrutinised a wide range of information, including a selection of the school’s records. They also spoke to staff and pupils about safeguarding and looked at how pupils learn to keep safe.  Inspectors met some parents to gather their views on the school. Inspectors

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reviewed the responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View. They also took account of staff responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Laura James, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Becky Greenhalgh Ofsted Inspector 28 and 29 November 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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