Wychwood Church of England Primary School

Inspection of Wychwood Church of England Primary School Milton Road, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX7 6BD

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 1 and 2 October 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school community provides a close and caring ethos in which everyone is welcomed. New pupils settle in quickly. Pupils are enthusiastic about all the school has to offer, including educational visits, residential trips and a wide range of clubs including sports, music and languages.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations that every pupil ‘shines as a light’. The school enables pupils to achieve well across a broad range of subjects. It ensures that all pupils have opportunities and gain interests in which they excel. Weekly assemblies celebrate the achievements of pupil heroes and stars across all aspects of life in the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from taking on responsibilities. Older pupils expressed the importance of being role models for those in younger years and looking after the school environment. Members of the pupil eco council raise awareness about recycling. Reflective-area monitors help to maintain spaces around the school dedicated to helping pupils to feel calm and peaceful.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils play together and socialise excitedly at breaktimes. They understand the importance of being kind and considerate. The school’s approach ‘to use a friendly voice, then firm voice and finally find an adult’ works well if ever any issues need to be resolved. Pupils are safe in school.

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

The school provides a well-organised curriculum, setting out clearly the key content they expect pupils to learn and the sequence in which it is taught. Pupils revisit and build on their learning over time from the early years onwards. Teachers’ strong subject knowledge enables pupils to gain secure understanding of more complex ideas. Pupils gain insight into what it means to be experts, for example in history or science. In the early years, adults’ carefully chosen resources and skilful explanations enabled children to rapidly grasp understanding of number. However, in a few subjects, the identification of specific knowledge and skills the school intends pupils to learn lacks precision. This means that occasionally pupils’ learning does not build up to deeper concepts as quickly as it could.

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

The school has a well-established programme for the teaching of early reading. Leaders ensure that all staff are trained in the expected approaches. This ensures there is consistently strong practice in the teaching of phonics. Staff regularly check how well pupils are learning. The school provides pupils with support that targets the specific aspects of phonics they need to improve. This helps pupils to become confident and fluent readers.

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

Staff promote pupils’ vocabulary from the earliest opportunity. Children in the early years rise to the challenge of learning two new words from their story books each week. Across all subjects, pupils become familiar with technical terminology. For example, pupils described how they had developed their shading, cross-hatching and stippling to improve their drawing in art lessons. 1 and 2 October 2024

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Staff are wholeheartedly positive about their work at the school. They feel well-supported by leaders, valuing their training and professional development. The school proactively supports staff well-being and helps them to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Staff appreciate how workload is considered, including when making changes to policy and expected practice.

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The school has strong systems for the recording of attendance and the identification of any patterns and concerns. The school follows up absences swiftly. Leaders work closely with pupils and their families to help overcome barriers to their engagement with school.

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The school promotes positive attitudes to learning from the earliest opportunity. In the early years, children keenly explore the well-resourced indoor and outdoor areas, promoting their physical development as well as their social and emotional skills. Pupils respond positively to established routines in lessons, for example to discuss and collaborate, supporting each other’s learning. They respond promptly if reminders are ever needed to refocus.

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The school runs special events and works with outside organisations, including the police and the fire service, to help pupils recognise risks to their safety. Children in the early years know who to speak to if they ever feel unsafe. Older pupils are well prepared for growing independence and the next stages of their education.

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Pupils demonstrate respect for each other and an awareness of differences between people, including those with faiths and cultures other than their own. Leaders continue to further broaden pupils’ outlook beyond the school and local community.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a very few subjects, the specific content the school intends pupils to learn lacks precision. Pupils’ learning does not build up to more complex ideas. The school should ensure that the school’s revised curriculum is rapidly established, identifying the key knowledge and skills pupils learn and apply to deeper concepts.

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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. 1 and 2 October 2024

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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 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). 1 and 2 October 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chairs of governing body Danielle Wilden and Peter Ridding

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School details

Date of previous inspection 23 May 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection, a new headteacher has been appointed. There are two new co-chairs of the governing body.  The school does not currently make use of alternative provision for any pupils.  The school is a voluntary-controlled Church of England school in the Diocese of Oxfordshire. The last section 48 inspection took place in February 2024.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth-form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision. 1 and 2 October 2024

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 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 met with school leaders, including the two co-chairs of the governing body and two other governors. An inspector met with a representative of the diocese.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: art and design, early reading, history and mathematics. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects.  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

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the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspectors considered the views of parents and carers, staff and pupils in responses to Ofsted’s online surveys and in conversations with parents at the school gate.

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Inspection team

Amanda Fraser, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

James Broadbridge His Majesty’s Inspector 1 and 2 October 2024

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