The Disraeli School

Inspection of The Disraeli School The Pastures, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP13 5JS

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Outstanding Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 5 and 6 November 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Everyone receives a warm welcome at this happy school. Pupils know that this is a place where diversity is not just valued, it is cherished. As one pupil commented: ‘You can be who you want to be at Disraeli.’ They know that ‘learning is a journey, not a race’, and that hard work and determination help them to succeed. This is reflected in pupils’ positive attitudes and achievement across a broad range of subjects.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well and live up to their teachers’ high expectations. They are courteous and respectful. Pupils readily hold doors open for others, offering friendly greetings and thanks to staff and their classmates. Pupils rightly value staff’s kindness and strong support and care. This helps children in early years to settle in quickly and feel safe and secure. Throughout the school, this nurturing approach instils pupils with the confidence to share any worries and to seek help when needed.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from the school’s exceptional range of clubs, visits and enrichment. These considerably enhance their education and enjoyment of school. Older pupils are excited about their forthcoming residential visit. They are eagerly anticipating the thrill of using the zip wire and taking part in other adventurous activities.

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

Ambition, integrity and a determined, moral purpose for every pupil to succeed are the underpinning principles of the school’s leadership. Highly effective leadership has steered the school exceptionally well through some difficult challenges. During this time, the school has maintained its sharp focus on the quality of education. This has led to improvements in outcomes. As a result, most pupils are achieving well.

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

Nevertheless, there are some inconsistencies in the quality of pupils’ writing. The school has recognised this and has recently implemented a new writing strategy. This is at an early stage and not yet fully embedded. Therefore, it is too soon to see the full impact of this work. Rightly, the school is also focusing sharply on improving disadvantaged pupils’ achievement. However, there is still more work to do to raise these pupils’ achievement and realise leaders’ high aspirations for them.

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

The curriculum is ambitious, well designed and taught well. Staff plan logical sequences of lessons. They routinely recap previous content. This helps pupils to remember and build on what they already know. Staff check what pupils have remembered and address any gaps or errors. They bring learning to life through interesting topics and appropriate activities. The early years environment provides a stimulating environment that fosters children’s learning effectively. Well-considered activities spark children’s curiosity and ‘hook’ them into learning.

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

Staff waste no time in identifying if any pupils need extra help. They have a strong understanding of pupils’ needs. Staff adapt their approaches to make sure that learning is accessible to pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This 5 and 6 November 2024

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includes pupils who attend the specially resourced provision. Here, the curriculum is bespoke and tailored precisely to pupils’ very complex needs.

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The school’s nurturing environment strongly promotes pupils’ emotional security, especially for the very youngest two- and three-year-olds. Right from the start, staff establish strong routines and high expectations for behaviour that help to create a calm and settled environment. Staff provide sensitive, caring support for pupils who need help to manage their emotions.

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Throughout the school, there is a deliberate focus on teaching vocabulary. This starts in the early years. Staff here are highly skilled in their interactions with children. They continually model language, build on children’s responses and engage children in back- and-forth dialogue. Rhymes, stories and songs feature daily and contribute well to children’s language acquisition and reading.

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Reading is a strength. There is impressive consistency and strong expertise in the teaching of early reading. This gets children in early years off to a good start in learning to read. Timely additional support is provided for any pupils who are not keeping up with the reading programme. Pupils’ regular engagement with high-quality texts contributes well to their wider reading knowledge and enjoyment.

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The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development is exemplary. Pupils benefit from additional opportunities through which they acquire valuable leadership skills. Through charitable mini-enterprise projects, they gain an understanding of what it means to be part of a community and their role in supporting others. Every pupil is given a chance to share their talents and shine, such as by performing in the ‘Voices in a Million’.

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The school has a real community feel. Everyone works together for the benefit of pupils, including governors, who maintain oversight of the school. Staff value leaders’ strong support for their well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 There are some inconsistencies in the quality of pupils’ writing, particularly in pupils’ handwriting, punctuation and sentence construction. This hampers the overall quality of pupils’ writing and means that not all pupils are achieving well enough in this strand of the English curriculum. The school needs to fully implement and embed its new writing curriculum.  The school’s work to improve disadvantaged pupils’ achievement through the pupil premium strategy has not yet had the full impact that leaders intend. Currently, some 5 and 6 November 2024

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disadvantaged pupils are not achieving as well as they could in English and mathematics. The school needs to maintain its sharp focus on the achievement of these pupils so that they achieve the best possible outcomes.

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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.

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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 November 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Catherine Cochran

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School details

Headteacher Jo Gowers (co-headteacher) Jo Pikulski (co-headteacher) Website www.disraeli-bucks.frogos.net

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School details

Date of previous inspection 6 March 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has nursery provision for two- to four-year-old children. Most children attend the nursery part-time.  The school has specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND. All pupils attending this provision have education, health and care plans and have a diagnosis of autism.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.  The school runs a breakfast and an after-school club for pupils who attend the school.  Since the previous inspection, the local authority has closed the children’s centre that previously formed part of the school’s provision.

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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 5 and 6 November 2024

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provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation 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, science, history and physical education. 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 discussed the curriculum for English and sampled pupils’ writing.  Inspectors visited the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND. An inspector met with the senior leader who is currently overseeing and leading this provision.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single

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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.  The lead inspector met with three members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. She held telephone discussions with a representative from the local authority and the school’s educational consultant. The lead inspector held a telephone discussion with the local authority designated officer.  Inspectors met with leaders to discuss pupils’ behaviour and attendance and other aspects of the school’s work. They considered a wide range of documents, including information about the school’s provision for pupils’ personal development.  Inspectors considered pupils’ views during meetings with them and talked to pupils when visiting lessons and at other times of day, such as lunchtimes. They also took

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account of pupils’ responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.  Staff’s views were gathered during discussions and through their responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.  Inspectors considered parents’ views through their responses to the Ofsted Parent View survey. An inspector spoke with parents and carers on the morning of the first day of the inspection. 5 and 6 November 2024

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Inspection team

Sue Cox, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Simon Woodbridge His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Hiddleston Ofsted Inspector 5 and 6 November 2024

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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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