Wansbeck Primary School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Wansbeck Primary School Wenning Grove, Longhill Estate, Hull HU8 9SR

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Inspection dates: 14 and 15 January 2025

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Outcome

Wansbeck Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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Outcome

The headteacher of this school is Sam Bullen. This school is part of Hull Collaborative Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Estelle Macdonald OBE, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Malcolm Mathias.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Wansbeck Primary School places pupils and their families at the centre of its work. The school team lives and breathes the school’s inclusive ethos. Staff work effectively with parents and carers to build positive relationships. This helps to remove barriers to attendance and learning. Leaders are highly ambitious for pupils’ behaviour and learning. This includes ambition for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils work hard and achieve well, including in national assessments.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school. They feel safe and cared for. This is because staff listen if they have any worries and help them sort any problems. Pupils benefit from positive and respectful relationships with adults and other pupils. This starts in the early years, where children learn to play well together. Pupils behave well during lessons and at unstructured times. Bullying is extremely rare and quickly addressed if it does happen.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from an exceptional personal development programme. They talk enthusiastically about a vast range of opportunities. They recognise how these opportunities develop their character over time so that they can learn to lead others, demonstrate teamwork and be good communicators. Pupils know that these skills will be important to them in the future. 14 and 15 January 2025

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

The school has an ambitious curriculum that builds pupils’ knowledge over time. The school’s curriculum is broad and engaging, beginning in the early years. In subjects such as mathematics and reading, learning steps are explicitly identified and pupils’ knowledge builds over time. This helps pupils to build strong foundations in their learning and to progress well through the curriculum.

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

The curriculum to teach writing is less effective for a minority of pupils. It focuses on developing writing linked to texts. However, pupils’ understanding of the basic skills in writing are not secured before they are moved on to more complex writing tasks. This means basic errors in letter formation, spelling and sentence structure become embedded over time. Some older pupils say writing is too difficult.

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

In reading and mathematics, strategies for checking what pupils know and remember over time are well developed. Teachers use this to adapt their teaching and activities. This supports all pupils well, including those with SEND. However, these strategies are not yet fully in place across the wider curriculum. This makes it harder for teachers to identify gaps in knowledge and build on pupils’ prior knowledge successfully in these subjects.

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

Staff’s expectations of all pupils, including those with SEND, are consistently high. Leaders ensure that any additional needs are identified early and appropriate support is swiftly put in place. The school works well with parents and specialists to establish the most suitable support based on individual pupils’ needs. This includes for pupils in the Arc, the Burrows, and the Wizards provisions, where pupils have access to the full curriculum or an adapted curriculum that is tailored to their needs. These pupils thrive.

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

Over recent years, the school has reduced the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent. Attendance is an extremely high priority. The school is effective in keeping attendance at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Leaders are relentless in their work to ensure all pupils attend school regularly.

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

The curriculum for personal, social and health education is designed and sequenced with care. Pupils know the difference between right and wrong. This is reflected in how they treat each other. Pupils develop a mature understanding of diversity and equality. They actively contribute to school life. Pupils are proud to take on responsibilities, such as problem solvers and school council. The school gives pupils many opportunities to discover or develop their talents and interests. The ‘Wansbeck Wonders’ initiative ensures that pupils have fifty meaningful and memorable experiences before they leave school. For example, pupils visit a city museum, stay overnight away from home, perform in front of an audience, and learn to swim.

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

Those responsible for governance know the school well. They provide effective support and challenge for school leaders. Staff are overwhelmingly positive about the support they receive from leaders around workload and well-being. Leaders provide highly valued professional development opportunities for all staff. Most parents are also full of praise for 14 and 15 January 2025

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the school. They appreciate how well pupils are cared for and the wealth of opportunities their children receive.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The curriculum for early writing does not sufficiently prioritise pupils’ letter formation and transcription skills. This means some pupils are not able to communicate their learning through writing with fluency. The school should continue to develop its curriculum, so pupils learn to complete simple writing tasks with fluency and accuracy before moving on to more complex writing composition.  The school has not fully established strategies to check how successfully pupils remember the important knowledge in some subjects. As a result, staff are not able to address gaps in knowledge. Pupils’ recall of some prior learning is not secure. The school should ensure that there are effective strategies to check how well pupils are learning the important knowledge identified and that this information is used to ensure that any gaps in knowledge are addressed.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour, or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in June 2015. 14 and 15 January 2025

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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). 14 and 15 January 2025

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School details

Local authority Kingston Upon Hull City Council

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provision

[For academy] CEO of the trust Estelle Macdonald OBE

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provision

Date of previous inspection 11 June 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of Hull Collaborative Academy Trust.  The school has a SEND resourced provision for 16 pupils on site. This consists of two bases called the Arc and the Burrows. It caters for pupils with autism spectrum disorder and social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs. All pupils have an education, health, and care plan.  The school runs the Wizards provision at another site. The Wizards supports up to 16 additional pupils with SEMH needs. This provision also supports pupils from other schools within the trust.  The school runs a breakfast club. 14 and 15 January 2025

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection 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.  During the inspection, the inspector met with the headteacher and members of the senior leadership team. She also met with a number of trust leaders.  The inspector met with members of the trust board and local tier board.  The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: 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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Information about this inspection

 Throughout the inspection, the inspector met with groups of staff. She also reviewed responses from the staff survey.  The inspector met some parents at the beginning of the day and had regard to the views expressed through Ofsted Parent View, including free-text comments.

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Inspection team

Tracy Duffy, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 14 and 15 January 2025

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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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