Wendover Church of England Junior School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Wendover Church of England Junior School Wharf Road, Wendover, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP22 6HF

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Outcome

Wendover Church of England Junior School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at school. They enjoy warm and trusting relationships with the staff. They feel safe and well cared for. Pupils love using the plentiful outdoor equipment to exercise and socialise in the fresh air.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. Pupils generally gain new knowledge and skills securely across subjects. Their results in published national tests are in line with national averages.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have positive attitudes to learning and work hard in lessons. There is a calm and productive atmosphere across the school. Staff are very adept at supporting pupils who struggle to manage their own behaviour. Pupils are very welcoming to newcomers. On the odd occasion when pupils fall out, staff help them reflect on and understand their choices and the impact on others and themselves. This approach is effective as it helps pupils to become more mature in their attitudes and social interactions.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides pupils with many opportunities to develop their interests. For example, they can learn to play musical instruments and attend sports, drama and gardening clubs. Pupils are encouraged to propose initiatives, such as running new clubs that interest them.

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

The school has risen to the emerging challenges of changing cohorts since the previous inspection. The school has increased its strategies to support pupils’ mental health. It has 23 and 24 April 2025

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made positive changes to its approaches to managing pupils’ behaviour and to the curriculum.

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Since last summer, the school has reviewed the curriculum and its implementation. Much has been accomplished, but this is still a work in progress. Therefore, although pupils achieve well across the subjects, they could achieve more. Curriculum thinking now ensures that pupils are taught knowledge in a suitable order. Staff training has ensured that teachers have the subject knowledge and teaching skills they need to teach effectively. Occasionally, teachers do not ensure that pupils are helped to remember key knowledge over time.

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Staff check pupils’ prior knowledge when they arrive in Year 3. They use this information to identify and address gaps in pupils’ knowledge. There are new approaches to check pupils’ learning across the broader curriculum over time. This work is starting to inform the next stages of teaching to address emerging misconceptions. In some cases, however, pupils have remaining unaddressed gaps in their knowledge as this process is not yet fully effective.

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Pupils benefit from reading books from a range of cultures, styles and forms. They develop their vocabulary, comprehension and love of books well. Most pupils who join the school are fluent readers. Increasingly, however, more are at the early stages of reading. The school rightly introduced a phonics programme this year to address these needs. This has started to improve those pupils’ reading confidence and fluency. The school is also at the early stages of addressing the needs of the few pupils without the expected handwriting skills.

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The school identifies the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) accurately. Most of these pupils learn the same curriculum as their peers. Skilled support staff keep a close eye on them in lessons, offering extra help as needed. Teachers usually also make suitable adaptations to their teaching to meet pupils’ needs. Where necessary, the school provides a tailored individual curriculum for some pupils with SEND in English and mathematics. They join their peers in other lessons. Pupils with SEND achieve in line with their peers.

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The school does a great deal to support pupils’ broader development effectively. Opportunities for pupils to develop leadership and character are plentiful. For example, the school council has shared strategies to support mental health during assemblies through a year-long programme. In addition, a visitor from the local food bank explained the importance of their work, which incentivised pupils to make food donations. All pupils plan fundraising activities for charity at the annual summer fair. Year 6 pupils work together in an enterprise activity which teaches them about budget planning, manufacturing and selling. Pupils have a strong knowledge of fundamental British values, consent and how to form healthy relationships.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 23 and 24 April 2025

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Sometimes staff do not make sure that pupils retain key knowledge over time. They sometimes do not use the checks they make to adapt learning consistently across subjects. This means that sometimes pupils do not achieve as well as they could. The school should ensure that staff apply its approaches to curriculum implementation consistently, so pupils achieve even better across subjects.

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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 July 2016.

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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. 23 and 24 April 2025

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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). 23 and 24 April 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Sam Walker (Co-Chair) Priya Govekar (Co-Chair) Headteacher Gareth Kynaston

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 12 and 13 February 2020, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is a voluntary-controlled Church of England school. The last section 48 inspection took place in May 2023.  The school does not use alternative provision.

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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 the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector met with the headteacher and other senior leaders.  The inspector met with a representative of the local authority and of the Diocese of Oxford.  The inspector held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke 23 and 24 April 2025

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to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at 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.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour in class and around the school site.  The inspector spoke with groups of pupils and considered the responses of the pupils who responded to Ofsted’s online survey for pupils.  The inspector held discussions with staff and considered the responses to Ofsted’s survey for staff.  The inspector took account of the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the comments received by Ofsted’s free-text facility. He also took account of a parent’s letter and of a telephone conversation with a parent.

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Inspection team

David Radomsky, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 23 and 24 April 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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