Woodhouse Primary School

WOODHOUSE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Dates of inspection: 13-14 th September 2000

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WOODHOUSE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Inspection carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 This report may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that all extracts quoted are reproduced verbatim without adaptation and on condition that the source and date thereof are stated.

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WOODHOUSE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the School Inspections Act 1996, the school must provide a copy of this report and/or its summary free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. Woodhouse Primary School - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Nursery Road Davyhulme Manchester

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: The Governing Body

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Name of chair of governors: Mrs M Delaney

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: June 1996 Woodhouse Primary School - 4

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Team members A C Davies (3639) Registered inspector S Scull (19363) Lay inspector D Davenport (27677) Team inspector

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

The Court 8 Bar Meadow Dobcross Oldham OL3 5 QW

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be raised with the inspection contractor. Complaints that are not satisfactorily resolved by the contractor should be raised with OFSTED by writing to:

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

The Registrar Inspection Quality Division

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE Woodhouse Primary School - 5

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PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 6

Information about the school How good the school is What the school does well What could be improved How the school has improved since its last inspection Standards Pupils’ attitudes and values Teaching and learning Other aspects of the school How well the school is led and managed Parents’ and carers’ views of the school

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

There are 212 children aged between 5 and 11 attending the school with another 26 attending the nursery. All children are white and three reception-aged children who have recently joined the school have English as an additional language. Most of the children come from the area immediately around the school, which is a mixed community. The percentage of children with special educational needs is below average. Although only a few children are entitled to school meals free of charge the school serves families from a range of backgrounds. The school was flooded less than two terms ago. This led to a full redecoration, refurbishment with many resources being destroyed. When they first start school the initial assessments show that whilst children have personal and social skills in line with those expected for their age their academic skills are below expectations.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

This is a very effective school. Standards are well above average by the time children are 11. The teaching is very good overall with many outstanding features ensuring that children achieve very well. Children work very hard and learning is of high quality. They have very mature attitudes and behave exceptionally well. The headteacher provides everyone connected with the school with clear direction giving priority to high standards and enabling children to do their best. The school provides very good value for money.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

What the school does well • The headteacher provides outstanding leadership and has created a strong team around her dedicated to giving children every chance to succeed. • Very good teaching of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy together with good classroom organisation is helping children attain high standards. • Challenging teaching is creating a learning environment where children are striving to produce work of the highest quality. • There are excellent systems in place to help the staff, governors and children to check for themselves how well they are achieving. • Teachers provide children with excellent guidelines to help them improve the standards of their writing. • Relationships between children and adults are extremely good and result in children feeling very well cared for and being proud of their school.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

What could be improved • The school has no major weakness but these two issues require attention. • Children have limited first-hand opportunities to help them understand about the way people with different beliefs live and worship. • The steps identified to help children with special educational needs make appropriate progress are too general. The areas for improvement will form the basis of the governors’ action plan.

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

The school was last inspected in June 1996. Since that time very good progress has been made. Standards have steadily improved, especially for older children and the quality of teaching is much better with far more very good and excellent teaching now evident. Children of all abilities are achieving very well with particularly good progress made by the more able children. The school’s management is even better than that reported previously. The main key issues identified at the time of Woodhouse Primary School - 7 the previous inspection have been dealt with appropriately. Documentation to support different subjects has been greatly improved and the school has also developed excellent systems for tracking children’s progress. The homework system, identified as having some weaknesses at the time of the previous inspection, is now very good. There is one area previously identified as a weakness that is still in need

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

of improvement. The individual plans drawn up to support children with special educational needs are still not specific enough. The school has also dealt very well with the many national initiatives introduced since the previous inspection. As a result they have implemented the National Literacy and Numeracy strategies very effectively.

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STANDARDS

The table shows the standards achieved by 11 year olds based on average point scores in National Curriculum tests. compared with

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STANDARDS

Performance in: all schools similar schools Key

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STANDARDS

1997 1998 1999 1999 very high (top 5%) A*

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STANDARDS

English A* A* A* A* well above average above average A B mathematics A A A A* average below average C D science A A A A well below average E

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STANDARDS

The standards attained by 11-year-olds have been very high and well above average for several years. The percentage of children attaining the higher levels has been steadily improving each year so that more than half of the children aged 11 are regularly reaching these higher levels. The above table shows that when compared with similar schools, results in English and mathematics are in the top 5 per cent. In each of the three core subjects the present Year 6 group is attaining at the same levels as previous years. The school set challenging, yet realistic targets for the past few years and each year they have been exceeded.

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STANDARDS

The test results for 7-year-olds show that improving trends in mathematics have resulted in standards being well above the national and similar schools average. In English, the school’s results have been in line with national averages for the past few years. The present Year 2 is attaining at a better level in English compared with previous years. Many of the present Year 2 children show characteristics of attaining beyond the level expected for their age in reading, writing and mathematics.

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STANDARDS

When taking account of the below average academic standards demonstrated by children when they start school, all children in Years 1 and 2 achieve well. Older children between the ages of 7 and 11 achieve very well with particularly good progress evident by the more able children.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Attitudes to the school Very good. Children are keen to learn and show much enthusiasm for their work.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Very good. It is a delight to spend time with children of all ages. They are particularly polite, well-mannered and a credit to their parents and Woodhouse Primary School - 8 the school.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Personal development and relationships Very good. There are several opportunities for children to take on additional responsibility. Older children, in particular, play a prominent role in helping younger children settle into school routines.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Attendance Good. The rate of attendance is above average and children are punctual.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

Teaching of pupils: aged up to 5 years aged 5-7 years aged 7-11 years

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

Lessons seen overall Good Very Good Very Good Inspectors make judgements about teaching in the range: excellent; very good; good; satisfactory; unsatisfactory; poor; very poor. ‘Satisfactory’ means that the teaching is adequate and strengths outweigh weaknesses.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

Very good teaching of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy is helping children achieve very well. In each classroom the quality of organisation is most impressive and helps children recognise what is expected of them. Teachers’ effective questioning helps more able children, in particular, to be challenged and to make very good progress. All teachers are very creative and frequently invent their own resources to make learning more interesting for the children. The excellent relationships that exist between adults and children result in children trying very hard and taking pride in their achievements. Each teacher ensures that children are clear about what they are to learn in each lesson and children are well informed about what they need to do next to improve their work. Teachers successfully help to raise children’s self-esteem and they are therefore confident learners. The quality of teaching is

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

outstanding in 11 per cent of lessons, very good in 39 per cent, good in 39 per cent and satisfactory in 11 per cent. There is no unsatisfactory teaching.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

The quality and range of the curriculum The curriculum is effective, giving an appropriate amount of time to literacy and numeracy. Long, medium and short term planning is very well organised and ensures that children have every chance to develop progressively their skills.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

Provision for pupils with special educational needs Although the provision is satisfactory, the individual plans for children with learning difficulties do not set out clearly enough the small steps needed to help them improve. Within lessons, however, there is good support provided for children with learning difficulties.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Very good. There is outstanding support provided to help children understand what is and is not acceptable and to help them play a full role in the life of the school. The opportunities provided for them to understand more about the culture and religion of other people is limited.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

How well the school cares for its pupils One of the strongest features of the school is the way in which all children are very well known to all staff. The system in place for tracking the academic and personal progress of each child is Woodhouse Primary School - 9 outstanding. Woodhouse Primary School - 10

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

Leadership and management by the headteacher and other key staff Outstanding. The headteacher has successfully put her stamp on this school. She works very effectively with all staff, governors and parents. Her excellent organisation is helping to ensure that standards are high, teaching is very good and children’s learning is very effective.

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities The governors are very knowledgeable and work extremely hard to play their full part in this successful school. They have very good systems in place to help them understand about the effectiveness of the school.

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

The school’s evaluation of its performance Outstanding. Test results and the quality of teaching are carefully checked. One of the strongest features of the school is the way in which all staff are encouraged to review their own work and discuss this with the headteacher.

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

The strategic use of resources Very careful consideration is given to the potential impact of all resources used on standards, including the way adults are deployed in the school. The governors and senior management relate this impact to the effect on standards and on children’s learning. Every effort is made to ensure that the school obtains full value for money from all its resources.

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PARENTS’ AND CARERS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved • Children are expected to work hard and they make good progress. • Behaviour is very good and children enjoy coming to school. • They feel comfortable about approaching staff. • Teaching is very good and the school is very well led. • The amount of homework provided. • The range of activities provided outside normal lessons.

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PARENTS’ AND CARERS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

The parents appreciate the hard work and dedication of the staff and the inspection team agrees that staff are extremely conscientious. The leadership provided by the headteacher, senior management and governors is indeed very effective. The standard of behaviour is also most impressive. The school has, however, done far more than most school in providing a structure for homework which takes full account of parents’ views and is carefully linked to work that is on-going in classrooms. The range of additional activities was badly disrupted by the recent flood at the school. However, there is a good range provided for children and in addition, the children have many opportunities to visit places of interest as part of their work. Woodhouse Primary School - 11

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

• The headteacher provides outstanding leadership and has created a strong team around her dedicated to giving children every chance to succeed.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

1 The school ‘motto’ gives a clear commitment to ‘excellence’. In everything that she does the headteacher is determined to make this an accessible goal rather than just something that appears on paper.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

2 Her style of leadership is important in bringing together people of a like mind that put high demands on themselves and expect high standards from the children. One of her main strategies is her ability to be very visible around the school. She does not need to make long autocratic statements to staff but instead uses a combination of ‘leading by example’ and ‘supporting individuals’ to get across her determination to achieve excellence. In this way the staff know what is, and is not, acceptable because there is a clear lead given to them.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

3 Her own room, for example, is exceptionally well organised. Her teaching materials are of a high quality as is the documentation that has been produced to support children’s learning. This exceptional care to detail is best illustrated by the way each classroom is effectively organised. There is a consistency about the way equipment is stored or made accessible to the children. There is also a consistency about the way teachers’ plan, organise their rooms, manage children as well as having high expectations for what they are to achieve.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

4 The headteacher has good awareness of her staff’s strengths and she uses this to good effect to ensure that staff have opportunities to observe each other’s good practice. The deputy headteacher plays a very important role in this process. Her very good classroom practice helps put a stamp of quality to which other teachers seek to aspire. The overall quality of teaching in the school is very good which suggests that they are successful in following the lead of the deputy.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

5 The headteacher has retained responsibility for co-ordinating literacy. This has given her another strategy to ensure that there is consistency of approach across the school. The individual co-ordinators’ files are exceptionally well organised giving clear indication about how children’s progress is tracked, how developments are prioritised as well as giving proper attention to monitoring and evaluating each subject. The headteacher’s ‘hands-on’ involvement with such an important area sets the standard for others to strive for.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

6 The process of replacing staff is also a strong feature, which is given very careful consideration. The governors work alongside the headteacher in making appointments with criteria very well known to all. In this way there is a smooth transition between the outgoing and incoming staff. The process successfully attracts staff of a high calibre.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

7 The parents are also appreciative of the quality of leadership with every parent who returned the questionnaire agreeing that the school was well led with over three-quarters of them believing it to be extremely well led. In addition, the parents were extremely impressed with the organisation that followed the recent flood that the school experienced. The parents were fulsome of their praise for both the staff and the headteacher with particular admiration felt for the way in which the school was back in working order so soon after the disaster. Woodhouse Primary School - 12 • Very good teaching of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy together with very good classroom organisation is helping children attain high standards.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

8 One of the school’s main strengths is the way in which teachers use the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies to good effect to raise children’s standards. This is because there is appropriate concentration on teaching the basic skills, which help children gain greater understanding and knowledge in reading, writing and number.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

9 In the reception class, effective teaching leads to young children already having good knowledge of initial sounds and in being able to start to blend two letters, such as ‘st’ or ‘gr’, together. The use of pictures of objects starting with the letter ‘g’ was one such example. In Year 1, the teacher helps children gain greater understanding of the values of numbers to 20 by using practical activities, which they find interesting and fun. Feeding numbers bigger than a given number to ‘Greedy Gorilla’ whilst leaving smaller numbers on a plate captures the children interest and re-inforces learning.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

10 In Year 2 the teacher uses a familiar story to good effect to give children a framework for their own writing and to remind children of specific reading skills that they have already met. The lesson starts with children using individual boards to recognise the number of ‘sounds’ in a range of words. During the reading the teacher carefully and skilfully draws children’s attention to a range of punctuation that appears in the text. In doing so she helps them to be more expressive in their reading, for example, by pausing momentarily at commas.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

11 During a mental agility lesson in Year 3 the teacher uses her questioning very effectively to assess how many children have good understanding of a range of strategies that she has introduced to help children deal with addition and subtraction of numbers to 20. She then moves on rapidly to put the problem into a practical context and one, which requires children to use their problem solving skills. Similarly, in a Year 4 mathematics lesson the teacher is able to organise the task in such a way as to help children add and subtract 10 or 100 quickly, even when needing to move the number across the hundreds or thousands line, for example, taking 10 from 104 or taking 100 from 1,008. In Year 5 the teacher’s good subject knowledge helps her to move the more able children on at a brisk pace while extending their understanding of place value and decimal numbers.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

12 The same Year 5 teacher is quick to pick up on children’s lack of variety in endings to stories by encouraging them to consider different feelings. In this way she successfully moves them from the predictable endings that they first think of to more adventurous and interesting endings that they finally come up with. In Year 6, where teaching is particularly creative, the teacher uses the text from ‘MacBeth’ to get children to generate additional adjectives, similes and metaphors. The use of words like, ‘wily’, ‘deceitful’, ‘fiendish’, invincible’, ‘devilish’ and ‘artful’ to describe MacBeth’s character gives testament to the teacher’s success in getting children to think deeply about their own use of language. Her ability to explain issues, using the main text to aid her, is very good. This can be seen when she successfully deals with sentence structure, for example, identifying main clauses and their purpose.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

13 Apart from the good teaching of basic skills, the teachers’ effective classroom organisation is a feature of the teaching and learning. Each classroom has common organisational features so that there is consistency in the way resources are set out. This helps to cut down on any Woodhouse Primary School - 13 unnecessary time wasting and helps children give greater concentration to their learning. In addition, by ensuring that displays re-inforce important messages about literacy and numeracy skills, children are continually reminded of important issues that they have already covered in previous lessons.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

• Challenging teaching is creating a learning environment where children are successfully striving to produce work of the highest quality.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

14 One of the key features of teaching in each class is the way learning is organised to meet the needs of all children, irrespective of their abilities. This results in the teaching being challenging encouraging children to achieve highly.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

15 In the nursery, for example, the introduction of a ‘car wash’ to the outdoor play area provides young children with opportunities to be patient as they wait their turn in the queue that steadily makes its way towards the washing area. It also provides other children with opportunities to show good perseverance as they take their turn to do the washing. In the reception, the clear focus of attention within the play area helps children to develop their skills in specific areas. For example, the three bears cottage has been set up to reinforce learning about different sizes. Children are able to consolidate and extend previous learning through a practical activity aimed at improving understanding about order and measurement in mathematics.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

16 The challenging teaching in Year 2 enables children to use their knowledge of phonics and sentence structure in an imaginative way as they develop their own stories. Their good basic knowledge helps children to be more adventurous in their writing. The teacher is fully aware of the range of children’s abilities and provides different resources to support them accordingly. The teaching helps take children’s learning on to new levels as they are helped in their search for new and interesting ideas.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

17 During a Year 3 oral mathematics session the teacher’s questioning is very purposeful and challenging. The teacher is not just satisfied with a correct response but asks questions, such as, ‘How did you get to your answer?’ or ‘Why put the largest number first?’. The same teacher uses extension activities successfully with more able children during a lesson on Roman homes. The children are encouraged to use different research methods to find out more about Roman homes as part of their attempt to write an estate agent’s description of various homes. In a design and technology lesson in Year 4 about designing Greek masks the teacher makes effective use of literacy skills when getting children to think about a range of appropriate adjectives to describe the masks they are looking at. The children come up with a range of adjectives to describe personality, character and facial features.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

18 The oldest children in Years 5 and 6 are expected to work at a brisk pace. Clear expectations of what they should achieve within a given time limit is outlined to them. There is a greater range of tasks organised to take account of the full range of abilities in both classes. Questioning is used very effectively to re-inforce previous learning and to encourage children to be more adventurous in their responses. During a lesson where children are working on a part of the text taken from MacBeth, the teacher seeks more interesting explanations for words that are quite new to them. One child eventually explains that the word ‘wily’ reminds him of characteristics associated with ‘cunning and sly’. Woodhouse Primary School - 14 19 The planning effectively takes account of the range of abilities within each class. The impact of the challenging teaching undoubtedly has a very good effect on children’s achievement with

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

more able and less able children striving to do their best. The teaching also releases each child’s full potential and makes children feel proud of their achievements.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

• There are excellent systems in place to help the staff, governors and children to check for themselves how well they are achieving.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

20 The school has very comprehensive systems in place to analyse its test results. It uses more than just the national tests for 7 and 11-year-olds to do this. The analysis forms an important starting point for the school to make any adjustments to the curriculum deemed necessary. It also provides the school with a good starting point for considering individual target setting. The process of the analyses also takes full account of issues related to education inclusion with detailed information being available about the performance of boys and girls as well as specifically identified groups of children, for example, those with special educational needs. The effective use of the information gained from the analysis helps the school to consider future needs of individuals or groups of children.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

21 The school has been successful in moving beyond just setting up a good system to check on the quality of teaching. The headteacher has worked alongside her staff to ensure that criteria about judging the quality of teaching have been agreed. One of the great successes of the school is its ability to develop self-evaluation procedures in important areas of its work. In teaching, each member of staff is encouraged to develop a self-evaluation process based on the agreed set of criteria. The headteacher and other key members of staff still check on the quality of teaching and provide individual evaluations after each visit. However, the staff are then encouraged to set their own targets for improvement. These targets also include their role as subject leaders. They consider these when discussing the issues with the headteacher and then make any necessary adjustments to the targets. Staff benefit from being able to observe

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

each other and by visiting other schools. In this way there is a very powerful, shared message about what is, and is not, acceptable practice.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

22 The process of self-evaluation is extended to parents who are invited to contribute to any development that the school is considering introducing. For example, parents were provided with a questionnaire to complete to help establish exactly what the home/school agreement ought to include. By analysing the responses the school is able to take action on issues that arise. Similarly, children are very involved in examining their own work and seeing what they can do to improve. They set their own targets and the process involves their parents as well as their teachers. The targets include personal and academic areas. The governors also play a strong part in the self-evaluation process. They work very much to a system that requires them to examine how successful their decisions have been. They link their evaluation process to the impact on standards and are acutely aware of how well the school is performing.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

• Teachers provide children with excellent guidelines to help them improve the standards of their writing.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

23 The school was acutely aware that despite high standards being attained in English, the quality of written work was not at the same level as that of reading. This prompted much professional Woodhouse Primary School - 15 development activity amongst the staff. The result is that teachers are much more aware of using different ways of helping children with the content of their writing.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

24 In Year 6, where children are using the text taken from Shakespeare’s MacBeth to inspire their written work, the teacher gives careful consideration to the level of support required by children of different ability. She works directly with the least able group to help them structure their writing appropriately. Another group is provided with a framework outlining what they should include at different stages to help improve the content of their work. The more able group is able to work without the benefit of a framework but do make use of some of the adjectives that were considered during the time of the whole class discussions. In a Year 5 class, the teacher works with the children on improving the endings of their stories. The teacher is particularly helpful in widening the range of possible endings to their stories. She focuses on different emotions to help them consider endings that may not necessarily be just

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

25 In a Year 3 class the teacher uses examples of estate agents’ ‘blurb’ to help them develop their own based on Roman homes. The way in which the ‘blurb’ is set out helps the children with their own writing.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

26 One of the best examples of a teacher’s use of frameworks came in a Year 2 lesson, where children had been reading the book, ‘Mr. Gumpy’s Outing’. The teacher uses a combination of resources and frameworks to help inspire children to attain better standards in their own writing. The children use the structure of the story that had been read to them to develop a similar system for their own work. Their own story follows the same rhythm as the book and is based on ‘A class outing’. In this way there is greater motivation amongst the children and more first hand knowledge for the children to draw on in their writing.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

27 In Year 1 effective use is made of a range of ‘home-made’ resources to support children’s writing. They again take their stimulus from a book the class is reading and successfully add their own ideas to the structure provided for them. The introduction of dictionaries is also helping to improve the range of words used and their spelling.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

28 As a result of this consistent approach to the development of writing the school is successful in attaining high standards. For example, openings to stories are exciting and interesting as is seen in a Year 6 child’s opening, ‘Just picture this, it’s just before sundown…’. Older children demonstrate a good ability to use adjectives and descriptive phrases to help set the scene. Some examples include, ‘…surrounded by lush, strange plants.’; ‘…a shape moving cautiously…’; ‘emerges slowly’. Children are able to adapt their style to suit the occasion. For example, bullet points to make telling points when setting out an argument. Writers are able to organise their writing so that they make pertinent points in an unambiguous manner. Children’s literacy skills are put to good use in evaluating what they have learnt. For example, in history after studying the mills in Victorian times and in geography when studying aspects of the

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

• Relationships between children and adults are extremely good and result in children feeling very well cared for and being proud of their school.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

30 The behaviour of children both in and out of classrooms is exemplary. The amount of respect that children have for the adults that work with them and the way they strive to make the adults feel proud of them is a particular strength. The quality of the relationship extends to Woodhouse Primary School - 16 children’s academic work with trust and respect shown by both sides when setting targets for future improvement.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

31 Children feel proud to be asked to take on additional responsibility. This is seen at its best with the prefect system that exists in Year 6. All prefects have job descriptions and these are discussed with their teachers. The children also appreciate the many systems that exist to give recognition for what they do well. For example, the headteacher’s half-termly award is much sought after. The children are encouraged to respect their class promise. There are high expectations of the way children behave and there is mutual respect between children and staff.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

32 When discussing the school with children the overwhelming message is that they really enjoy school and feel proud of their achievements. They particularly enjoy working in such an attractive environment and appreciate that the staff give additional time to achieve this. They comment very favourably about the role the staff play in getting the school back to order after the recent flood.

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

33 The quality of relationship between adults and children is evident in many classrooms. For example, in the reception class good relationships had already been established and these young children already knew what is expected of them. This is done by careful nurturing of what they do well and much praise given for the answers they give. In Year 2 the children are highly motivated, especially when the teacher introduces a range of soft toys to stimulate additional interest. Children move from one form of organisation to another with little fuss and settle very quickly to their tasks. This shows a mark of respect for the teacher and a determination to do well. In Year 3 and 4 children listen very attentively and respond well to their teachers. In Year 4 much enthusiasm is shown during a mathematics lesson and they settle quietly and quickly to work because they are keen to do well. The confidence children

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

have in their teachers is best illustrated by the way Year 6 children are willing to have a go even if their answers are not correct. They are quick to search out unusual adjectives and feel a sense of pride and maturity when coming up with more complex words.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

• Children have limited first-hand opportunities to help them understand about the way people with different beliefs live and worship.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

34 Although the provision for children’s cultural development is satisfactory overall it is an area that the school could do more to support its children understanding and knowledge. This is particularly the case with regard to multi-cultural education.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

35 Within religious education there is a strong programme to help children understand more about the way other people worship. For example, younger children study Christianity and Judaism while older children study Sikhism, Hinduism and Islam, in addition. Visits are arranged to places of worship but these are not as regular as the school would like.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

36 There are no arrangements at the moment for children to experience what it is like live as a non-Christian in Britain. There are no formal links established with other schools and only limited opportunities for children to discuss issues related to living in a multi-cultural community. Woodhouse Primary School - 17 • The steps identified to help children with special educational needs make appropriate progress are too general.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

37 Although the provision for children with special educational needs is satisfactory overall there are inconsistencies in the way the steps that children need to make to improve are identified. This is because some of the statements contained within the individual education plans are not specific enough.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

38 Early identification is made of children with special educational needs. Staff are very vigilant in assessing the needs of these children. There is an appropriate and agreed whole-school set of criteria that help in this process. The needs of the few children with behavioural problems are also well identified. There are good links with outside agencies especially in respect of those children with physical difficulties.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

39 Class teachers are responsible for drawing up individual plans for children in their class identified with special educational needs. Each teacher has a special educational needs file and individual plans are kept in teacher’s planning folders. However, too many of the steps identified for improvement are written in a general manner. The quality of the individual plans varies and range from very specific steps to broad ones, such as, ‘increase range of spelling and vocabulary’. This results in teachers’ evaluation of the plans not always being able to check on precise improvements that have been made. It is the recording of information that is the problem because the in-class provision is of a good standard. Woodhouse Primary School - 18

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

In order to consolidate on the good position that the school finds itself in and to improve further the governors, headteacher and staff need to:

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• Extend the opportunities provided for children to learn more about the way different people live and worship by :

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• liasing with local schools, so that children can develop links with children from different backgrounds; and • consider other multi-cultural links that can be made to help widen children’s understanding of living in a multi-cultural society. (Paragraphs 34-36)

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• Ensure that individual education plans help children make the greatest possible

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progress by:

• making sure that the steps identified to help children improve are very specific; • checking on a regular basis how successful the children have been in meeting these steps; (Paragraphs 37-39) Woodhouse Primary School - 19

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Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 27

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very Poor

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

The table gives the percentage of teaching observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about lessons.

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils on the school’s roll Nursery YR – Y6

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) 26 212

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of full-time pupils eligible for free school meals 29

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Information about the school’s pupils

Special educational needs Nursery YR – Y6

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs nil 1

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register nil 27

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Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of pupils

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with English as an additional language 3

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupil mobility in the last school year No of pupils

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission 14

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 9

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Attendance

National comparative data 5.4 National comparative data 0.5

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Attendance

Both tables give the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year. Woodhouse Primary School - 20

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 1 for the latest reporting year 1999 14 16 30

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

National Curriculum Test/Task Results Reading Writing Mathematics

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

Boys 10 10 12 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 16 16 16

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

Percentage of pupils School 87 87 93 at NC level 2 or above National 82 83 87

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

Boys 10 11 12 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 16 16 16

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1

Percentage of pupils School 87 90 93 at NC level 2 or above National 82 86 87

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 2 for the latest reporting year 1999 13 20 33

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

National Curriculum Test/Task Results English Mathematics Science

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

Boys 13 13 13 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 19 16 19

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

Percentage of pupils School 97 88 97 at NC level 4 or above National 70 69 78

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

Boys 12 13 13 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 18 16 16

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Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2

Percentage of pupils School 91 88 88 at NC level 4 or above National 68 69 75 Woodhouse Primary School - 21

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black – Caribbean heritage Black – Caribbean heritage

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black – African heritage Black – African heritage

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Any other minority ethnic group 1 Other minority ethnic groups

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

This table refers to pupils of compulsory school age only. This table gives the number of exclusions of pupils of compulsory school age, which may be different from the number of pupils excluded.

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 8.0 Financial year 1998/9

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 26.4

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Education support staff: YR – Y6 Total expenditure 369,329

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 3 Expenditure per pupil 1,793

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 42 Balance brought forward from previous year 2,736

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Balance carried forward to next year 12,980

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Qualified teachers and support staff: nursery

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 1.0

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 26

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 1

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 33

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Teachers and classes Financial information

FTE means full-time equivalent. Woodhouse Primary School - 22

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

Percentage of responses in each category

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

Strongly agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

My child is making good progress in school. 79 19 2 0 0

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

Behaviour in the school is good. 85 13 1 1 0

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 55 26 12 0 7

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 66 24 7 1 2

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

I would feel comfortable about approaching the school with questions or a problem. 80 15 1 3 1

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school expects my child to work hard and achieve his or her best. 80 19 0 0 1

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school works closely with parents. 66 26 5 3 0

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school is well led and managed. 78 21 0 1 0

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 79 20 0 1 0

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Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 24 35 13 2 26

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