Watling Street Primary School

Inspection Report Watling Street Primary School

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104202 Unique Reference Number Walsall LEA 277098 Inspection number 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006 Inspection dates Faysal Mikdadi AI Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Watling Street School address Primary Type of school Walsall Community School category West Midlands WS8 7LW 3 to 11 Age range of pupils 01543 452320 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01543 370381 Fax number 210 Number on roll Mr Nick Baddeley Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Miss J Monckton Headteacher 12 June 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 277098 6 March 2006 - 3 to 11 7 March 2006 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report 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.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

Watling Street Primary School is a small school in the Brownhills area of Walsall. Most pupils come from the local neighbourhood, which has some areas of deprivation. Pupils come from White British backgrounds. A small number of pupils have a variety of learning difficulties. Pupils’ attainment on entry is low. Almost the entire teaching staff have been appointed since the last inspection.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Watling Street Primary School, 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006

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Grade: 1

Inspectors agree with the school’s judgement that it provides outstanding education because pupils make excellent progress and achieve high standards. The main causes for this are the excellent leadership, outstanding teaching, excellent care for the pupils and the outstanding curriculum. All of these mean that pupils are happy and safe and that they enjoy being at school. The school gives outstanding value for money. Pupils made a specific point of telling inspectors how proud they were of their school. The headteacher carries out rigorous monitoring of all aspects of provision. She and her colleagues use the results of this monitoring to maintain the very good improvements made since the last inspection. Teachers plan their lessons effectively and match tasks to the pupils’ differing abilities. Pupils respond positively to the outstanding teaching and they work with considerable independence to make excellent progress. The

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Grade: 1

curriculum offered is excellent in helping pupils to achieve as well as they can. Their personal development is outstanding, with the result that they behave in an exemplary manner. Children in the Nursery and in the Reception classes make excellent progress in their social and independent working skills so that pupils’ standards are in line with expectations by the time that they start Year 1. These improvements set the trend that continues throughout their school life. The school’s results make it the top-performing school in the area and place it amongst the topperforming one per cent of schools in England. The school has an outstanding capacity to improve.

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What the school should do to improve further

• There are no major areas for improvements in this outstanding school. However, the school should work to improve provision for the pupils’ cultural development in order to bring it up to the excellence achieved in other areas of the school’s work.

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Grade: 1

Achievement and standards are outstanding overall. When the children come into school their attainment is low. Many joining the Nursery class lacking the independent social skills needed at school. Because of the excellent support that they receive, coupled with consistent encouragement, they make very quick progress and they soon display independent skills in many of their social interactions as well as in their learning. By the time that these pupils join Year 1 their standards are in line with national expectations. When they go on to Year 1 they continue to make the same speedy progress, so that by the end of Year 2 their results reach the national average. By the end of Year 6, test results are well above the national average. Given the low attainment on entry and given the high standards by the time that the pupils are ready to move on to their senior school, their progress is outstanding. The main reasons for this

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Grade: 1

outstanding progress are the consistently high quality provision in teaching, the curriculum, care, guidance and support. The school has placed a strong focus on monitoring individual pupils’ progress and using any information from this monitoring 2 Inspection Report: Watling Street Primary School, 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006 to set challenging targets, which the pupils consistently meet. Children with learning difficulties and disabilities also make outstanding progress because of the excellent provision made.

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Grade: 1

The personal development and well-being of pupils is outstanding. Pupils are polite, welcoming and exceptionally well behaved. Their very positive attitudes and above-average attendance show how much they enjoy coming to school. They respond very well to the teachers’ high expectations and encouragement, which celebrate their achievements. Pupils’ social and moral development is outstanding. Pupils work well together and help one another both in class and in the playground. Pupils are encouraged to take on responsibility and act independently in an excellent range of activities, which make a very positive contribution to the school and local community. The school council is well established and there are many examples of its contribution to improving the school, such as deciding on equipment for the school grounds. Pupils plan and implement fundraising activities to raise substantial sums of money for charity.

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Grade: 1

This effective development of personal and social skills and the school’s emphasis on learning basic skills mean that pupils are very well equipped for their future lives. Spiritual development is good because pupils respond well to time made for reflection both in assembly and circle time. They also benefit from the good opportunities available for cultural development in religious education and special events, although some aspects of the school’s work in this area would benefit from further improvement. Pupils have excellent awareness of how to be safe. They acquire a comprehensive understanding about how to stay fit and healthy by virtue of the school’s full range of sporting activities and emphasis on healthy eating.

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Grade: 1

Teaching and learning are outstanding and make a major contribution to the pupils’ outstanding progress. Teachers know their pupils well and they are therefore able to plan lessons that match the pupils’ various abilities whilst challenging them to excel even further. All teachers carry out high quality planning which ensures that challenging tasks are set for all pupils. These tasks are also varied in order to ensure that each pupil’s prior attainment is taken into account. The result is that every pupil responds positively to carrying out tasks set. For example, in a Year 6 lesson, pupils were working on how to write complex sentences. Because of the way that the teacher prompted them, encouraged them to take risks and kept pushing them to make their sentences more and more complex, every pupil in the group was able to produce an excellent opening to a spooky story. Their use of language brought the stories to life. It is easy

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Grade: 1

to understand why pupils speak so highly of their teachers. Each lesson finishes with a plenary that includes an opportunity for the pupils to evaluate what they had learnt 3 Inspection Report: Watling Street Primary School, 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006 during the lesson and what they need to do next in order to improve further. These qualities, coupled with the children’s exemplary behaviour, clear understanding of expected routines, the teaching assistants’ excellent support and the pupils’ highly developed independent learning skills, mean that the children really enjoy their learning and constantly strive for success. Assessment strategies are rigorous and pupils are told exactly what they need to do to improve their work even further. Foundation Stage children are successfully encouraged to be independent and they are constantly challenged to do well.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum is outstanding. The work planned for pupils matches precisely their needs and interests. It is very well planned and meets statutory requirements. The strong focus on literacy across the school has contributed significantly to improved standards. The activities provided present a very good balance of opportunities to develop basic skills and those to develop creative skills and increase pupils’ understanding of the world around them. Health and fitness are well promoted by the wide range of sporting activities provided each week. Personal, social and health education is taught to all age groups through a well-planned programme. There are strong curriculum links with the nearby secondary school which further enhance the breadth of subjects on offer in modern foreign languages, sport and arts subjects. There is a very good range of well-attended after-school clubs and activities.

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Grade: 1

The school’s outstanding care, guidance and support for pupils have a very considerable bearing on their well-being, their progress and personal development. Very secure child protection procedures and those to protect vulnerable children are in place and are clearly understood by staff. Pupils say that they feel safe and secure and that their views are listened to and respected. They have full confidence in staff to deal with the very few incidents of bullying or racism which are reported in school. Older pupils care well for younger ones through schemes like the buddy system, which is very well valued by pupils. The school’s effective health and safety procedures are properly underpinned by risk assessments, enabling pupils to take part in a wide range of activities both on and off the school’s site. There is a high level of support and supervision from staff at playtimes. The system to track whether pupils’ progress is

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Grade: 1

on target is very effective in letting teachers, pupils and parents know what they need to work on and how to improve. Pupils who may underachieve and those with learning difficulties and disabilities are exceptionally well supported to achieve well. 4 Inspection Report: Watling Street Primary School, 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006

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Grade: 1

Leadership and management are outstanding. The headteacher is determined that nothing less than the very best is provided in the school. She is supported in this exceptionally high expectation by a skilled, hard-working and empowered group of teachers, teaching assistants and other staff. Everyone in the school is agreed on what needs to be done and how it should be done. The result has been consistently outstanding provision, which constantly strives to do better. The good governing body is fully supportive of the headteacher and her colleagues. They have a high profile in the school and they know its strengths and weaknesses, which enables them to play a full part in helping the school move forward. The excellent provision means that the school provides outstanding value for money. The school has excellent systems to check how well it is doing. It accurately analyses its performance to find all strengths

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Grade: 1

and weaknesses. As a result of rigorous monitoring by senior leaders and middle managers, the school keeps the pace of improvement going such that pupils consistently make excellent progress. The focus started in the Nursery of making sure that the children learn to be independent and to work well with each other continues throughout the school such that pupils display remarkable independence in their learning and show considerable maturity in their exemplary behaviour. Parents speak very highly of what the school is doing with their children. They hold the headteacher in very high regard. They are fully supportive of the school’s work. The school has excellent capacity for continued improvements. 5 Inspection Report: Watling Street Primary School, 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006 .

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Watling Street Primary School, 6 March 2006 to 7 March 2006

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Overall

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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learners?

NA 1 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 1 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well do learners achieve? NA 2 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 1 The behaviour of learners NA 1 The attendance of learners NA 1 How well learners enjoy their education NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 2 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 1 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 1 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 1 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 2 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy

Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams NA Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form NA Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Dear Pupils Thank you very much for making us feel so welcome in your school during our recent visit. We enjoyed meeting everyone at Watling Street Primary. It was wonderful to see so many of you going up to collect prizes, cups, certificates and badges for all the excellent things that you had done. I am writing to tell you what we thought of your school. During our visit you told us that you liked coming to school. You said that you were proud of your school. We fully understand what you mean because we think that your school is an excellent school. Here are some of the reasons why it is excellent: • You have made excellent progress since you started school. • Your behaviour around the school is excellent. • All the adults in the school work extremely hard to give you the very best education possible. • The headteacher is excellent at making sure that everything that happens in the school is checked carefully so that things

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

continue to be excellent. • You are superbly well cared for so that you are safe, happy and interested in everything that you do. Watling Street Primary is such an excellent school that we have asked all the adults who work with you to make sure that they keep giving you every chance to do so well. We have also suggested that the school should work on improving cultural provision to make it as outstanding as everything else in the school. Once again, thank you for your really lovely hospitality. We wish you the very best for your continued success. Yours sincerely, Dr F H Mikdadi Lead inspector

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