Westgate Community Primary School and Nursery

Westgate Community Primary School Inspection report

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124552 Unique Reference Number SUFFOLK LA Local Authority 314961 Inspection number 15 °16 October 2007 Inspection dates David Matthews Reporting inspector

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

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First Type of school Community School category 3 °9 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 249 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Michael Pursell Chair Mr Howard Lee Headteacher 13 June 2005 Date of previous school inspection Brooklands Close School address Hospital Road Bury St. Edmunds Suffolk IP33 3JX 01284 755988 Telephone number 01284 704857 Fax number

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3-9 Age group 15 °16 October 2007 Inspection dates 314961 Inspection number .

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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 three Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

Westgate Community Primary School is a larger than average primary school where pupils leave at the end of Year 4. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities is broadly average, although an above average number of pupils have a statement of special educational need. A small number of pupils have a wide range of hearing impairments and communicate by signing. They are served by the school's specialist unit and included in lessons in the main school. The majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds. Of the few pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds 5 are at the early stages of learning English. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is broadly average. The school has achieved nationally recognised awards including an Activemark and FA Chartermark.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007

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Grade: 2

This is a good school. Pupils feel safe and thoroughly enjoy learning because of good quality teaching and outstanding care, guidance and support. The school provides good value for money. The headteacher's excellent leadership engenders strong and effective staff teamwork and good support from governors who carry out their responsibilities conscientiously. Parents are highly complimentary about the school and extremely appreciative of the efforts of the headteacher and staff in caring for and supporting their children. Excellent links with outside agencies make a significant contribution to pupils' health, safety and well-being. The collective commitment to raising standards and effective actions taken by the school to improve, demonstrate its good capacity for further improvement. From below expected standards on entry to the Nursery, children make good progress and achieve well to reach above expected levels of attainment by the end of Year 4. Highly skilled

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Grade: 2

staff provide outstanding provision for deaf pupils by meeting their individual needs exceptionally well, and fully including them into the normal life of the school. Pupils who are learning English and those with learning difficulties or disabilities are supported well so that they are enabled to make similar progress to other pupils. Teaching is good. However, teachers do not consistently ensure that the work set for pupils accurately matches their levels of attainment. The good curriculum contributes well to the engagement of pupils and to their good progress. Curriculum enrichment is excellent. Provision in the Foundation Stage is good. Subject leadership is good. Leaders have a positive impact on their subjects through monitoring pupils' work, developing the curriculum and setting clear direction for their subjects. Their influence has yet to extend, however, to improving the quality of teaching, for example by

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Grade: 2

sharing the good and outstanding practice and through the observation of lessons. The school's evaluation of its work is unduly modest since inspectors judge two aspects to be outstanding rather than good. Pupils have a strong awareness of healthy lifestyles and they make an outstanding contribution to the school community, particularly through their excellent responsible and considerate behaviour. The school has worked tirelessly and successfully to address the issues from the last inspection. Teachers constantly indicate to pupils how they can improve and the tracking of their progress is much more rigorous than it was. The school has information that is useful for teachers to monitor individual pupils' progress. At a whole-school level the school analyses the progress of different groups, but the systems for doing so are laborious and slow the school's ability to take swift action to make progress even better.

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Grade: 2

The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage is good. Children make good progress across the areas of their learning, soon becoming confident and enthusiastic learners. Good progress since the last inspection means that the children have access to better outdoor provision, including climbing apparatus and a covered area. Teaching is good and usually matches the needs of the children well. The effective links with parents support children's' personal development and learning well. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Extend the role of subject coordinators to ensure that all teaching accurately matches work to pupils' levels of attainment, through lesson observations and example lessons. ■ Ensure that information about pupils' progress is in a form that can be quickly and easily accessed to inform decisions about how pupils' achievements can be improved further.

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Grade: 2

Pupils' achievement is good. On entry to the Nursery children's standards are below those expected for their age. They make good progress and most children achieve the expected goals by the end of their Reception year. Pupils of all abilities continue to make good progress and reach above average standards by Year 2. Standards in Year 4 are above those expected of pupils of their age and well above in reading. In 2007 there were good numbers of pupils reaching the higher levels of attainment, particularly in reading, where a large number reached the higher Level 4. The school sets challenging targets and supports pupils well to enable these targets to be achieved. Pupils learning English and those with learning difficulties or disabilities achieve as well as other pupils because of the effective support that they receive. Deaf pupils make outstanding progress because of the high quality specialist support provided.

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Grade: 1

In the school's safe and secure environment pupils make outstanding progress in their personal development. They thoroughly enjoy school and attendance is good. Pupils' behaviour is excellent and they are keen to do well, relating outstandingly well to adults. They demonstrate excellent understanding of safe and healthy lifestyles, participating enthusiastically in physical education and sport. School councillors exercise significant influence on the life and work of the school. Currently they are planning a Christmas Fayre. Pupils are remarkably considerate towards each other, particularly as playground buddies and as reading or information and communication technology partners when supporting younger pupils. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Good achievement in basic skills prepares pupils well for the next stage of their education. Through fund-raising for charities and in projects to raise

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Grade: 1

money for the school, pupils show good economic awareness and concern for the well-being of others in the community.

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Grade: 2

Teachers enhance pupils' enjoyment through a wide variety of activities, making learning interesting and fun. Highly effective relationships between adults and pupils, especially those with impaired hearing, contribute significantly to learners' very positive attitudes to learning. Teachers assess pupils' skills regularly and support them well towards gaining their targets. Teachers' planning is mostly good, especially when activities are matched well to pupils' current knowledge, understanding and skills. Just occasionally teachers do not match activities to pupils' ability as accurately as possible, in which case work is too easy or too hard for some learners. Most teachers and teaching assistants use good questioning techniques so that pupils 5 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007 are well challenged to think deeply. Marking is mostly good. Teachers' written and verbal

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Grade: 2

comments help pupils to understand what they have done well and what they need to do to make their work better.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum provides a good range of learning experiences that are matched well to pupils' needs and interests so that they make good progress. The practical nature of the curriculum for deaf pupils thoroughly engages them. There is strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy skills throughout the school. Opportunities to develop writing skills and the use of ICT in a range of subjects contribute significantly to learning. The school's constant efforts to develop the curriculum include additional science investigations that have led to higher standards. Pupils have a good understanding of their own culture but less knowledge of different cultures in modern Britain. New schemes of work have recently been put into place to extend this knowledge. There is an outstanding range of special events, visits, visitors and other activities as well as the introduction of French for pupils in Years 3 and 4 to enrich the curriculum.

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Grade: 1

The care and support of pupils is outstanding. Pupils feel secure, knowing that there is always an adult they can turn to if they need help. High quality support from skilled adults and frequent detailed exchanges of information between parents and staff means that the individual needs of pupils, including deaf pupils are well catered for. One parent wrote, 'We feel very blessed to have a great school with a fantastic hearing impaired unit so close to our home.' Provision for those with learning difficulties or disabilities is effective because staff identify their needs early and provide timely support. Academic guidance is good and pupils understand what they need to do to improve their work. Procedures for safeguarding pupils meet current requirements, there are robust child protection procedures and thorough risk assessments that are monitored by senior staff.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The headteacher's leadership is outstanding. In a strongly effective partnership with the deputy headteacher, he sets a very clear sense of direction for the school, ensuring strong teamwork amongst staff and a whole-school commitment to providing the best possible education and care for the pupils. He has won the respect and admiration of pupils and parents who describe the school in glowing terms. Staff successfully ensure that Westgate is an inclusive school, so that pupils of all abilities are included fully in its work. Staff are well deployed to ensure pupils' individual needs are met, particularly in the unit for deaf pupils where leadership is exemplary. Subject coordinators make a good contribution to their subjects' development by monitoring pupils' work, improving the curriculum and providing clear direction. However they could do more to ensure that the strengths in the

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Grade: 2

best lessons are more widespread and occasional weaknesses addressed. Governors carry out their responsibilities well and support the school in setting challenging targets for improvement. The school evaluates its work carefully and systematically, including 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007 that of the specialist unit. It is accurate, if unduly modest, in some of its judgements. Its very detailed analysis of its work leads it to focus on the most suitable areas for improvement. The headteacher looks beyond the school for the most appropriate support and advice for improving aspects of its work. Extensive work since the last inspection has improved the tracking of pupils' progress and the school has done well to use its own initiative in devising methods for this. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007 .

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Grade: 2

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007

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Inspection judgements

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

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Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

2 How well do learners achieve? 2 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

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

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and interests of learners?

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

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 9 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 10 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

17 October 2007 Dear Children Inspection of Westgate Community Primary School, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3JX. Thank you for welcoming the inspectors into your school. We enjoyed our visit and you helped us a great deal in finding out about the school. Westgate Primary is a good school because all the adults take extremely good care of you and help you to do well in your work. Because of this, your parents are delighted with the school. You told us that you are happy, feel safe and get on extremely well with each other and with the adults who help you. You thoroughly enjoy all the many extra activities that make your learning exciting. You do well in your work because teachers give you lots of help and encouragement and they guide you well towards your targets. The adults in the school give plenty of support to those of you who need it, including those who do not hear well and those who are learning English.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Because of the excellent way the school helps you with the way you are growing up you are extremely sensible and responsible for your age. Your behaviour is excellent because you know how to get on with others in school and you want to be kind and considerate. You have a really good understanding about how to be healthy and how to stay safe. Your headteacher does a superb job in helping to make a school where all the adults work hard to help you make the good progress that you do. Your teachers and the other adults also do a good job and we have suggested ways to make their teaching even better. There is plenty of information about how well you are each doing that helps the teachers to plan your work. This information could be organised in a more useful way so that the adults can look at it quickly, for example to compare how different groups of are doing. The adults agree and plan to make improvements. Teachers almost always set work that is just right for you and not too easy or

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

too hard. We have asked them to try to make sure that this happens in all lessons. With very best wishes for the future. D Matthews Lead inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Westgate Community Primary School, 15 °16 October 2007

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