Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School

Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School Inspection report

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110789 Unique Reference Number Cambridgeshire Local Authority 325221 Inspection number 17 June 2009 Inspection date Roderick Passant Reporting inspector

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The registered childcare, managed by the governing body, was inspected under section 49 of the Childcare Act 2006.

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Primary Type of school Voluntary controlled School category 5–11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 100 School (total) 0 Government funded early education provision for children aged 3 to the end of the EYFS 0 Childcare provision for children aged 0 to 3 years The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Sally Ramus Chair Miss Naomi Chapman Headteacher 28 March 2006 Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Date of previous funded early education inspection Not previously inspected Date of previous childcare inspection Church Street School address Great Wilbraham Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB21 5JQ

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5–11 Age group 17 June 2009 Inspection date 325221 Inspection number 01223 880408 Telephone number 01223 882402 Fax number

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5–11 Age group 17 June 2009 Inspection date 325221 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. 3 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by two additional inspectors. The inspectors evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school and investigated the following issues:

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Introduction

■ current standards and progress and the impact of the school's strategies to maximise progress.

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Introduction

■ the impact of the school's work on improving writing and pupils' cultural development.

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Introduction

Evidence was drawn from the school's self-evaluation, lesson observations, school documentation, discussions with the headteacher and members of staff, five members of the governing body including the chair of governors, school pupils and the analysis of parents' questionnaires. Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in detail, but the inspectors found no evidence to suggest that the school's own assessments, as given its self-evaluation, were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.

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Description of the school

The school is smaller than average and serves three villages on the outskirts of Cambridge. The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is low. The majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is above average, with a high percentage of pupils having statements detailing their specific educational needs. The characteristics of year groups show significant variation in the mix of size, gender and proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities Attainment on entry to the Reception class in the Early Years Foundation Stage varies from year to year but is broadly typical for four-year-olds. The school has an Investor in People award and has gained a number of curriculum awards including recognition of its work as a Healthy School and as an Eco School for its work in environmental sustainability. The headteacher has been in post for approximately

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Description of the school

one year. An independently run pre-school, an after-school and holiday clubs operate on the school premises.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009

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Grade: 2

This is a good school. Pupils' outstanding personal development and good achievement are the result of good provision, which also has some excellent features. The headteacher leads the school well. She has carefully built on the existing strengths of the school and developed a collegiate approach to leadership and management across all staff, raising their expectations even higher in the process. Leadership and management are good. Evaluation of the school's strengths and aspects for further development is good and judgements on current effectiveness are accurate. Staff are committed to improving the school further and have the necessary expertise to carry this out. Together, they have refined and improved aspects of the school's work since the last inspection. For example, the quality of pupils' writing has improved because of the leadership's focus on this aspect. The school is popular and often oversubscribed and

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Grade: 2

most parents strongly agreed or agreed with all the statements in the inspection questionnaire. All staff know the children well and there is excellent pastoral care with good links to specialist agencies to support individual pupils. The school is highly inclusive. The good tracking system has been further refined and used effectively to identify and support pupils whose progress is in danger of slipping. All staff make effective use of assessment data to ensure that pupils make good progress across the school. Child protection and safeguarding are robust. Pupils report no bullying and older pupils keep a close eye out for younger children reflected in the good-humoured, if somewhat chaotic, playtime football game involving boys and girls from all year groups. The school is calm, warm and friendly and pupils feel very safe as a result. Its atmosphere, an amalgam of mutual respect, positive ethos and work ethic, is an important

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Grade: 2

feature in pupils' development. The curriculum is good. It provides a broad range of learning opportunities and is enriched by trips and visitors. Staff are now linking subjects together in a meaningful way, providing a range of contexts to develop basic skills. There is a strong thread of personal, social and health education that contributes significantly to pupils' personal development. Pupils who find learning difficult, including those with statements, are given good support and as a result make good progress. Teaching and learning are good, and sometimes excellent, and in these excellent lessons, pupils engage with their learning at a particularly high level. Older pupils, for example, had clearly developed an excellent understanding of the characters of the lovers in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', displaying empathy in their writing. Classroom management is proficient, teaching assistants effective, staff teamwork strong and work planned well to target

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Grade: 2

specific groups of pupils. Teaching is skilled and enthusiastic, underpinned by the positive relationship that adults have with pupils. It fosters their independent learning skills well. Because pupils like their teachers, seeing them as kind and helpful, and because they say 'most lessons are interesting', they enjoy their learning a great deal, as reflected in their excellent attendance. Pupils know their targets and the school is developing the liaison with parents of older pupils to ensure that they too are involved in the target setting process. There is good discussion with pupils about how to improve their work and written comments are supportive but not always diagnostic. Overall, the school makes good use of assessment to promote learning. It is being further enhanced by the fact that it is beginning to use specialist new assessment material to monitor pupils' progress in writing. This is helping to identify gaps in learning, refine teachers'

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Grade: 2

good planning and sharpen the targets that they set for pupils. This process is not yet embedded and used in other subjects. The school does not build fully on pupils' excellent attitudes to 5 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009 learning by ensuring that they are clear about what they have achieved and what they need to do to improve their work so that they challenge themselves to do even better. Generally, pupils achieve well over their time in school and standards are above average and, until they dipped in 2008, showed a rising trend. Currently they are back on track and, although the 2009 national test results are not yet published, the indications are that Year 6 will meet the school's challenging targets. The quality of pupils' writing has improved because of the work done in school and the links with visiting authors, poets and storytellers. This improvement

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Grade: 2

is reflected in the increased number of pupils reaching higher levels in English. Pupils are currently making good year-on-year progress across the school. The school has a significant proportion of pupils capable of high attainment. One of the clear benefits derived from refining the monitoring of progress is that staff are even more aware of pupils' potential and now challenge these pupils to attain high levels. Older pupils are confident and articulate and lessons across the school provide good opportunities for pupils to share and rehearse ideas. Behaviour is excellent because high expectations are reinforced in a calm, consistent and positive manner by all staff. There are pupils who find it initially difficult to manage their own behaviour but they learn to do so over time. Pupils have an excellent understanding of what contributes to a healthy lifestyle and how to keep themselves safe. They take their many responsibilities

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Grade: 2

around the school very seriously and the school council is very effective. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent. The school fosters pupils' self-esteem extremely well because adults listen to and value them as individuals. They provide good opportunities for them to reflect on their own lives and how other people live. There are strong links with the local church community. The school has a strong moral and spiritual framework and pupils develop mature social and cultural awareness, such as their excellent attitudes towards disability and green issues. Cultural development is good. The arts play a strong part within the curriculum. Pupils are introduced to art forms from other cultures, are taught about other faiths and the school has some international links. The work on modern foreign languages adds significantly to pupils' awareness of European cultures. The school is in the process of formulating its strategy

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Grade: 2

for promoting community cohesion and broadening pupils' experience of the diverse society in which we live. Governance is good, providing clear strategic influence with governors acting as 'critical friends'. The chair of governors is very experienced and the governors are well on in the process of ensuring that their procedures meet the criteria for gaining the award for financial management of schools. Governors recently carried out a detailed self-evaluation and are using this information to sharpen their practice; for example, by linking specific governors to monitoring aspects of the school development plan. The governing body consults and reports regularly to parents. The school provides good value for money.

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Grade: 2

Children make good progress and achieve well in relation to their starting points. In the last academic year they entered Reception with good skills is the areas of personal development. They could articulate their ideas and had good mathematical skills. These children made good progress and entered Year 1 with skills and knowledge slightly above average particularly in communication, language and literacy, mathematical calculation and knowledge and understanding of the world. The current Reception class have good, and sometimes outstanding, skills in personal, social and emotional development. Teaching is good and assessment procedures are thorough. They help teachers plan the next steps in learning effectively so that children 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009 are engaged and challenged in line with their abilities. There is a good balance of adult-led activities and those that children choose for themselves. The school is aware that the limitations

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Grade: 2

of space in the classroom do not allow for a very wide variety of choice at any one time. Children love inventing tasks for themselves. For example, a 'Bob the Builder' activity was provided, based on making plans and building with blocks. The children independently extended this into role play where health and safety requirements were discussed in the group. Children demonstrate that they can sustain interest in tasks for quite long periods. Adults have a high commitment to children's welfare. Behaviour is well managed and relationships are extremely good. The safe environment helps children thrive. Induction procedures are exceptionally good. Parents appreciate the home visits and children settle quickly into school as a result. Parents are well informed of children's progress. The Early Years Foundation Stage leader works with other staff effectively. She understands the strength of the setting and what is needed to improve provision. For example, the work done on linking

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Grade: 2

letters and sounds has vastly improved children's spelling in their writing.

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What the school should do to improve further

In order to raise standards and the quality of learning even further

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What the school should do to improve further

■ embed the use of specialist assessment materials.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ enable pupils to challenge themselves to do even better by ensuring that they know what they have achieved and what they need to do to improve their work. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009 .

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What the school should do to improve further

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009

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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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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 capacity to make any necessary improvements

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EYFS?

2 How well do children in the EYFS achieve? How good are the overall personal development and well-being of the children in the EYFS? 2 How effectively are children in the EYFS helped to learn and develop? 2 How effectively is the welfare of children in the EYFS promoted? 2 How effectively is provision in the EYFS led and managed?

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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/or disabilities make progress

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Achievement and standards

1 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: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009

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learners?

1 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 The extent to which learners enjoy their education 1 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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learners' needs?

How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners? 2 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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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 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated 3 How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? 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: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

18 June 2009 Dear Pupils Inspection of Great Wilbraham C of E Primary School, Great Wilbraham, CB21 5JQ Thank you for making my colleague and me so welcome in your school. We both enjoyed the day we spent with you very much. My particular thanks go to those pupils who gave up so much of their lunchtime to talk to us. What you had to say was extremely thoughtful and helpful. This is a good school. It is helping you develop as young people extremely well. It is also helping you make good progress in your work and reach standards above those generally seen. The school is very friendly and older pupils look after younger children. Most of you behave extremely well and you concentrate and settle to work very quickly in lessons. I agree with you that 'most lessons are interesting' - indeed the ones I saw were all extremely interesting. You clearly enjoy school a very great deal which stems from the fact that you think teachers are kind and helpful.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

They are also skilled and all adults keep a close eye on the progress you are making. It was good to hear that you feel very safe and that you are confident to approach an adult if troubled. It was also good to hear that you are very confident that the headteacher would sort out any problems. You clearly understand what contributes to a healthy lifestyle and how to look after yourselves. You all take your responsibilities extremely seriously and I know my colleague was very impressed when she met members of the school and eco councils. The school is preparing you well for the next steps in your education. Miss Chapman is leading the school well and there is strong teamwork amongst the staff. The teachers are beginning to use specialist assessments to find out what you understand and what they need to go over again. Because this process has been so helpful, I have asked Miss Chapman to extend its use. The other thing I have asked Miss Chapman to do is to work with

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

teachers so that you know what it is you have to do in order to improve your work so that you can challenge yourselves to achieve your 'personal best.' The staff are very committed and care a very great deal about you and are keen to make the school even better. With your continued help, I am sure it will go from strength to strength. With sincere good wishes for your future school careers. Roderick Passant Lead inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Great Wilbraham CofE Primary School, 17 June 2009

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