Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr C Batley Lawefield Primary School Lawefield Lane Wakefield West Yorkshire WF2 8ST

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and achievement: the power of partnership

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and pupils, during my visit on 28 January 2010 to look at your partnerships with higher education.

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and achievement: the power of partnership

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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and achievement: the power of partnership

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: scrutiny of documentation and discussions with parent governors, senior leaders, classroom teachers, the learning mentor, pupils, the local Aimhigher coordinator and a local authority adult education manager.

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Features of effective practice

 The school is forward thinking and works enthusiastically with a range of partners to successfully raise the aspirations, motivation and confidence of pupils and their families. Partnerships are a key factor in your vision and ethos and senior leaders, ably supported by governors, strive continually to enrich the quality of pupils’ learning experiences to raise achievement.  Pupils benefit from a high quality learning environment, a welcoming atmosphere and the excellent relationships that they have with adults. All pupils take advantage of an imaginative, well-taught personal and social curriculum that is enhanced by your partnerships with higher education.  Your partnership with the Aimhigher initiative is particularly effective; pupils and parents speak enthusiastically about the benefits. As a result, expectations of what pupils can achieve are rising and this is helping to accelerate their rate of progress and boost achievement, especially in

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Features of effective practice

literacy and numeracy.  Parents appreciate the range of learning opportunities provided to improve their skills, extend their understanding of how schools operate and how their children are taught so that they are able to support their learning more effectively. Particularly successful are the courses run in the on-site Ashiana Centre for bilingual women.  Pupils benefit from the close partnership with the nearby Wakefield College. Here pupils learn to swim at an earlier age than is usual and learn about the environment through working with college students. Visits to York University are also used to develop Year 6 pupils’ understanding of the opportunities offered by higher education.  Your international links with Shenyang University give pupils the chance to develop their global awareness and find out about life in China, especially when Chinese teachers visit and join in classroom activities.  Senior leaders are self-critical and consider the impact of partnerships on

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Features of effective practice

the learning outcomes for pupils but approaches to this work could be sharpened to increase the rigour of evaluation.

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Area for development, which we discussed include:

 having a more systematic approach to evaluating the impact of partnerships with higher education.

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Area for development, which we discussed include:

I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop partnerships in support of school improvement.

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Area for development, which we discussed include:

As I explained previously, a copy of this letter will be sent to your local authority and will be published on the Ofsted website. It will also be available to the team for your next institutional inspection.

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