Wanstead Church School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The values of wisdom, compassion and strength are embedded in this small school and pupils thrive in its caring, happy community. They know that they are safe and that there is someone they can speak to if they have any concerns or worries.

Pupils behave impeccably both in and outside of lessons, they show kindness and they care for each other. They are proud to talk about the ways they make the school a better place. For example, they can become lunch monitors and keep the lunch hall clean and tidy, or act as restoration rangers in the playground and help to solve minor conflicts.

Leaders ensure that pupils achieve well, including those with special educational needs... and/or disabilities (SEND). Discrimination of any kind and bullying are rare and are not tolerated. Pupils know that staff will resolve any issues that arise.

The school provides pupils with many enriching experiences, including the opportunity for all pupils to learn to play a musical instrument from Year 3 onwards. There are after-school clubs for activities such as chess, gymnastics and art. Pupils enjoy visits to places like the Globe theatre and residential trips in Year 5 and Year 6.

Leaders are ambitious and innovative in looking for further opportunities to enrich learning.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school's curriculum is in line with the scope of the national curriculum and is structured to build knowledge and skills throughout pupils' journey through the school. However, some parts of the curriculum are more fully realised and embedded than others.

As soon as pupils start in Nursery, they are introduced to games, songs and rhymes. This prepares them well for the introduction of phonics later in the early years. Pupils make good progress in learning to read with accuracy and fluency.

Pupils who struggle to keep up receive suitable extra help. They read books at home and school which are matched to the sounds that they know. A love of reading is nurtured in many different ways, including daily story times and older pupils acting as reading buddies for younger ones.

Children in the early years get off to a positive start in school. Their curriculum is well thought through and delivered effectively. This ensures that children are well prepared for learning in Year 1.

The environment, both indoors and out, is stimulating and adults provide activities which capture the children's interests.

The curriculum is well-considered and ambitious, building pupils' knowledge and skills over time. For example, the school ensures that pupils are well grounded in mathematical facts and methods before they advance to solving problems using their reasoning skills.

In computing, programming is taught through different programming languages, with an emphasis on pupils acquiring subject-specific vocabulary and applying this in their learning. Any misconceptions that arise are swiftly addressed.

Across most subjects, pupils are taught the key knowledge and skills set out in the school's curriculum effectively.

They successfully grasp overarching ideas and concepts and their learning is reinforced, developed and built on. They can recall and retain important ideas and skills. However, occasionally this practice is not embedded and so pupils do not consistently make as much progress through the curriculum as they could.

The school identifies pupils' individual needs well. Pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as other pupils. The school provides the help these pupils need in a variety of ways, including support from additional staff, bespoke learning activities, and following advice from outside agencies.

Carefully crafted and established routines are embedded in the school from Nursery onwards. This ensures that pupils behave well and learning is rarely disrupted by poor behaviour. The school has robust systems in place to ensure that, over time, attendance is improving.

Pupils' wider development is a strength of the school and activities are carefully monitored to ensure that all pupils have a chance to take part. Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs and trips and contribute to the life of the school in different ways. For example, the eco team were proud to talk about their encouragement of efficient energy use and explained that they had helped to set up a whole-school debate about pollution.

In the wider community, the school choir sings in a wide range of venues from the local care home to the Royal Albert Hall. Pupils collect money for charities and Year 6 led a Remembrance Day service at the local church.

Staff know that their workload and well-being are taken into account by leaders.

They appreciate all the training opportunities they are offered, including support and advice from colleagues.

Governors understand their safeguarding duties and hold leaders to account for all aspects of school management. Leaders are determined to continually improve the school.

Parents and carers appreciate the nurturing environment that the school provides.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has made changes to the curriculum, in a few foundation subjects, which are not consistently embedded in classroom practice.

This means that in these subjects, learning is not revisited as often as it is intended. As a result, pupils sometimes struggle to remember important ideas, make links to prior learning or discuss more complex ideas. The school should further develop staff expertise to ensure that all foundation subjects are delivered as intended.