Winterslow Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Winterslow CofE (Aided) Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 23 February 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings.

The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in May 2012. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Since your arrival three years ago, you have developed a strong team around you. They share your commitment to ensure that pupils achieve well and become confident learners. You are ambitious for all and expectations across th...e school are high.

Your vision, 'Explore, Discover, Sparkle', permeates the school. You and your leadership team are determined to ensure that learning experiences are rich, interesting and relevant. As a result, pupils really enjoy their learning and are hungry to learn more about the world around them.

The curriculum is carefully organised. Pupils see links between subjects and understand the purpose to their learning activities. At the previous inspection, an area for improvement was to develop pupils' independent learning and their self-evaluation skills.

You have introduced successful systems to enable pupils to identify the skills needed to be an effective learner. Together we observed learning in classrooms, and we saw pupils working hard at their tasks, enjoying their learning and taking a real pride in their work. They know where to get help when they need it.

Pupils speak proudly of the rewards they receive for their achievements. Pupils choose the level of challenge they wish to tackle in their learning. This challenges pupils well to take some responsibility for their own learning.

A typical comment from pupils is: 'Teachers trust us to work hard and to push ourselves to get better – so we do.' A second area to improve from the previous inspection was to increase the quality of teaching. You have been relentless in achieving this.

Together with your staff, you have reviewed the approaches to the teaching of reading, writing and mathematics. You have ensured that teachers have time to work together to share ideas and to help each other to improve. You have also ensured that teachers and teaching assistants have good-quality professional development linked to the priority improvement areas you are working on.

Your regular detailed discussions with each teacher about each pupil ensure that learning is carefully adapted to meet individual learning needs and that pupils have the support they need to make good progress. Because of these improvements, pupils benefit from good-quality teaching and learning as they move from year to year and nearly all receive work that appropriately matches their abilities. Outcomes across the school are good; in Year 6 in 2016, the numbers of pupils reaching higher levels exceeded national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.

You know that some disadvantaged pupils across the school have previously not made the progress they could. You and your leadership team have developed individual plans that outline better support for these learners. Alongside the drive to ensure that pupils make the best progress they can, you also create a caring, family atmosphere.

Parents and pupils appreciate this. Typical comments include: 'Everyone counts and everyone is valued.' Expectations for behaviour around the school are high and pupils show respect for adults and for one another.

Year 6 pupils provide excellent role models to others across the school. They appreciate the high levels of responsibility given to them through a variety of roles, including being 'buddies' to children in Reception. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the changes you have made and speak very highly of your leadership.

They particularly like how approachable staff are. For example, to start each day, all teachers come outside to greet their classes. Parents appreciate the rich learning experiences and the strong moral ethos of the school.

Parents and pupils speak highly of your work to link Winterslow Primary with a school in Uganda. They say that this helps pupils to develop their values of respect and tolerance. You provide useful information to governors, although there could be more detail provided to them about how particular groups are progressing.

Several new governors are developing their knowledge of the school. Information that provides specific detail about the progress of different groups of pupils in a wide range of subjects would help governors to check how well pupils are doing across the school. Safeguarding is effective.

The culture of safeguarding is strong. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. Staff are well informed of the latest safeguarding guidance, including the 2016 version of 'Keeping children safe in education'.

Leaders ensure that staff receive a wide range of safeguarding training. Leaders also provide regular updates at staff meetings. Those responsible for safeguarding liaise well and where there are concerns, referrals are completed promptly.

The governor who leads on safeguarding regularly provides useful 'spot checks' on safeguarding. She talks to staff and checks their knowledge and understanding of procedures for spotting signs of abuse and reporting concerns. Pupils understand about how to keep themselves safe and they reported that they feel very safe.

For example, leaders ensure that pupils have frequent guidance about keeping safe on the internet. Inspection findings ? To confirm that the school remains good, we discussed some areas to explore further. Our first line of enquiry was to look at the evidence around the quality of teaching, particularly in reading.

• You have provided teachers with clear priorities to improve the quality of teaching further, and reading has been a key area. We observed reading around the school and it was clear to see the very positive attitudes that pupils now have towards their reading. Pupils can talk about authors they enjoy.

Once reading sessions begin, they are engrossed in their books. Pupils look forward to time spent in the library. ? Teachers and teaching assistants provide well-matched activities to improve pupils' reading skills further.

The subject leader has introduced a 'basket of books' for each class, demonstrating to pupils and their parents the sort of books that are appropriate for each year group. As a result, pupils across the school choose from suitable, quality books. ? We looked at whether disadvantaged pupils and those who have special needs and/or disabilities have the extra help they need in order to achieve well and to attend school regularly.

• You have ensured that subject leaders have a detailed knowledge of the progress of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special needs and/or disabilities. Detailed plans are in place for these pupils and leaders check that the targeted interventions in place are making a difference to pupils' progress. These improvements are quite recent and their impact is not yet fully evident.

• You have recognised the improvements needed to improve attendance rates further and your work with a local cluster of schools is making a difference to improve attendance across the school. The majority of parents feel supported and welcomed into school. These positive relations have secured much-improved rates of attendance for some pupils who did not attend school well previously.

• Our final line of enquiry was to look at how well subject leaders are checking the progress of pupils, particularly in phonics in key stage 1. We also looked at whether there are any significant differences in the progress of boys and girls. ? Subject leaders lead their areas of responsibility effectively, you have made sure that they receive the professional development they need.

They know the progress that pupils are making across the school and are quick to make any changes to interventions if needed. ? Leaders check the progress that pupils make in phonics carefully to ensure that all are making the progress that they should. Subject leaders know exactly how well pupils are progressing towards the end-of-year phonics screening checks.

When we observed phonics learning, we saw effective support and challenge for pupils. Good leadership in this area contributes to the strong provision for phonics. As a result, pupils are achieving well.

• We looked at the information you have on how well pupils are making progress through the year to see whether there are any gaps in achievement for boys and girls. We found no significant differences in how well boys and girls achieve. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? improvements to support disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are further embedded and contribute to pupils making at least good progress ? governors have the assessment information they need about the progress of different groups of pupils and that they then use this information effectively to check that pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, make at least good progress.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Salisbury, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Wiltshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Tonwen Empson Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection We observed learning in all classes and we looked at pupils' books.

I had meetings with you and senior leaders. I also met with subject leaders. I scrutinised a number of school documents, including the school improvement plan and your self-evaluation document.

I looked at records related to behaviour and safety, attendance and safeguarding. I met with three governors, including the chair of governors and the governor who leads on safeguarding. I had a telephone conversation with the Wiltshire school improvement adviser who has been supporting the school.

I gathered views from parents at the start of the day and took into account the 68 responses from the Ofsted online survey, Parent View. I met with a group of pupils at lunchtime and talked to pupils as I visited classes. I also considered the views of staff and pupils through an online survey and through discussions during my visit.

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