Wood’s Foundation CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say they feel safe in school. They like their teachers.

The say that the other pupils are kind and that everyone gets on well. Pupils rarely have any concerns about bullying. If they are worried, they know there will always be an adult in school who will help them to sort their problems out.

Pupils are excited about the trips, visitors and clubs that are now on offer. Pupils say that recently learning has become much more fun. Pupils enjoy regular forest school sessions.

Pupils love dressing up for World Book Day and seeing their teachers dressed up too.

While pupils get on well together, their learning behaviour varies across the school. Lead...ers have not developed a consistent approach to managing poor behaviour or rewarding good behaviour.

Some staff do not address low-level disruption and learning time is lost.

Parents and pupils welcome the actions the interim headteacher has taken to improve the school. Staff also agree.

They feel supported to try new things that will improve pupils' education. Staff morale has improved considerably. However, parents and staff continue to be anxious about the future of the school after a lengthy period of uncertainty.

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

Leaders' actions mean that the school is now going in the right direction. Pupils' education is improving. The governing body has appointed an interim headteacher who has identified the many issues that need to be addressed to improve the school.

Many governors, including the chair of governors, are new to their roles at the school. They have the skills needed to hold leaders to account for the progress the school makes. However, staff and parents say they do not know who the governors are.

The school's current curriculum is not resulting in pupils receiving a good quality of education. Leaders recognise that developing a curriculum that is exciting for pupils, and that will help them to remember prior learning, needs to be prioritised. In a large number of subjects, existing plans do not lay out exactly what pupils need to learn in each year group, starting in the early years.

Teachers are still getting to grips with fulfilling their roles as curriculum leaders. This means that they are not monitoring their subject, or supporting their colleagues, as well as they should. One result of this is that teachers' subject knowledge is not consistently strong.

Curriculum leaders are keen to improve their work. They say they are now being given time and support to do their job well.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have plans in place which identify how they are supported to access the curriculum.

The support they receive is appropriate. However, a significant number of parents of pupils with SEND do not feel that the school communicates well with them about how their child's needs are being met.

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils to read well.

Pupils are provided with opportunities to read high-quality literature. Reading is promoted through the English curriculum and activities in school. For example, parents were invited into school on World Book Day to read with their children.

Everyone agrees that this was great fun and that the school was 'buzzing'.

Right from the start of the Reception Year, pupils are taught phonics. Teachers follow a clearly structured programme.

This programme sets out exactly which sounds pupils should learn, and when. It is suitably ambitious. Teachers check that pupils remember new sounds.

Pupils who need more help to remember new sounds are supported well. Pupils are given reading books that match the sounds they are learning. As a result, many pupils are learning to read well.

However, some staff knowledge is not strong. Pupils are not always taught accurately. This results in pupils making mistakes which are not corrected by teachers.

A curriculum is in place for personal, social and health education. Pupils learn about healthy relationships and lifestyles, valuing differences and how to manage their feelings. Pupils experience a range of activities to promote their personal development.

For example, clubs have resumed, older pupils go on residential trips and pupils raise money for charities. Despite all these positive experiences, leaders have not strategically planned how the school's provision for personal development will meet the needs of the pupils in this school. The school's vision and values are not matched to the characteristics that leaders would like pupils to develop.

This means that pupils are not as well prepared for life in modern Britain as they could be.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The interim headteacher has prioritised improving the school's arrangements for safeguarding.

Staff have received training. They know how to spot pupils who may be at risk of harm. Leaders have introduced robust systems to record concerns.

Staff pass their concerns on promptly. These are followed up by safeguarding leaders without delay. Vulnerable families and pupils receive help from external services.

Pupils are taught about how to keep themselves safe. They know that they should never give out personal information while using the internet. They say that there are adults in school they would talk to if they were worried or upset.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• While many parents express confidence in the leadership of the interim headteacher, a significant number of parents continue to raise concerns about the school, in particular parents of pupils with SEND. Parents and staff do not feel that they are given up-to-date information. They do not know who governors are.

Leaders and governors must ensure that staff and parents are reassured that the school is taking effective steps to address the concerns they raise in a timely manner. ? Curriculum plans are in place for all subjects. However, these plans do not precisely identify the key knowledge that pupils need to learn.

They do not include what pupils in the early years will learn. This means that teachers are not clear about precisely what needs to be taught to pupils, and when. Leaders should review existing plans to ensure that they provide sufficient detail.

This will enable teachers to be clear about what they need to teach and how this builds on what pupils have learned previously, as well as how it will prepare pupils for the next stage of their education. ? Pupils' learning behaviour is not always strong. Some pupils are not clear about how their teachers expect them to behave.

There is no consistent approach to the rewards and sanctions that pupils receive. This means that expectations of behaviour vary across the school. In some classes low-level disruption is not challenged and pupils are distracted from their learning.

Leaders must raise expectations of some pupils' attitudes to learning and ensure that a behaviour system is consistently applied across the school. ? Curriculum leadership varies across the school. Not all subject leaders have the confidence and skills to lead their subject effectively.

Staff subject knowledge is not consistently strong in all subjects. Leaders must provide staff with the support they need to provide strong subject leadership. This will enable subject leaders to support their colleagues to teach each subject well.

• Leaders have not clearly matched the characteristics and values they want pupils to develop to the content of the curriculum. As a result, pupils do not have a well-developed understanding of fundamental British values. Leaders must ensure that a strategic plan is developed to ensure that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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