Catherine Wayte Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Catherine Wayte Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 9 January 2019, 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 March 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your, and your senior team's, strong leadership provide a clear direction for the school.

Leaders' honest evaluation of the school ensures that you build upon the identified strengths of the school and take appropriate action where fu...rther improvement is required. You lead with integrity and are proactive in ensuring that your staff benefit from bespoke professional development. You implement robust leadership systems to check pupils' progress and attainment.

You have established a culture of high expectations and honesty. Collaboration and teamwork are central to all that you do. For example, the school's close work with other schools has helped to share and spread good practice within and beyond the school.

Teaching in the school motivates pupils. Consequently, they have a strong appetite for learning. Pupils enjoy coming to school, as can be seen in pupils' high attendance, in excess of the national average.

They show respect for one another and learn and play well together. They find you and your staff to be motivating and kind. Pupils value the wide range of activities the school provides and thrive on the responsibilities they are given.

Pupils found difficulty in recollecting any incidents of bullying and were confident that adults would deal effectively with any that did occur. Parents are also overwhelmingly positive about the school's work. Their comments were typified by repeated reference to the school's supportive, inclusive ethos.

Leaders have made good progress towards tackling the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. You were asked to improve the quality of teaching and pupils' achievement by ensuring that teachers consistently adapt their teaching based on their assessment of how pupils are learning. You have refined the school's processes for assessing pupils' progress and now make close checks to ensure that teachers match work to pupils' abilities.

Your clear guidance to teachers has proved effective. Pupils leave Catherine Wayte well prepared for secondary school. In 2018, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected and higher standards were both above the national average.

Work in books across the school reflects a similar picture. You were also asked at the previous inspection to ensure that activities which children choose for themselves in the early years have a clear focus on extending children's learning. Governors have invested heavily in the early years to ensure that both the indoor and outdoor learning environments are fit for purpose.

Resources are well organised, and teachers make good use of children's interests to ensure that children are motivated and sustain their interest in independent activities. However, despite their starting points, fewer children than the national average exceed their early learning goals compared to others nationally. We agreed that this would form one of the lines of enquiry on this inspection.

Safeguarding is effective. Safeguarding and child protection training for all staff is comprehensive. Staff speak assuredly about the actions they would take if they had concerns about a pupil's welfare.

Procedures to recruit new staff are rigorous. You, staff and governors are vigilant in ensuring that pupils are safe in school. Your broad-ranging curriculum helps pupils to be well prepared to manage the risks they may face in their lives.

In addition, close work with external agencies supports pupils and their families in receiving the support they need. Inspection findings ? Firstly, we explored the effectiveness of support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). In the past, there have been a few children identified as receiving 'SEN support' that have not reached the standards expected for their age.

• Pupils experience a strong nurturing approach from staff. The school provides high-quality support and works closely with external agencies to ensure that pupils who experience emotional trauma receive the support they need. In addition, you invest in staff training to ensure that staff are alert to pupils' emotional needs.

Staff provide a nurturing environment. As a result, these pupils do exceptionally well because of the strong support they receive. ? The school's leader for special educational needs (SENCo) has a very good knowledge of the needs of the pupils and their families.

She is proactive in accessing support from a range of different agencies and helps teachers to follow the advice successfully. She supports teachers and teaching assistants well in making sure that work provided in class helps pupils to make good progress. In addition, the school offers a range of extra support to help pupils to catch up.

The early-help support procedures that leaders put in place are particularly noteworthy as a strong aspect of the school's effectiveness. ? You and the SENCo recognised that, in the past, some of the interventions planned were not as successful as others in helping pupils to overcome barriers to their learning. Since September, the SENCo has implemented more thorough checks on how well pupils are doing in interventions.

Where pupils do not make strong progress, teachers take quick action to refine the support provide. New systems ensure that leaders can check how pupils do before and after they receive the intervention. The impact of this is already clearly evident in pupils' reading and spelling.

• In the early years, children are eager and attentive and sustain their concentration on activities well. They interact well with each other and with staff. However, few children from year to year exceed a good level of development in the early years.

Given that most children join the school with skills at least typical for the age, you recognise that children could make better progress by the end of the early years. ? Finally, we agreed to examine what the school has done to increase the progress of average-ability pupils in writing. Previously the progress of this group of pupils had been in the bottom 20% of schools nationally.

Leaders identified that it was often pupils' skills in grammar, punctuation and spelling which held pupils back. Staff training has raised both teachers' expectations and their skills in supporting pupils to write accurately. In addition, your team has revised the planned curriculum.

Pupils now write often and for a purpose. This has helped to inspire pupils to take greater interest and pride in their writing. Work in books reflects that pupils use and apply their knowledge of literacy to write well and engage the reader's interest.

Pupils now make good progress in writing and are increasingly reaching the higher standards in writing. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the early years provision is strengthened so that more children receive the challenge they need to make stronger progress. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Swindon.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Tracy Hannon Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, you joined me observing learning in classes, and, in the early years. We looked at the work of many pupils.

Members of your senior leadership team also joined me on a learning walk to classes in key stage 2. Meetings were held with you and your senior leaders, including the leader responsible for pupils with SEND. I met with two members of the local governing body and spoke with another by telephone.

I scrutinised a wide range of documentation, including the school's own analysis of strengths and weaknesses, assessment information, staff recruitment checks and records related to pupils' SEND. I considered the views of 45 parents who responded to Parent View and 32 members of staff who completed Ofsted's staff questionnaire. I also spoke with parents before the start of the school day and met with a group of seven pupils from key stage 2.

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