Outwoods Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Outwoods Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and safe at this school. Outwoods Primary School offers them a warm and welcoming environment. Pupils love coming to school and most attend regularly.

Leaders and teachers have high expectations, which pupils meet. When pupils need help, their teachers support them. Consequently, pupils feel at ease and are ready to learn.

Pupils participate in exciting lessons that help them to achieve well. This boosts their confidence when attempting more challenging work. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) follow the same curriculum as their peers....

Pupils in the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (Bluebells) achieve well.

Pupils learn to make decisions and to express their views. They listen to and respect others' viewpoints.

Some pupils are 'gender champions', and they ensure that everyone works and plays together nicely. Bullying is rare. When it happens, pupils are confident that staff will sort it out.

Pupils value their extra-curricular activities, which develop their interests and talents. They attend clubs that develop their passion for nature and living sustainably. Their vivid display work reinforces the school's motto of 'love of learning, learning for life'.

Pupils are delighted to care for the school's pets. Cilla, the school cat, is a firm favourite.

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

Leaders have designed a broad and balanced curriculum.

This is organised logically so that pupils' knowledge builds over time. For each subject, leaders have identified the key knowledge and vocabulary that they want pupils to learn. For example, in art and design, Year 6 pupils talked with confidence about Ryan Alexiev's use of tone in his cereal portraits.

While curriculum planning is developing well, teachers' use of assessment needs attention. For example, in mathematics, children in the early years foundation stage and key stage 1 are sometimes moved on too quickly to new topics without having mastered some key number facts. This results in some pupils in key stage 2 struggling with automatic recall of facts.

This slows their progress.

Children in the early years foundation stage are happy and enjoy learning. Routines are well established from the minute that they join the school.

The magical nursery setting excites children and stimulates learning. Leaders ensure that the school's curriculum starts in the early years where vocabulary for all subjects of the national curriculum is introduced.

However, in the early years foundation stage and key stage 1, teachers do not pay enough attention to ensure that pupils form their letters and numbers correctly.

This prevents pupils from recording their work neatly and, at times, affects the accuracy of their recording.

The culture of reading is strong throughout the school. Staff are well trained to deliver the early reading curriculum.

Pupils who find reading more difficult get the help that they need and keep up with their peers. Teachers read to pupils from a range of books including fiction and non-fiction. Pupils love these sessions.

In Year 3, they did not want the story session to end.

Pupils with SEND are identified without delay. They work in small groups with knowledgeable teaching assistants who support them well to keep up.

Pupils with SEND, both in the main school and in Bluebells, are fully included in all aspects of school.

Pupils enjoy learning. Teachers break down learning into manageable steps so that pupils are very clear about what they need to do.

Classrooms are exciting learning environments where there is no low-level disruption.

Fundamental British values underpin curriculum planning. Pupils learn to care for the world and to respect the beliefs and cultures of others.

Pupils in Year 6 compared the democracy of today with that of the ancient Greeks. This provided an important building block for pupils' understanding of how Parliament works.

Teachers have strong subject knowledge, and they plan pupils' learning collectively.

This means that they know pupils' previous and future learning. They present new learning clearly with a specific focus on making links with other subjects, such as linking art and design with geography when studying coastlines.

Staff are happy to work at the school because leaders and governors ensure that that they are well trained.

Leaders stress the importance of work-life balance and ensure that staff's workload is managed effectively.

Governors know the school well and provide support and challenge for leaders. They work strategically to help leaders to prioritise the actions for school improvement.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have established a strong culture of safeguarding. They encourage vigilance among staff.

They know how to report any concerns swiftly. This helps leaders to take appropriate action quickly to keep pupils safe.Record-keeping is thorough and detailed.

Leaders carry out relevant checks to ensure that adults are suitable to work with children.Leaders understand safeguarding risks in and around school. They work closely with external agencies to keep pupils safe.

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when they are online.Pupils have a trusted adult in school, who they can talk to if they have any worries or concerns.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Younger pupils do not form letters and numbers well.

This can lead to mistakes and limits pupils' speed and accuracy in their work. Leaders should ensure that staff consistently model their high expectations of handwriting and number formation, so that pupils know how to present their work accurately. ? In some subjects, teachers do not assess learning thoroughly enough before they move pupils on to new topics.

This prevents pupils from firmly embedding learning in long-term memory. Leaders should ensure that assessments are in place for checking end-of-unit understanding so that pupils can develop fluency and automaticity in their learning.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in May 2017.

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