St Martin’s East Woodhay Church of England (Aided) Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Martin's East Woodhay Church of England (Aided) Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at St Martin's readily articulate the pride they have in their school. Comments made by pupils, such as 'No matter who you are, you can belong here,' capture the inclusive nature of this school community.

Pupils appreciate the small and friendly environment. They say that 'everyone knows each other'. This is evident at breaktimes as pupils across different age groups come together enthusiastically to organise fun games and activities in the playground.

Parents agree with the views of their children. They also value the nurturing and... caring ethos that their children experience here.

The school values of 'respect, friendship, courage and creativity' are evident in the attitudes of the pupils.

High expectations and well-established routines mean that behaviour is exemplary. In lessons, pupils are eager to engage in purposeful learning. Consequently, pupils are entrusted with a wide range of leadership responsibilities.

They are proud of the jobs they do, such as being school ambassadors, school councillors, house captains or 'stewards of God's earth' leaders. Pupils respect the influence these roles carry. They thoughtfully improve their school, for example by creating posters to remind everyone to conserve water, or by carefully selecting the outdoor play equipment.

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

Everyone shares the same ambition for pupils to become lifelong learners and enjoy their education. The quality of provision in Reception gets children off to a flying start. The curriculum is carefully designed to prepare children to be ready for Year 1.

Staff place great emphasis on knowing every child. Systems for the identification of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) mean there is an accurate understanding of each pupil's needs right from when they start school. Teachers use this information to tailor learning for pupils with SEND.

In lessons, teachers check what pupils have learned and, if necessary, adapt resources so that all pupils learn well. Teachers routinely provide opportunities for pupils to recall and revisit previous learning.

Recently, in the foundation subjects, the most important knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn have been carefully reorganised.

In each subject, what pupils should learn and the order in which it should be taught are clearly set out. However, because this work is still new, in some subjects there is variability in how well this is taught across the classes. This means, sometimes, pupils are not always sure about what they have learned.

For example, in history, pupils could recall some fun facts from activity days; however, they could not accurately remember important historical knowledge. As a result, pupils' ability to connect and deepen their subject knowledge is not yet consistently well supported across all subject areas.

Pupils convey an infectious love of reading.

They read avidly and enjoy discussing their favourite books. They look forward to choosing books from the school library to take home and share with their families. Pupils eagerly anticipate the regular moments in class when they get to 'drop everything and read'.

Over time, they become confident and fluent readers. This is because staff use their training to skilfully check and make sure that all pupils learn their phonics well. The books pupils read help them practise the sounds they learn.

Children in Reception start learning their letters and the sounds they make right from the start. Fun activities help them to consolidate this learning through their play. Careful and regular checks make sure that any pupil who is falling behind is swiftly identified.

Tailored support is in place to ensure all pupils confidently learn to read, including those with SEND.

There is a strong emphasis on developing pupils' independence and confidence to be ready for their future lives. Through the 'WoW' (Walk on Weekdays) initiative, pupils are taught how to walk safely into school from a nearby drop-off point.

Along with a wide range of clubs, there is a hugely popular choir, which is enjoyed by almost half of the pupils in school. Through the curriculum and in collective worship, pupils learn about different religions, celebrations and cultures. Pupils understand that they have an important role to play beyond their school.

Following an initial link made through a harvest celebration, the school council now organises half-termly 'foodbank Fridays' to support the local community.

Decision-making is resolutely focused on providing rich opportunities for the pupils. Leaders and governors are mindful of workload demands, and staff enjoy working at the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There are well-established processes in place to manage the safer recruitment of staff. The safeguarding curriculum, which teaches pupils how to be safe online and in the community, is comprehensive and thoughtful.

Importantly, all staff have been well trained to notice and report any safeguarding concerns. This process is followed consistently. However, some safeguarding records do not always include the detail of leaders' timely and appropriate actions, and therefore important information could be missed.

Leaders recognise this and are taking action to improve it.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Sometimes, some safeguarding records lack sufficient detail about the action taken in response to an incident. This means vital information could be missed.

Leaders need to make sure that all actions are clearly and consistently recorded. ? The school has recently redeveloped the curriculum in the foundation subjects. Currently, not all teachers have had the necessary training to fully deliver this new curriculum.

In addition, the school is not always clear on how well pupils are learning in each subject. The school needs to ensure that appropriate training, support and monitoring are in place to be assured that pupils are learning well across the school's curriculum.

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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in May 2014.