Warfield Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Warfield Church of England Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Staff are ambitious for pupils to do well.

Pupils respond positively to being encouraged to work hard. They like learning a range of subjects and try their best. Pupils especially enjoy and value reading.

As one pupil commented, 'Books make us learn!'.

There are positive relationships between pupils and staff. Pupils find staff easy to talk to about any worries, which helps them to feel safe.

They relish the friendships they make. This reflects the school's aim for pupils to be 'friends on a learning journey'. They learn to include each other in... games at playtime.

This means that when pupils join the school, they feel warmly welcomed.

Staff have high expectations for how pupils will behave. This helps pupils to develop the right attitudes to be ready to learn.

They say that bullying does occasionally happen but almost all were confident that teachers deal with this well. A few pupils would like staff to deal with bullying behaviour more swiftly.

Pupils talk with enthusiasm about different opportunities.

They like representing the school at sporting events and taking on leadership roles, such as school councillors. Year 6 pupils enjoy a residential at Culmington Manor which involves an exciting night walk.

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

The pandemic and staffing changes have hampered leaders' work on the curriculum across the two sites.

During this period, staff have maintained a focus on pupils' reading and number work. In most subjects, new content was planned before the pandemic, and teachers are delivering it for the first time.

The teaching of early reading is effective.

Staff have received high-quality training. From the start of Nursery, staff place great emphasis on developing children's speaking and listening skills in preparation for learning to read. Children learn to recognise rhymes and songs.

From Reception, staff follow the phonics programme and check children's understanding diligently. They insist that pupils blend words correctly. Struggling readers receive swift support which helps them to keep up.

Pupils love adults sharing books with them. This includes texts that focus on important issues such as different emotions and how to manage them.

Pupils enjoy being challenged in mathematics.

Staff follow the curriculum closely to help pupils build on prior learning. At the start of each lesson, pupils briefly revisit learning from previous weeks and terms. This helps to improve their accuracy and confidence.

Staff precisely model strategies before giving pupils the opportunity to practise independently. Pupils are supported to develop their fluency with number and use this knowledge to solve problems. On occasion, a few teachers do not always check pupils' learning in lessons accurately enough.

Curriculum thinking in some other subjects is at an earlier stage and several leaders are new. In every subject from Nursery onwards, leaders have carefully sequenced the broad content they want pupils to learn. This helps pupils to link new learning to what they have studied before.

In many subjects, the key knowledge and skills are precisely identified. This helps staff to carefully check during lessons that pupils have understood and remembered the essential learning. This is not as well developed in every subject.

Consequently, pupils sometimes struggle to remember the knowledge they have been taught in some subjects.

The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities has increased during the pandemic. Leaders have prioritised giving the special educational needs coordinator more time to support teachers, pupils and parents.

Staff adapt their teaching using amended tasks, different resources and adult support to help pupils to learn the curriculum.

From Nursery onwards, staff skilfully help children to understand the routines. The youngest children are keen to learn and generously share resources.

This continues up the school. Pupils listen carefully to teachers and concentrate well in lessons. This leads to a calm and orderly environment.

Leaders prioritise developing pupils' respect for others. Pupils learn to value other peoples' beliefs, including in religious education lessons. They enjoy visiting the local church to enrich this learning.

They appreciate other pupils' contributions such as during the science day when they worked in teams to complete experiments.

Some opportunities for pupils to develop their own talents and interests have been paused during the pandemic. Leaders and parents are keen for these to be swiftly restarted.

Some parents would also welcome clearer and more timely communication about events.

Governors have a strong understanding of their role and how well pupils are learning in English and mathematics. They have begun strengthening their knowledge about how well pupils learn in other subjects.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff take safeguarding seriously. Staff receive high-quality training so that they know what signs to be alert to.

They know about safeguarding issues in the local area and report any concerns promptly. Safeguarding records are detailed. They show that leaders work well with external agencies to help keep children safe from the risk of harm.

The curriculum helps pupils learn how to spot potential risks and how to keep themselves safe. Children in the early years are helped to manage risk safely in the outside area.

Governors ensure that statutory safeguarding checks are made before new staff begin employment.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Curriculum thinking in some subjects other than mathematics and English is underdeveloped. Staff do not always build on pupils' previous learning. Leaders should ensure that in every subject, they have precisely identified the most important knowledge and skills they intend pupils to learn and remember from Nursery onwards.

Leaders have already taken action to remedy this. For this reason, the transitional arrangements have been applied. ? Not all staff consistently check during lessons that pupils have learned the most important content.

This means that learning time is sometimes wasted. Leaders should ensure that all teachers accurately check pupils' understanding of the key knowledge and skills and use this information to inform their teaching.

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

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in July 2012.