Warton Archbishop Hutton’s VC Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Warton Archbishop Hutton's VC Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend this school. They appreciate how well staff know them and their families.

This helps pupils to feel happy in school. Staff foster a strong sense of community. For instance, older pupils in Years 5 and 6 act as positive role models to younger pupils, which helps to support their journey through the school.

Pupils understand the high expectations that the school has for their success. They are focused and keen to do well in lessons. Pupils enthusiastically describe what they have learned at this school.

For example, they have ...a secure understanding of why it is important to respect the differences between people. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education.

Pupils' conduct embodies the school's values of respectful behaviour, responsibility and forgiveness.

The wide range of extra-curricular activities on offer support pupils to develop resilience and independence. Year 6 pupils relish taking on responsibilities in roles such as play leaders and team captains, and all pupils play an active role on the school council.

Pupils make a valuable contribution to their local community, for example through fundraising projects, litter picking and designing their local play area.

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

The school has designed a creative and ambitious curriculum which focuses on ensuring that pupils can build and connect knowledge across a broad range of subjects. To enable this to happen, the school has thought carefully about the most appropriate order in which pupils should learn important knowledge. Pupils achieve well.

The school has helpful systems in place to assess pupils' progress and to identify any gaps in their knowledge. Teachers use this information well to secure pupils' understanding across most subjects. However, occasionally, staff do not identify the additional needs of a few pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) as quickly as they should.

This hampers the quality and timeliness of support for these pupils, which impedes how well they access some parts of the curriculum.

The school has prioritised the teaching of reading. This starts at the beginning of the Reception Year where pupils connect their reading with foundational skills in writing.

However, some aspects of the phonics programme are not delivered consistently well. This means that some pupils do not become confident and fluent readers as quickly as they should. Nevertheless, by the end of key stage 1, most pupils read well.

The school has built a love of reading into its curriculum for pupils of all ages. In the Reception Year, pupils enjoy learning about a range of topics, based around high-quality texts. As they move through the school, teachers encourage pupils to read a broad range of fiction and non-fiction books.

Older pupils spoke confidently about how experiencing a wide variety of authors and different types of books has encouraged them to build their vocabulary.

Pupils at this school are confident and articulate. They behave well and treat each other with respect.

The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour and ensures that those who meet them are rewarded for their efforts. Pupils attend school regularly.

The programme of personal development that has been developed is a strength of this school.

For example, the school has committed to a charter of experiences for each pupil. This ensures that pupils benefit from a breadth of encounters that enhance their understanding of citizenship and the natural world. These experiences include exploring outdoors, being a scientist, being active and being creative.

The school provides regular opportunities for pupils of all ages to engage in rich discussions and to develop their communication skills. For example, during the inspection, pupils were involved in a diversity morning where teams, made up of pupils from the Reception Year through to Year 6, worked on a range of challenges to develop their understanding of diversity. The school ensures that pupils have a secure understanding of what it means to live in modern Britain.

The school has developed effective subject leadership. This ensures that pupils receive high-quality and ambitious teaching and that staff are supported to balance their workload and well-being. Staff said that they are part of a strong team.

They enjoy working together to support each other within their community.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, the school does not identify the additional needs of pupils with SEND quickly enough.

This delays staff from providing effective support and slows these pupils' progress through the curriculum. The school should ensure that staff are fully equipped to identify pupils' additional needs in a timely manner. ? The school does not deliver some aspects of the phonics programme effectively.

At times, this hinders a small number of pupils' progress in becoming fluent and confident readers. The school should ensure that staff are supported to deliver the phonics programme consistently well.

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 June 2019.

Also at this postcode