Watchfield Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Watchfield Primary is a good school where each pupil is highly valued. The school provides an inclusive environment where all groups of pupils are welcomed when they join the school.

One pupil says that the school 'makes the children feel like someone special and makes them feel at home.' Staff morale is high and they have a strong commitment for all pupils to do well. The headteacher is very much at the heart of the school's success and the parents recognise this.

An effective senior leadership team ably supports him. Together with the members of the governing body, they are clear where the school needs to improve further particularly as standards have fluctuated since the last inspection. T...hey communicate high expectations for the school community to work towards realistic and challenging targets.

As a result, the school has a good capacity to build on their success and improve further. There are strong partnerships with the Defence Academy as well as other local schools. The school uses these to good effect in providing activities to enrich the curriculum, such as its participation in a junior engineering programme run by the local secondary school, where pupils learn about podcasting and robotics.

The school has good relationships with all groups of parents and carers. They have effective systems in place to ensure the smooth transition of all groups of pupils at the start of each academic year. Parents and carers express their satisfaction with the work of the school and this is reflected in comments, such as: 'We are delighted with Watchfield Primary.

It has gone from strength to strength under the headteacher's leadership.' ..

Pupils really enjoy being at school and are motivated to learn. They behave well and care for each other. One pupil commented, 'I think it is very good that at this school we have children from around the world and everyone respects different religions'.

Pupils say they feel very safe at school and show an impressive understanding about what constitutes an unsafe situation. Adults are providing many opportunities for pupils to develop this understanding though events such as Keeping Safe week. Pupils are proud of their school and are keen to take on extra responsibility such as becoming playground leaders and sunshine friends.

The majority of pupils enter the school each September as well as at other times during the school year. They arrive having reached different stages in their learning and the school has effective systems in place to help pupils settle so they can quickly start to make progress. Attainment in English and mathematics is average and has varied over the last three years.

Some pupils who arrive in year six with very little English do not sit the statutory or school tests if they are working below the level of the tests. This is because : they have only been speaking English for nine months at the time of testing. Progress overall is good and pupils achieve well, with no groups of pupils significantly underachieving.

Pupils in key stage 2 are making less progress in mathematics, as was also the case in 2009. Pupils who speak who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress relative to their starting points. Overseas pupils who have little or no English when they start at school benefit from extensive support provided by specialist staff, who tailor programmes of teaching to enable pupils to quickly acquire the skills of speaking English.

The school has recently developed a more secure assessment system to track pupils' progress on a term by term basis. While this is providing a more consistent approach for identifying those pupils who would benefit from intervention groups, the information is not always used analytically. For example, assessments for mathematics do not always identify the particular element that requires development, such as using and applying number in everyday situations or developing skills for calculation.

Information about the school

Watchfield is an average sized primary school located in the Vale of the White Horse, between Oxford and Swindon. It is situated next to the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. Many of the students at the academy form the school's parent base.

Around 73% of pupils have parents in the military. The mobility of pupils is high with 54% of pupils joining the school in September 2010 and a large majority of these due to leave in July 2011. This high mobility is an annual event.

A significant minority of pupils come from overseas. At the time of inspection, the school population comprised of pupils from 35 different countries. The number of pupils who have English as an additional language is higher than average, with many of the new pupils arriving each September with little or no English.

The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average. Fewer pupils than average are eligible for free school meals. In the last three years, there has been an additional change to the nature of the school population due to a significant number of pupils transferring to the school from other local schools at different points during the year.

Also at this postcode