Wateringbury Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this calm and orderly school. They feel safe and quickly develop respectful relationships with staff and with other pupils because staff make expectations about behaviour very clear. In lessons, pupils show positive attitudes to their learning and are proud of their work.

The school's values weave through every aspect of school life and are important to pupils. Pupils are proud to show tolerance and respect for others. They strive to make sure that everyone is included in activities.

They enjoy learning about different cultures and places. They talk with enthusiasm about the books they have read and discussed that have helped them to develop thi...s knowledge.

Bullying is rare in the school, and pupils say that they would speak to adults in the school if it happened.

They trust adults to listen to them and to take their concerns seriously.

Though pupils enjoy lessons, not all are learning as well as they could. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), can struggle because they are sometimes given work that does not match what they can do and what they need to learn next.

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

Leaders are ambitious for pupils and have recently developed a new curriculum to make sure that pupils learn important knowledge and skills to prepare them well for life. In some subjects, this curriculum is still at an early stage of development. In these subjects, teachers are not clear about what knowledge pupils need to learn.

Additionally, teachers do not check well enough what pupils can do and what knowledge they remember. This hinders pupils' learning because it means that activities are not closely matched to what they need to learn next.

Leaders are keen for pupils with SEND to follow the same curriculum as their peers.

Teachers mostly reshape activities to support pupils to access this learning. However, pupils do not routinely get the precise support they need in all lessons. This means that, sometimes, they cannot achieve what their teachers intend for them.

Children experience a positive start to their school life in early years. This is because leaders have carefully designed the early years curriculum. Staff successfully create a love of learning.

They know the children well and match learning activities to their needs effectively. Staff make sure that children have the knowledge they need to be ready for Year 1.

Leaders prioritise the teaching of reading so that children learn to be confident and fluent readers from Reception.

Leaders have made sure that extra support is given to pupils who struggle to read well. However, they have not made sure that all staff who listen to children read know what specific support each pupil needs. This means adults do not go back to revisit and recap these gaps in learning to help pupils become fluent readers.

From Reception onwards, pupils follow the well-established routines in the classrooms and around the school. There is a calm and orderly atmosphere, which pupils and staff recognise as being typical of the school. In the early years, this makes it easy for children to select learning activities and to cooperate with each other through play.

Leaders support pupils to develop their talents and interests through the wide variety of extra-curricular activities. The variety of clubs encourages pupils to be active, thoughtful and creative. The comprehensive trips and visits programme provides pupils with opportunities to enjoy and appreciate art, music and the benefits of being outdoors.

Pupils enjoy leadership roles within the school. These include the 'positivity prefects', which has been set up by pupils to recognise kindness by other pupils, and 'leading lights', who are the 'spiritual leaders for their class', involved with planning and delivering worship for other pupils.

Leaders and governors have high ambition for the school.

They have identified where the curriculum needs to improve and have put processes in place to address this. Parents and carers believe that the school is improving and speak highly about the work of the headteacher and the care shown by all staff for their children.

Governors have an accurate view of the school.

They use information from school leaders, external adviser reports and visits to the school to check this. They hold leaders to account and support them well, where needed. Staff at the school are positive about the work of leaders.

They recognise that leaders are mindful of staff's workload and care about their well-being. As a result, staff enjoy working at the school and are proud to do so.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have embedded a culture of vigilance to make sure that staff know how to identify and report concerns about pupils' welfare and safety. Robust systems are in place for staff to report worries. Leaders take prompt action to work with other organisations to provide support for pupils and their families, where needed.

Recently, new staff have been appointed to provide additional support. These staff build positive relationships with parents. This is beginning to have an impact on improving the attendance of some pupils where it is low.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The main knowledge that leaders want pupils to learn and remember is not coherently planned and ordered from Year 1 onwards. Leaders should ensure that curriculum planning allows staff to know how to build up pupils' knowledge and skills so that learning builds in a systematic way. ? Assessment information is not used consistently to identify gaps in pupils' learning.

This means that teachers cannot plan next steps in learning or plan to recap and review gaps in pupils' knowledge. This hampers pupils' progress across the planned curriculum. Leaders should ensure that teachers know how to identify precisely what pupils know and can remember and adapt learning activities accordingly.

• Sometimes, staff do not adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Consequently, this group of pupils are not learning as well as they could. Leaders should ensure that all staff have the knowledge to meet the needs of all pupils and do so as part of their routine processes.