Webber’s Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Webber's Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 17 May 2018, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings.

The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in May 2015. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Webber's Church of England Primary School is nestled in the community of Holcombe Rogus and serves not only local residents but further afield. Such is the level of satisfaction, the school's population continues to grow and all... parents would recommend this school. You have created a culture not too dissimilar to that of a family; pupils' behaviour is exemplary and the school values and shared faith underpin the school.

You are aspirational for all members of the school family, including support staff, who teachers deploy effectively. You have recognised the effectiveness of support staff and this has led to some of them training to become teachers. At the last inspection, the lead inspector identified several areas for improvement.

You have acted on these, with most success seen in writing across the Reception Year and 'tightening up' targets in the school improvement plan. It is clear that governors have increased their monitoring of targets in the school improvement plan, with a detailed overview of the school. You acknowledge that while pupils' punctuation and grammar have improved, their accurate use of spelling in writing is not yet secure.

Aside aspiration, innovation is also a key component of your school. You embrace opportunities to further develop teaching across the school and you support pupils' mental health and emotional well-being. The governing body supports you in this work.

Members of the governing body have a strong understanding of the school's performance. They speak with one voice and can demonstrate how, through their analysis, they hold leaders to account. The governing body also supports the school in events such as 'evacuation day'.

In October, leaders evacuated the whole school in a Second World War themed event. Pupils visited the billeting officer who then assigned them with a family who assigned pupils with jobs, from sewing buttons to collecting apples and mending clothes. The whole community involved themselves in this unique day; pupils, staff and governors still speak fondly about this experience.

Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that pupils are safe. The school's recruitment procedures are robust.

Leaders complete all the required background and vetting checks, ruling out candidates that may not be suitable to work with children. Once recruitment is complete, staff record this information on the school's single central register. Staff undertake a thorough induction process to make sure that they are able to work with the school's system for keeping children safe.

You ensure that child protection training is in place for all members of staff, regardless of job title. You also cascaded information about county lines, where gangs target and groom children, exploiting them to handle and sell drugs. You have done this as you aware that it is becoming an increasing concern in local areas.

As you stated, concerning safeguarding, 'We are hot on it.' Although concerns about pupils are infrequent, you respond to each one with vigilance. Staff know who to pass concerns onto and, in turn, you log each concern and respond proportionately to them.

Although scarce, when warranted, you share concerns with external agencies. Furthermore, you keep a watchful eye over specific pupils. You determine this in a range of ways, from a series of minor concerns that may form a pattern through to acknowledging changes to pupils' home situations.

As a result, support is readily available. Inspection findings ? First of all, I considered how the mathematics curriculum meets the needs of pupils, particularly the middle- and higher-attaining pupils, so that pupils make strong progress. In the Reception class, children get off to a strong start; they quickly know and understand how to represent numbers in range of different ways.

In one activity, pupils were sharing cookies between teddies. The teacher then asked children to represent the amount using a representative, further consolidating their understanding of number. This reflects strong outcomes for children at the end of the Reception Year, where over the past three years outcomes have been higher than national averages.

• As pupils move through the school, they have increasing opportunities to develop their reasoning and problem-solving knowledge. Teachers plan activities which closely consider pupils' emerging needs. Activities are challenging, which require pupils to think carefully about how to successfully tackle their work.

However, there are occasions where teachers are not checking in to see how pupils have done when tackling these. In some cases, pupils use each other as a learning resource, reasoning with one another as they attempt to solve a taxing problem. Pupils love the challenging work in mathematics; they are determined and when work is difficult, they persevere.

• Pupils capture their learning in their books. Work in books clearly demonstrates pupils' progress. Pupils show pride in their learning through their neat presentation.

Teachers offer pupils clear feedback in line with the agreed policy. In addition to written challenges, teachers and support staff effectively use questioning to draw out pupils' understanding, and add clarification or further challenge. Pupils have many opportunities to develop fluency, reasoning and problem-solving.

They find the work suitably challenging and make strong progress. ? Second, I considered how leaders promote reading across early years and key stages 1 and 2, developing a strong culture of reading and ensuring that pupils read widely and often. The teaching of phonics is a strength of the school.

Outcomes in phonics have been consistently strong in recent years. ? Pupils have positive attitudes towards reading. They discuss books they have read with an in-depth understanding, clearly articulating their opinions.

When reading, pupils read at a pace which is conducive to helping them understand what they have read. Once in a while, they find a word tricky to understand, yet through strong comprehension, are able to infer its meaning. Pupils also hold meaningful debates with one another.

In one case, pupils debated whether it was best to read a book or, instead, simply watch the movie equivalent. Pupils were unanimous that reading the book was better, it allowed them to use their imagination and they also stated that the depth of detail was far superior to that of a movie. ? Pupils read regularly, both at home and in school.

Their reading records show their reading journey in detail. Teachers track their development through reading bands and across a range of genres. As a result, pupils make strong progress, with many at key stage 1 already 'free-readers'.

In guided reading sessions in school, staff suitably challenge and support pupils, with sessions focused not only on pupils' ability to read the text, but also to comprehend what they have read. 'A love of reading' is also a criterion for becoming a successful reader at Webber's Church of England Primary School. As a result, pupils make strong progress in reading and a love of reading is evident.

• The impact of reading is not solely limited to developing pupils' reading ability. Reading underpins the curriculum. During the inspection, pupils were using the book 'Tuamor the turtle', by local author Jo Earlam, to inspire learning in other areas of the curriculum.

The book highlights the environmental impact of plastics in the ocean, a current global issue. In science, pupils have found out about how long it takes certain materials to biodegrade, using 'Blue planet' by David Attenborough, to further inspire and motivate learning. In art, pupils have used plastic bags to weave hanging art sculptures.

In writing, pupils have considered how through persuasive techniques, they could reduce the use of plastic bags in supermarkets. A number of pupils had already sent their letters to a local supermarket, to further highlight this issue. Reading has captured pupils' imaginations; they do not see this as limited to the classroom.

• Finally, I considered how pupils in the Reception class and key stage 1 develop their writing, specifically how they apply spelling, punctuation and grammar. These link to areas for improvement at the last inspection. In the Reception class, the teacher expects children to hold a pencil correctly.

Through an interactive display and high-quality modelling, children transition from a 'fisted grip' through to a 'tripod pencil grip', easing the writing process and providing them with a strong starting point. Teachers have high expectations of pupils, preparing them for key stage 1. Children's writing shows strong progress as they move through the Reception Year, with handwriting becoming more developed, including accurately applying connectives such as 'because' to their writing.

• Due to pupils' strong starting points, pupils are more than ready to meet the heightened expectations at key stage 1. Teachers focus on developing pupils' knowledge and application of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Through the school's 'two minute teasers' approach, pupils have regular opportunities to discuss and apply what they have learned to a short extract of writing.

Pupils have regular opportunities to write across the curriculum in key stage 1, effectively developing a stamina for writing and making strong progress. However, it is clear that pupils' application of spelling rules and strategies is not secure. In some cases, pupils incorrectly spell words that are well within their phonetical ability.

Leaders acknowledge this as a barrier to pupils working at expectations for their age. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? pupils spell accurately in their writing, so that an increased proportion reach at least the expected standard for their age. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Exeter, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Devon.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Nathan Kemp Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I conducted all inspection activities alongside you. I also spoke to representatives of the governing body.

You and I made visits to lessons to observe pupils. We also scrutinised the work in pupils' books and analysed reading records and teachers' guided reading records. I also met with a group of pupils, listening to them read and discussing attitudes to reading and their work.

I looked at a range of documentary evidence, which included the school's self-evaluation and discussed the school's current improvement priorities. Additionally, I scrutinised various safeguarding records, including those relating to the suitability of staff to work with children. I took account of 34 responses to the Parent View online survey, 28 responses to the pupil survey and two responses to the staff survey.