Wellfield Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Wellfield Junior School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Wellfield Junior School is a friendly and welcoming school. Staff are determined to make sure pupils 'care, respect, learn and succeed together'. There are supportive and respectful relationships between pupils and adults.

These help pupils to feel happy and safe in school.

The school has high expectations for what pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), can achieve academically. This includes pupils who attend the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced based provision).

Pupils are keen to learn ...and achieve well across a range of subjects. They behave well because of the high expectations that staff set for their conduct.

Pupils enjoy coming to school.

They especially like the different leadership roles they can take on. For example, the pupils who act as Year 6 buddies make a significant contribution to the smooth transition into school for pupils from the infant school. Pupils develop into active citizens who enjoy helping others and raising money for charitable causes.

Parents, carers and pupils value the diverse range of clubs, such as kitchen garden, choir, art and sports clubs. This is because they offer something for everyone. Leaders ensure that they help pupils to find their passion.

Pupils' horizons are broadened through a range of exciting trips and visits. This helps to bring pupils' learning to life.

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

The school has been led admirably through a period of considerable change.

With the support of the local authority and governors, swift action has been taken to improve the quality of education. The school has not shied away from making difficult decisions to ensure that it is on a pathway to success. Governors monitor all aspects of the school's performance.

They seek external scrutiny to check their processes.

The atmosphere in the school is calm and orderly. Pupils behave sensibly as they move around the school.

They know the school rules, and most pupils adhere to them.Pupils show positive attitudes to their learning. In lessons, they help each other and take care not to disturb others.

The school's curriculum is well crafted across all subjects. There has been careful consideration taken to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of all pupils, including pupils with SEND and pupils who attend the specialist resource provision.

The school's curriculum is followed carefully.

Staff plan learning that helps pupils build on what they already know. They mainly question pupils effectively to test out their knowledge before moving on to new content. Teachers also usually ensure that they check what pupils have learned at the end of each unit of work to help inform the way in which their next steps in learning are taught.

However, in some subjects, staff have only recently started to provide sufficient opportunities to recap and recall earlier learning. This means that some pupils are less confident than they could be in recalling learning from previous years.

The school has prioritised the teaching of reading.

Across the school, displays and creative areas celebrate books and help to develop a love of reading. Pupils enjoy selecting books from in their school library. They also enjoy listening to the stories that staff read to them at the end of each day.

This is helping to foster a love of reading across the school.

The school's phonics and reading curriculum are new. Staff have had training.

They usually make sure that any pupils who are struggling get the support they need to help them catch up. However, for a few pupils who struggle to read, books are not matched closely enough to the sounds they know and are learning. This holds back the progress that they could make.

Nevertheless, by the end of Year 6, pupils' achievement in reading is strong.

Pupils' additional needs are identified accurately and early. Staff increasingly adapt the delivery of the curriculum so that pupils with SEND can learn the same content alongside their peers.

In the specialist resource provision, staff and therapists work together well to tailor learning to pupils' individual needs. They also work collaboratively with parents to create a detailed understanding of each pupil's requirements. Pupils who attend the specialist resourced provision access some mainstream lessons as part of their provision.

This helps these pupils to feel part of the school's community.

The school creates many opportunities to engage with parents. For example, workshop sessions and online resources enable parents to support their child's learning at home effectively.

Parents are highly positive about the recent changes made at the school.

The curriculum provides many opportunities to enhance pupils' personal development. It covers an age-appropriate range of topics that helps to prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain.

Pupils understand the importance of maintaining healthy relationships. Across the curriculum, they gain an appreciation of our diverse society. They respect and value differences between themselves and others.

Pupils care about others and are keen to raise money for charitable causes, for example, the local food bank.

Staff are highly positive about the support and consideration that they receive from the school. There is a strong culture of teamwork among the staff.

They are all on board with the direction the school is taking.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, teachers have only recently started to provide sufficient opportunities to recap and recall earlier learning.

This means that some pupils are less confident than they should be in recalling previous learning. The school should ensure that in these subjects, teachers afford pupils sufficient opportunities to recap and recall important earlier learning so that pupils can embed and use their knowledge fluently. ? At times, the books that the weakest readers read are not well matched to their current knowledge of letters and the sounds they make.

As a result, some of these pupils do not learn to read fluently and confidently as quickly as they might. The school should review the reading books that are used in school and sent home so that pupils practise their reading by using books that are well matched to the letters and sounds that they know.

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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in January 2014.

Also at this postcode