Werrington Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Werrington Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 5 December 2017, 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 October 2012. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

You were appointed to the post of headteacher a couple of years after the school was last inspected. Following your appointment, you have forged a strong and effective leadership partnership with the deputy headteacher. Together, you ar...e known by governors as the 'dynamic duo' because of the significant impact you are having on improving the school.

Governors also have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to improve the school further. They are steering school improvement effectively. Together with you and the leadership team, they are continuing to improve the school well.

You have worked successfully with the deputy headteacher to build a culture based around your school vision, 'Together we succeed'. Towards this end pupils speak about the importance of drawing strength and expertise from others during lessons. Parents, staff and pupils are all highly positive about school.

On the playground, many adults spoke in glowing terms about how well members of staff communicate with them. After astutely identifying weaknesses in the curriculum, you worked successfully with staff to produce a much more demanding diet for pupils. Pupils participate enthusiastically in a wide range of subjects.

They are enthused and inspired by the rich and creative curriculum provided which serves their needs well. The higher expectations you have established are improving achievement. Pupils' attainment at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 is above average in reading, writing and mathematics.

You have effectively tackled the areas identified for improvement from the previous inspection. You have improved pupils' achievement in mathematics across the whole school through the changes you have made to how the subject is taught. These changes have been particularly successful in accelerating pupils' progress in key stage 1.

They are now starting to have a more positive impact across key stage 2. However, some further work is still required to increase consistency in the quality of teaching in mathematics. We talked about your school's website, which is missing some up-to-date policies and specific information about the spending of the physical education (PE) and sport premium for primary schools.

Safeguarding is effective. Together with your leadership team, you have successfully ensured that there is a highly effective culture of safeguarding. From the moment visitors arrive at school, your high expectations for the safeguarding of pupils are made very clear to them.

The information regarding safeguarding procedures for visitors, volunteers or workers are presented in a leaflet handed to anyone entering the school. No one can fail to understand what is expected of them. You ensure that all required pre-employment checks are made before posts are offered to staff.

Meticulous records of these checks are kept, and regularly updated as required. All members of your staff undertake regular training to ensure that pupils are kept safe. Safeguarding updates at your staff meetings play a key part in ensuring that everyone is kept fully informed and up to date with the latest requirements.

Inspection findings ? The leadership team rightly identified that the attainment of boys was lower than that of girls at the end of the Reception Year. You and the leader of the early years have worked together to transform the indoor and outdoor classrooms. This improved environment enthuses and inspires boys, and is accelerating their learning and development.

• Children in the early years, including boys, are encouraged to learn in the exciting and inviting indoor and outdoor classrooms. Muddy activity and construction areas are used well to encourage early writing skills. Secret words and sounds are used to fascinate and engage boys effectively.

• Your staff have successfully created very inviting reading areas. These are places young children are keen to visit. For example, during the inspection, boys in a Reception class were animatedly reading story books to their teddy bears.

These exciting activities are helping boys to catch up in their learning. ? The number of children reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception has increased over a three-year period and is now well above the national average. Leaders and staff have been well supported on this journey of improvement by the local authority.

• Your pupils are making good progress in their learning from their individual starting points. Pupils' books show that pupils of all abilities are progressing well. Occasionally teaching assistants, especially at the start of lessons, could do more to support effective learning.

• Your deputy headteacher skilfully manages a programme of intense support which is helping pupils at risk of falling behind in their learning to catch up rapidly. The impact of each of these interventions is carefully measured to ensure that they are successful. ? The teaching of mathematics continues to improve.

You acknowledge that some inconsistencies remain in the quality of teaching, particularly in mathematics. Very occasionally, mathematics learning tasks need to be more challenging for pupils. Too few teachers provide enough opportunities for pupils to record their reasoning behind how they approach solving problems.

Books also show that there are too few opportunities provided for pupils to use their mathematical skills in a range of other subjects. ? In the past year, you have successfully improved the attendance of groups of pupils, such as disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, by closely working with the educational welfare service. The latest school attendance data show very little difference in the attendance rates of these groups compared with all other pupils in school.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the quality of teaching, particularly in mathematics, is more consistent across school ? more opportunities are provided for pupils to use and apply their mathematical skills in a range of subjects ? pupils are given increased opportunities to record the reasoning behind how they approach the solving of problems ? teaching assistants more consistently support learning in lessons ? pupils are clearer about what they need to do next to further improve in mathematics ? the school's website is updated to contain information about the spending of the PE and sport premium for primary schools. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Staffordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Declan McCauley Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection I met with you and your deputy headteacher. I talked with pupils in lessons and in a formal meeting. I spoke with parents and grandparents on the playground before school.

I held telephone conversations with a representative from the local authority and the vice-chair of the governing body. I also met briefly with the whole staff. I scrutinised a range of school documents including safeguarding records, plans for school improvement, minutes from governors' meetings, monitoring documents and your self-evaluation summary.

I accompanied you and your deputy headteacher on a learning walk during which we observed teaching and learning and scrutinised a range of pupils' work in their books. I considered the 75 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, and their associated free-text responses. I also considered 36 responses to Ofsted's pupil survey and 27 responses to Ofsted's staff survey.

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