Western Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), feel safe and that they belong in this welcoming and inclusive school. Staff and pupils live out the school's motto, 'the school that cares'. Well-established routines and positive relationships between adults and pupils contribute towards the school's calm environment.

Leaders and staff have high expectations of pupils' behaviour. Pupils behave well. They know what is expected of them.

Pupils are polite and friendly. They understand how they can earn rewards. Pupils learn and use skills to regulate their behaviour.

Leaders regularly review behaviour records to identify pattern...s of behaviour. Staff address concerns quickly. Incidents of bullying are infrequent.

Most parents and carers who spoke to inspectors, or responded to Ofsted's online survey, Ofsted Parent View, were positive about the school. Many value the support that the school provides for them.

Despite these positive aspects of school life, there are some significant areas that require improvement.

The school's curriculum does not enable pupils to remember what they have learned well. Teachers do not regularly check what pupils have remembered. This limits the progress that pupils make.

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

Leaders, including governors, have not sharply focused on the actions required to improve the quality of education for pupils. Although leaders make checks, they have not identified the main areas that need further improvement. Some key leaders have several significant areas of responsibility.

Their high workload means that they are unable to carry out their roles as effectively as they would like.

Children in the early years get off to a strong start. Well-established routines enable children to settle quickly.

They gain independence by accessing resources in the classroom for themselves. Adults skilfully support children's use of vocabulary by asking questions and modelling sentences. Adults know the children well and understand their needs.

They plan purposeful activities for children to explore. Children learn skills in early numeracy. During the inspection, children used dice and dominoes to learn to double numbers.

The early years curriculum is well designed. Leaders have carefully considered children's development from Nursery through to the end of Reception. Some subject leaders lack knowledge about how the early stages of their subject are developed in the early years.

They have not taken account of the learning that takes place in this phase when designing the curriculum for key stages 1 and 2. In most subjects, the curriculum does not build on what children learn in the early years.

Leaders have designed and introduced an approach to teaching phonics.

From the start of Reception, children begin to learn the sounds that letters make. They learn to read and write words using their phonics knowledge. Most pupils learn to read with increasing fluency and accuracy.

Leaders do not regularly check that staff teach phonics to a consistently high standard. Opportunities are missed by leaders to improve practice. For example, staff do not routinely model how to write words so that pupils learn how to spell words accurately.

Most pupils enjoy reading. Some older pupils train to be junior librarians. They set an excellent example to younger pupils by listening and encouraging them to read.

Some pupils in key stage 2 have not grasped the early skills required to read. They receive additional support. However, this support does not take place frequently enough for them to catch up with their peers.

Leaders have developed a curriculum that meets the aims and ambition of the national curriculum. They have mapped the skills that they intend pupils to develop as they progress through the school. However, subject leaders have not clearly identified the important knowledge that pupils need to learn alongside this.

Teachers do not know precisely what pupils need to know from a lesson, or series of lessons, to make progress. Teachers are unable to check that pupils have remembered what they need to know. Pupils are unable to recall important aspects of their learning.

This creates gaps in their learning, which slows their progress through the curriculum.

Pupils with SEND who access learning in the school's specialist provisions are well supported. Targets written in their education, health and care plans are broken down into small steps.

Teachers regularly review these targets to ensure that they meet pupils' needs. Within the main school, pupils with SEND engage in lessons and complete work that matches their ability. Teachers do not adapt the work for pupils with SEND as much as they could to support pupils' individual needs.

This is particularly the case in 'topic' lessons in the afternoon. This means that some pupils with SEND find it difficult to complete tasks.

Leaders have implemented a commercial scheme to teach the personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum.

However, they have not adapted it to fully meet the needs of the school community. Pupils do not remember significant aspects of the taught curriculum. Pupils' knowledge of the fundamental British values, such as democracy and the rule of law, is limited.

As with the other areas of the school's curriculum, leaders have not identified the important knowledge that pupils need to know. Teachers do not check what pupils know and remember over time. This creates gaps in pupils' learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders make appropriate pre-employment checks on adults to ensure that they are suitable to work with children.

Staff know about, and use effectively, the processes and procedures in place to identify and follow up concerns raised about pupils.

The use of worry boxes in classrooms provides regular opportunities for staff to check in with pupils about their concerns.

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe online. Internet Safety Week, as well as work within the PSHE curriculum, enables pupils to learn about online safety in an age-appropriate way.

Pupils learn how to stay safe in the local area. They know that they should be particularly careful near the 3Rs – railways, roads and rivers.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not clearly identified the important knowledge that pupils need to learn.

Teachers do not know what pupils need to learn to make progress. Leaders should ensure that the important knowledge that pupils need to learn is clearly identified across the curriculum. ? Leaders do not check effectively that their actions to improve the curriculum have the impact on pupils' education that they expect.

Some opportunities to improve the curriculum have been missed. Leaders should ensure that all subject leaders review the changes they implement and check the impact on pupils' learning. ? Some subject leaders do not know how the early stages of their subjects are developed in the early years.

They lack clarity about how the curriculum builds on what children learn during their time in Reception. Leaders should enable subject leaders to develop their knowledge of the curriculum in the early years. Subject leaders should use this knowledge to make sure that the curriculum in key stages 1 and 2 builds on what children learn in the early stages of their education.

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