Westminster Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. Pupils across the school make good progress and achieve well from their different starting points.

Children have a good start to their learning in the early years and are well prepared to enter Key Stage 1. Teaching is good throughout the school. Staff set work that engages pupils effectively in their learning, and enables them to make good progress.

Disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress and achieve well. Pupils enjoy coming to school, behave well and are keen to learn. They say they feel very safe and well cared for in school.

Sc...hool leaders and governors have a very clear view of how well the school is performing and where it can do better. They have worked well together to improve the quality of teaching and raise pupils' achievement since the previous inspection. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is well promoted.

Parents are strongly supportive and appreciative of the school. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Expectations of what pupils can achieve are not always high enough. Pupils, including the most able, are not always given work that is hard enough to enable them to make the best possible progress and reach the highest levels.

Staff ask too few questions that challenge pupils to deepen their knowledge and extend their learning. Pupils are not always given clear enough guidance about what they need to do to improve their work, and staff do not always check that pupils respond to this advice when it is given. Pupils have too few opportunities to use and apply their mathematical skills and knowledge to solve practical problems in different subjects.

Information about this school

The school is much larger than the average sized primary school. Pupils are taught in 15 classes from the Nursery to Year 6. The early years provision includes a part-time, morning and afternoon Nursery class and full-time Reception classes.

A very large majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds and speak English as their first language. Almost three-quarters of pupils are disadvantaged. These pupils are supported by the pupil premium funding the school receives for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children looked after by the local authority.

This proportion is around three times the national average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is above average. The proportion of pupils who join or leave the school at other than the usual times is above average.

The school site is shared with Claremont Children's Centre. This is inspected separately by Ofsted. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.