Whitley and Eggborough Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Whitley and Eggborough Community Primary School is a welcoming environment for pupils.

Pupils are well cared for by staff and feel safe. They recognise that the school's 'CHAS' (caring, helping and sharing) values help them develop into mature individuals.

Pupils are well behaved.

Lessons are rarely disrupted by poor behaviour. Relationships between adults and pupils are respectful and warm.

Since the last inspection, the quality of education provided by the school has notably improved.

Pupils enjoy attending school and learning new things. Most pupils achieve well and are prepared effectively for their next steps in education.

The ...school provides a range of opportunities to support pupils' broader development.

Pupils take on leadership roles, such as school councillor, reading ambassador or eco-committee member. They are proud of these roles and are committed to making a positive contribution to the school. For example, the eco-committee is helping to develop the school's well-being garden.

Pupils participate in extra-curricular visits and/or clubs, including those for sports and the performing arts. Leaders have recently started to track pupils' participation in these activities and plan to use this data to inform their planning of future experiences for pupils.

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

Leaders have significantly strengthened the quality of the curriculum.

The knowledge and skills that leaders want pupils to acquire are clearly defined. The curriculum is carefully sequenced and builds in complexity as pupils progress through school. Leaders have considered what pupils learn in the early years when designing the curriculum for key stage 1 and beyond.

The improved design of the curriculum means that teachers understand what pupils need to know from a lesson or a sequence of lessons. Teachers explain new learning clearly and prioritise the most important knowledge to be taught. Across the school, teachers provide pupils with opportunities to discuss their learning.

These discussions help to deepen pupils' understanding. Teachers draw on their secure knowledge of the subjects they teach to ask questions which extend pupils' understanding further. Teachers meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well in lessons.

The school's approach to checking what pupils know and remember from the curriculum is being developed. Assessment information is not used consistently by teachers to adapt their teaching. Some pupils' misconceptions are not addressed.

In some cases, gaps in their knowledge are not resolved. Leaders do not consistently use information from these checks to inform changes to the curriculum that pupils learn.

Children in Reception make a positive start to their time at school.

Established routines help children to settle into school quickly. The curriculum provides a clear focus on the development of language and reading in the early years. Children engage in purposeful activities that link to the book that they are reading as a focus for the week.

During the inspection, children used the book 'Room on the Broom' to explore Halloween and firework-related activities. They enjoyed creating firework patterns with different materials such as powder paint and chalk. Adults know the purpose of planned activities and how to develop children's learning further.

They ask questions that enrich children's learning. Adults in the provision support the development of children's learning effectively.

Leaders prioritise reading in the school.

Staff are well trained in how to teach the school's phonics scheme and do so with consistency. Pupils read with increasing accuracy and confidence during their time at school. Pupils who struggle to read receive the help that enables them to catch up.

Pupils enjoy reading. They read regularly and widely for pleasure. The school provides opportunities for pupils to meet and speak with authors, including children's author, Lucy Hope.

Leaders use personal, social and health education (PSHE) lessons and assemblies to teach pupils about life in modern Britain. The school uses carefully selected daily reading texts to enhance pupils' learning. For example, pupils read 'The boy at the back of the class' and used the text as a basis to discuss values such as tolerance.

Pupils know how to keep safe and healthy. In other aspects of their personal development, particularly understanding of other faiths and beliefs, pupils' knowledge is less strong.

Pupils attend school frequently and are punctual.

Leaders promote a culture of regular attendance with pupils and, in newsletters, with pupils' families. They review attendance data and use their analyses to remove any barriers to pupils' regular attendance.

There have been significant changes to the governing body since the previous inspection.

Current members bring a rich range of professional skills and knowledge to their roles. In some areas of the school's work, the information that the governing body receives is not sufficiently detailed. Over time, this has limited how well the governing body has held leaders to account for their actions.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The school take appropriate steps to respond to concerns about a pupil's welfare. However, the school's records of actions taken to safeguard pupils are not sufficiently detailed.

The steps that the school has taken to follow up concerns about a pupil's welfare, and to mitigate the risks that pupils face, are not recorded consistently well. Often, details are recorded across several systems. The current system of recording limits how efficiently the school identifies patterns and trends.

This impacts on the school's ability to identify staff training needs.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school's safeguarding records are not sufficiently detailed. The school cannot identify patterns and trends efficiently.

This limits the school's ability to put appropriate support in place for pupils. The school should ensure that safeguarding records are detailed and well maintained. ? The information that governors receive about the performance of the school is not sufficiently detailed.

This limits the depth and insight of the support and challenge governors provide to leaders. Governors should ensure that they receive information that enables them to be consistently well-informed about the performance of the school. ? The routines for checking what pupils know and remember from the curriculum are in development.

In some subjects, teachers and leaders do not have a precise understanding of pupils' curriculum knowledge. Adaptations to lessons and interventions to help pupils to catch up are not consistently well informed. The school should ensure that suitable systems exist to check what pupils know.

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