Whytemead Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a very happy school. Pupils enjoy their time here and are keen to talk to visitors about their many experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom.

The warm and respectful relationships between pupils and staff are very clear to see. Pupils also treat each other with kindness and consideration. They understand why this is important and the role they play in making the school a welcoming place for everyone.

Pupils have many opportunities to take on leadership roles in the school. This includes selecting books for the school library and acting as peer mediators. Pupils, and the wider community, have also been very active in helping prepare for the arrival... of the school's goats.

These responsibilities form part of the way that pupils are taught to demonstrate the school's values of determination, curiosity and collaboration.

There are high aspirations for what pupils should be able to achieve. Pupils are reaching these high expectations, particularly in writing and mathematics.

Pupils who are disadvantaged often achieve even more highly than their peers. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are very well supported. The school makes sure that all pupils are fully included in everything that the school offers.

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

The school's ambitious curriculum is helping pupils to achieve highly. Pupils are confident in their use of mathematics, and they know how to write well and for different purposes. Pupils at the earliest stages of reading are very well supported and they make excellent progress.

Pupils who fall behind in their reading are helped to catch up and then to keep up. The school uses effective interventions to ensure that this happens. This work begins early in the Reception class.

Here, the teaching of children to read is very effective. Children are also helped to communicate and there is a focus on developing vocabulary that is working well.

The school identifies the barriers to achievement that pupils may face, especially pupils who are disadvantaged in some way.

They then work with pupils to overcome these barriers and to provide additional support where required. This is helping them to achieve well. Teachers have a good understanding of how to support pupils with SEND.

They are experts at using different strategies to help meet their needs.

The curriculum for foundation subjects has been well planned. The school has been ambitious in deciding what pupils should know and be able to do.

Pupils are encouraged to think back to their previous learning and to build on it over time. However, at times, pupils do not have the knowledge that they need to complete the work they have been asked to do. Teachers do not always check what pupils have understood.

This means that pupils do not always produce the quality of work that matches the school's ambitions for them.Pupils demonstrate excellent attitudes towards their learning. They try hard and want to do well.

The school teaches them about positive character traits and rewards them when they get things right. There is very rarely any disruption to learning.

The school works very well with parents to ensure that pupils attend school regularly.

Attendance rates for most pupils is very high. The school is working to address the poorer attendance of a very small group of pupils. They have identified why they are not attending school often enough and are making sensible adjustments to overcome these issues.

This is proving effective.

The school is rightly proud of its commitment to the personal development of its pupils. They have planned a comprehensive curriculum for personal, social, health and economic education.

The school is also flexible with this curriculum and makes changes to address any emerging concerns that pupils might have or to deal with events in the local community or further afield. As part of this curriculum, pupils learn about healthy relationships in an age-appropriate way. Pupils are also given many opportunities to learn about, and to learn from, people of different faiths and from different backgrounds.

This is all helping to prepare pupils well for the future.

The school is well led. The trust and the school's leadership team work closely together and the trust have provided effective assistance in helping the school to improve.

Teachers feel very well supported by their leaders. Workload is well managed, and this allows teachers to focus on those things that will bring the greatest benefit to the pupils in their class.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some pupils, when studying some subjects, do not have the prior knowledge they need to do what has been asked of them. As a result, they are not always able to complete work to a high standard. The school should ensure that teachers are clear about what pupils need to know in each lesson and how to check pupils' knowledge before pupils start independent work.