Wigley Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Wigley Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils learn to embrace their locality and celebrate their identity in this small village school.

Pupils and staff are proud members of what they call 'the Wigley family'. Parents and carers also feel a part of this family. As one parent said, 'It is great to be part of the Wigley family and community.'



The school has a caring and nurturing ethos. Staff and pupils know each other well and have positive relationships. As one pupil put it, 'Everyone knows everyone's name.'

Pupils thrive in this school. They feel safe and happy.

Classrooms and corridors ar...e calm.

Pupils engage with enthusiasm in lessons. Teachers have very high expectations. Many pupils rise to these expectations.

Pupils told inspectors that they learn to challenge themselves and develop the confidence to attempt demanding activities.

Many pupils talk positively about the roles they have undertaken at the school. These include roles such as prefects, school councillors, classroom monitors and science ambassadors.

Pupils enjoy having these wider responsibilities.

Pupils agree there are rare occasions when some pupils are unkind to each other. They are highly confident that teachers will deal straight away with any form of bullying or unkindness.

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

Leaders have developed a curriculum that has a sharp focus on pupils knowing the most important subject-specific vocabulary. Leaders have created what they call 'curriculum cycles' so that the knowledge pupils learn is well ordered and builds on pupils' prior knowledge. The 'curriculum cycle' ensures that different year groups can explore the same concepts in more detail each year, even when classes are made up of several year groups.

The curriculum is broad and ambitious. It allows pupils to access more challenging content if they are ready for it.

There are some elements of the curriculum that are organised as thematic topics.

In these topics, leaders have identified the most important subject knowledge. For example, in the 'out of this world' topic, pupils learn about gears and pulleys in design and technology. At the same time, they use models of the sun, earth and moon to learn about relative sizes and distances in science.

Pupils know and remember this knowledge well. In a few foundation subjects such as religious education and computing, this knowledge is not as clearly identified.

Teachers have good subject knowledge and present information clearly.

Teachers assess pupils' understanding frequently through the questions they ask. If teachers spot misconceptions, they address these quickly. The needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are well known.

Leaders have developed a 'provision map' so all staff know how they can meet the needs of each pupil. These maps are reviewed and updated regularly. As a result, pupils with SEND are well supported, and they achieve as well as their peers.

Leaders have prioritised reading. Teachers are well trained in how to teach pupils using strategies that will help them remember the sounds that different letters make. Activities such as 'Let's play tennis with this sound' allow pupils to practise their pronunciation.

Teachers check that pupils are saying sounds correctly. When pupils fall behind, teachers intervene on the same day, so pupils keep up. Most books that pupils read are matched well to the sounds that they know.

However, there are occasions when a small number of pupils are given books that are not precisely matched. Pupils become fluent readers. Pupils speak about how much they love reading and how often they read.

Younger children enjoy story time. Older pupils talk enthusiastically about 'class novels' such as 'Cosmic'.

Children in the early years get off to a good start.

Teachers ensure that children are ready to learn. Many children display independence at an early stage. For example, they choose the correct equipment for themselves, tidy up before being asked and take turns to share their ideas.

Pupils are taught how to stay safe in the widest sense. Pupils can talk confidently about protected characteristics at an age-appropriate level. Residential trips help pupils develop new skills and build their resilience.

Pupils have opportunities to abseil, climb and boulder. Pupils contributed to writing a book called 'Our Schools, Our Stories', showing their knowledge of important local residents and the farming community. Leaders' intentions are to develop pupils to be well-rounded and proud rural Derbyshire citizens.

Leaders and governors work well in partnership to make sure that staff are well supported and that the school continues to improve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The culture among leaders and staff is one of vigilance.

Staff report the smallest of changes in behaviour as they know that this could be an indication that a child needs help.

All adults understand well the procedures for reporting and recording concerns about pupils and staff. Leaders ensure that they have oversight of these concerns so that they can help pupils swiftly and engage external agencies if necessary.

All staff and governors receive safeguarding training. They are all aware of the contextual and national safeguarding issues.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not ensured that all books are precisely matched to the sounds pupils know.

There are some occasions when a few pupils are unable to read books they have been given. These pupils do not always have the opportunity to gain greater fluency in decoding. This slows them in becoming better readers.

Leaders must ensure that books are more precisely matched to pupils' phonics knowledge. ? In a few foundation subjects, leaders have not identified with sufficient precision the important knowledge pupils should learn in some of the topics that make up the curriculum. On occasions, teachers do not teach this knowledge explicitly enough.

As a result, some pupils do not remember important knowledge as well as they should. Leaders must ensure that the clarification as to the most important knowledge pupils should learn in a few of these foundation subjects, such as computing and religious education, is as precise as that in all other subjects.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we the school to be good in September 2011.