Wimborne Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders encourage all pupils to 'reach for the stars' at this welcoming and inclusive school. From day one, pupils learn the school's 'star values' and 'star powers' that underpin everything at the school.

These include sincerity, teamwork, achievement and respect, while also encouraging pupils to be resilient and creative.

Leaders want all pupils to immerse themselves in their lessons and do their best. Pupils behave very well indeed.

When any rare incidents do happen, staff deal with them in a well-informed, calm manner. Leaders reward pupils for doing the right thing with a traditional house point system. The simplicity of this process is a strength becaus...e pupils understand exactly what staff want them to do.

Pupils learn well due to leaders' well-planned and coherent curriculum. Leaders enhance this through a strong programme of 'hook days', assemblies and enrichment activities. Pupils learn about equality and diversity.

They talk about people from different backgrounds with sensitivity. Pupils are grateful for the opportunities that leaders provide to take part in clubs, day trips and residentials. Pupils are keen to volunteer for pupil leadership roles and are proud to represent the school in a variety of sporting or musical events.

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

Leaders ensure there is a clear and ambitious vision for providing a high-quality education for all pupils. Pupils make a strong start to school life in the very well led early years foundation stage. Children's communication in the early years develops well through carefully planned activities.

Children speak to adults and classmates with confidence. The learning environment is engaging, with a range of resources for children to construct, paint, explore and create. Children use the resources respectfully and move around the provision with care and purpose.

Leaders prioritise pupils learning to read through the school. They know that getting this right will help pupils to flourish. For pupils at the early stages of reading, staff deliver the school's phonics scheme well.

Leaders ensure all pupils have access to books they can read and enjoy. If pupils struggle to read with fluency, leaders provide support. However, the effectiveness of support is inconsistent across classes.

As a result, not all pupils are catching up as quickly as they could.

In all subjects, staff have the thorough knowledge and skills needed to teach pupils well. This enables pupils to be confident to discuss key elements they have learned.

The quality of pupils' work across the curriculum is now secure, including in mathematics, history and physical education (PE). Classroom staff check how well pupils are learning the curriculum. However, as the curriculum is relatively new, assessment processes are not completely secure.

Leaders are not always clear how well pupils have learned the curriculum. This means pupils are not always learning as much as they could.

Leaders ensure that classroom staff make appropriate adaptations to activities so all pupils can learn.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils and parents are very much involved in the formulation of plans and targets for pupils with SEND. This includes developing a 'life profile' for these pupils to understand what their support should look like.

Pupils' behaviour and attitudes are very strong. Leaders promote the importance of building relationships between staff, parents and pupils. Pupils look after and care for one another with high levels of respect.

Leaders have implemented a useful 'behaviour blueprint'. This details the strategies that all staff use to provide consistent behaviour management. For consistency, some parents have also adopted these strategies to use at home.

Should a pupil struggle with leaders' behaviour expectations, staff take fair and long-term action to support them.

Leaders have designed a purposeful curriculum to support pupils' personal development. Leaders ensure that all pupils can take part in all school activities and they provide financial and personalised support if needed.

Pupils develop a strong sense of character as they grow up and they learn how to relate to others from all backgrounds. This helps pupils to be ready for the next step at secondary school.

Governors carry out their duties effectively.

During the recent amalgamation, governors kept a clear vision of how they wanted the two schools to come together as one. This enabled a successful, smooth transition for pupils, parents and staff. Leaders have the support of parents and communicate with them effectively.

As one parent commented, 'My daughter has loved every minute of her time at Wimborne School. The staff go over and above every single day to ensure children are happy, safe and well supported.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders ensure a strong safeguarding culture is in place throughout the school. Training is thorough and regular. This helps staff to identify when a child might need help and to know what to do.

When leaders need to take further action, they do so without hesitation. Record-keeping is thorough and detailed, including checks on staff employment.

Through the curriculum, pupils learn to keep safe in a variety of ways.

Online safety is a key element. For example, Year 6 pupils understand the concept of misleading websites and the negative impact that trolling and cyber-bullying can have on others.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some pupils receive more effective support than others if they are struggling to learn to read.

This means that some pupils make slower progress and do not learn to read as quickly as they could. Leaders must ensure that all pupils who need additional effective support receive it. ? Leaders have worked to develop the curriculum so that it is ambitious for all pupils.

However, as the curriculum is relatively new, assessment processes are not completely secure. Leaders are not always clear how well pupils have learned the curriculum. Leaders need to implement monitoring systems to ensure all pupils successfully learn the intended curriculum in every subject area.

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