Winslow Church of England School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils relish coming to this warm and friendly school.

Pupils enjoy shining brightly as learners. They benefit from the school's high ambitions and expectations. They show motivation to learn new things and are eager to share their knowledge.

Most pupils achieve well, as they remember much of what they have been taught.Pupils behave well. The school is a happy place to be.

Pupils feel safe and that staff know them well. Pupils have warm, mutually respectful relationships with everyone in the school. Staff help pupils to recognise their emotions so that they can manage them successfully.

Pupils show consideration for each other. At lunchtime, pupils c...are for peers who may be hurt or sad.Pupils benefit from a wide range of opportunities to take on responsibility and support each other.

This helps them to think about how they communicate with others. For example, 'road safety officers' educate their peers on how to cross the roads near the school safely. Pupils also fundraise for local, national and global charities.

They are proud of how they have helped to buy sanitary equipment for a school in Africa. This helps pupils to develop empathy for others.

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

The school is coming out of a period of transition.

There have been many changes to leadership and teaching roles recently. Nevertheless, the school has taken decisive action to further improve the curriculum. There is a clear ambition for all pupils to achieve well.

Across all subjects, the school has now established the most important knowledge pupils need to know and remember. The school sequences this knowledge in a logical order from early years to Year 6.The school identifies most pupils' individual needs accurately.

Adaptations for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are strongest in reading, writing and mathematics. These adaptations help pupils with SEND achieve well in these subjects. However, in some wider curriculum subjects, pupils' individual needs are not identified precisely enough.

Consequently, adaptations are not as sharply focused as they could be. Therefore, pupils with SEND achieve less well in these subjects.The school prioritises developing pupils' knowledge so that they can read, write and use key mathematical facts confidently.

This begins in the early years where pupils make a strong start. Well-trained staff help pupils to build their communication and language skills. Key vocabulary is introduced in all lessons.

Pupils get opportunities to practise using these words in different ways. This practice continues throughout the school. Extra daily support for pupils who need help enables them to become more fluent readers, writers and mathematicians.

Most staff display strong subject knowledge. This helps them to explain and model ideas well to pupils. In most lessons, teachers check pupils have understood what is being taught.

They support pupils to address any mistakes or misunderstandings that they may have. However, in a few subjects, the school has not established strong systems for checking if pupils have remembered previously taught knowledge. This means that staff do not always have the strategies to build pupils' understanding over time as well as they could.

Pupils focus well on their learning. This starts in the early years, where pupils learn and use agreed routines. Most staff apply the school routines and procedures consistently, based around the school's values.

The school works effectively with parents and carers and external agencies. This helps pupils who need support to improve their behaviour. For example, pupils learn how to adapt their behaviour in different situations effectively.

The school checks pupils' attendance rigorously. When attendance dips, it acts swiftly to address this. As a result, pupils' attendance has improved, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.

The school considers pupils' personal development carefully. Pastoral support in the school is very strong, especially for the number of pupils who are young carers. The school gives pupils many opportunities to think about and discuss people's similarities and differences.

As a result, pupils show tolerance towards each other. Pupils develop a strong understanding of how to work as part of a team by taking part in the many different sporting competitions on offer against other schools. These include the alternative summer sports festival.

Pupils also benefit from trying different sports, such as lacrosse.The school continues to improve standards in all areas of its work and embed the necessary changes made. Governors ensure that they hold leaders to account and carry out their statutory duties effectively.

Staff are positive about the school, the journey of improvement and the way that they are looked after and supported. Everyone works well together to make sure that changes impact positively on pupils.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

• In some subjects in the wider curriculum, learning is not adapted well enough to meet pupils' specific needs. This means that some pupils with SEND are not achieving as well as they could. The school should develop the expertise of staff in being able to adapt their teaching to meet pupils' needs in these subjects.

• In a few subjects, where the curriculum is still being embedded, assessment does not support pupils' learning sufficiently well. This means that pupils develop gaps in their learning that have not been identified or addressed swiftly enough. The school should support staff to routinely check pupils' understanding of the key content and then use this information to inform future teaching so these gaps in learning are closed.

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