Witley CofE Controlled Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Witley Church of England Infant School

Following my visit to the school on 12 December 2018, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in March 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment as headteacher in September 2018, you have swiftly gained the trust and respect of the whole school community.

Parents and carers, staff and governors are full of praise for your leadership and the pos...itive changes that are happening. A parent typically described the school as, 'A happy and proactive environment which values the children as individuals.' You have a clear and ambitious vision for the school.

You successfully ensure that pupils are at the centre of school development. You know what is working and where things could be even better. Pupils typically achieve well at Witley Infant School.

Across the school, many pupils achieve outcomes above those expected for their age in reading, writing and mathematics. You now aspire to increase the proportion of the most able pupils achieving greater depth in mathematics and you also want to improve disadvantaged pupils' outcomes. Pupils are confident and curious learners.

They work hard, and have positive attitudes to their learning. Pupils listen carefully and respect each other's ideas. Pupils who responded to Ofsted's online questionnaire unanimously agreed that they enjoy their learning and that teachers help them to try their best.

Pupils told me that they like the friendly feel to the school. They are justifiably proud of their many achievements. You and your staff team successfully promote consistently positive behaviour across the school.

Well-established routines and clear expectations help pupils to feel secure. Pupils are kind and considerate and play happily together. Pupils move sensibly around the school in a calm and orderly manner.

They value the opportunities they are given to contribute responsibly to school life. For example, a school council member eagerly explained how they have helped to introduce 'suggestion boxes' to each class to propose school improvements. At the time of the previous inspection, the school was asked to ensure that teachers have consistently high expectations for the presentation of pupils' writing.

Across the school and throughout the curriculum, teachers reliably maintain high standards for the presentation of pupils' work. Handwriting is taught effectively from the earliest days in Reception. Pupils' successful achievements in the presentation of their work are warmly celebrated.

Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You and your team have successfully created a safe environment in which pupils can learn.

Several parents described the school as 'nurturing' in its approach. All parents, staff and pupils responding to Ofsted's online surveys agreed that pupils are safe at the school. All statutory recruitment checks on employees are completed rigorously.

Staff and governors are knowledgeable and well trained. You have effective systems for staff to communicate concerns about pupils who may be at risk. Records are meticulously maintained, so that actions and next steps can be easily identified.

Proactive liaison with other professionals ensures that pupils receive timely and appropriate support when needed. Pupils said that they know they can talk to a member of staff if they have any worries or concerns. Pupils know what bullying is, and said that if it were to happen to them, they are confident that staff would help to sort things out.

Pupils are regularly taught and reminded how to keep themselves safe online. Inspection findings ? During the inspection, we looked closely at specific aspects of the school's provision, including: the effectiveness of leaders' work to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well; the effectiveness of teaching and learning in mathematics to ensure that the most able pupils, particularly girls, achieve well; and how effectively teaching and the curriculum enable all pupils to achieve well in reading and writing. ? You and governors have been positive in making the achievement of disadvantaged pupils a top priority for the school.

Staff understand pupils' individual needs extremely well. A wide range of appropriate extra help is offered to pupils. As a result, pupils receive skilful support carefully matched to their specific needs.

Pupils' workbooks include many examples of pupils making good progress because of the help they have received. However, you and governors acknowledge that more work is needed to evaluate precisely the impact of pupils' additional support, to improve their progress further and achieve even better outcomes, especially for the most able disadvantaged pupils. ? You and your team are ambitious to increase the proportion of the most able pupils who achieve greater depth in mathematics.

Across the school, pupils enjoy many opportunities to explore numbers, solve problems and explain their reasoning. For example, in Reception, children were seen busily counting Christmas decorations, sorting them into groups and finding different ways to record the results. While many of the most able pupils achieve well in mathematics, occasionally some pupils do not achieve as well as they could because teachers' expectations are not reliably high enough.

• Pupils enjoy a wealth of opportunities to read and write across a wide range of subjects. You and your staff team are adeptly redesigning the curriculum to ensure that all pupils are motivated to learn through varied and exciting topics. Pupils read and write for a variety of different purposes, becoming familiar with numerous styles and genres.

For example, in Reception, children frequently write both indoors and outdoors, using a wide range of writing materials. In Year 1, pupils skilfully used advanced figurative language to produce firework poems when exploring their 'let's celebrate' topic. Pupils in Year 2 studied a book linked to a pirate theme and wrote proficiently about what they could deduce about the story from the illustrations.

As a result of activities such as these, most pupils achieve well in reading and writing. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they sharpen their evaluation of the impact of additional support that disadvantaged pupils receive, aiming for these pupils to achieve even better outcomes ? an increased proportion of the most able pupils achieve greater depth in mathematics by the end of key stage 1. I am copying this letter to the chair of governors, the director of education for the Diocese of Guildford, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Surrey.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Claire Prince Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, the designated safeguarding lead, subject leaders for mathematics and English, and governors. I also had a discussion with your school improvement partner.

Together, you and I visited all classes. I considered the 39 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, including 18 free-text comments. There were 21 responses to Ofsted's staff questionnaire and 32 responses to the pupil questionnaire, which were considered.

I also met with a small group of pupils, talked informally to pupils about their learning and scrutinised work in pupils' books. I analysed a range of the school's documentation, including information about safeguarding. We discussed your evaluation of the schools' effectiveness.

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