Wragby Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Wragby Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 6 March 2019, 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 June 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. It is evident that, with your 24 years of service at Wragby Primary School, your 'heart is in this place' as you put it. School leaders have a clear vision based on high aspirations for all and are determined to provide a curriculum that is rich in langua...ge and cultural experience.

You are proud of the teaching team and they are proud to work here. In particular, they say how much they appreciate the way that school leaders do their utmost to help them to manage their workload and to create a good work–life balance. Staff are provided with opportunities to develop their skills through effective training and support.

For example, several teaching assistants have an expertise in the teaching of phonics and in speech and language therapy. One of the areas for improvement arising from the last inspection was to develop the role of school leaders so that they could check more closely on the quality of teaching and learning. This has been fully addressed.

Subject leaders now evaluate teaching and learning through observation of lessons, scrutiny of pupils' work, discussions with pupils and analyses of assessment information. They report on the impact of their work directly to governors. Governance of the school has evolved over recent years to become more rigorous.

Governors are clear about their role and carry out their duties diligently. They have a good knowledge of the school's strengths and weaknesses and are robust in holding school leaders to account. They provide an appropriate balance of challenge and support to the senior leaders.

For example, they have initiated more effective school development planning, which has clear success criteria and regular impact analysis updates. A second area for improvement from the last inspection was to ensure that teaching was always at the right level – neither too easy nor too hard – so that pupils could make better progress. School leaders have introduced a wide range of new teaching initiatives, including a more structured approach to reading, a strong emphasis on reasoning in mathematics and a detailed spelling programme that targets the words children must be able to spell correctly.

These initiatives are underpinned by leaders' uncompromising determination that all curriculum planning must be based on appropriate age-related expectations. You concede that this has not always consistently been the case, but is now a firmly established principle. The setting of higher expectations of what pupils can achieve, alongside specific initiatives to tackle weaknesses in learning, mean that pupils do make good progress.

As one pupil said to me, 'If you fly through the work, you get extra challenges. If you find it hard, you get extra support.' Where teaching has not been consistently strong, leaders have acted swiftly to identify the problem and to provide effective support and improvement.

School leaders have been proactive in providing support to families and in direct engagement with the community. For example, your use of the 'Hansard's Suite' as a base for parenting classes, health clinics and free meals during school holidays is warmly appreciated by parents and carers. The parents I met were universally positive about the school and, in particular, the open and clear communication.

Any minor problems are resolved quickly. Several spoke to me about how the school went 'above and beyond' if the family faced any difficulties. The school's appointment of a parent support worker has released capacity for school leaders to concentrate more on teaching and learning.

Pupils enjoy the 'immersive curriculum' based on topics that are rounded off by 'real-life outcomes' to which parents and families are invited. For example, Year 6 pupils loved teaching their parents how to dance the lindy hop and enjoyed serving them ration food they had prepared as part of a special event to conclude their study of the Second World War. The early years classroom is attractive and well organised.

Children in Reception are attentive and enjoy learning. For example, they loved handling and talking about historic farm implements and were looking forward to doing some pancake counting. Across the whole school, behaviour for learning is a particular strength.

Throughout my visit, I observed pupils being impeccably well behaved both in lessons and during dinner time and playtime. Records show that incidents of poor behaviour are very rare. One pupil said to me, 'We are one big family because we all help each other, we have a laugh and we treat one another as we would want to be treated ourselves.'

Safeguarding is effective. Pupils feel safe and are taught how to stay safe. For example, they understand about how to be safe online and how they must 'think before you click'.

Pupils particularly relish the opportunity to be junior police community support officers and in so doing, learn about road safety. Especially memorable for them was having a go with the speed gun. Virtually all the parents who responded to Ofsted's online Parent View survey confirmed that their children feel safe at school.

Bullying, racism and homophobic name-calling are very rare. The school's systems for ensuring that safer recruitment processes are in place are thorough and secure. The single central record of staff and volunteers is well organised, fully compliant and checked regularly by the governor with responsibility for safeguarding.

All staff have had up-to-date training and have received safeguarding updates. School leaders have established effective systems to make sure that staff have understood the training and can apply it, for example with quizzes and tasks. There is an appropriate number of qualified first aiders, including paediatric first aiders.

Written risk assessments are very thorough and are checked and updated at least annually. Child protection records are comprehensive and securely stored and the notes contained within them are detailed and thorough. There is evidence that school leaders have been tenacious in following up referrals to social care by ensuring that vulnerable pupils and families are supported even where social care has not accepted the referral.

Procedures for children missing education, as set down by the local authority, are fully followed. The three senior leaders who have a leadership role in keeping children safe ensure that safeguarding is a standing item at every meeting of the senior leadership team and thereby ensure that all information is shared appropriately. However, the safeguarding policy does not fully reflect issues specific to the school.

Child protection paperwork for tracking concerns does not routinely record centrally outcomes from actions taken. Inspection findings ? At key stage 1, the introduction of new approaches to teaching writing and mathematics has led to improvements in progress. These new approaches are applied consistently by teachers across the key stage.

Spelling is carefully tracked and errors and gaps in knowledge are analysed closely and feed into follow-up teaching. ? Reasoning and problem solving are well-established components in the teaching of mathematics at key stage 1. For example, pupils in Year 2 are challenged to explain whether 40 + 2 = 402, and, if not, to explain why not.

This approach helps the pupils to secure a deep understanding of crucial mathematical concepts, such as place value. There is a daily focus on the rapid recall of number facts, which builds better mathematical fluency. A scrutiny of the pupils' work confirms that teachers have appropriately high expectations of what pupils can and should achieve.

• Although progress is strong, attainment by the end of key stage 1 in writing and mathematics has been well below the national average for the last three years. Further progress is needed if more pupils are to reach the expected standard by the end of Year 2. Also, given their starting points, more pupils should be capable of reaching the higher standard in both writing and in mathematics.

• Leaders have correctly identified that improved progress in mathematics is also a priority at key stage 2. Although progress in 2018 was broadly average, pupils did not perform in the tests as well as they should have done. This was in part due to some turbulence in the teaching arrangements, but school leaders have demonstrated determination to raise standards by improving teaching further.

• Scrutiny of pupils' work shows that good progress is being made, including progress by disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). However, progress of pupils overall is not yet rapid enough to close the gap with national average results. In most classes in key stage 2, fewer than half the pupils are currently on track to reach the expectations for their age by the end of the year and not enough pupils, given their starting points, are on track to reach the higher standard.

• School leaders demonstrate a firm commitment to reducing absence. They have introduced a number of initiatives to bring this about, including swift follow-up to any absences, home visits when necessary and rewarding classes and individual pupils for good attendance. As a consequence, attendance has improved and is now in line with the national average.

Although the rates of attendance of disadvantaged pupils and of pupils with SEND are slightly lower than those of other pupils, this can be accounted for by some pupils who have significant medical needs. Such cases are managed with sensitivity by the school. The promotion of good attendance is underpinned by the school's determination to encourage parents to participate in the life of the school, for example through the special 'real-life outcome' events organised to mark the end of class topics.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? recently introduced initiatives in the teaching of writing and mathematics are consolidated and embedded, so that more pupils reach the expected standard and the higher standard by the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Lincolnshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Peter Strauss Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection In advance of the inspection, I considered information from a range of sources, including the school's previous inspection report, and the published school performance data. I reviewed the school's website and examined some of the school's policies. During the inspection itself, I met with the staff team, examined the single central record and had a series of meetings with you and with other senior and middle leaders.

I scrutinised child protection records and correspondence with the local authority on the subject of children missing education. I reviewed risk assessments, training logs and the school's own records of evaluation and monitoring activities. Together with you and the deputy headteacher, I visited most classes to observe teaching and learning.

I met with parents at the start of the school day and with a group of pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 who are members of the school council. I analysed the 21 responses to Ofsted's online Parent View survey. I also reviewed the 19 responses to the staff survey and the 20 responses to the pupil survey.

I held a meeting with the chair of governors and the chair of the governors' finance committee and met with the Lincolnshire local authority's education locality lead. I observed lunchtime arrangements and talked with mid-day staff. Together with you, the deputy headteacher and two other middle leaders, I scrutinised a sample of pupils' workbooks.