Wyken Croft Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Wyken Croft Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 13 June 2019 with Michael Appleby, Ofsted Inspector, 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 April 2015.

The school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. You, your leaders, governors and staff have all been successful in realising the school's vision to 'aspire, believe, achieve together'.

There is a positive, inclusive and ambitious climate for lear...ning in the school. Although there are over 850 pupils on roll, all pupils are valued as individuals and staff have a detailed knowledge of each pupil. Staff are proud to work at Wyken Croft.

Most feel that the school has a culture that encourages calm and orderly conduct and is aspirational for all pupils. Leaders and governors are committed to providing a rich and exciting curriculum to ensure that pupils develop their skills and talents in different areas. The high-quality display work around the school, especially art, is testament to the varied opportunities provided for pupils.

Parents greatly value the support their children receive. As one parent put it, 'The focus on recognising the achievement of pupils, no matter how small, is invaluable and really builds their confidence.' Almost all parents and carers who responded to the online questionnaire say that their children are happy and feel safe at school.

Pupils are hard-working and diligent. They are friendly, polite and welcoming. They have a good understanding of the school's 'seven steps to success', which encompass values such as aspiration, collaboration, independence and self-belief.

Pupils behave well and have positive attitudes to learning. They learn and play together happily. As one pupil put it, 'Everyone is kind here.'

Pupils told inspectors they enjoy mathematics, art and the residential visits to Minehead or Paris, which they can choose in Year 6. You and your governors responded constructively to the challenges presented by the areas for improvement identified at the time of the previous inspection. Leaders have improved the quality of teaching and achievement across the school.

Subject leaders' regular monitoring of teaching and learning makes a significant contribution to pupils' progress and learning in lessons. However, there is more work to be done to improve the teaching of writing and thereby raise attainment, and to reduce the number of pupils who are persistently absent. Safeguarding is effective.

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. There is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school. This is because of the calm, caring and nurturing environment that you and your staff have established.

Designated safeguarding leaders have an in-depth knowledge of pupils who are vulnerable or need child protection. They work cohesively with outside agencies to get the very best support for the families in their community. Record-keeping is thorough.

Leaders' use of an electronic system is effective and secure. Staff have a good understanding of the school's system for reporting concerns about children. They receive appropriate training, for example in relation to the 'Prevent' duty, child sexual exploitation and the exploitation of children to sell drugs.

Online safety, particularly, is taught well and information and workshops are provided for parents to ensure that pupils are safe online, both at home and in school. When asked about whether they feel safe at school by inspectors, pupils responded emphatically, 'very safe'. Pupils express confidence that they can speak to an adult if they are worried about anything and are assured that their concerns will be listened to.

They have a good understanding of online safety. They know that firewalls are in place to prevent them accessing unsuitable internet sites. They have a good awareness of the different types of bullying but feel this isn't an issue in their school.

Inspection findings ? You have successfully developed the school's leadership structure to meet the demands of the increasing number of pupils on roll. Senior and middle leaders have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They work as a cohesive team to ensure that teaching is consistently good and pupils make good progress.

All staff have benefited from the focused training provided and close collaborative working with your federated partner school to share good practice. Regular internal and external moderation of teacher assessments have ensured that pupil results are accurate. ? Governance is highly effective.

Members of the governing body are committed and ambitious for the school. They use their wide range of expertise to question leaders at all levels and hold them fully to account. For example, governors meet with leaders and ask probing questions before governing body meetings.

This gives them a clear and detailed insight into how well the school is performing. Governors themselves then report back their findings to other members. ? Our first focus for this inspection was to consider what support in reading is provided for disadvantaged pupils in order to enable them to make good progress in key stage 2.

This was because published data for the last two years shows that the progress made by disadvantaged pupils has been below the national average. Inspection evidence shows that current disadvantaged pupils are making good progress. You have invested heavily in a good variety of attractive reading books.

These help engage pupils and encourage them to read regularly. Targeted pupils are given additional time to read to support staff and some benefit from small group support in the Acorns or Oak Rooms. A 'reading nook' has been created to provide a stimulating reading area.

Pupils are well supported in guided reading lessons by adults and both home and school texts are well matched to pupils' abilities. ? Our next focus was centred on how well disadvantaged pupils and the most able pupils are supported and challenged in writing in key stages 1 and 2. This was because very few pupils reached greater depth in writing in 2018.

As with reading, disadvantaged pupils receive good-quality support in lessons and in intervention groups. Vocabulary work has been strongly promoted and writing tasks are often linked with topics and themes. This provides an opportunity for pupils to develop their writing in other subjects.

For example, pupils described the journey of food when learning about the digestion system. Teachers plan different writing forms and activities well, for example poetry, reports, letters and stories. ? The most able pupils often work with the class teacher and are challenged to use higher-order language skills in their writing.

Work in pupils' books show that these pupils have made good progress this year. Some highly impressive writing was seen in Year 6. Provisional teacher assessments show that a greater number of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, will reach greater depth in both key stage 1 and key stage 2 in 2019.

However, the proportion remains below the national average. This is because, on occasion, teachers' expectations are not high enough for all pupils. Some work is not well presented and pupils' handwriting is not consistently cursive.

The use of writing frames and too much time spent on introductory activities curtail the amount of work pupils, especially the most able pupils, produce in lessons. This limits the progress of some pupils. ? For the next line of enquiry, we looked at how the needs of middle-ability pupils are met in mathematics.

Progress for this group in 2018 declined compared to 2017 and was lower than reading and writing. You and your staff have worked hard on improving pupils' mastery in mathematics. This has been successful.

Pupils have secure calculation skills and are confident in explaining their learning. Work is well presented in books and resources are used well to support the development of pupils' visualisation skills. Subject leaders have an accurate view of progress and their well-targeted action plan has helped improve teaching and raise attainment.

As a result, provisional assessments for this year show that there is a rising trend in mathematics at key stage 1 and a greater number of pupils are on track in key stage 2 to reach age-related expectations. ? Finally, we looked at how leaders monitor and improve attendance. Leaders have put robust systems in place and a range of strategies to address persistent absence.

Together with the child and family pastoral support manager, you analyse attendance well to identify patterns and trends in absence. A wide range of support measures and incentives are offered to encourage good attendance. Where this is unsuccessful, letters and fines are issued.

Nevertheless, a small number of parents do not engage with the school. As a result, attendance is slightly below the national average and the number of pupils who are persistently absent, while reducing, is above national average. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they: ? further raise teachers' expectations about pupils' writing to enable a higher proportion of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, to reach greater depth in writing ? continue the good work already under way to improve attendance further and reduce persistent absence.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Coventry. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Heather Simpson Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, subject leaders for English and mathematics, and the child and family pastoral support manager.

Discussions were held with three members of the governing body. I discussed the work of the school, including the processes and procedures in place for safeguarding. The headteacher and two deputy headteachers accompanied inspectors on visits to a selection of classes in key stages 1 and 2 and joined them in observing pupils at breaktimes.

Inspectors reviewed samples of pupils' workbooks and considered information about pupils' attainment and progress. An inspector heard a group of disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2 read. Inspectors looked at a range of documents, including leaders' evaluation of the school's work and current school priorities.

Account was taken of the 81 responses to Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, and the 47 free-text responses received from parents during the inspection. In addition, inspectors talked to parents informally as they collected their children at the end of the school day. The views of the 50 staff and the two pupils who responded to Ofsted's surveys were considered.

Also at this postcode