OFSTED
A Caring Christian Family Where We Grow Together
Let your Light Shine ~ Matthew 5:16
OFSTED February 2020
We were excited about the prospect of inspectors coming into our school as I knew they would meet polite, courteous, engaged and happy learners – the Ofsted team saw just that! The feedback at the end the inspection was filled with positive comments about our children including their love of learning and how proud they are to be part of the Warmingham Primary School. ‘Warmingham C of E Primary School is a place where everyone feels included. The pupils that we spoke with told us how they feel part of one big family. The school’s motto is ‘Let your light shine.’ This aptly describes how pupils encourage and celebrate other’s individuality.’
Standards within the Ofsted grading system, which range from inadequate to outstanding, have once again been raised in the new framework and the expectations within each category are extremely high. Schools are now judged under the following headings: Quality of Education, Early Years, Behaviour and attitudes, Personal development and Leadership and management. An overall effectiveness judgement is then awarded taking into account all these areas. Unlike previous inspections the new methodology focused on:
The overall 'quality of education', at the school. This means that they will take the focus away from academic outcomes (how well children do in exams) and concentrate as well on the curriculum provision from EYFS to year 6.
Conducting education-focused rather than data-focused inspections.
Separating pupils' "personal development" from "behaviour and attitudes".
Academic outcomes are still a core part of Ofsted's inspection framework. Adding to that a judgement on how well a school designs and teaches its curriculum, and an assessment of how well it develops the pupils personally helps Ofsted to ensure they investigate what it is like to be a pupil at that school.
The Ofsted team recognised the improvements we have made in recent months. They agreed with our priorities – we were right to focus on Reading, Writing and Maths. The Ofsted team also recognised that the children’s personal development is at the core of everything we do. This was seen as one of our strengths. We now need to embed our good practise whilst also developing other aspects of our curriculum. ‘In the short time that the newly formed leadership team have been in the school, it has taken positive steps to improve the quality of the curriculum. For example in Reading, Writing and Mathematics, there is now a greater clarity about what pupils should learn and when they will learn it. Teachers have improved the way that they organise learning to help remember more.’
They confirmed that our teachers are ‘knowledgeable about the subjects that they teach’ and know how to help children to make ‘connections between topics and concepts’. This was mainly seen in Reading, Writing and Maths throughout the school. Our connected curriculum is in its infancy and needs developing across the school from Reception to Year 6. ‘Although leaders’ new approach to the curriculum is in place, it has not yet had the required impact on pupils’ achievement’. Please be reassured that it will do and it’s going to be amazing. We are moving in the right direction.
Our connected curriculum will provide our children with the:
- Confidence to become a successful lifelong learners, demonstrating the Christian Values to ensure they let their individual lights shine as they make the right choices about their learning.
- Capacity to control and express their emotions, and handle interpersonal relationships whilst keeping themselves safe.
- Ambition to achieve their very best.
- A love of learning.
The inspectors highlighted a number of areas for development. You will be reassured to know that there weren’t any surprises which is why the senior leaders agreed with their overall judgement of ‘requires improvement’. Warmingham CofE has many strengths, we mustn’t lose sight of these. The school is on a rapidly journey. I feel incredibly lucky to have a staff who are determined to work with Nic Badger and myself to address these areas so our children receive the very best education we can offer. Every single member of staff is working incredibly hard to turn this school around.
We remain determined to ensure that the experiences we create both in and out of the classroom are of the highest quality and are designed to ensure your child is happy, achieves their potential and thrives, as always.
