Watton Westfield Infant and Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 1 April 2025

Pupils relish attending this school. They are happy and enjoy playing with friends. Pupils come from a wide range of backgrounds, with lots of different home languages and cultures represented. These pupils, together with those whose families have lived in the area for many years, form good friendships and look after each other. Pupils in the 'young translators' group are keen to use their skills to help their peers who speak English as an additional language. The school is ambitious for pupils to do well. It has ensured that the teaching of core subjects, such as English and mathematics, is consistent and has high expectations of what pupils will achieve. Pupils join in enthusiastically with familiar phrases and sayings that indicate the different parts of their lessons. They are motivated by new learning and excitedly share songs that help them remember key facts, such as the names of the oceans. Pupils are well behaved. The expectations are clear and simple, making it easy for even the very youngest to follow routines. Pupils are kind and polite.

What the school should improve

• The formation of pupils' handwriting in key stage 1 detracts from the quality of what they write. They have not been taught the skills of transcription and letter formation well enough. This means some pupils are not writing at the appropriate standard for their age. Too many have poorly formed letters. This detracts from the quality of their written work. The school should ensure that pupils are taught correct letter formation so that their writing is of a better quality.
• In the curriculum beyond English and mathematics, staff's knowledge of how to make the best of learning activities to help pupils learn the knowledge intended is less well developed. This means that there are times when the activities set do not help pupils develop their learning as much as they could. The school needs to ensure that staff have the knowledge of how to provide activities that build effectively on previous knowledge and help pupils learn the knowledge intended across the whole curriculum.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)