Weeley St Andrew's CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 11 October 2022

Pupils are happy to attend Weeley St Andrew's Church of England Primary School. The school values - love, trust and wisdom - underpin pupils' education and wider school experiences. Pupils love to receive a cheerful welcome from staff, their peers and the two school dogs. It sets pupils up well for learning and play. Pupils eagerly help one another complete work successfully. They play kindly at lunchtime and sensibly share equipment. This polite behaviour continues for those attending the after-school 'tea time' club. Pupils trust staff. They know that they can discuss any worries with them. Pupils are confident that staff would deal with any rare incidents of bullying or name-calling straight away. This helps pupils to feel safe in school. Wisdom grows through pupils' learning of the curriculum and wider experiences. They meet the high expectations staff now have for them. For example, pupils happily use the feedback teachers provide to improve their written work. Pupils, too, benefit greatly from the extra-curricular sports clubs, helping them to keep healthy through sports like dance, football and netball. Pupils use their insight about school life to share ideas with the school council. This helps pupils play a part in further improving the school.

What the school should improve

• A few areas of the curriculum are at an earlier stage of development. Leaders have not precisely identified the knowledge and skills that pupils should learn. As a result, what pupils learn does not set them up for the next stage of their education as well as it could. Leaders should set out the specific concepts, skills and vocabulary pupils will learn in a logical order.
• Some leaders and teachers lack the subject knowledge and understanding of how to use a curriculum plan to create lesson sequences in a few subjects. This means that, sometimes, pupils do not understand what is being taught. Leaders should support these leaders and teachers to revisit their subject knowledge, as well as provide training in how to transform curriculum plans into clearly sequenced lessons that provide valuable learning experiences for pupils.
• The quality of reading catch-up support, including how assessment is used to focus this tightly on the sounds pupils need to know to improve their fluency, is varied. As a result, a small number of pupils are not reading as fluently as they should. Leaders should provide training for all staff on how to assist pupils at an early stage of reading, including how to use assessment to inform and monitor this support.

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