Weston Mill Community Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 November 2024

Expectations of how pupils should behave are rising. Increasingly, pupils contribute eagerly to lessons as they want to share their ideas. Staff encourage pupils to listen to one another and take turns to speak. Nonetheless, in some classes, pupils experience disruption, which makes it hard for them to concentrate. Pupils worry about the boisterous behaviour they see at breaktimes and lunchtimes. Pupils enjoy taking different roles in debates. Starting in the early years, the curriculum provides lots of opportunities for talk. This helps pupils to consider the views of others and to develop their confidence as speakers. Despite these positive experiences, too many older pupils swear or make disrespectful comments towards one another. They struggle to maintain good manners in formal situations. In the early years, children get off to a flying start. They develop a love of reading that continues as they grow older. Many are keen to become reading ambassadors, taking on responsibilities in the school library. However, the curriculum does not help pupils to build on their early successes reliably. It does not meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities well enough. Many pupils do not meet the standards that they should at the end of key stage 2.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum does not enable pupils to develop and build on their knowledge sufficiently well. This is especially the case in key stage 1, where pupils' writing of words and sentences requires further practice and consolidation before they can confidently communicate their learning in more extended ways. The trust should ensure that the work given to pupils is well matched to their starting points. This will help pupils to build on what they know.
• Pupils' special educational needs are not identified in a precise and timely way. As a result, staff are not sure how to meet the social, emotional and mental health needs of some pupils in the classroom. The trust should ensure that pupils' needs are identified clearly and addressed successfully in school.
• Behaviour around the school is not always managed effectively, leading to conflict between pupils and frustration for staff and pupils alike. Low-level disruption reduces the impact of teaching. Some pupils are disrespectful in their personal interactions or do not show good manners. The trust should ensure that high expectations of pupils' conduct are upheld consistently and fairly.
• The trust does not have a full and accurate picture of the standard of behaviour in the school. They do not fully understand the experiences of pupils or staff. As a result, the school's improvement strategies are not well focused. The trust should ensure that the school's priorities are informed by an incisive analysis of accurate behaviour records.

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