Woodfield School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 13 September 2023

This is an aspirational school, which aims to prepare pupils for life beyond school. Staff listen to what pupils, and students in the sixth form, say they want to do in the future and personalise learning and opportunities towards these goals. Pupils enjoy their learning. Students in the sixth form spoke proudly about their work experience at the farm, local library and café. Students understand how their vocational studies help them to prepare for future employment. Behaviour across the school is settled, calm and orderly. Pupils are friendly and confident in their interactions with one another. Working relationships between pupils and staff are positive and respectful. Pupils feel safe and like coming to school. The school provides an exceptional range of experiences to nurture and develop pupils' confidence and resilience. This includes cricket competitions, overnight stays and residential outings, where pupils experience raft building, canoeing and treetop rope courses.

What the school should improve

• Pupils who are developing their phonic knowledge are not routinely given books that match the sounds they are learning. This means that they are not developing fluency in their reading as quickly as they might. The school should ensure that the books pupils read match the phonic sounds they know and are learning.
• Assessment in some areas of the curriculum, including phonics, is not coherently embedded. Systems for checking pupils' recall of prior learning and understanding do not routinely inform the sequencing of next steps in learning. The school should ensure that checks on pupils' learning identify what each pupil knows and can do and what pupils need to learn next.

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