The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You provide strong and effective leadership together with an absolute determination to deliver the best possible education for the pupils of Wick Primary School. You are ably supported by your deputy headteacher. As a result, the school has gone from strength to strength since the previous inspection. Pupils achieve strong outcomes in English and mathematics and benefit from exciting opportunities to learn across a range of subjects. For example, pupils spoke with great enthusiasm about their work to design and build Formula 1 racing cars. Others told me how much they enjoy the sporting activities and taking part in the many trips and off-site visits that staff plan for them. During my discussions with you, your leaders and governors, your team’s strong commitment to do the very best for your pupils was clear. Since the previous inspection, you have worked with your staff to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. You and your leaders have an in-depth and accurate understanding of the school’s many strengths and areas for further improvement. You continually reflect on what is working well and where you can develop your work further. Staff share your ambition and aspirations to deliver excellence and are proud to work at the school. You and your deputy headteacher model your high expectations and provide coaching and feedback to your staff to improve their teaching. Teachers told me that teaching assistants are ‘a valued part of the team’ and they also benefit from highquality training to support the pupils they work with. Consequently, teaching is now effective across the school and resulting in increasingly strong achievement. Pupils take pride in the presentation of their work and handwriting is of a consistently high standard in all year groups. Staff build strong relationships with pupils. All staff and governors place a positive emphasis on developing pupils’ personal development as well as their academic development. The school’s vision statement, ‘Inspiring and Achieving together’, and the school’s Christian distinctiveness underpins everyone’s work. This is a happy and inclusive school where everyone is valued for the work that they do. Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They told me that they love school. Many parents stated: ‘My child is thriving at this school. There is a real sense of community and the school provides a nurturing learning environment where children achieve well.’ Safeguarding is effective. You and your leaders, including governors, place the highest priority on keeping pupils safe. Members of staff who spoke with me know what to do if they have concerns. You ensure that all staff receive the training they need to be able to spot signs of risk or possible harm. This includes training to recognise the dangers of extremism and radicalisation. Staff work closely with your families to provide the support they need, including from outside agencies. Parents value this support and work with you to benefit their child’s education, their attendance and the outcomes they achieve. Pupils told me that they feel safe and well cared for. Most said, ‘There is no bullying but we talk to our teachers if we feel worried.’ Pupils have a good understanding of how to stay safe online. Posters in classrooms designed by the pupils remind them of the importance of staying safe when using the internet and mobile phones. The governor responsible for safeguarding visits the school regularly and checks that the single central record is accurately maintained. Governors ensure that recruitment checks are carried out appropriately and that the school’s policies and procedures are implemented effectively. As a result of this vigilant approach, leaders ensure that pupils are safe and secure at the school. The school’s safeguarding culture is strong. Inspection findings We agreed the key lines of enquiry at the start of the inspection to check that the school remains good. Firstly, we evaluated how well leaders have tackled the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection, particularly relating to writing. You and your leaders have focused relentlessly on improving standards in writing. This continues to be a focus for your work. You ensure that staff understand the raised expectations in writing set out in the new curriculum. Staff have received training to plan lessons so that pupils achieve the age-related expectations at the end of each year. Your assessment systems are robust which allow you to check pupils’ learning and progress frequently. Consequently, no time is wasted in implementing targeted interventions to help pupils catch up if they are at risk of falling behind. You have taken bold decisions and actions to improve pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar. This work is having a positive impact on driving up standards further. In discussions with the deputy headteacher during a detailed work scrutiny, we noted that pupils develop these skills systematically and are well prepared to meet the demands of the end-of-year assessments in Years 2 and 6. Nonetheless, teachers are adamant that pupils continue to develop a ‘love of reading and writing’. Pupils’ writing in their literacy books confirms that they build their knowledge and use of punctuation and write with increasing fluency and maturity. For example, pupils in Year 6 wrote extended diary entries as part of their topic on ‘Bristol: a maritime city’, following a discussion of ideas about the impact of slavery in the city. The high-quality work in pupils’ books and the school’s own records confirm that pupils, including the disadvantaged, are on track to reach the standards expected at the end of Year 6. In addition, a higher proportion have made the progress needed to achieve the higher standards. However, the quality of pupils’ writing in other areas of the curriculum does not match the high quality of writing in their literacy books. Leaders confirm that they are continuing to develop this area of their work to ensure that pupils achieve the highest possible standards in writing across the curriculum. We then evaluated the school’s approaches to teaching phonics in Year 1 to enable pupils to achieve in the phonics screening check at the end of the year. You have analysed in detail the reasons why a group of pupils, mostly girls, did not achieve the expected standard in the phonics screening check in 2016. During the inspection, I visited phonics lessons in the Reception class and in Years 1 and 2 with you, to check pupils’ learning. We observed children in Reception fully engaged, learning their letters and sounds and building their skills to support them to read and write effectively. You have coached teachers to ensure that these phonics lessons provide challenge to help pupils achieve effectively. As a result of the well-planned interventions, implemented by yourself and the special educational needs coordinator, all pupils achieve agerelated expectations in the phonics screening check by the end of Year 2. Next, we analysed how well governors challenge and support leaders for the school’s continued improvement. In addition, we discussed the impact of the work of your subject leaders in improving the quality of teaching and raising standards in their subjects. Governors visit the school regularly to check that leaders’ actions are making a difference to pupils’ academic and personal development. They challenge leaders assiduously and hold them fully to account. However, they also support their leaders in equal measure. This approach has been pivotal in improving the school since the previous inspection. Governors and senior leaders have built a clear succession plan. You and your deputy headteacher have successfully coached your subject leaders to take increasing responsibility for raising standards in their subjects. They have risen to the challenge. In discussions, they demonstrated ambition and a strong understanding of standards in their subjects. In addition, they set out clear actions to improve pupils’ and groups of pupils’ outcomes further, especially in writing. They check in detail that teachers are following the school’s approaches to marking and feedback and handwriting. This work helps pupils to edit their work and learn from teachers’ suggestions effectively. However, leaders confirm that subject leaders do not always focus sufficiently on the learning and progress of groups when carrying out their monitoring to check that the most able and disadvantaged pupils are making the best possible progress. Finally, we discussed the actions you are taking to improve attendance, particularly for your most vulnerable pupils. You and your staff keep detailed records relating to pupils’ attendance. As a result, you take swift and effective action when pupils’ attendance falls below that which you expect. In particular, you provide personalised support to families to help them be punctual in the mornings and attend school each day. Consequently, the school’s records confirm that attendance is at least at the national average and improving for all pupils and groups of pupils. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: pupils’ writing is of the highest quality in subjects across the curriculum and matches the high standards pupils achieve in their English work subject leaders, and especially those new in post this year, focus precisely on the learning and progress of groups when carrying out their monitoring activities to ensure that the most able and disadvantaged, in particular, achieve their full potential in subjects across the curriculum. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Bristol, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for South Gloucestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Catherine Leahy Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you, your deputy headteacher and your subject leaders for mathematics and English and special educational needs. Also, I spoke with teachers, support staff, lunchtime supervisors and pupils, and met with a group of governors, including the chair and the vice-chair of the governing body. I spoke with the representative from the local authority with responsibility for this school by telephone. During the inspection, I visited classrooms to carry out a learning walk, accompanied by yourself. We observed pupils’ learning, looked at the work in their books and listened to pupils read in lessons. In addition, I carried out a scrutiny of pupils’ work with the deputy headteacher. I evaluated the school’s plans for improvement and their self-evaluation, together with records of their monitoring of teaching and learning and minutes of the most recent governing body meetings. I carried out a review of safeguarding, including an evaluation of the single central record, staff training, recruitment and safeguarding policies and procedures. I took account of 76 responses to the Parent View online questionnaire and further responses to the free text service. In addition, I analysed 10 responses to the staff questionnaire.