Ofsted Inspection at Windlesham Village Infant School, September 2021.
In 2006, when we were last inspected, our school was rated ‘Outstanding’ under a very different Ofsted inspection framework. The 2019 inspection framework was introduced to focus on the importance of the whole curriculum, of knowledge and how it all fits together. Now, the judgement criteria for meeting Outstanding has also been raised considerably and will be awarded only when schools are exceptional in all five Ofsted areas.
Ofsted have rated our school “Good” in the areas of: Behaviours and Attitudes; Personal Development; Leadership and Management; Early Years provision. The inspectors have recognised our nurturing approach and the strong sense of community and there is much in the report to celebrate: “Staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. Lessons are fun and interesting. Pupils work with enthusiasm and are keen to contribute their ideas. Incidents of poor behaviour are rare.”
Safeguarding is rated as Effective: “Pupils are polite, cheerful and kind to each other. They feel safe and well looked after by adults.”
The inspection team took a ‘Deep Dive’ into our teaching of History and Computing in order to test out whether our curriculum is well-planned and sequenced. Inspectors felt that our History curriculum intent was not planned in the detail that they would have expected; the “Quality of Education” area of the Ofsted inspection was therefore rated as “Requires Improvement” and this area dictates the overall result of the inspection. The report does draw out that: “Leaders want the best for all pupils and know what improvements are needed to the curriculum to help pupils to flourish and succeed.” Over the last two years, we have had a lot of change, including mixed-age classes in 2020-21. During this time, our curriculum development has been an important part of our school improvement plan. However, the restrictions and impact of COVID on a small school have been significant and has meant our curriculum documentation and planning wasn’t at the level of detail necessary for the start of term. Based on their inspection of Maths and Computing, our planning and teaching of core subjects Maths and Computing was good.
The overall outcome of the Ofsted inspection is a disappointment to us and we intend to invite Ofsted back to inspect our school once again after Easter 2022 as we are confident that we will have addressed the area for improvement by then. As planned, an external consultant will be carrying out a Teaching and Learning Review in February 2022, where we will review the documentation we are putting in place. We will share the key findings of that review.
We value the support from our staff, parents, Local Academy Board and Trust in preparation for, during and following this Ofsted inspection. During the inspection, our children showed their usual wonderful behaviour to the inspectors and showcased their fantastic work. We are all extremely proud of our school and collectively we will work to make the changes necessary to ensure the next inspection outcome delivers the result we deserve.
Mrs Ezzard, Headteacher, recorded a presentation for parents and carers about the inspection report, which you can watch here.
Link to Windlesham Village Infant School website for more details windlesham.surrey.sch.uk/Ofsted
