Dedicated staff at Westbourne Primary School vow to improve after Ofsted inspection highlights weaknesses

Westbourne Primary School, in Emsworth, was inspected by Ofsted on July 8 and 9 of this year, with the published report outlining a number of areas requiring improvement, including the quality of education.

The report highlighted that staff have ‘increasingly high expectations of how pupils should behave’, but there is a noticeable level of inconsistency, which results in varying student experiences across the school.

The Ofsted said: “The school has developed a clear intent for the curriculum. It is broad and designed to build pupils’ knowledge over time. In mathematics, the school has thought about how to adapt the curriculum to enable pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to understand important knowledge.

“However, this is inconsistent in the wider curriculum. The school does not always make adaptations to the curriculum to enable pupils with SEND to achieve as well as they should.”

Reading has been noted as a priority at the school, with staff delivering phonics ‘enthusiastically and with consistency’, and regular knowledge checks help students retain information being taught. If students are struggling with their reading development, teachers are quick to address this and implement support.

Laura Evans, headteacher, said: “We are heartened that Ofsted have recognised our successes over the last two years, including our development of reading and a love of reading for pleasure, the clear intent of the curriculum, and the continued success of our Early Years Provision.

“We are also pleased that they have recognised our focus on children’s mental and physical wellbeing, and the many enriching experiences that children have during their time here.”

The report further outlined that early year students have ‘positive attitudes’ to learning and are calm during lessons, meanwhile, some older students become distracted and are not ‘redirected to focus’.

The inspection added: “The school has effective systems in place to closely monitor the attendance of pupils. However, too many disadvantaged pupils are not attending school regularly enough.

“Governors have improved how they monitor the school’s work. They now have effective systems in place to hold leaders to account. Staff value the support that the school provides to manage their workload.”

Laura added: “It is also clear that we still have areas in which we need to continue our improvement journey, which will build on the work and progress that we have already made.

“By working together, we will continue to develop the school’s place in the community and the opportunities we can provide for our children.

“We are confident that we will continue our journey to make the required improvements and we strongly believe that we have a very bright and positive future ahead of us.”

The safeguarding measures are effective at Westbourne with pupil safety at the heart of the school.

For more information about the Ofsted report for Westbourne Primary School, click here.