West Croft School

Strengths

• Staff are caring and build positive relationships with pupils, helping them to feel safe.
• Pupils enjoy coming to this welcoming school and know they can speak to a member of staff if they have concerns.
• Pupils have access to a range of experiences beyond the local community, including residential visits and cultural activities.
• The specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND is well resourced, with precise assessment and appropriate tasks that meet pupils' academic, social and emotional needs.
• Leaders work closely with families and carers to provide personalised support to improve attendance for some pupils.
• Recent steps to improve the quality of education, including a new phonics curriculum, show early signs of improvement in some pupils' phonics knowledge.
• Staff say that leaders support their workload and wellbeing, and there is an ongoing programme of professional development and safeguarding training.
• Parents value the warm and friendly staff.

Areas for Improvement

• Pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of education, with national test results consistently below national averages.
• Too many children in the early years do not secure the knowledge they need in communication, reading and writing to be ready for key stage 1.
• Older pupils' written work consistently displays weaknesses in handwriting, spelling and grammar, and these gaps are not tackled swiftly or effectively.
• Many pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should, partly because support approaches often lead to extended periods out of the classroom.
• Attendance rates have remained below the national average.
• Leaders' actions to secure positive behaviour are not having the required impact, and staff do not apply the behaviour policy consistently.
• Teaching is variable, and lessons do not help pupils to learn well; assessment is not used effectively to adapt learning to pupils' needs.
• Leaders have not acted quickly enough to stem the decline in educational standards and the growing gaps in pupils' knowledge.
• The absence of an effective local governing body has meant school leaders have not been supported or challenged effectively.
• New governors lack educational expertise and are not in a position to effectively challenge leaders' overly positive view of the school.
• Support for pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils is not effective, with inconsistent support and imprecise assessment.
• Early years activities are limited in scope and lack a clear learning purpose, and staff do not consistently develop children's vocabulary through high-quality interactions.
• Pupils' knowledge of different religions and cultures is underdeveloped, and they show limited recall in this area.
• Disadvantaged pupils' performance is well below national averages across reading, writing and mathematics, with a large disadvantage gap.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools