Whitley Village School praised in new Ofsted report

Ofsted has published the results of its recent inspection of Whitley Village School.

Executive headteacher Hannah Broom couldn’t be happier with the report, which highlighted how pupils ‘do their best in all aspects of school life’.

 She said: “We are incredibly pleased with the result.

“We think it’s an accurate reflection of our very special school.

“Myself and Russell David (head of school) would like to praise the community. The pupils and the parents contributed so much to the inspection.

“It was a real collaborative effort and that is just reflective of the fact that we are a family school. We are all about our community.”

Whitley Village School (Image: Supplied)

The school was one of the first in the country to be visited by Ofsted following the introduction of new inspection framework.

The most notable change has been the removal of the overall effectiveness grade.

Under the old framework Whitley Village School would have been rated ‘good’ overall, despite being graded ‘outstanding’ in four of the five inspection areas.

Mrs Broom said: “Ours was one of the first reports in the country published under the new framework.

“Had there been an overall judgement it would have been 'good' which isn’t reflective of the fact that 80 per cent of our inspection was 'outstanding'.

“This report reflects that we are an excellent school.

“So, we welcome this change from Ofsted.”

The report describes Whitley as a 'small, friendly village school' (Image: Supplied)

In their report the inspectors, who visited on September 24 and 25, praised the school’s curriculum, pupils’ behaviour, staff training and SEND provision.

It reads: “Pupils love attending their small, friendly village school. They learn and have fun every day.

“Pupils feel a strong sense of belonging. They feel that they are part of a caring family where adults know them well and always have their best interests at heart.

“Older pupils look after younger pupils. Pupils thrive within this nurturing atmosphere, from when they start school in the early years foundation stage.”

The report only notes one area where the school could improve – quality of education.

“In a minority of subjects, some staff do not select activities that support pupils to learn the intended curriculum sufficiently well,” the report states.

“On occasion, this hinders how well pupils build on what they already know to make sense of new learning.

“The school should ensure that staff are equipped to design activities which support pupils to acquire new learning and deepen existing knowledge so that pupils know and remember more across the curriculum.”

Pupils are praised for their 'exemplary' behaviour (Image: Supplied)

Mrs Broom says that work is already underway to address these concerns.

She said: “The main thing that we are going to do is try and create visuals that support the children’s long term memory.

“Children can struggle to remember a lot of information, like adults would struggle to remember a lot of information, particularly because they are being questioned on very specific information they were taught a year ago.

“So we are going to attach visuals to each part of their learning to make sure it is sticky learning, to make sure that they remember more over time.”