Headteacher 'thrilled' after Wraysbury school gets upgraded Ofsted ratings

A headteacher is ‘thrilled’ that Ofsted has recognised how pupils at Wraysbury Primary School are benefiting from the school’s ‘rapid improvement’ since its last inspection in 2023.

The community school was previously told it ‘requires improvement’ in the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, as well as leadership and management.

Its early years provision and personal development were previously graded ‘good’, but now the school has been awarded a clean sweep of ‘good’ ratings across all areas.

Ofsted acknowledged that the school leadership team had expanded significantly since 2023, during its inspection in July.

“Leaders, staff and governors have worked relentlessly to improve this school,” said the report published on September 10.

“This has led to significant improvements to the curriculum and how it is taught.”

Headteacher Alison Fox said the staff structure was reviewed in 2023 and a new team was created with three assistant heads who worked ‘relentlessly’ with the headteacher to improve aspects of the school.

“It was a frustrating and disappointing time as the school was still recovering from the far-reaching effects of COVID on staff recruitment and retention, as well as attendance and attitudes to learning,” she said.

“Although, as a school, we were disappointed by the judgment in 2023, we had a positive attitude to improvement, and we set about putting into place a rapid response plan.

“The comments in the latest report are extremely positive and recognise the relentless hard work.”

Wraysbury Primary School is ‘caring and nurturing’ and pupils ‘treat each other with care and respect’, shown when they ‘respond readily to the school’s high behaviour expectations’.

“The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve well,” said inspectors.

“In the past, pupils have not achieved as well as they should, particularly in writing and in mathematics.

“However, this is no longer the case. In these subjects, pupils now learn the knowledge and skills they need and achieve well.”

Ms Fox said they were ‘thrilled’ that inspectors ‘picked up on our ethos and remarked upon the care we provide’.

She said behaviour was ‘completely overhauled’ and a new policy was introduced that staff, pupils and parents bought into. 

“During the last two years, visitors to the school have recognised the excellent behaviour for learning and the calm and nurturing environment in the school,” she said.

The 326 pupils on the school roll ‘have highly positive attitudes to learning’ and the number of persistently absent pupils has decreased significantly, said Ofsted.

Teachers were praised for having ‘strong subject knowledge’, presenting new learning clearly and ‘diligently’ checking their pupils’ understanding.

Some further improvements were suggested by inspectors as the well-structured programme for phonics is ‘mostly’ delivered well, but support for pupils who struggle with reading is not as effective as it could be.

In some subjects, such as English and maths, teachers address gaps in pupils’ learning swiftly, but inspectors say this is not consistent across the whole curriculum.

They said the school waits too long to address gaps in pupils’ understanding, so pupils are asked to move on without securing key knowledge and do not learn as well as they could.

However, pupils with significant gaps in their learning benefit from bespoke support, which helps them to catch up quickly with their peers.

“The excellent report bears out the significant improvements across the school,” said Ms Fox.

“It was a real team effort, and we are determined to continue to develop further and provide high-quality education to our pupils.”