Village school praised by Ofsted for maintaining standards

A West Norfolk school has taken “effective action to maintain standards” with praise for staff and pupils.An Ofsted inspector visited North Wootton Academy on two days last month and in a report published said pupils are “proud members of their school and local community”.The academy which has 324 pupils on its roll, is a member of the Eastern Multi-Academy Trust, and was last inspected in February 2020 when it was judged to be ‘good’ for overall effectiveness.

Following this latest inspection on April 1 and 2, the inspector said the academy had “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection”.Responding to the report, Paul Shanks, chief executive of the multi-academy trust, said: “We are delighted that Ofsted recognised the continued hard work of the North Wootton team for the children of the academy.“Under Mr Grimsby’s leadership the academy continues to go from strength-to-strength, offering all children a great education. We look forward to supporting the school in the next phase of its journey. “We are particularly pleased that the inspector recognised that pupils are proud members of their school and local community. They run happily through the school gates in the morning and are warmly greeted by kind and caring staff.”He highlighted comments in the report which included: “Pupils have positive attitudes to learning and school life. They behave well in lessons and around school. Pupils are polite and hold doors open for visitors. Playtimes and lunchtimes are positive. There are lots of opportunities for pupils to play games and socialise in this harmonious place.” The inspector also noted: “Leaders take pride in their work and are passionate about their areas of responsibility. Subject leaders are knowledgeable. Staff have the time and development they need to fulfil their roles effectively. Their wellbeing is a priority.“The school and trust are focused on how they can ensure every pupil has the support they need to be a successful learner. They work together to ensure that pupils thrive socially, emotionally and academically,” the report said.The inspector commented staff have high expectations of pupils’ achievement and pupils enjoy an ambitious curriculum. Skilled staff in the early years support children to communicate and extend their use of vocabulary and older pupils speak confidently and enjoy debating. “Staff encourage and motivate pupils to achieve well. Pupils take pride in their work and work hard,” the report said.North Wootton Academy’s principal, James Grimsby, said: “We are incredibly proud of the report and the hugely positive manner in which it describes life at our school.“We believe strongly that an excellent education is about developing the whole child and preparing them to be successful in life; therefore, we are glad that this holistic approach was fully recognised within the inspection.“The staff have worked incredibly hard to move the school on since 2020 and it is great to have this progress acknowledged, particularly in respect to providing an environment in which all of our pupils can excel. We are now excited to build upon this further over the coming years.” In looking at what the academy can do to improve, the inspector said: “In some foundation subjects, teaching does not revisit the previous content of the curriculum regularly.“This means that sometimes pupils do not make links between new and prior learning and do not recall important knowledge.“Therefore, pupils do not achieve as well as they could in these subjects. The school should ensure that staff help pupils to remember the important knowledge and content of the curriculum in all subjects so that pupils achieve as well as they can across the full range of subjects.”This is the second inspection since North Wootton joined the multi-academy trust in 2017. In its previous inspection the academy received an overall ‘good’ rating with ‘outstanding’ for personal development and leadership and management and Ofsted found these standards have been maintained.