Wheatfield Primary School

Overview

This Sustaining Improvement Inspection was conducted in January 2018, following a previous evaluation of the school as “good”. Due to teachers participating in industrial action and refusing to co-operate, the inspectors were unable to fully evaluate the quality of education or the school’s capacity for improvement. Consequently, the report concludes that the ETI is “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided for the children.”

Strengths

• The previous inspection in 2014 evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school as “good”.
• The school provided evidence that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education”.
• Children reported that they “feel safe in school” and are aware of procedures if they have concerns about their safety or well-being.

Areas to improve

• The report states the ETI was unable to evaluate whether the school had addressed the 2014 requirement to “sustain, and build on, the improvements in both the quality of the children’s learning experiences and their outcomes”.
• The inspection could not assess the “quality of learning and teaching within the classrooms” due to non-co-operation.
• The school is designated as a “high priority for future inspection with no further notice” because the current inspection could not provide assurance of educational quality.

Safeguarding

The report notes that while arrangements reflect Departmental guidance and children feel safe, the ETI was “unable to evaluate fully the outworking of the arrangements for safeguarding in the school” owing to the industrial action.