The 'friendly' Cheshire village school where pupils 'have fun every day'

A "friendly" Cheshire village school where children "learn and have fun every day" is celebrating a "superb" Ofsted report. Whitley Village School in Lower Whitley was visited by inspectors on September 24 and 25.

It was the school's first inspection since converting to academy status back in 2022 and was carried out under the education watchdog's new judging criteria where the single overall headline rating has been scrapped. However, each of the five criteria under scrutiny during the inspection are still given a rating.

In terms of quality of education, the Village Lane school - catering for 77 pupils - was deemed to be 'good'. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision were all rated as 'outstanding'.

The recently-published Ofsted report states: "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 school’s vision is to ‘produce adults who change the world’. Pupils rise to this expectation by doing their best in all aspects of school life. They work hard in their lessons and achieve well as a result.

"Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They always embody the school rules and show high levels of respect towards each other and to adults in school. They take responsibility for their own behaviour, including during unstructured times such as playtime. The atmosphere in school is calm and positive."

It adds: "The school has designed an exciting, well-ordered curriculum, which considers the local area and rural context. There is clear ambition for all, including for disadvantaged pupils and those with special needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The curriculum is broad and offers a wealth of rich learning opportunities in many subjects.

"Pupils are highly invested in their learning and uphold the principle that everyone has the right to learn. This helps to ensure that incidences of low-level disruption are extremely rare. The school expects high levels of attendance and punctuality. It works hard with parents and families to achieve these. This means that the vast majority of pupils benefit from regularly being in school and on time.

"The school engages exceptionally well with parents and involves them fully as partners in their children’s education. Staff feel that leaders have their well-being at the forefront of any decisions, for example when making changes to the curriculum. They are very proud to work at the school. Trustees and the local governing body know the school very well."

In terms of areas to improve, the report states: "In a minority of subjects, some staff do not select activities that support pupils to learn the intended curriculum sufficiently well. 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."

The school states on its website: "We are proud to have had the uniqueness and excellence of our small school identified and celebrated within this superb report. We are sure you will agree that it sums up the values that we live and work by each day and that attending Whitley Village Primary School is certainly providing a world class primary education, producing adults who will go on to change the world!"

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