National Society Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools Report

Bywell Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior School
Bendigo Road
Dewsbury
WF12 7LX
Diocese: West Yorkshire and the Dales
Local authority: Kirklees
Dates of inspection: 7th October 2014
Date of last inspection: 23rd June 2010
School’s unique reference number: 107706
Headteacher: Ms Zaheda Adam
Inspector’s name and number: Mrs Lorraine Hanson 769
School context
Bywell Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior School is a larger than average school with 367 children on roll. Most pupils are White British. The proportion of children with special educational needs and those known to be eligible for pupil premium funding are broadly average. The headteacher was appointed less than a year ago. St Paul’s Church is about a mile from the school.
The distinctiveness and effectiveness of Bywell Church of England Voluntary Controlled School as a Church of England school are good
·  The leadership of the headteacher, together with the support of dedicated staff and governors is driving the school forward as a Church of England school
·  Clear Christian values permeate school life, making a positive impact on children and enabling them to thrive in their personal and academic development
·  This is an inclusive school where everyone is valued and where all children are nurtured to achieve the best they can
·  The strength of relationships across the school, promote a safe and calm school environment
·  Children are well behaved and they grow in confidence through taking on more responsibility as they move through school
Areas to improve
·  Develop a more rigorous system of evaluation and monitoring of the distinctive Christian character of this church school
·  Strengthen the links with St Paul’s Church to support the Christian ethos of the school
·  Make explicit the significance of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Christian worship
The school, through its distinctive Christian character, is good at meeting the needs of all learners
The school’s five core Christian values of compassion, peace, endurance, justice and friendship are clearly expressed by adults and children. They permeate school life, making a positive impact on everyone and enabling children to thrive personally and academically. The school’s environment is calm and safe, children enjoy coming to school and attendance is high. Induction into school is supportive and includes visits to feeder schools by Bywell children and staff. Positive relationships between all members of the school community are founded on Christian values. ‘Restorative Justice’, which involves reconciliation and forgiveness, is used effectively to resolve any difficulties in relationships and this is appreciated by parents. Children’s behaviour is good and they say they like being chosen to be ‘Famous for a Fortnight’, which is awarded for persistently good behaviour and attitudes. Children show compassion, readily taking up opportunities to care for others, for example as ‘Bywell Buddies’, ensuring everyone is included and happy at playtimes. Bywell Junior is an inclusive school where everyone, including vulnerable children, are valued and encouraged to be the best they can be. A parent commented, ‘Children are nurtured to be who they are,’ and another said, ‘The children respect others’ beliefs and differences’. There is a good take up of a wide range of extra-curricular clubs and the school arranges educational visits, including residential visits, which enhance the curriculum. Older children have benefitted from visits to the local Methodist Church to participate in workshops leading up to Christmas and Easter and Year 6 children have participated in a workshop to prepare them for moving on to high school. The school’s core Christian values are promoted in collective worship and religious education (RE) lessons and are prominent on the school website, publications and displays. In an upper KS2 RE lesson observed children demonstrated their ability to apply Christian values when analysing the school logo. They showed a mature acceptance of difference and a willingness to include everyone. In a lower KS2 RE lesson observed children applied the Christian values of forgiveness and friendship to the Bible story of Zacchaeus and explained how Jesus’ actions inspired Zacchaeus to change his life for good. Reflection areas, available in classrooms and a centrally placed prayer net encourage stillness and reflection, promoting children’s spiritual development. Children say they use these areas in sad times and happy times, they feel calm and write prayers sometimes. A child said, ‘It makes me feel happy when someone recognises another child for helping someone else and they can put a (paper) flame on the candle’. The Christian character of the school, RE and collective worship all have a positive impact on the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the children. Children have a good understanding of the Christian Church in other parts of the world through the school’s links with a community in Kenya, involving letter exchanges and fundraising, through a recent visit to school from the Bishop of Mara, whose Tanzanian Anglican Diocese links with the local Church of England diocese and through a presentation given about the Mara goats project. Children show compassion for others and are keen to support a wide range of charities through school, including the Samaritan’s Purse shoe box appeal. The ethos of the school enables children to talk confidently about the importance of their own faith, whether they are Christian or from other faith backgrounds.
The impact of collective worship on the school community is good
Collective worship is seen as an important time in each school day and what children take from this has a positive impact on school life, regarding compassion and relationships. For example in an RE lesson observed a child made a connection from the morning’s collective worship about God ‘carrying’ people when they are in need with the significance for a Sikh person carrying a Kara bracelet. The whole school came into the hall calmly to music for the whole school collective worship observed. This was led by the headteacher and it was clear that children were interested and engaged, they were keen to participate and they sang the worship song ‘Colours of Day’ with joy. A group of children read the ‘Footprints in the Sand’ poem and the whole school participated sensibly in a short period of reflection and discussion in pairs. The responses that followed showed children understood the meaning of the poem of God walking alongside people and giving support when they are in need. The Christian cross is displayed in the hall and a candle was lit in preparation for prayer. Prayers written by children are sometimes read in collective worship. A steering group, which including school leaders and clergy, plan the overview for collective worship, with some input from children. The school’s core Christian values are the basis of the main themes, with a three week focus on each value. Worship is led by a range of adults including staff on rota and by local clergy from the Dewsbury Minster team, the Methodist Church and recently from St Paul’s Church. There are different groupings for worship including whole school, year group and class. This provides opportunity for age group focus, as well as the regular coming together of the whole school. One child said, ‘It feels special when we are all together as a school.’ Collective worship is evaluated by staff, governors and children and responses are acted upon. For example in a children’s survey they said they enjoyed seeing children taking a lead and this has now been extended with each class, supported by their teacher, planning and presenting collective worship termly to the school. A focus for development from the last inspection was to provide opportunities for learners to engage in the planning, delivery and evaluation of collective worship. Children are now involved in all these areas, though there are no groups of children yet planning and leading collective worship independently. Reference is made to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit on occasion, however the significance of this in Christian worship has not yet been made explicit to the children.
The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the school as a church school is good
The core Christian values of the school are promoted and expressed by school leaders and understood by children. These values have a positive impact on the whole school community, underpinning the life of the school and enabling children to achieve highly both academically and in personal development. The vision of the headteacher, together with the support of dedicated staff and governors is driving the school forward as a church school. Collective worship and RE have high profile, they are included in the development plan and discussed regularly at staff meetings and contribute to the Christian ethos of the school. Developing the school’s vision and values has been undertaken through a thorough, collaborative approach involving school leaders, groups of staff, governors, parents and children to identify the school’s core values from a range of Christian values. This collaboration has led to the whole school community having commitment to promoting these explicit Christian values across all aspects of school life, so fully addressing an area of focus for development from the previous inspection. During the process of identifying the school’s core Christian values school leaders, governors and other stakeholders have reviewed and evaluated the school’s distinctive Christian character. This has partially addressed a focus for development from the last inspection regarding developing the role of the governing body in monitoring and evaluation of the distinctiveness of Bywell as a church school. However systematic and regular monitoring and evaluation of the distinctiveness of the school’s Christian character by the governing body is not yet fully embedded. School leaders managed well a prolonged absence of a vicar at the local church by forging valuable links with Dewsbury Minster and the local Methodist Church, bringing in clergy to lead collective worship, as well as calling on advice from the diocese. Links are actively being renewed with St Paul’s Church since the recent appointments of both the headteacher and curate at the church. The curate of St Paul’s now comes into school to lead collective worship and give support with RE, with the purpose of supporting the continued development of the Christian ethos of the school. The school choir has sung at Sunday services at St Paul’s Church from time to time, though school services have not been held in church in recent times. Attendance at diocesan courses, in-house training and distributed leadership in the school promotes the continued development of staff and governors as leaders of this church school.

SIAMS report October 2014, Bywell CE (VC) Junior School, Bendigo Road, Dewsbury WF12 7LX

NS 09 2013 SIAMS Inspection School Report