Widmer End Combined School

Widmer End Combined School is a one form entry village school on the outskirts of High Wycombe with 212 pupils on roll. More than 50% of our children are from out of our catchment area meaning we take children from a diverse range of backgrounds and situations. After 20 years of consistent headship the school had solid foundations as a wellrespected primary school. However, the School was in need of modernising. In January 2011 I became Headteacher and I was fortunate to inherit a strong staff team and good children with supportive parents. All in all what could go wrong? But there was a sense of uncertainty about where the children were with their learning and what they could achieve. The school was in a stagnant position having slowed after an Ofsted inspection in 2009. Over the next few years there were a number of staff changes due both to retirement and the renewed focus on ‘up levelling’ teaching and learning. This gave me the financial opportunity to employ my own leaders and to build a secure team with focused responsibilities. I have high expectations of all my staff and have demonstrated my commitment to excellent teaching by only employing outstanding teachers.