Leyland St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Leyland St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School is a caring and nurturing school.

Leaders' focus on children's personal development helps pupils to thrive. Leaders' strong Christian ethos and vision to 'live and learn, sharing God's love' run throughout the school.

We spoke to many pupils who said that they like coming to school and feel safe.

Some pupils, reflecting the views of others spoken with, said that the school was amazing. Others said that teachers were kind.

Pupils said that they understood what teachers expected from them and that they were grateful for their education.

Pupils benefit from calm and warm relationships with the adu...lts that work with them.

Pupils who we spoke with said that bullying was rare in school, but when it did happen, teachers dealt with it well. Pupils felt that behaviour has improved over time because their headteacher does not want bullying to happen.

Pupils show positive attitudes to their learning. They are curious, confident and interested. Pupils are particularly proud of their sporting achievements.

The school has achieved a gold award for sport and pupils are keen to achieve even higher.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school is well led and managed. Over time, leaders have developed strong curriculums for reading, writing and mathematics.

As a result, pupils are achieving well. Leaders work hard to ensure that pupils' learning is linked effectively with other subjects. This is because pupils sometimes have difficulty making connections in their learning over time in subjects such as religious education.

On occasion, a lack of challenge in the curriculum means that some pupils lose concentration at times and their learning falters.

Staff prioritise the teaching of reading. The school environment is rich in literature and pupils say that they love reading.

Phonics is taught effectively but leaders do not always ensure that the books pupils take home from school help them to practise the sounds that they are learning in class. Teachers help pupils who have fallen behind in their early reading to catch up.

Pupils develop their mathematics and writing knowledge and skills effectively.

They are enthusiastic about these subjects and try hard. When we spoke with pupils about these subjects, they talked confidently about their learning and knew how well they were doing.

The history curriculum has been designed to interest and motivate pupils.

Pupils particularly love the occasions where they take part in special subject days and weeks where they dress up and experience life in, for example, the time of the Romans or the Stone Age. The history curriculum has strong links with the local area and visitors are invited in to school to talk to the pupils about their memories.

Leaders make sure that the curriculum meets the needs of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

As a result, these pupils make the same strong progress as other pupils in the school over time.

Children are safe and happy in the early years and get off to a good start. They work well with teachers and use their knowledge of phonics to help them to read and write.

Children share, take turns and enjoy each other's company. In the nursery, staff encourage children to be independent as they prepare for their snack time. Children enjoy lots of different activities, both indoors and outside, which develop their knowledge and skills.

For example, children help to pick pears from the trees. The fruit is then used in art lessons and some is prepared for eating.

Pupils' personal development is enriched by many interesting activities and opportunities.

Pupils raise funds for charities and work well with their local church and community. Through links with a school in India, pupils develop friendships with other pupils from a different country and culture. Pupils enjoy learning through activities such as residential visits, extra-curricular clubs and visits to museums.

Pupils told us that they would enjoy going on more educational visits.

Leaders have built positive relationships with staff and are realistic about the pressures on them in terms of workload. Teachers spoken with during the inspection and those who responded to Ofsted's online survey said that they feel well supported.

Governors have a broad range of knowledge and a clear understanding of their role. They support and challenge leaders. Governors work hard with senior and subject leaders to continue to improve the school.

All parents who spoke with inspectors and the majority of those who responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online questionnaire, were supportive of the school's work.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The school site is secure, and the identity of visitors is checked on entry.

The school's procedures for managing safeguarding are strong. Staff are well trained to identify signs and symptoms of abuse. Children feel safe in school and receive help to understand how to stay safe both in the real world and online.

Staff recruited to work in school are checked thoroughly to ensure that they are safe to work with pupils. The school system for recording safeguarding incidents shows that leaders and staff respond appropriately to any inappropriate behaviour from pupils.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

In some subjects, there are parts of the curriculum which lack challenge for some groups of pupils.

Teachers need to make sure that their curriculum plans meet the needs of all groups of pupils. . Pupils do not always make clear enough connections within and between subjects in the wider curriculum.

Leaders need to ensure that curriculum plans build on pupils' past knowledge and prepare them well for learning that is to come. The school's curriculum is not yet sufficiently coherently planned and sequenced in some subjects. However, it is clear from the actions that leaders have already taken that they are in the process of bringing this about.

. Teachers have been trained well in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders now need to ensure that teachers develop a deeper understanding of the way in which learning can be sequenced, both within the foundation subjects and between subjects, so that pupils know more and can remember more.

. Pupils make good progress in reading. However, leaders need to ensure that pupils in early years and key stage 1 consistently use books which include the sounds they are being taught.