St John’s CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school. The academy benefits from outstanding, dynamic leadership at all levels. Senior leaders and governors provide leaders in charge of subjects and year groups with excellent support to fine-tune their skills and to review pupils' performance.

Staff are ambitious, reflective and self-critical. They strive successfully to improve teaching and pupils' achievement at St John's and in other schools. Teamwork is very strong.

Pupils get off to an excellent start in the Early Years Foundation Stage. All groups of pupils make rapid progress in Years 1 to 6. Attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is well above average by the end of Ye...ar 6.

Pupils achieve well in other subjects, such as music. Staff use their excellent knowledge of what pupils can already do to plan work which stretches pupils of all abilities. Staff have high expectations of all pupils.

They question pupils expertly to develop their speaking and thinking skills and to check on their learning. They adapt the level of work to accelerate progress further. Outstanding teaching and relationships ensure that pupils enjoy learning, are highly motivated and contribute fully to lessons.

Staff develop pupils' personal qualities and teamwork skills to the full. This enables pupils to support each other very successfully in lessons and in assemblies. Pupils are mature, reflective learners.

Pupils in Key Stage 2 understand how to make the best use of staff's oral feedback and marking to improve their work. Pupils' behaviour in lessons and around the academy is outstanding. The academy promotes pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well.

It ensures pupils develop a keen awareness of diversity and life in modern Britain. Robust safeguarding arrangements ensure that pupils feel very safe and well cared for in the academy. Attendance is above average.

Pupils have fewer opportunities to develop their mathematical skills in other subjects, than they do for reading and writing.

Information about this school

St John's CofE Primary School converted to an academy on 1 January 2013. When its predecessor school, of the same name, was previously inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be outstanding.

The academy is a designated National Support School. The executive headteacher is Vice-Chair of the city-wide Birmingham Education Partnership. She is a National Leader of Education (NLE) and works in this capacity with a number of schools, including St George's Primary School and Christ Church Primary, on behalf of the local authority.

The head of school is a Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) who provides advice and guidance on teaching and learning to local schools. The academy is much larger than most primary schools. The academy's part-time nursery operates in the mornings and afternoons.

Around 95% of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. At around 66%, Pakistani pupils form the largest grouping. A high proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language and many of the children in Nursery and Reception are at an early stage of learning English.

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium, which is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those in local authority care, is average at 25%. At around 12%, the proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below average. The academy meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.