St Katharine’s Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Katharine's Church of England Primary School continues to be a good school. There is enough evidence of improved performance to suggest that the school could be judged outstanding if we were to carry out a graded (section 5) inspection now.

The school's next inspection will be a graded inspection.

What is it like to attend this school? '

Forever Flourishing' is the school's ethos, which encourages pupils to always do their best. Pupils live the school's values of grace, integrity and aspiration every day.

They develop their well-being through the school's 'head, heart, hands' approach, while thinking 'inside out' promotes their individual spirituality.

There is ...a buzz about what pupils experience at the school. Leaders are adamant that all pupils will play an active role in school life.

Leaders, including governors, are steadfast in ensuring pupils receive a high-quality education. Pupils are proud of being part of the school and are grateful for the opportunities they receive. Leaders encourage pupils to 'find your thing' to promote wider experiences and individuality.

Leaders have very high expectations for behaviour, and the pupils do not disappoint. Pupils engage well in the classroom, allowing each other to learn. To support playtime behaviour, many older pupils support the youngest in purposeful play.

The playground is a hive of activity, with respectful interactions and joyful play. All staff focus on positive recognition when a pupil does the right thing. The headteacher delights in recognising pupils with an award when they do well over time.

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

Highly credible leadership, which is ambitious and inspirational, runs through the heart of this school. Staff are overwhelmingly positive about the support they receive from leaders. Staff say leaders enable them to focus on what they want pupils to learn and experience, including how this is delivered.

Pupils learn individual subjects and build progressively towards aspirational outcomes by the time they leave. More than that, leaders, including governors, are determined that pupils leave as fully rounded individuals, ready for the next step in their lives.

Leaders prioritise reading so that pupils learn to read as soon as they start at the school.

No time is wasted. Teachers are skilled to teach whole-class phonics effectively. Appropriate support is in place for pupils who are finding reading difficult.

They are given plenty of opportunity to practise. However, a minority of support staff do not confidently support pupils to read well. Older pupils develop into tenacious readers and stick with the books they choose.

They speak maturely about the quality texts used in class, which develops their comprehension skills, as well as those they simply enjoy hearing being read to them.

Pupils remember what they have learned. For example, in Reception Year, pupils learn about how shadows can change size while being introduced to the term 'experimenting'.

Year 3 pupils learn terminology such as 'evidence', 'archaeology', 'invasion' and 'excavating'. This develops further as pupils in Year 6 discuss with clarity the meaning of the term 'propaganda'. Year 6 pupils also discuss how facts around the D-Day landings can be interpreted positively by both sides of the conflict.

Appropriate checking of what pupils learn enables teachers to target support to the pupils with the greatest need. Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is very well led. The team provides appropriate academic and pastoral support for each pupil at the right time.

Individual learning plans are comprehensive, manageable and targeted to pupils' needs. This enables all pupils to learn with appropriate adaptations in the classroom.

Pupils' general behaviour and conduct are very strong.

Information leaders keep on behaviour shows no pattern around bullying. When behaviour does not meet the highest of standards set, appropriate support is in place.

Cultural development is pivotal to the pupils' experience.

Pupils develop a host of creative skills through arts and storytelling festivals. Musical elements are extremely strong, with pupils experiencing a whole host of different opportunities to perform and be performed to, including with other schools. Pupils, alongside peers from Rwanda, performed a dance motif to each other around the theme of 'love grows', using Makaton signs.

This received a spontaneous round of applause from those watching. Leaders and pupils are very proud of the host of physical education and sporting achievements. The community is proud of the work the school has carried out with regard to the needs of families in the school, particularly concerning adoption and autism spectrum disorder.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong safeguarding culture at the school. All staff understand the policies and procedures to keep pupils safe.

Training is thorough and regular. This enables staff to identify when there may be a concern and how to respond. When further action needs to be taken to keep pupils safe and protected, leaders make prompt referrals.

Record-keeping is accurate and appropriately detailed.

Governors assure themselves that pupils and staff are safe and that staff members have had all the appropriate pre-employment checks completed.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• A small number of staff are not fully skilled to teach the new phonics scheme effectively.

This means a small number of pupils are not learning to read as quickly and as effectively as they could. Leaders need to ensure that all staff have the expertise to confidently deliver the new early reading scheme.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually, this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2013.