St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The school is led well.

Governors have managed the very recent change in headship successfully and carefully. They have ensured continuity, with minimal disruption for the pupils and for their learning and progress. The acting headteacher has taken the opportunity to strengthen the school's systems for checking on pupils' progress and on the quality of teaching.

This is having a very positive effect on pupils' achievement. Pupils feel safe and secure. They behave well and show very positive attitudes to learning and to school.

Senior and middle leaders, actively supported by governors, are driving improvements forward at a brisk... pace. Teaching is good overall. As a result, pupils are achieving increasingly well; their rates of progress are good and improving rapidly.

Standards are above average by the end of Year 6. Pupils with disabilities and special educational needs are provided for well and they achieve well. An increasing number of the school's most-able pupils are working at standards above those expected for their age.

Any gaps that remain between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that of other pupils in the school are closing rapidly. Attendance figures are above the national average. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Occasionally the impact of teaching on pupils' achievement is not as strong as it should be.

Work is sometimes too hard for some pupils or too easy for others and not matched well enough to their different needs and abilities. The quality of marking varies and pupils are not always given the opportunity to improve or correct their work in response to teachers' marking.

Information about this school

This is a larger than average-sized junior school.

Most pupils are White British, with a small number of pupils from a range of other ethnic backgrounds. Currently, no pupils are at an early stage of learning to speak English. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium is above average.

(The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority.) The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disabilities is above average. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

The school's headteacher retired at the end of the last school year. In September the headteacher of another local Roman Catholic primary school was seconded to the position of acting headteacher of this school. Procedures are currently under way to recruit and select a permanent headteacher for the school.

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