All Saints CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

All Saints CofE Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are excited about school. They enjoy learning, make friends and have fun. This is because the teachers and other adults in the school have warm and caring relationships with pupils.

Pupils feel safe and well cared for.

Pupils listen attentively in lessons and work well with others. Teachers have high expectations of pupils.

As a consequence, pupils work hard and achieve well. Pupils value the advice that teachers give them to improve their work.

Pupils particularly love the stories that teachers read to them each day.

Pupils take home readi...ng books that spark their imagination. They talked about the characters and the plot with great enthusiasm.

Bullying is not tolerated.

Pupils are confident that teachers will deal with bullying and poor behaviour quickly on the rare occasions that they happen.

Pupils benefit from a wide range of opportunities to deepen their knowledge and develop their personal interests. Pupils loved their trips to the zoo and Salford Museum.

They had the opportunity to show understanding and respect when in attendance at the recent Remembrance service at the local cenotaph. After school, pupils can choose from a wide range of interesting activities, such as karaoke singing, gardening and badminton.

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

Leaders have thought carefully about what they want pupils to know and understand.

Leaders are ambitious for every pupil. The curriculum, the environment and the extra opportunities that pupils receive enable everyone, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to benefit from a broad and rich learning experience. Leaders are specific about what pupils should know and understand from the Nursery class to Year 6.

Children in the early years, including two-year-olds, learn to communicate well. They also learn about the world around them. Across the school, leaders ensure that they secure pupils' knowledge and broaden their horizons.

Teachers use a range of resources and methods to help pupils remember what they have been taught. For example, timeline displays in every room and in the playground help pupils to recall events and important figures in the past. Young children in the Nursery and Reception classes sing and play games.

These activities help them to understand number well.

Teachers check pupils' understanding regularly. In mathematics, for example, activities such as quizzes test pupils' quick recall and help older pupils to know their multiplication tables.

Pupils receive extra teaching when they need help through effective catch-up sessions.

Leaders make reading a priority in the school. Teachers encourage children to love books and to read as soon as they start the early years.

Teachers provide pupils with English as an additional language and those arriving from abroad close attention and support. As a result, they quickly catch up. The majority of pupils gain the knowledge and skills to read independently by the end of Year 2.

A small number of pupils do not read as fluently as they should during key stage 1 and fall behind. This is because they have not been given enough practice in the precise letter sounds that they are learning. This stops them from reading new words with ease and confidence.

Teachers expect pupils with SEND to achieve highly, participate in lessons and take part in school life. Leaders identify pupils with SEND early and accurately. These pupils receive sensitive support.

The speech and language therapist checks children's needs in early years and provides specialist support when required.

Pupils behave well. Staff manage any misbehaviour effectively.

As a result, pupils learn well and experience very little disruption to their lessons.

Trips and activity workshops are closely linked to learning in class. Visits to places such as Bolton Museum help to deepen pupils' knowledge of Egyptian civilisation, for instance.

Pupils learn about different faiths and cultures. They appreciate the importance of religious festivals, such as Diwali, Chinese New Year and Eid. Leaders make sure that books, displays and topics reflect the diverse community of Farnworth.

After-school clubs are designed to spark pupils' interests. For example, pupils have developed their programming skills in computing club. In the eco club, pupils investigate how to minimise waste and plastic use.

Compassionate leadership characterises this school. Leaders, including governors, consider the well-being and welfare of staff effectively. This was especially the case during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staff value their mental-health 'buddies' and the availability of an in-school counsellor. As a result of consultation with staff, leaders have taken steps to reduce workload by minimising assessment requirements, for example. Leaders' training programme for staff helps teachers become experts in teaching different subjects.

Governors keep a good oversight of the school. They hold leaders to account effectively.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders for safeguarding know the families and the community well. Leaders make sure that the right professional support is in place to help families who need it. Staff have a strong understanding of their responsibilities.

They are vigilant and report safeguarding concerns in a timely manner. Staff have a good understanding of the school's whistle-blowing policy.

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including online.

Leaders provide helpful advice to pupils and their parents and carers about how to keep safe when using the internet.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• A few pupils in key stage 1 who find reading difficult do not always pronounce letter sounds correctly when they are learning to read. This is because they do not have enough practice on the sounds and letters that they are learning.

As a result, pupils do not read as fluently as they should. Leaders should ensure that all teachers provide pupils with enough practise to enable them to pronounce phonemes correctly in order to help pupils to learn to read confidently and accurately.

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

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2016.