Crigglestone St James CofE Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Crigglestone St James C of E Academy are happy and safe. The school has high aspirations for what pupils learn and achieve.

They have made effective improvements to the curriculum. These changes are supporting pupils to develop their understanding well and make better progress. Although the good quality of education provided does not reflect in the reported outcomes from previous national tests and assessments, improvements mean that, overall, current pupils are achieving well.

The school has high expectations for behaviour. This is realised and pupils behave well in lessons and at playtime. While pupils say that bullying can happen, they say that adults alw...ays sort it out.

Pupils access a range of clubs. This includes football, tennis and rock choir. Pupils are happy with the range on offer.

These clubs support pupils to develop their talents and interests.

Pupils take on leadership roles within the school. Well-being ambassadors support other pupils at breaktimes and collective worship leaders create and deliver worship assemblies throughout the year.

Pupils say that these roles builds their confidence. They say they give them opportunities to understand their responsibilities and to support others.

The school ensures pupils learn how to keep themselves safe in the wider community.

Pupils are taught about aspects of safety in the community such as online safety, road safety and cycling safety.

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

The school prioritises the teaching of reading. Staff are well trained.

Their good subject knowledge enables them to support pupils' understanding effectively. Adults assess pupils' reading skills regularly. This information is used to ensure that pupils' learning and the books they read both match their abilities and next steps.

When pupils fall behind, they receive the extra help needed to help them catch-up quickly. Older pupils focus on developing their reading fluency and comprehension skills. However, some older pupils have gaps in their comprehension skills that are not being addressed quickly.

This prevents them from achieving as well as they could.

Changes in the school's curriculum have improved what pupils learn. This is most effective in core subjects where learning is well sequenced and clearly builds pupils' understanding over time.

However, in some wider curriculum subjects, such as in history, the key knowledge the school wants pupils to learn is not clearly defined. As a result, pupils do not effectively build on their learning over time.

The school has a good understanding of the learning needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The school works well with outside agencies and parents to determine the precise support and targets pupils need to succeed. As a result, learning is well adjusted, for example using word mats and sentence starters. This ensures pupils can complete learning activities alongside their peers and with success.

In core subjects, timely assessments inform leaders whether the curriculum is being implemented effectively. Teachers use this information to plan and provide learning that closely reflects their next steps. However, assessments in some subjects across the wider curriculum are not yet fully developed.

As a result, the school is not able to precisely identify and address any gaps in understanding in these subjects.

Children in early years get off to a good start. The school has invested in resources and training allowing staff to provide learning activities that effectively support children's development.

The well-resourced learning areas, both indoors and outside, engage children and support their continued development well.

Pupils are taught about fundamental British values in lessons and assemblies. This has given pupils an appreciation and understanding of differences.

Pupils articulate their understanding with confidence and are empowered by this knowledge stating they would speak out against any injustice or any lack of tolerance.

Governance is a strength in the school. Governors access training to support their understanding around their responsibilities.

They have used this knowledge to check what leaders are doing to identify impact and ways to improve the school further.

The majority of parents are extremely positive about the school. They say that they could not be happier or ask the school to do more to support them or their children.

However, the views of a minority of parents are less positive. For example, some parents state that, sometimes, they do not get clear information from the school or in a timely manner. These mixed experiences do not support effective engagement between stakeholders.

As a result, some opportunities for collaboration are missed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some older pupils have gaps in their reading comprehension skills.

Efforts to close these gaps are too slow. This prevents pupils from achieving as well as they could. The school needs to ensure that gaps in older pupils' reading comprehension skills are quickly addressed so that pupils can achieve to the best of their abilities.

• The processes that leaders use to check what the pupils know and understand in the wider curriculum are not strong enough. This means that leaders are not able to identify strengths and areas for improvement as effectively as they could. Leaders should develop better ways to check how well the curriculum is being learned in order to sustain ongoing improvement.

• In some wider curriculum subjects, the school has not clearly identified the important knowledge that pupils will learn. This means that pupils do not develop their knowledge as securely over time. The school should ensure that important knowledge is clearly identified across all subjects.

• Some parents say that they are unhappy with the school's communication. Parents are not always well informed about what is happening in school and why. The school needs to ensure that communication with parents supports collaboration and engagement so that all stakeholders are in a position to work together and support pupils' learning and development.

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