Holy Family Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Holy Family Catholic Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils arrive at this welcoming school each day happy and eager to learn. They benefit from the warm and encouraging relationships that they forge with staff. Pupils know that the staff care about them and treat them as individuals.

This helps pupils to develop confidence and a strong sense of their own self-worth.

Pupils get on well together. Those who have joined the school recently said that they settled in quickly and made friends easily.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), work hard in lessons and achieve wel...l.

Pupils relish social times when they play energetic games outside or a enjoy a quiet chat over lunch with their friends. There is lots of laughter at this school.

Pupils behave well at work and at play.

Pupils are proud to make a difference by being a member of the mini-police or by raising funds for charities. Older pupils were keen to talk about the important role they play as buddies to the children in the Reception class.

Pupils embrace the opportunities that they have to pursue their interests and talents in the wide range of clubs. Pupils take great pride in their success when representing their school in sports competitions and in musical performances.

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

Children in the Reception class are happy and confident.

They socialise well with each other and learn to take turns with their friends. Warm encouragement from adults means that they eagerly access a range of appealing activities. However, some aspects of the curriculum for children in the early years have not been finalised.

This creates a lack of clarity about what children should learn. As a result, some children do not learn all that they should to make a successful start when they enter Year 1.In contrast to the early years, the school has worked successfully to improve the curriculum across the rest of the school.

It is interesting, broad and ambitious for all pupils, including pupils with SEND. For each subject, the important knowledge that pupils need to know and remember has been clearly identified. The content of subject curriculums is ordered carefully into small steps.

This enables pupils to build on what they have learned before. Teachers use a range of strategies to check on pupils' understanding and they act quickly to resolve any misconceptions. This helps pupils to know and remember more over time and progress well.

Most subject leaders provide valuable guidance for teachers about how to deliver curriculums effectively. Generally, teachers present information clearly and provide suitable opportunities for pupils to practise their learning independently. However, on occasion, the activities selected by teachers when designing learning do not move pupils' learning forward.

This sometimes hinders pupils' achievement.

The school places a high importance on pupils learning to read. The structured phonics programme is taught from the start of the Reception Year.

Children learn sounds and their corresponding letters systematically. They enjoy using their knowledge to read and spell words and sentences. Pupils practise reading regularly.

They gain confidence by reading books that match the sounds that they know. Those pupils who need help to keep up with the phonics curriculum are supported well by staff. As a result, most pupils become fluent and accurate readers by the end of Year 2.

Older pupils are eager to talk about their favourite books and authors. They enjoy the opportunity to extend their knowledge by reading non-fiction books linked to the topics that they study.

The school ensures that the needs of pupils with SEND are identified early.

No time is wasted in providing additional support when it is needed. Staff are skilled in a range of approaches to ensure that pupils with SEND can access the full curriculum with success.Children in the early years behave well and demonstrate positive attitudes towards their learning.

These solid foundations are built on throughout the school. Pupils are respectful and well mannered. Staff offer sensitive support to pupils so that learning in lessons is rarely disrupted.

Attendance is a high priority for all. The school communicates effectively with parents and carers to ensure that most pupils attend school regularly.

Throughout the curriculum, pupils have many opportunities to develop their understanding of the wider world.

They know that people have different beliefs, cultures and families and the importance of equality. They confidently discuss important values such as respect and democracy and why they are important in society. Pupils develop a keen understanding of how to stay physically healthy and they excel at a wide range of sports.

Staff are proud to work at the school. They embrace the opportunities provided for their professional development and career progression. They value leaders' consideration of their workload and well-being when reviewing policies.

Members of the governing body are actively involved in the life of the school and committed to its ongoing success. They ensure that they are well informed about the strengths of the school and its priorities for improvement.

The large majority of parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the quality of education at the school and the care afforded to their children.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, some teachers do not design the most suitable activities to help pupils learn all that they should. This sometimes hampers pupils' achievement.

The school should ensure that subject leaders have the opportunities to support and advise teachers in effective subject-specific approaches. ? Some aspects of the curriculum in the early years have not been finalised. This means that, in some areas, staff are unclear about what children need to learn.

Some children do not learn all that they should in readiness for Year 1. The school should complete their work on the early years curriculum to clarify the important knowledge and vocabulary that children need to know and remember in readiness for their future learning.

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 September 2014.