Holy Rood Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Holy Rood Catholic Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Holy Rood Catholic Primary School talk positively about their school values. They live by these values throughout the school day, showing kindness and respect to one another. Staff help pupils to understand the school's high expectations by being effective role models.

Pupils say their teachers are friendly and kind. They are reassured that they can speak with an adult about any concerns or worries they may have.

Adults form positive relationships with children right from the start in the early years....

They take the time to get to know individual pupils, their families and their needs. Behaviour in classrooms is calm. Pupils access learning without any disruption.

At lunchtimes pupils support one another. Those with specific roles, such as the well-being ambassadors, help their younger peers to play together.

The school is ambitious that all pupils will achieve well.

Staff enable pupils to achieve their potential. They ensure that pupils' starting points, whenever they join the school, are quickly identified so that their learning is highly focussed. This ensures that pupils are learning the right knowledge at the right time.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), experience success and are prepared well for their next stage of education.

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

The school is sharply focussed on making continuous improvements to the curriculum and the wider offer in place for its pupils. The highly experienced governing body understands its role and knows the local community well.

The governing body effectively supports leaders with these improvements. There is a clear ethos from all stakeholders that this is a school with high standards and expectations for all pupils.The curriculum pinpoints the key knowledge pupils need to gain at each stage.

In early years, children learn the basic skills they need for future learning. Staff consider the starting points of pupils so that they can adjust the curriculum accordingly. This includes for pupils newly arrived from overseas as well as pupils with SEND.

As a result, pupils progress well through the curriculum.

The development of pupils' spoken language is a priority. In the early years, staff carefully model the use of subject vocabulary as children play.

In later years pupils rehearse orally before writing. This helps develop their ideas as well as their accuracy. In other subjects such as computing and science, classroom activities are designed to promote language and allow pupils the opportunity to practise the new words they have learned.

This approach ensures that all pupils, including those who speak English as an additional language or those with SEND benefit from working alongside their peers.

Pupils unanimously enjoy reading at the school. They say that there are books 'everywhere' which they can read, enjoy and recommend to others.

Regular checks on what pupils know allows the school to quickly identify any gaps pupils may have. Through daily phonics sessions, pupils access the precise teaching and support they need. Pupils at risk of falling behind quickly catch up with their peers.

In subjects such as mathematics, teachers' use of careful questioning alongside regular checks, identifies what pupils have learned and remembered. This is not yet the case across wider subject areas. In some subjects the systems for checking what pupils remember are new.

Information from these checks is not yet used effectively by subject leaders to evaluate what pupils know and can do.

The school develops positive learning behaviours. Children in Nursery and Reception settle well into routines.

There is a clear emphasis on teaching pupils to become independent, to make their own choices and take risks. For example, those new to Nursery access their own painting equipment to mix the colours they want to use when creating a picture. This focus on independence and the development of resilience continues through school.

Pupils in Year 6 shared recent examples of the activities they had taken part in during a residential trip. They were proud to have overcome some of their initial fears to complete tasks they had never tried before.

The school has considered the context of pupils when designing its offer for personal development.

Pupils have numerous opportunities to be part of the wider leadership team of the school through the roles they undertake. Pupils are proud to represent their school, both as subject ambassadors and school councillors in school, as well as at events such as sporting competitions outside of school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some wider curriculum subjects, systems for checking what pupils know and can do are new. The school does not gather and use this information as effectively as it could to establish what pupils know and can do in these subjects. The school should continue to develop the assessment procedures so that it has a clear oversight of the impact of the curriculum across all subjects.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in November 2019.

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