Leiston Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Working closely with the trust, the head of school has effectively established a culture of high expectations across the school. Teachers now demand more from pupils and pupils respond with enthusiasm and energy.

Pupils of all abilities are making good progress as a result of good teaching and effective support from teaching assistants. Standards are improving rapidly because the work that pupils are given is well matched to their learning needs. However, more needs to be done to raise standards of work further.

Pupils develop technical skills well in reading, such as using phonics to sound out words. A new programme to develop pupils' ab...ility to analyse books and gain deeper understanding when reading is having a very positive impact. However, the approach is not fully established.

Pupils' writing in English is developing well and by Year 6, writing is often of high quality. However, pupils are not practising their writing skills enough in other subjects. Children in the early years get a good start to their education and most are making good progress.

However, some, especially boys, are rushed too quickly to write in books before they are ready to do so. Pupils behave well in and around the school. In lessons, they are often totally absorbed in their work.

Pupils have a strong understanding of how well they are doing. Staff look after pupils well and members of the welfare team provide excellent support to the pupils and families they work with. The curriculum has been carefully designed around pupils' prior learning, what they need to learn next and any gaps they may have in their wider understanding of the world.

The curriculum provides rich opportunities for learning both in and out of school. It promotes good discussion and develops pupils' ideas well, including their ability to think through problems across many subjects. Pupils are not consistently asked to talk about how they solved problems in mathematics.

The trust provides strong support, particularly to establish effective leadership at all levels. This includes supporting some leaders who are still developing their roles. Training for staff is of high quality and draws from the best practice across the trust's schools.

Governors provide good oversight of the school's work and hold school leaders to account for its performance.

Information about this school

The school does not fully meet requirements on the publication of information required in the SEN report on its website. The school does not fully comply with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish about the funding agreement.

While the website has a link to the funding agreement, this does not work. Leiston Primary School converted to become an academy school in November 2014. It is a founding member of the Avocet Academy Trust established at that time.

Two of the other schools that founded the trust had been working with Leiston Primary School prior to this date. When its predecessor school, also named Leiston Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted in March 2012 it was judged to be good. The head of school began her role here at the start of the last academic year.

The school is larger in size compared with other primary schools nationally. The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is above average. The vast majority of pupils are White British.

About 9% are from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. A few speak English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is in line with the national average.

An above average proportion have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan. The school meets the government's floor standards. These are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.