Saint John Fisher Catholic Voluntary Academy, Wigston, Leicestershire

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

St John Fisher provides a good standard of education for its pupils. As one parent said, 'I feel my children have thrived at the school.' Pupil achievement is good, in response to good teaching.

This includes those pupils whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Attainment is above the national average by the time pupils leave the school at the end of Year 6. Current work in lessons and the school's assessment and tracking data show that standards are rising in Key Stage 1, where attainment is now in line with the national average.

However, the proportions of pupils reaching the higher levels in writing, reading and mathema...tics in Year 2 remain below average because of a lack of challenge for the most-able pupils. Children get off to a good start in the Reception class where they make at least good progress in all the areas of learning. The good quality of provision and leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage underpins children's good outcomes.

Good practice in upper Key Stage 2 demonstrates the good progress that pupils can make when teaching is well planned and challenging and activities are well matched to pupils' needs. In some classes, however, teaching is still not of a high enough quality for all pupils to make the real improvements in their learning that are needed to raise standards to a higher level. Some teaching lacks pace and in satisfactory lessons teachers' use of questioning does not offer pupils enough challenge to stimulate their thinking or accelerate their progress.

There are some good examples of marking to guide pupils to their next steps in learning. However, such practice is inconsistent across the school. It is more effective in English than in mathematics, and pupils are not always given the opportunity to assess the quality of their own work or that of their peers.

The curriculum meets all statutory requirements, but is not planned robustly enough to help pupils to make connections between different subjects to accelerate their progress further. All aspects of pupils' personal development are good. They feel very safe in school and do their best to keep healthy.

Pupils behave well. They have positive attitudes towards learning and enjoy school. Pupils' spiritual moral, social and cultural development is good overall.

Cultural development is not as highly developed as the other three aspects but the school has good plans to develop this area further. Good partnerships, particularly with neighbouring schools, make an effective contribution to pupils' learning and well-being. Through good links with parents and carers and good partnerships with a range of outside agencies, the school provides good support for pupils with specific needs and those whose circumstances make them vulnerable.

The good leadership record, together with its accurate self-evaluation has led to the rising attainment in Key Stage 1 and is influencing positively upon the rise in standards in mathematics and writing across the school for both boys and girls. These factors, combined with the good progress since the last inspection, underpin the school's good capacity for further improvement.

Information about the school

St John Fisher Catholic Primary is a smaller than average school.

The majority pupils are of White British or Indian heritage. The proportion of pupils who are at the early stages of learning English as an additional language is lower than seen nationally. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is slightly above the national average, but the proportion of pupils who have a statement of educational needs is slightly lower than in other schools.

The proportion eligible for free school meals is below the national average. Early Years Foundation Stage provision is made for children in the Reception class. The school provides a breakfast club for pupils.

A small minority of pupils transfer to high school at the end of Year 5 and this can be as high as a quarter of the cohort. The remainder transfer to high school at the end of Year 6. The school organises a breakfast club for pupils.