Sharples Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Sharples Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils thrive at this happy and harmonious school. The school has high aspirations for all pupils.

Pupils typically achieve well. They are eager to embrace the challenges of secondary education by the time that they reach the end of Year 6.

Pupils benefit from the effective support of skilled and caring staff.

This is particularly true for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including those who access the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced provis...ion).

Pupils are proud of the diversity at their school. They support each other well and celebrate each other's achievements.

Pupils enjoy social times together. They carry out leadership roles with diligence, such as prefects, school councillors and well-being warriors.

Pupils strive to earn the many awards on offer for demonstrating that they are 'Sharples Super Stars'.

They are respectful and resilient. Pupils behave well as they move around the school and focus on their learning during lessons.

The school ensures that pupils are well motivated to try their best.

For example, pupils learn about a wide range of careers that they might access when they are older. They demonstrate determination in developing the skills and knowledge that they will need for these.

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

There is a strong sense of community and common purpose at the school.

The governing body works closely with staff to ensure that all pupils benefit from a high-quality education. Governors also make sure that staff receive the support that they need to deliver the curriculum as effectively as possible.

The curriculum is ambitious and well organised.

This supports teachers to enhance and deepen pupils' learning as they progress through the school. Teachers deliver the intended curriculum consistently well, including in reading. They check pupils' understanding routinely and help them to build on what they already know.

This is particularly important for pupils who are still at the early stages of learning to speak English as an additional language to help them to develop their understanding of vocabulary. Pupils develop a secure body of knowledge in most areas of the curriculum.

Reading is at the heart of the school's curriculum.

The school focuses on ensuring that pupils develop secure reading knowledge so that they can access the rest of the curriculum. Most pupils become fluent and accurate readers by the end of Year 6.

Children in the early years and pupils who have recently arrived from overseas, benefit from the support of well-trained staff in developing their understanding of how to use phonics to read words.

For many children, this begins in the Nursery Year, where children learn to recognise different types of sounds. They respond well to familiar stories, songs and rhymes. As they progress into the Reception Year and beyond, pupils apply their knowledge of phonics with growing skill and confidence as they practise their reading.

The school provides effective additional support for pupils who find reading more difficult.

The school's work to develop pupils' writing is at an earlier stage. Some pupils' writing is not as fluent as it could be, which affects how easily they are able to record their ideas.

This is because, at times, teachers do not provide sufficient support for pupils who have not developed letter formation skills well enough. This gets in the way of pupils developing fluency in their writing. The school has recently adapted its curriculum to help pupils to overcome the difficulties that some of them experience as a result of underdeveloped writing skills.

However, it is too early to see the impact of this work.

Teachers are quick to recognise when pupils may have SEND. The school makes the most of the expertise it has to provide effective support for these pupils.

Class teachers liaise closely with those who work in the specially resourced provision to ensure that pupils with SEND benefit from well-matched support. Pupils with SEND achieve well.

Attendance at the school has improved considerably in recent years.

This is because the school has a clear picture of those pupils whose attendance is causing most concern. It provides well-targeted and effective support for these pupils. Most pupils now attend regularly.

This is helping to improve their achievement across the curriculum.

Pupils' personal development is a high priority for the school. Pupils benefit from a rich diet of high-quality activities and opportunities.

These help to prepare them for their next stages of education and for the challenges that they are likely to meet in the wider world. Pupils develop confidence and independence in activities such as preparing meals, deciding how to raise money for local charities or taking part in national projects such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school does not ensure that some pupils secure early writing skills well enough. For these pupils, this means that they do not develop fluency in their writing as well as they could. The school should ensure that pupils receive the support that they need to record their ideas with consistently clear and fluent written work.

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 to be 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 May 2019.