St Alban’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school. Extremely strong leadership is instrumental in the school's success. All leaders and managers, including governors, refuse to accept second best.

They have worked together to improve both the quality of teaching and pupils' achievement since the previous inspection. The school continues to improve very quickly because leaders are very clear about the main priorities. They plan developments very carefully, only taking on initiatives that will be beneficial to pupils' learning.

Leaders make very thorough use of information on pupils' progress to check that they are all doing well enough. Additional support is given immediately to a...ny pupils who are in danger of falling behind so that they catch up very quickly. Governors provide high levels of challenge to other leaders.

They share the headteacher's determination to provide the best possible education to pupils. Pupils' achievement is outstanding. They make excellent progress across the school and attainment is consistently above average by the end of Year 6.

Pupils who receive extra support through additional government funding make exceptionally rapid progress and attain at least as well as others by the end of Year 6. Outstanding provision in the Reception class ensures that children get off to a very good start to their education. Adults plan work that helps children to develop new skills extremely quickly.

Across the school, teachers meet the needs of pupils highly effectively. They make work fun and exciting, and help pupils to develop an exceptionally strong love of learning. There is a delightful atmosphere in school.

Pupils feel very safe and behave exceptionally well. They very keenly take responsibility and work very hard. Pupils show great concern for the needs of those less fortunate than themselves.

They are tolerant and respectful of others. Pupils greatly enjoy school because learning is enriched by an exciting array of activities both in and out of lessons. They are especially positive about music and computing, both of which are taught exceptionally well by specialist staff.

Parents support the school extremely well. They are keen for their children to do well and play an important part in the school's success by helping with work at home.

Information about this school

This is an average sized primary school.

Pupils come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, with nearly 30 home languages represented in the school. Around one in four of pupils speak English as an additional language. Very few of these pupils are in the early stage of learning English.

The most common home languages for these pupils are Italian and Portuguese. Children are taught full-time in the Reception class. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is around one in ten.

This proportion is below average when compared with all schools nationally. Around one in ten pupils is supported by the pupil premium. This is lower than the national average.

The pupil premium is additional government funding provided to give extra support to pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and to children who are looked after by the local authority. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress. The headteacher is an LLE (Local Leader in Education) and supports other schools in the local authority.