St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Andrew's CofE Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy school and see it as a happy place to be.

They feel respected by their peers and they value the caring approach of staff. All pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), feel included in this supportive school community.

Pupils are safe at school.

They respond well to the high expectations that staff set for their behaviour. Bullying, although rare, is tackled decisively by staff. Classrooms are calm and pupils focus on their work.

They enjoy meeting the high standards that teachers set for their learnin...g. Pupils achieve well in many subjects across the curriculum.

Leaders have established a rich offer for pupils' wider development within the curriculum.

For example, pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 enjoyed a mental health project delivered by a premier league football club. These pupils also have opportunities to develop their leadership skills, where they are encouraged to 'be the change that they want to see'.

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

Leaders have put in place a new curriculum for the teaching of phonics to further improve pupils' achievement in reading.

Teachers follow this programme systematically to ensure a high level of consistency in the delivery of the curriculum. Children in the Reception Year learn phonics right from the start of their education. They quickly develop their awareness of letters and the sounds that they represent.

Teachers in key stage 1 build well on this knowledge by encouraging pupils to read sentences fluently. Teachers make sure that pupils have lots of opportunities to practise their phonics knowledge by matching the books that pupils read to the sounds that they know. For those pupils who find reading more difficult, effective extra support is provided to help them catch up.

Those pupils who attend the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced provision) develop their language and reading knowledge well.In most subjects, pupils, including those with SEND, achieve well. This is because the curriculum is carefully designed to identify what they will learn and when this knowledge will be taught.

This enables teachers to build on pupils' prior learning, so that pupils gain a rich body of knowledge over time. Teachers question pupils' understanding to make sure that they remember the main content of what they have been taught. In these subjects, pupils are clear about how their learning in the past is helping them with their current work.

A small number of subjects are not as far ahead. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic halted leaders' plans to improve these subjects further. In these subjects, leaders have not ensured that the curriculum is clear enough for teachers to follow.

Leaders have included too many facts for pupils to remember. As a result, some learning gets lost and pupils do not remember some of the key knowledge as well as they should.

Pupils with SEND are identified at the earliest opportunity.

For example, governors have put in place a speech therapist to assess pupils' language skills in the early years. Leaders regularly review the progress that pupils make through the intended curriculum, including in the specially resourced provision, to make sure that the support pupils receive is effective. Leaders and teachers are adept at putting strategies in place to remove barriers to learning for these pupils.

As a result, pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as their peers and achieve well.

In the early years, children settle into routines quickly. Staff are very effective in fostering children's enthusiasm for learning.

Teachers consistently promote pupils' positive attitudes throughout the school. Typically, there is little disruption to pupils' learning. However, a small number of pupils miss out on too much learning because they do not attend school regularly enough.

Leaders have thought carefully about the opportunities for pupils' wider development. For example, leaders have carefully selected artists and historical figures to promote diversity within the curriculum and foster an understanding of different cultures. Pupils also have a strong awareness of different faiths.

Although there are a range of activities on offer within the curriculum, leaders have not established the same breadth of clubs that were on offer prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the parents and carers who responded to the Ofsted Parent View survey would like to see more after-school clubs.

Governors understand the school well.

They consider how the decisions that they make will affect the workload of staff. Staff are positive about the way in which leaders look after their well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have clear systems to identify pupils who may be at risk of abuse. Staff receive up-to-date training to ensure that they are vigilant and open to the possibility of pupils being harmed. When necessary, leaders refer their concerns to other agencies to get the support that pupils and their families need.

Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations. For example, when working online.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, teachers are not clear about what key knowledge should be taught.

This leads to some pupils struggling to recall some of the essential knowledge that they will need for their future learning. Leaders should make the curriculum expectations clearer in these subjects by defining the essential knowledge that they want all pupils to remember. ? A small group of pupils are persistently absent from school.

This means that they are missing out on learning all that they should. Leaders should ensure that they engage with parents more effectively to ensure that these pupils attend school regularly.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

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 would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which 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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in October 2012.

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