St Andrew’s Church School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy being at this school and feel safe. They are confident in sharing concerns with members of staff. They say that staff know them well and will support them.

From Nursery onwards, staff help pupils to reflect on their feelings and to understand their emotions.

Pupils benefit from a rich and ambitious curriculum, which is underpinned by the cultural heritage of the local area. For example, pupils learned about weaving when they visited the Ancient Technology Centre.

Pupils are calm and well behaved. They say that bullying is rare and that staff help resolve any issues when they occur.

Staff teach pupils to respect diversity and to tolerate ...views that are different to theirs.

Pupils learn about healthy relationships and that it is wrong to judge people because of their beliefs or appearance. They celebrate Christianity and learn about a range of religions and cultures.

Pupils enjoy taking on responsibility.

This includes being members of the pupil council, the eco-council and being librarians. Pupils arrange activities to raise money to help others. For example, they baked cakes and sold them to help support the British Red Cross.

This helps pupils to become responsible citizens.

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

Leaders have created a committed and coherent staff team. They are determined that every pupil in the school will be well cared for and will achieve their potential.

Leaders have designed a curriculum that has clear, well laid out steps of learning in all subjects from Nursery through to Year 6. Staff have good subject knowledge and use this to promote and model the use of precise vocabulary. This helps pupils to learn well.

Leaders have made reading a high priority across the school. Staff encourage pupils to read for pleasure, as well as to support learning. Pupils benefit from selecting books from the wide range available in the school library.

Children in Nursery learn to communicate and to explore and recognise sounds and rhymes. This helps them to be ready to start matching letters and sounds right from the start in Reception.

The phonics programme is clear and well structured.

Pupils learn to read using books that match the phonics they are learning. Pupils are resilient in breaking words down into sounds and then blending these together to read words. Staff give pupils who struggle or fall behind in reading extra support to catch up.

This results in pupils learning to read well.

Staff support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to follow the full curriculum and to benefit from targeted interventions. Staff give specific support to pupils who speak English as an additional language and these pupils learn well.

In mathematics and phonics, teachers use assessment of what pupils know and understand to build future learning. As a result, pupils learn to read and to apply mathematics well. In some subjects in the broader curriculum, assessment of what pupils know and understand is not used precisely enough to inform the next steps in their learning.

This sometimes leads to pupils having gaps in their knowledge in these subjects.

Some subject leaders have only recently started to check the impact of the curriculum in their subjects. This means they are limited in their oversight of how well pupils are securing new knowledge, skills and vocabulary.

Consequently, this slows their efforts to improve the way pupils learn the curriculum.

Leaders provide a wide range of enrichment activities and events. These help pupils to develop their talents in sport and in music.

Pupils represent the school well, for example in the recent 'Voices for Life' music festival at Bath Abbey. They attend sports clubs and take part in competitions.

Pupils respond well to leaders' high expectation of behaviour.

They have positive attitudes to learning and are proud to share and talk about their work. They concentrate well in lessons and their learning is not disturbed by low-level behaviour issues. Leaders' focus on a whole-school approach to encouraging attendance has led to a reduction in pupil absence.

Governors support and challenge school leaders effectively. They monitor the school improvement plan and are supported by the trust in evaluating its impact on learning accurately. This helps them to understand the school's strengths and areas for development.

Staff benefit from effective training. They feel that leaders consider their well-being and work–life balance well. Parents fully support the work of school leaders and are confident that their children are safe, learn well and are happy at school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Staff know that safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.

They know how to recognise signs of abuse or neglect. They record their concerns diligently. Leaders follow up any concerns appropriately.

Leaders work effectively with other professionals and agencies to minimise the risk of harm to pupils.Staff teach pupils to understand the risks and to stay safe when using the internet. Staff carry out pre-employment checks on adults working within the school thoroughly and keep detailed records of these.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, assessment is not used consistently well to help build on what pupils know and understand. This slows pupils' progress through the curriculum. Leaders should ensure that assessment is used effectively so that pupils can build on their prior knowledge to help them to know more and remember more across all subjects.

• In some subjects, leaders have only recently started to check the effectiveness of the curriculum. As a result, they do not have a complete understanding of how well the curriculum is being delivered or how well pupils are learning. Leaders should ensure that subject leaders get the support they need to be able to monitor and improve the quality of the curriculum in all subjects.