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?

The core values of 'respect, friendship and perseverance' permeate through the school. Pupils, staff, parents and carers are proud of their school, which sits at the heart of the local community.

Pupils typically describe the school as having a calm atmosphere where each day runs smoothly.

Staff have high expectations of how well pupils should behave. Pupils are exceptionally polite and considerate of others.

During lessons, they listen well and do what is asked of them. Pupils are eager to learn. At playtimes, they play games cooperatively with their friends.
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Pupils attend extra-curricular sports clubs, including cricket, rugby, dance and choir. They have opportunities to learn to play a musical instrument, such as the keyboard and guitar. Pupils visited a local Royal Air Force museum as part of a history topic, Stafford Castle and a local farm.

Year 6 pupils take part in a biennial residential.

Pupils take leadership roles seriously and see the value in being helpful around school. They have opportunities to become, for example, school councillors, play leaders and bronze ambassadors.

Pupils are expected to work hard, to which they fully subscribe. They achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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

Following a period of change in senior leadership, parents speak positively about improvements to the running of the school and the impact on the school community.

However, despite recent changes to methods of communication with parents, they would like to be better informed about the curriculum that pupils will be taught and how successfully they are learning.

Governors are well trained and understand their roles and responsibilities. They are fully committed to the work of the school.

Governors seek advice externally to help them get an accurate view of the school's performance, and act on this advice. Leaders and governors carefully consider staff workload and well-being. As a result, staff feel well supported.

Leaders are fully committed and determined to keep improving pupils' achievement across the whole curriculum. They have an accurate understanding of what the school needs to do to secure further improvements, and have set to work on improving the curriculum. This work is having a positive impact on pupils' outcomes in most subjects.

Leaders have redeveloped the curriculum recently with success. Subject leaders have sequenced learning successfully for the vast majority of subjects. Staff have received training to develop their subject expertise.

Subject leaders make checks on how well the curriculum is being taught. In these subjects, pupils' achievement is improving. However, in a few subjects, the curriculum is not sequenced effectively to build on pupils' knowledge from year to year.

In addition, checks on pupils' learning are not as well thought through. As a result, pupils do not achieve as well as they could in these subjects.

Reading is central to the revised curriculum.

Leaders introduced a new phonics programme at the beginning of the school year. All staff received training and have secured the expertise they need to teach early reading well. Books are well matched to the sounds that pupils are learning.

Staff use assessment to identify pupils who need extra support. Some pupils receive extra daily phonics lessons to help them to catch up. This additional work, including hearing the pupils read regularly, helps pupils to read with increased accuracy and fluency.

Pupils achieve well in phonics by the end of Year 1.

Relationships in the early years are warm and nurturing. Adults work with parents to make sure that children settle quickly when they begin school.

They swiftly identify additional support that children need and celebrate achievements. Children take part in outdoor woodland learning that is fully integrated into the early years curriculum. For example, they worked cooperatively to create bug hotels for the school site.

Children are well prepared for Year 1.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified swiftly. The delivery of the curriculum for pupils with SEND is adapted appropriately to meet individual needs.

Leaders work with external agencies and follow professional advice. They work in partnership with parents to gain their views and help them to access support beyond the school.

Pupils learn about fundamental British values.

They understand and respect that others may have different views and opinions to their own. Pupils take part in raising funds for national charities and donate to a local food bank.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong safeguarding culture. Safer recruitment checks on new staff are detailed and appropriate. Staff know how to spot pupils who might not be safe and how to report concerns.

Leaders involve external agencies swiftly when needed and follow this up appropriately. A range of early help is in place to support families, and this has a positive impact on the most vulnerable pupils.

Pupils say they feel safe in school.

They learn how to stay safe online and have a range of strategies to do this.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, the curriculum is not well sequenced to build on pupils' knowledge from year to year. Teachers' checks on pupils' progress are not well thought through.

As a result, pupils do not achieve as well as they could in these subjects. Leaders should ensure that they identify what they want pupils to know and sequence learning in all subjects from the early years so that pupils' knowledge builds progressively. They should also ensure that checks on how well pupils achieve in these subjects are well thought through.

• Parents do not feel as well informed about the curriculum that their children will be taught and how successfully they are learning. Leaders should make sure that parents are informed about what pupils are learning in the curriculum and how well they are succeeding.

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 March 2017.

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