St Christophers Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

This is a good school where some outstanding features from the previous inspection five years ago have been maintained.

Pupils achieve well. Following a dip last year, attainment has returned to its usual high level in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 2 and Year 4 when pupils leave. Children in the Reception year are provided with a good start to their time in school.

They enjoy a good range of exciting learning experiences both indoors and in the spacious outdoor area which they share with pre-school children. Pupils with special educational needs make good progress overall with some making exceptional progress because of the quality of the support they receive from staff. ...Behaviour and safety are outstanding, as they were previously.

Excellent behaviour in lessons and around school reflects pupils' highly positive attitudes to learning. The promotion of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding and this contributes significantly to their positive attitudes and behaviour in lessons. Teaching is good, overall.

However, teachers' expectations of what pupils can do on occasions are not high enough and planned tasks do not always build successfully on pupils' prior learning. The teaching of phonics (letters and their sounds) is not as effective as it could be in the Reception year and Key Stage 1 because of the large size of teaching groups. As a result, work on letters and their sounds are not always matched closely to the different abilities of pupils.

Leadership and management are good. Staff and the governing body work well as a team with a clear ambition to improve the school. Partnerships with parents and carers are a strength, reflected in the very positive response to the inspection parental questionnaire.

Information about the school

The school is a little smaller than the average primary school. The proportion of pupils from a variety of minority ethnic backgrounds is above average. However, the proportion who speak English as an additional language is below average.

The proportion of pupils with special educational needs is broadly average. There are no disabled pupils on roll at present. A below average proportion of pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals.

The school has a number of awards including National Healthy School status and the International Schools Award. The school's last routine inspection was deferred following a review by Ofsted, which found high attainment was being sustained. At the beginning of April 2012, the school will become an academy.

Day care, managed by a private firm registered with Ofsted, is provided before and after school. There is also a privately run pre-school on the site. Both of these aspects of provision are inspected and reported separately.