St Edmund’s Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Edmund's Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

The headteacher of this school is Simon Lea. This school is part of the Consortium Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school.

The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Steve Martin.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that one of the best things about their school is the kindness within it. This is because they understand and actively embody the school's high expectations of being 'collaborative, purposeful... and respectful'.

Pupils enjoy their learning. They talk at length about the diverse books they read. Pupils are very positive about their writing, being particularly proud of their recent poetry tasks.

Pupils talk excitedly about the opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. These include visits to a local castle, an air museum and a science museum. Pupils benefit from visitors to the school such as a paralympic athlete, a circus troop and a sustainability workshop.

The majority of pupils participate in school clubs. These include 'film and fun', mindfulness, computing, craft, design, and sporting activities.

Many pupils adopt roles with meaningful responsibilities such as head pupil, house captains, well-being champions, road safety officers and diversity champions.

They regularly lead assemblies, for example on road safety and Black History Month. This helps prepare pupils for their lives beyond school.

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

The school experienced a period of turbulence following the previous inspection.

This led to significant changes in leadership and staffing. The quality of education has been a focus. The new curriculum is highly ambitious for all pupils.

Its breadth of coverage focuses on developing pupils to be 'independent, resilient and take risks from an early age'. The school has recently opened a nursery on site for two-year-olds where this intention is already evident. Through play and effective adult interactions, children in early years rapidly learn the key skills that prepare them for the next stage of their learning.

The school ensures that the curriculum content is appropriate for the mixed-age class profile of the school. Staff provide accessible and memorable learning activities for pupils. Pupils engage well in these learning activities and have high attendance at school.

This means that, overall, most pupils achieve well across the curriculum.

The school prioritises learning to read, with children learning rhymes and songs as soon as they start in the Nursery. The phonics programme is implemented effectively from the early years onwards.

Staff check carefully that pupils remember the sounds they have been taught. The books that pupils learn to read with are closely matched to the sounds they know. Staff identify well pupils who need extra help to keep up.

They waste no time in giving these pupils the support they require. Pupils achieve well in reading.

Staff provide many opportunities for pupils to write for different purposes.

Pupils' writing reflects their knowledge across the different subjects they learn. The content of pupils' writing is securely effective in showing what pupils have learned and remembered. However, pupils do not consistently apply their knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar consistently.

This impacts on the overall quality of their writing.There is an increasing number of pupils joining the school with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The school quickly and accurately identifies these pupils' needs and provides appropriate support.

Teachers ensure that classroom adaptations enable pupils with SEND to access and succeed in the same learning as their peers.

The school ensures that pupils are well prepared for their future lives in modern Britain. Pupils learn about diversity through the curriculum content, visitors to the school and the assembly programme.

Pupils demonstrate a very strong awareness of tolerance and respect for others. Pupils practise democratic rights by electing their pupil leaders. These pupil leaders carry out their duties as positive role models.

For example, they give awards to younger pupils linked to the school values. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

Staff are proud to work at this school and realise the positive impact of improvements.

They feel very well supported by school and trust leaders, who are mindful of their well-being at all times.

The trust has a secure oversight of the school's work. Leaders are clear about the priorities for further development, and they keep a close check on these through a variety of monitoring activities.

The trust provides the school with the support needed to continually drive and enact improvements.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Within their writing, pupils do not yet routinely apply their knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

This is because teachers do not consistently reinforce the expectation that pupils must apply these skills when writing for different purposes. As a result, this impacts on the overall quality of pupils' writing. Leaders must ensure that teachers continually reinforce this expectation so that all pupils can more effectively communicate what they have learned within their writing.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness on 22 and 23 May 2019.