St Elisabeth’s Church of England Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at this warm and caring school. They enjoy its nurturing environment. The school builds strong relationships with pupils, and it knows their families well.

Pupils described the school as an 'extended family'.

Pupils behave well. They are polite and respectful.

They learn about friendship, kindness and tolerance. Pupils get on well together and enjoy being with their friends. Pupils commented that staff encourage them to rebuild their relationships when they fall out with each other.

They feel safe.

The school has raised its aspirations for pupils' learning across the curriculum. Pupils strive to meet these high expectations....

They have positive attitudes towards their work, enjoy their learning and work hard in class. However, due to a weaker curriculum in the past, pupils do not have the secure prior knowledge to ensure that they learn well in some subjects. This is also true for some children in the early years.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are proud of their leadership responsibilities. For example, in acting as school councillors, play leaders and eco-ambassadors, pupils make a positive contribution to their school.

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

The new leadership team has worked very successfully to bring about improvements at the school.

This work has made a real difference to pupils' well-being and their enjoyment of school. It is also beginning to impact positively on their achievement.

The trust and members of the local governing body have supported the school well to bring about considerable improvement.

They offer helpful and insightful support and challenge. Staff feel well supported. Despite the introduction of different ways of working, the school has considered staff's workload carefully.

The school has made sure that there is an ambitious curriculum in place from the early years through to Year 6. The curriculum identifies the important knowledge that pupils will learn. This means that teachers know what should be taught and when this should happen.

This is helping some pupils to build their knowledge over time.

Due to weaknesses in the previous curriculum, some pupils have developed gaps in their learning. As a result, they do not have the knowledge that they need to make the most of the new subject curriculums.

The school has ensured that teachers have been trained to identify these gaps and to help pupils secure their learning. For example, teachers are helping pupils to recap their prior learning in some subjects so that they remember their new knowledge in the longer term. However, this is not replicated in some other subjects.

Pupils do not have enough opportunities to revisit their earlier learning to make sure that their knowledge is secure before new learning is introduced.

The school has trained teaching staff to teach the new curriculums. However, staff new to the early years have not been suitably trained to teach the content of the revised curriculum.

Some staff provide activities that do not help children to learn what they should. This means that children's success across the different areas of learning is uneven. As a result, some children are not sufficiently ready for their future learning in Year 1.

The school prioritises reading. Classrooms have well-resourced reading areas. Pupils enjoy reading, and they talk enthusiastically about their favourite books.

Children in the Nursery class develop early language skills through reciting nursery rhymes and enjoying traditional tales. The phonics programme begins in the Reception class. Children learn to read by using the sounds that they know to read unfamiliar words from books.

Across early years and key stage 1, staff check how well pupils are keeping up with the phonics programme. However, some pupils who struggle to read do not receive effective support to help them overcome their difficulties. These pupils do not catch up quickly enough.

This hinders their fluency and confidence.

Pupils enjoy learning. They demonstrate positive behaviours in lessons because of high expectations and well-established routines.

As a result, the school is calm and orderly. In the early years, children are polite and considerate of one another. They play and learn together confidently, both inside and outside the classroom.

Pupils' attendance has improved. The school has effective systems to promote good attendance through the careful analysis of attendance information and strong support strategies. Pupils attend school more regularly than they did in the past.

The school has ensured that there are clear systems in place for identifying the individual needs of pupils with SEND. Teachers make thoughtful adaptations to their teaching to support these pupils. This helps them access the same curriculum as their classmates.

The school ensures that pupils' well-being and personal development are a priority. For example, pupils engage in initiatives like mental health week. Pupils have a good understanding of democracy and equality.

They demonstrate respect for, and tolerance of, each other's differences. Pupils proudly spoke to inspectors about the different clubs that they can attend, particularly sporting activities.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, pupils have gaps in their knowledge due to weaknesses in the previous curriculum. This means that these pupils do not have a secure foundation on which to build when new learning is introduced. The school should ensure that pupils have the chance to revisit lost or forgotten learning to make sure that they can build on what they know and can do.

• In the early years, some teaching staff do not provide learning activities that support children to learn what is intended. This hinders children's achievement across different areas of learning. The school should ensure that staff in the early years are suitably trained to deliver the curriculum so that more children are ready for Year 1.

• The support that some pupils receive to help them keep pace with the phonics curriculum is not effective enough. This hampers pupils' reading success and confidence. The school should ensure that staff are suitably trained to help these pupils to catch up quickly and become accurate and fluent readers.