St George’s CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), enjoy all that this school has to offer.

They embrace the wealth of cultures that make up their diverse school community.

Pupils know that leaders and staff expect them to be ready, respectful and safe. Pupils follow these school rules well.

Their positive attitudes help to make the school a happy place to learn.

Pupils benefit from the warm relationships that they develop with staff. Pupils trust adults in school to help them whenever they need it.

Leaders deal with incidents, including bullying, quickly and effectively. Pupils feel safe in school.

P...upils appreciate the variety of activities available to them.

They take part in a range of sporting clubs and weekly enrichment afternoons with enthusiasm. This helps pupils to discover and develop new talents and interests.

Leaders have high academic expectations for all pupils.

They have improved the curriculum to help pupils to know and remember more over time. Pupils achieve well across a broader range of subjects as a result. However, children in the early years do not learn equally well across all areas of the curriculum.

Some children are not as well prepared for their next steps as they should be.

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

Leaders have carefully considered what they want pupils to achieve by the time that they leave the school. Leaders have made the curriculum meaningful and interesting to pupils.

The ambitious curriculum supports all pupils, including those with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language, to make connections between different subjects and topics. In this way, pupils build their learning logically and coherently.

Subject leaders are knowledgeable about the subjects that they lead.

They ensure that teachers know which learning to focus on with the pupils in their class. In most subjects, teachers carry out regular checks on what pupils know and remember. Pupils recall their prior learning readily.

This makes it easier for them to understand and learn new information.

In a small number of other subjects, leaders are still devising the most suitable methods to check that pupils know what they expect them to know and do. In these subjects, teachers do not regularly revisit and strengthen pupils' previous learning.

Pupils do not build their knowledge as securely as they do in other subjects as a result.

In the early years, leaders have provided insufficient guidance for staff who teach and support children's learning. This is particularly the case in the Nursery Year.

Here staff are not clear about what to teach children and when. This means that they miss opportunities to deepen children's knowledge across each area of learning. There is an unevenness in the youngest children's development as a result.

Leaders make reading a priority. Pupils enjoy listening to their teachers read to them. Teachers select books that help pupils to reflect on important issues, such as equality.

Most pupils enjoy reading and establish positive reading habits.

Leaders make sure that staff across the school are well trained to teach pupils to read. Staff ensure that pupils read books that are matched well to their reading knowledge.

Pupils who need extra help, including those who speak English as an additional language, read regularly to adults and benefit from well-tailored phonics support. This helps these pupils to develop their fluency and confidence in reading. More pupils have needed this additional input since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staff throughout the school identify pupils who may have SEND well. Skilled staff provide these pupils with the support that they need so that they can get the most from their lessons. Pupils, including pupils with SEND, behave well in lessons and focus on their learning.

This means that they can learn without interruption.

Leaders prepare pupils well for life after primary school. They encourage them to aim high for their future lives.

For example, pupils learn what it means to study at university. They are keen to play their part in the school community. For instance, pupils take part enthusiastically in sponsored events to raise funds for worthy causes.

In this way, they develop well as active citizens.

Leaders benefit from robust challenge and support from governors. Governors know what is working well in the school and what needs to improve.

They have clear plans in place to bring about these improvements. Governors and leaders are focused on improving the attendance of pupils who are frequently absent.

Staff appreciate how leaders support them in making their workloads manageable.

Some subject leaders have not had enough time to check how well their newly refined, ambitious curriculums are being implemented. This sometimes hinders how well these subject leaders carry out their roles.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders know their school community extremely well. They make sure that staff know how to identify pupils who may need help with their mental or emotional health. Leaders put this support in place quickly.

This includes effective pastoral support.

Leaders also ensure that staff are well trained to identify pupils who may be vulnerable to harm. Staff pass on their concerns diligently.

Leaders are persistent in following up any worries that staff raise.Pupils know how to stay safe and behave responsibly in different situations. This includes when they are online and out in the community.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some subject leaders have had insufficient time to check on the quality of curriculum implementation in their subjects. This means that these leaders do not know how consistently well the curriculum is being implemented across the school. As they embed their newly refined curriculums, subject leaders should check that staff are delivering these curriculums as intended.

• Leaders' approaches to assessment are at an earlier stage in some subjects. This means that, sometimes, teachers do not use assessment strategies consistently well to support pupils to remember key knowledge. Leaders should make sure that teachers are fully equipped to support pupils to embed and use knowledge fluently.

• Leaders have not ensured that staff in the Nursery Year have the expertise to design learning that builds on what children know and can do already. This means that some children in the early years are not as well prepared for their next stage of education as they should be. Leaders should ensure that they provide staff with suitable guidance so that they can deliver the curriculum in the early years equally well.