St George’s Catholic Primary School - a Catholic voluntary academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a school where pupils are happy. Staff make everyone feel welcome. Pupils feel safe because of the care they receive.

Staff understand pupils' individual needs and how to support them. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Respectful relationships between pupils and staff help pupils to feel valued.

Leaders have high expectations for all pupils to achieve well. They have designed a curriculum to include exciting learning experiences. For example, older pupils enjoy taking part in the 'Big Dig' in Scarborough Old Town.

This helps pupils to learn how historians study the past and to value their local community. ...Pupils are keen to learn. They listen in lessons and want to do well.

Pupils achieve well from their starting points over time.

Leaders provide a range of opportunities to help pupils to become respectful citizens. They make sure that pupils are involved in looking after their local community.

For example, pupils worked together to repair a damaged bus shelter. Leaders make sure that all pupils develop their talents and interests. Many pupils learn to play a musical instrument.

Pupils enjoy performing in public. They recently performed their own musical compositions at York Minster.

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

Leaders have designed a curriculum to ensure that all pupils gain the knowledge they need to succeed.

The sequence of knowledge from Nursery to Year 6 ensures that pupils in mixed-age classes build knowledge over time. Teachers identify the most important knowledge that pupils must know. Regular practice helps pupils to remember this knowledge.

For example, in mathematics in early years, children sing songs and rhymes, such as 'Once I caught a fish alive', to help them to count. This knowledge helps older pupils learn to count in twos and fives later in school. Teachers ensure that pupils revisit previous learning before moving on to new content.

For instance, in physical education (PE), pupils recap how to find space in tag rugby before learning to defend.

In early years, staff model the vocabulary they want children to learn. They repeat back what children are saying before adding new vocabulary.

Staff are quick to correct children's mispronunciation of new words. This is helping children to build their vocabulary accurately. However, in some subjects, including mathematics, pupils in key stages 1 and 2 do not consistently receive such timely feedback.

This means that some pupils need to catch up later.

Right from the start, in the early years, children learn to read accurately. Staff have expert knowledge to teach the phonics programme.

This ensures that pupils learn the letters and the sounds that they make. As a result, pupils become fluent readers. Meticulous checks are made on pupils' phonic knowledge.

These checks help staff to know the precise support that pupils need to be able to catch up. Reading books match the sounds and words that pupils need to practise. Pupils enjoy choosing from the wide range of books in school.

Pupils like reading books that link to the historical periods they study, such as 'Freedom', a novel about the transatlantic slave trade set in the eighteenth century.

Children learn to write in the early years. Staff help children to learn to form their letters with precision.

Children often practise writing the letters and words that they have learned in phonics lessons. However, some older pupils struggle to use this knowledge to write with accuracy. These pupils struggle to write fluently and to write and spell what they want to say.

Leaders work well with external professionals to get support for pupils with SEND. For example, speech and language specialists share important information with staff. This helps staff to understand how best to meet pupils' individual needs.

Pupils with SEND are well supported to access the whole curriculum. They achieve well.

Some pupils leave and arrive at the school mid-year.

Staff make sure that all pupils are welcomed and supported to learn the school's behavioural expectations. This starts in early years, where children are helped to manage strong emotions. As a result, pupils are well prepared for learning.

Pupils understand that they need to attend school regularly to be successful. They enjoy the year group races to achieve 100% attendance. Despite leaders' efforts to encourage pupils to attend, some pupils do not attend school as often as they should.

These pupils miss out on important learning.

Pupils enjoy the many clubs and educational experiences on offer. These include, computing club, gymnastics and meeting with a local member of parliament to help them to understand democracy.

Opportunities to be sports leaders, house captains and buddies help pupils to learn to cooperate with each other.

Governors and trustees ensure that the actions that leaders take are to the benefit of all pupils. Leaders make practical changes to policies to ensure that staff manage their workload.

Staff appreciate the actions that leaders take.

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 areas of the curriculum, misconceptions are addressed less effectively than in others.

This means that some pupils do not learn as well as they should. The school should work with teachers to improve the ways that they use assessment to address misconceptions across all subjects. Some pupils are unable to use the sounds and words they have learned through their phonics teaching to support their writing.

This means that some pupils find writing difficult and find it hard to express their ideas in writing. Leaders should further support pupils to improve their writing by better teaching transcription alongside phonics. This will help to overcome barriers to writing for some pupils.

• Some pupils do not attend school as regularly as they should. This means that they miss out on important learning. Leaders should build on their strategies to improve attendance so that more pupils attend school regularly.