St Ignatius Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of St Ignatius Catholic Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 18 June 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in June 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are dedicated to the school, your pupils and the wider community.

You are steadfast in your ambition to continue to provide your pupils with positive learning experiences. Your strong and knowledgeable deputy headteacher has hig...h aspirations and sound strategic skills which support you and the school well. Together, you have developed strong relationships with staff who promote the caring ethos of the school very well.

Staff respect the senior leadership team and appreciate the work you do to support their well-being. Pupils enjoy coming to school. They like their lessons a great deal and their very high attendance reflects this.

Pupils appreciate the exciting, fun and interesting lessons that their teachers plan for them. They enjoy the broad range of subjects and activities that they can take part in. Pupils understand the rewards that are available to them when they work hard.

They behave very well, responding positively to the high standards you set. Pupils receive a good-quality education. However, most-able pupils are not always challenged enough for them to develop a deeper understanding of their skills and knowledge so that they can improve their work, particularly in their writing.

Your governing body supports you well. Alongside training that you provide, they use their range of skills to help them to understand the reports that leaders make available for them. They provide some challenge to you.

However, their questions are not always insightful enough to enable them to hold you to account for decisions you make about the school. They do not yet have a well-developed understanding about the strategic improvement of the school. Their focus is on the pastoral care and nurturing elements of the school ethos.

You have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified in the last inspection of your school. You put in place training to provide staff with professional development. This means that they can provide more opportunities for pupils to develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills in all subjects.

Middle leaders have received training and support which has enabled them to be more aware of the quality of the school. They now have a deeper understanding of the progress that pupils make. Finally, the outdoor provision for children in the early years has been well developed and now has many opportunities for learning.

Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding requirements are fit for purpose. The school has a very strong culture of safeguarding, where the safety and well-being of all is at the heart of all that they do.

Staff see it as their responsibility to keep pupils safe. Leaders provide them with relevant and up-to-date training to ensure that they understand current local and countrywide issues relating to safeguarding. Pupils understand how to keep safe outside school and online.

Pupils know how to keep healthy. They learn about the dangers of smoking and the importance of looking after their mental health. Pupils feel safe at school and they have someone to talk to if they need to.

Pupils are kind, welcoming and show respect to each other, staff and visitors. They all have opportunities to present collective worship to their peers where they display confidence and understanding of the activities they have planned. Behaviour around school and in classrooms is exemplary.

Pupils look after each other and take delight when staff recognise their peers for the achievements they make. Pupils' attendance is higher than the national average. Inspection findings ? The provision for three-year-olds is high quality and ensures the children get off to a very good start.

Activities are well thought out and provide numerous opportunities for learning and development. Staff in the Nursery are experienced and skilled in making sure that they meet all of the children's needs. Daily phonics sessions are well led.

The children delight in recognising and practising their sounds. Children in the Nursery are happy and thrive in this positive environment. ? Parents are extremely happy with the Nursery provision.

Parents were keen to tell me, 'My child is in Nursery and loves it. He has grown so much since starting there. He has learned how to write his name, recognises different letters and is understanding a lot of the phonics'.

Another reported, 'Our son is in Nursery and enjoys going to school every day. He can't wait to sit on the carpet with his friends and find out who is special helper. We are kept up to date with his progress and his teacher is always there to speak to if I have any concerns.'

? Teachers plan engaging, motivating lessons and activities for their pupils. They use assessments well to make sure they are providing work which is at the right level for each pupil. Staff use high-quality resources that they prepare specifically to provide extra stimuli for learning.

Pupils are very enthusiastic learners and welcome challenge in their work. However, they report that this is not always provided and often they are able to complete their work without too much difficulty. This is reflected in their workbooks, where stretch and challenge is not consistently clear.

As a result, pupils, particularly the most able, are not able to develop a good understanding that they can reuse their skills and knowledge to make stronger progress. ? Teachers and support staff have high expectations of pupils. They provide good-quality assistance to pupils, which they use not only to promote learning but also to encourage them to use their own skills to develop their learning.

Some staff use questioning well to allow pupils to consider the knowledge they already have to develop answers for new questions. ? Leaders support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) very well. Pupils with SEND make good progress towards their education, health and care (EHC) plan targets.

A parent of a pupil with SEND reports, 'St Ignatius has met and continues to meet the needs of my child to an exemplary standard. Communication is excellent and the standard of education given exceeds my expectations.' ? Leaders have high expectations of everyone involved with the school, including staff, pupils and governors.

They are clear in their desire to ensure that the standards of teaching remain good. Leaders act quickly if they identify any areas of weakness. They ensure that they put in place appropriate high-quality support and training.

• Leaders have strengthened the curriculum and increased the daily content of reading. Changes they have made have resulted in pupils developing a love of reading. Staff use interesting and appealing texts in lessons, extra reading time during the day and reading aloud has developed this school-wide appreciation of books.

The significant progress pupils make in their reading reflects this high-quality development. ? The curriculum is broad and offers pupils a variety of different subjects to study. As a result, pupils receive a wide range of experiences and skills which can enable them to progress and succeed.

• Senior leaders have an accurate view of the school and its performance. They have identified areas for development, and their actions have brought about improvement, particularly in the outcomes for reading. ? Leaders know that governors do not hold them as stringently to account as they should.

Leaders would welcome the opportunity to further develop this area of accountability. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? governors strengthen and sharpen their understanding of the school in order for them to hold leaders stringently to account for decisions that impact on the progress of pupils ? they take measures to enable all pupils to deepen their understanding by providing greater targeted challenge, which will enable pupils to make stronger progress. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Leeds (RC), the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Wakefield.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Sara Roe Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I discussed the work of the school with you, the deputy headteacher and the safeguarding lead. I also talked to three members of the governing body, including the chair.

I examined information about pupils' progress and looked at pupils' workbooks carefully. I checked a range of documentation, including leaders' evaluation of the school's effectiveness, external evaluations of aspects of the school's work and minutes of meetings of the governing body. I considered 43 written responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire for parents and 19 responses to the staff survey.

I visited classes to observe teaching, learning and assessment, accompanied by you. I held a formal discussion with key stage 2 pupils. I talked more informally to pupils in lessons and around school.