St James’ Church of England Aided Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The head of school leads a united team that is passionate in its determination to give every pupil a good education. The school's highly inclusive ethos is at the heart of everything the school does. All pupils and their families are warmly welcomed into, and made to feel part of, the school community.

Senior leaders ensure that the quality of teaching is good. They give staff effective training to improve their skills further. All pupils make good gains from their starting points.

These are below or well below those typically found in children of the same age. The curriculum is interesting and makes pupils want to learn. It builds pupils...' long-term knowledge and helps them see links between different subjects, ideas and themes.

Pupils get off to a good start in the early years. Staff in the Reception and Nursery classes ensure that children settle in quickly. The early years leader makes sure that children make good progress across all areas of learning and are well prepared for Year 1.

Consistently good phonics teaching means that pupils are able to read and spell words well. Pupils are kept safe in school. Staff communicate well and take swift action to help protect any pupil who may be at risk of harm.

Leaders have dramatically improved pupils' overall attendance, which is now above the national average. Pupils enjoy coming to school to learn. Pupils are well behaved and respectful to others.

They have a good understanding of the many cultures and faiths in the school, and they work and play alongside each other happily. Skilled and effective governors hold leaders to account and check that the school's provision continues to improve. Pupils' progress, though good, is not as strong as it could be.

Teachers do not show them well enough how to problem-solve and reason mathematically. Pupils, and particularly the most able, do not receive sufficient guidance on how to use ambitious vocabulary when they write. A smaller proportion of pupils than the national average attain a greater depth of understanding in writing.

The level of persistent absence has declined considerably but remains somewhat above the national average.

Information about this school

This is a much smaller than average-sized school. It is part of a federation with St James' Church of England Aided Junior School, sharing with them an executive headteacher and a governing body.

The executive headteacher took up his position in September 2017. The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is slightly higher than average. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is much higher than the national average and is around 85%.

There are currently 11 of these groups in the school. Pakistani pupils represent the biggest proportion of pupils, with approximately 30% of the school's population. More than three quarters of pupils are in the early stages of learning English as an additional language.

This proportion is much higher than the national average. The proportion of pupils with SEND is above the national average. The proportion of pupils who join or leave the school part way through this part of their education is above the national average.