St James’ Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The determination and drive of the executive headteacher have created a culture that has improved the quality of teaching.

Governors challenge leaders and provide effective support. Working collaboratively with the other schools in the federation has provided good-quality professional development. This has been highly effective in raising expectations and improving pupils' outcomes.

Teachers' questioning across the whole school challenges pupils to reason and deepen their thinking. Assessment systems are effective in identifying pupils who need additional support to enable them to catch up. Teachers check that activities set for these pup...ils support strong progress.

The recent addition of a part-time speech and language therapist in the early years is enabling children to quickly develop communication skills. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness is developed richly. Pupils are well equipped for life in modern Britain.

Pupils are well behaved and aware of their responsibilities in society. They feel safe and know how to keep themselves safe. They say bullying is rare.

Pupils enjoy reading, because teachers use a range of high-quality texts that interest and engage them. Despite this, boys do not achieve as well as girls in reading. Not enough pupils in Year 1 achieve the standard in the phonics screening check, so they are unable to use their knowledge of phonics to read unfamiliar words.

Leaders use extra funding to good effect, so that the needs of disadvantaged pupils are better met. However, pupils' outcomes in mathematics remain below those of their peers nationally. Teaching in some subjects, such as science in key stage 1 and geography across the school, does not help pupils to acquire knowledge and develop skills well enough.

Information about this school

The school is much smaller than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is above the national average. Most of the pupils are White British.

Very few speak English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils with SEND is in line with the national average. Children from three to five years of age have full- or part-time provision in the Nursery.

In Reception, children receive full-time education. Pupils in the main school are taught in mixed-age classes. In 2016, the school federated with Scholes (Elmet) Primary School and Moortown Primary School to form the Sphere Federation.

They have a single governing body. The schools share the same executive headteacher. He is a national leader of education.

The head of school was permanently appointed in January 2018, after five months as acting head of school. There have been significant changes to staffing since the previous inspection. The school organises its own after-school club.

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