St John’s CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

St John's Primary is a good school. It has a number of outstanding features. The rich and vibrant curriculum stimulates pupils' curiosity, promotes their creativity and instils a strong awareness of the arts.

Regular opportunities for gardening and cooking have contributed to pupils' well-developed understanding of how to be healthy. The importance the school places on being a caring community, where each pupil is an individual, leads to a strong sense of belonging and safety. An example of this can be seen in the exemplary welfare provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Pupils thoroughly enjoy their learning and are active participants in an unusually wide range of projects and clubs.... Their keenness to learn is reflected in the high attendance rate. The school has improved steadily since the previous inspection.

Pupils' attainment has risen and the progress they make has improved across the school, although the proportion of pupils attaining the expected levels in writing is not sufficiently high in all year groups. All areas for development identified in the previous inspection report have been successfully addressed. These improvements stem from the high-quality leadership of the headteacher, well supported by an ambitious team of senior leaders.

This shared vision and drive has accelerated the pace of change and demonstrates the school's good capacity to sustain further improvement. The overall quality of teaching is good. Engaging lessons are characterised by stimulating resources or giving pupils problems to solve.

Levels of activity and enjoyment are high. While some lessons are outstanding, some are satisfactory. In these lessons, pupils' progress is slower and they are not sufficiently supported in evaluating their own work.

Parents and carers and pupils are overwhelmingly positive about the school. High-quality relationships and pupils' good behaviour create a harmonious atmosphere in lessons and assemblies. Attractive displays and impressive art work make the school an aesthetically pleasing and dynamic environment in which to grow and learn.

Information about the school

The school is a larger-than-average primary school located close to the centre of town. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. The vast majority of pupils are of White British heritage and there are very few pupils who speak English as an additional language.

The proportion with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average. The school has a privately-run nursery on-site that is subject to a separate inspection. The school holds several awards and accreditations including: the Healthy Schools Plus Status, Food for Life Gold award and the International Schools award.

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