St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are safe and well cared for at this school. Families speak highly of the warm and positive atmosphere that staff provide.

Adults listen to pupils and are always on hand to help and support them.

The school has a positive approach to managing behaviour. Adults encourage pupils, who in turn want to try their best while they are at school.

Pupils understand the core values that are central to their school. They behave respectfully to one another. The school's clear rules and routines help to create calm classrooms, where pupils can focus on their learning.

Leaders are ambitious for pupils at the school, including pupils with special educational n...eeds and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils rise to these expectations and, as a result, an increasing number of pupils now meet the school's high expectations for their academic success.

Pupils relish the opportunity of taking on leadership roles.

They are proud to be well-being champions, school councillors and faith leaders. Pupils recognise the importance of caring for one another. They play an integral role in making the school a happy place to be.

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

The school has successfully developed a positive reading culture. Pupils at the school enjoy reading and recognise why it is important to practise. Pupils at the early stages of reading benefit from the schools structured approach to help them learn to read new words.

For those younger pupils at risk of falling behind, support is in place to help them to catch up. Books that pupils read are well matched to the sounds they know. Leaders have developed a sequenced reading curriculum that continues into key stage 2.

This ensures that most pupils develop the knowledge they need to become confident readers in readiness for secondary school.

In core subjects such as mathematics and reading, staff make checks on what pupils know and remember. However, on occasion, staff do not address promptly the gaps and misunderstandings that some pupils develop in their learning.

This means that some pupils, including those with SEND, move on to new learning before they are ready.

The school has developed a well-organised curriculum in the majority of foundation subjects, such as physical education (PE). In PE lessons, pupils quickly learn new skills and build on these, for example controlling a football by dribbling.

However, the curriculum in a few subject areas is still in development. In these subjects, the essential knowledge that pupils should know and remember has not been accurately identified. As a result, the sequence of learning is not always planned clearly enough.

This makes it harder for teachers to design learning that helps pupils to build on what they already know.

Children in the early years quickly form warm relationships with the adults who care for them. They are starting to establish friendships with one another, playing together and sharing resources.

However, the quality of the curriculum in the early years is variable. It does not identify clearly the knowledge that staff need to teach or take into account children's varied starting points. As a result, some children are taught new knowledge before they have the basic skills and understanding that they need.

Pupils are taught how to stay physically and mentally healthy, and how to stay safe online. They learn about differences in culture, background and faith. The school prioritises visits to different places of worship in every year group so that pupils develop a knowledge of and respect for other religions.

Pupils are accepting of these differences.

The school provides a wide range of extra-curricular clubs and activities for pupils. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about attending art club, singing, football and cooking.

They are proud that some of their suggestions for clubs are now in place. Leaders ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to make the most of this offer.

Pupils attend well.

This is a result of the vigilance of leaders and the strong relationships between staff and families. The school supports families to address barriers to attendance where needed.

The school academy council and the trust have a clear understanding of their roles in regard to ensuring that pupils are safe.

Staff feel very well supported by leaders and are proud to work at St Joseph's. Parents and carers are positive about the school, noting communication with them is effective and timely.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, staff do not consistently identify and rectify the gaps and misconceptions in some pupils' knowledge. This means that these pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. The school should support staff in identifying and addressing gaps in pupils' learning to ensure new learning builds on what pupils know and can do.

• In a few subjects, the curriculum is not fully clear or carefully sequenced. This means pupils do not learn the curriculum's essential concepts successfully. The school needs to ensure important curriculum concepts are well sequenced and sufficiently clear so that teachers can implement the intended curriculum successfully.

• In some of the curriculum areas in the early years, the key information that children should know is unclear and does not reflect their starting points. This makes it difficult for staff to understand which key concepts to introduce, explain and check that children remember so they can move children's learning on. The school should identify with greater clarity the foundational knowledge that staff in the early years will teach and assess.