St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a warm and welcoming school. Pupils come to school enthusiastically and learn well. Parents and carers speak highly of the school and believe it provides a nurturing environment.

Pupils are proud of their school community and an ethos of respect and kindness is strongly evident.

Pupils' behaviour is exemplary, and they are motivated to learn. The school provides leadership opportunities for pupils, including as members of the school council, chaplain leaders and involvement in charity work.

They enjoy school and attend well. Pupils feel safe and are confident that they can talk to staff if they have any concerns.

The school provides an array ...of enrichment activities and trips so that pupils gain valuable life experiences.

Pupils attend a range of clubs including chess, newspaper club, sports clubs and choir. Pupils also take part in singing assemblies, 'poetry slams' and listen to authors and guest speakers.

The school has high expectations for all, including those with special educational needs/and or disabilities (SEND).

Pupils study an ambitious and broad curriculum. The school works closely with families to build a strong community from the early years. Leaders ensure parents are well informed and included in their child's learning journey.

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

The curriculum is ambitious and builds pupils' knowledge over time. Leaders have thought carefully about what knowledge needs to be taught, practised and revisited. Teachers ensure that pupils grasp key concepts and ideas well, and make connections between their subjects.

Leaders and staff quickly identify pupils with SEND. They make sure that these pupils are supported to learn the curriculum alongside their peers. Teachers have thorough information about pupils' needs and make adaptions effectively so that they progress well.

The school is ambitious for all pupils to read fluently. The phonics programme is set out and sequenced in a logical way to build knowledge gradually and securely. Pupils practise reading often with books that match the sounds taught in class.

Staff are skilled in helping pupils to read. Where pupils have gaps in their understanding, effective support is put into place. Leaders are aware of the gap between girls and boys in their reading ability and have strategies in place to reduce this and encourage a love of reading.

Teachers familiarise pupils with stories and choose books from a range of genres.

Teachers have strong subject expertise and build a culture of enquiry into their teaching. Teachers have high expectations and often set work that makes pupils think hard.

Pupils are supported through guided discussions and are given resources and tools to help them succeed. Occasionally, although they are interesting, teaching activities are not strongly linked to the key knowledge and skills that leaders intend pupils to learn. The curriculum is stronger from Year 1 onwards.

In the early years, the key knowledge and skills that children need for an effective foundation are not as clearly set out or embedded as they are further up the school.

In Nursery and Reception, the curriculum is built around topics and stories. Children are provided with a range of interactive activities to support their fine motor skills and wider learning.

However, the early years curriculum is not strongly sequenced in all areas of learning to ensure that children's understanding builds over time.

Children in the early years learn and play with each other cooperatively. They are curious learners and are developing their social and emotional skills.

Older pupils demonstrate highly respectful attitudes and are focused on their learning. Pupils are confident and courteous ambassadors of the school. The school works closely with parents to ensure that pupils have high attendance and are nurtured throughout their time at school.

Parents are positive about the school and consider it friendly and approachable.

Provision for pupils' personal development is excellent. A wide variety of enrichment activities are available and these effectively build pupils' cultural capital.

Well-chosen enrichment opportunities also support learning and make this memorable. For example, in music pupils gain experience of five instruments during their studies, and leaders more widely use author visits and trips to great effect. Outside of the classroom, pupils take an active role in the school community, crocheting blankets for premature babies, raising money for a local hospice, and raising awareness of road safety outside their school.

The school provides a comprehensive personal, social and health education curriculum and pupils are taught how to be healthy and safe, including online. They are prepared well for life in modern day Britain and receive talks from those of other faiths, celebrating diversity.

Staff feel valued and are proud to work at the school.

They are provided with good quality professional development. Governors regularly visit the school. Leaders seek to involve parents and families wherever they can and have built a strong community.

Leaders and governors are dedicated to continual improvement, which drives a culture of ambition.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The curriculum in the early years is not as well developed as in the rest of the school.

The school has not identified precisely what they want children to learn in each area of learning and how this builds progressively. This means that children are not as well prepared as they could be for their learning in Year 1 and beyond. The school should ensure that a well-sequenced early years curriculum is set out and implemented well.