St Luke’s Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are receiving a rapidly improving education at the school.

The trust has acted decisively to tackle weaknesses and stem the recent decline in pupils' outcomes. This has, understandably, resulted in some instability in staffing. Therefore, the trust has added capacity through specialist support.

The incoming headteacher is already part of a detailed handover.

The school has significantly raised its expectations for pupils. This is having a positive impact on pupils' attitudes to learning.

The more challenging curriculum means pupils learn at a faster rate. They show increasing resilience and effort with their work.

The school has taken... effective action to address expectations for behaviour.

The behaviour system is relatively new. It has already had a positive impact on behaviour that disrupts learning. However, this is not yet shown in pupils' general respect towards one another.

Low-level incidents of unkindness or lack of respect still affect too many pupils.

Pupils benefit from a range of clubs and curriculum enrichment activities which develop their interests and talents. Older pupils enjoy taking on additional responsibilities.

There is a buddy system across the school. This helps younger pupils settle quickly when they join the junior site.

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

The school has designed a curriculum that is coherent and well sequenced.

In recent months, the school has prioritised reading, writing and mathematics. Crucially, the school has significantly raised teachers' expectations of what pupils can and should achieve, and by when. This is having a positive impact on pupils' achievement.

Across the school, pupils are now producing higher quality work. They are developing a more secure knowledge and understanding, particularly in English and mathematics.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have their barriers to learning accurately identified.

Training is helping teachers to adapt learning to reduce these barriers. However, this is not yet consistent in all years or across all subjects. In the wider curriculum, learning is not always delivered in a way that helps pupils with SEND learn well.

The raised ambition for pupils begins in Reception. Children now have a much sharper start to school. They quickly start to learn phonics.

Teaching ensures they learn to segment words and blend sounds accurately. In Reception, pupils follow well-established routines so no learning time is lost. As a result, the vast majority of children are meeting the expectations of the programme.

In key stage 1, the phonics programme has been adapted to ensure that pupils catch up quickly.

The school has improved the teaching of transcription skills in writing. The focus on accurate letter formation and presentation is having an impact.

There is a marked improvement in pupils' work as a result of teachers' higher expectations. At key stage 1 and in the early years, pupils write sentences with technical accuracy. The writing curriculum for older pupils still requires refinement.

Too many pupils are not secure in the foundations of writing.

This is a similar picture in mathematics. The school has focused on getting the basics right.

A focus on fluency means that pupils develop a rapid recall of number facts that they can use to solve problems or to explain their thinking. In both writing and mathematics, the improvements are having the greatest impact on the younger pupils. While the school is taking the necessary actions to improve pupils' outcomes, the impact is slower for pupils in key stage 2 due to the wider gaps in knowledge.

Subject leadership in reading, writing and mathematics supports teachers with their subject knowledge. This has helped teachers to raise their expectations of pupils. The school's commitment to supporting teachers to sequence the curriculum means that subject leaders can share their expertise.

However, this is not as effective in the wider curriculum. While the curriculum design is coherent and well sequenced, pupils do not build on what they already know. In some subjects, learning sequences do not break down the knowledge and skills pupils need to develop effectively.

Consequently, pupils' work does not reflect a progression in pupils' knowledge or understanding.

Pupils learn from a well-sequenced personal, social and health education programme. They understand how to stay safe online.

They learn some of the risks to them in their local community, such as water safety.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Staff do not have the subject and teaching knowledge they need in some subjects.

This means they lack the expertise needed to teach the curriculum consistently well and support pupils sufficiently. The school must ensure staff have the professional development they need to support all pupils to follow an ambitious and clearly sequenced curriculum. ? Subject leadership in the wider curriculum is not well developed.

As a result, the school is not able to use accurate evaluation to drive improvements in these subjects. The school must ensure that subject leadership is trained to provide support and challenge in the implementation of the curriculum. This is so pupils achieve consistently well across subjects and across year groups.

Staff do not adapt teaching to meet pupils' needs sufficiently well. This can impede pupils' learning, especially pupils with SEND. The school must ensure that all staff adapt teaching well to meet the needs of pupils, including pupils with SEND.

• Pupils do not always show respect or kindness to their peers. Too many pupils feel that others are unkind to them. The school should ensure its vision and values positively impact pupils' words and actions so that there is a culture of respect in the school.

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