St Mary’s Catholic Primary School (Maltby)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at St.

Mary's Catholic Primary School benefit from a much-improved educational offer. The curriculum in place is ambitious. It meets the learning needs of pupils and helps pupils to develop into considerate young people.

This ambition shines through in the lessons pupils receive. It is evident in the extremely positive attitudes that pupils show to their learning. They work collaboratively, listening to each other's mature points of view and adding valuable contributions to lessons.

Pupils are happy to attend St Mary's Catholic Primary School. During the inspection, they said that they enjoy spending time with their friends. Pupils said that they feel ...safe in school.

Relationships between adults and pupils are positive. Pupils explained that leaders deal effectively with poor behaviour and any bullying so that incidents are managed promptly. Inspectors agree and confirm that this is the case.

Staff have high expectations of what pupils can and should achieve. Pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well. Most pupils leave St Mary's Primary School well prepared for the challenges of secondary school.

Leaders have thought carefully about how to build a strong staff team at St. Mary's Catholic Primary School. They have considered the organisation of staff so that the school can continue to develop at pace.

Pupil absence is declining. This is because leaders have worked closely with parents to ensure pupils are on time and at school every day.

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

Leaders have worked to build a stable workforce.

This is now a strength of the school. Leaders have carefully considered their staff structure. They have been single-minded in their recruitment drives to identify and secure who they believe are the right members of staff for the pupils at St.

Mary's. These leaders and teachers demonstrate a tangible enthusiasm for providing an ambitious curriculum for all pupils.

Provision for children in the early years, including for children with SEND, is well developed.

Staff develop children's social skills and knowledge of the world with care and rigour. Adults help the youngest children to settle into routines well. Children enjoy a vibrant and welcoming classroom.

They learn to be kind, to share and to take turns. As children get older and move through school, the well-established foundations for children's pencil grip and early handwriting, which are set in Reception, continue to flourish. The knowledge that children acquire in the early years prepares them well for Year 1.

Leaders are committed to ensuring that provision for pupils with SEND continues to improve. It is clear, through lesson visits and looking at pupils' work, that the schools' curriculum is meeting the needs of pupils with SEND well. Leaders have established strategies for comprehensively identifying the needs of pupils.

Leaders and class teachers are increasingly proficient at developing appropriate plans to support individual pupils. These plans are instrumental in the day-to-day work of class-based staff. Teachers work proactively to implement high-quality support with carefully adapted resources.

Additional adults deliver well-considered intervention programmes.

In all subjects, leaders have worked with great insight to plan an engaging and thought-provoking curriculum. This is well mapped from the early years through to Year 6.

Teachers have been supported by leaders to plan carefully considered curriculums for pupils. These are highly effective. Through carefully sequenced plans, teachers ensure that lessons efficiently build on pupils' prior knowledge.

Strategies to check that pupils are knowing and remembering more are less developed. Leaders' actions in checking the quality of the curriculum is underdeveloped. There is not yet a whole-school approach or opportunity for all subject leaders to monitor how well their subjects are being delivered.

Leaders continue to deliver a strong personal development curriculum to all pupils. This work is primarily delivered through the school's personal, social, health and economic education and relationships and sexual education programmes. Aspects of these subjects were seen to be seamlessly delivered in both history and geography.

For instance, pupils in Year 6 were thoroughly engaged in a discussion about diversity in 1960s Britain when studying the impact of the Bristol Bus Boycott. Teachers continue to deliver this content with expertise and confidence, Pupils are able to discuss topics with sensitivity and show a great maturity.

Behaviour is highly positive.

It is very clear that pupils have huge respect for adults and their peers. Pupils are highly engaged at this school. Leaders have made sure that children in early years have established routines.

Pupils in Years 1 and 2 sit patiently listening to the teacher, putting their hands up to speak. This is in line with the school's policy. Older pupils interact well and engage with great maturity and insight in lessons.

Attendance has been a key focus for leaders in recent months and their work is having a positive impact. Leaders' revision of processes and procedures in relation to attendance are comprehensive and well thought out. Leaders are unbending in their newly established guidance, knowing that it will benefit the school community in both the short and long term.

Members of the governing body understand the priorities of the school. They seek external validation from the local authority and diocese to support the information they receive from leaders. Governors hold leaders to account effectively.

They are passionate about their role in ensuring that pupils are receiving a good quality of education. Staff delight in being members of this happy school community. They feel well supported by leaders and governors.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The school maintains robust systems for recruiting staff and governors. All staff are well trained to identify and report any safeguarding concerns.

Teachers keep a careful eye on things to spot signs of concern. They know to report these swiftly to the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) or the deputy DSLs. Pupils say that they feel safe in school and their parents share this view.

Pupils trust the adults in school to keep them safe. The curriculum ensures that pupils know what to do if they are worried. They are taught about the risks of being online and how to keep themselves safe in their community.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Assessment in a minority of foundation subjects is not fully developed. This means that in these subjects, teachers do not have precise information about how well pupils have remembered important knowledge. Leaders should ensure that assessment is further refined in these subjects to provide teachers with the information they need to plan learning that builds on what pupils already know and can do and ensure that pupils' learning is secure.

• In some subjects, subject leaders do not have a clear understanding of the impact of the curriculum in their subjects on pupils' learning. This is because they are new to the role and have had limited opportunities to make sure that pupils know more and remember more over time. Leaders must ensure that all subject leaders have the time that they need to check the impact of the curriculum.