St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Portbury

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The headteacher has improved the quality of teaching and learning considerably. Following the last inspection, she quickly took action to transform the quality of learning and rapidly improve standards. Leaders and governors rigorously check the quality of teaching and learning.

They use this information to hold teachers firmly to account for pupils' progress and the standards they reach. The quality of teaching throughout the school is good. Teachers take care to plan interesting tasks and activities to ensure that pupils make good progress.

Pupils are proud of their school, behave well and are keen to learn. They appreciate the care tak...en by their teachers to plan interesting activities and visits linked to their learning. The achievement of all groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is good.

Pupils make good progress in all classes. Leadership of the early years is good. Improvements to the quality of teaching have made a significant difference to standards.

In 2015, the majority of children made good progress. Governors know the school well. They share the headteacher's aspirations for the school's future.

They visit the school regularly and check pupils' learning and achievement closely. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Mathematics teaching is not of a consistently high standard. Not all teachers are as confident in applying the school's approach to reasoning and problem solving, and so some pupils, particularly the most able, do not make the best possible progress.

Teachers do not always use the information they have about children's progress in early years to plan activities at the right level of challenge. Not all pupils have a good understanding of British values.

Information about this school

St Mary's is smaller than the average primary school.

Most pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below the national average. The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is well below the national average.

This is additional government funding for looked after children and pupils known to be eligible to receive free school meals. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is slightly lower than the national average. The mobility of pupils in the school is lower than the national average.

Early years provision is organised into one full-time Reception class of 15 children. The school has worked in close partnership with the local authority's link adviser. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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