St Mary Magdalen’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils thoroughly enjoy attending this happy school. Children in the early years are supported well to settle quickly when they join the school.

Pupils appreciate the caring relationships that they forge with staff and with each other.

Pupils listen carefully in lessons and are polite and respectful to each other. They understand and follow the school rules.

The school has raised its expectations for what pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), should achieve. It has made changes to the curriculum to improve how well pupils learn. However, many of these changes are at an early stage of development and are not fully i...mplemented.

Pupils do not achieve as well as they should across the curriculum.

Pupils have many opportunities to broaden their experiences through a variety of trips and activities. They value helping to care for others.

For instance, looking after the recently hatched chick in the early years. Pupils are proud to take on roles of responsibility, such as being well-being ambassadors or buddies for younger children.

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

The school has taken positive steps to develop the breadth and depth of the curriculum.

In some subjects, and in the early years, the school has identified the most important knowledge that pupils should learn. It has broken this down into logical steps. However, in some subjects, the curriculum content, and the order in which it should be taught, has not been finalised.

This does not help teachers to plan and deliver an ambitious curriculum.

There is variability in the delivery of the curriculum. For example, in some subjects, pupils are taught new content that does not link to previous or future learning.

Consequently, pupils are not given opportunities to build on their learning effectively and they struggle to remember what they have been taught in these curriculums.

The school does not have a clear understanding of the impact of the curriculum on pupils' learning. In English and mathematics, there are assessment systems in place to check how securely pupils learn the curriculum.

However, these checks on learning are not in place in most other subjects. While teachers do pose questions and carry out quizzes, these do not precisely check whether pupils have secured the intended knowledge. Furthermore, pupils' misconceptions are not consistently identified and addressed.

As a result, pupils' learning is not secure.

The school prioritises teaching pupils to read from the moment that they join the school. The books which pupils read are carefully selected to ensure that they match the sounds that pupils know.

Staff deliver the phonics programme well and provide targeted, timely support to pupils who find reading difficult. The 2023 published data shows that the number of pupils who met the expected standard for reading in key stage 1 was low. This cohort of pupils had not accessed the school's current phonics programme.

These pupils are now being supported well, through the revised curriculum, to secure their phonics knowledge.

The school engages with other professionals to ensure that the additional needs of pupils with SEND are promptly and accurately identified. Staff understand the specific needs of pupils, including children in the early years.

They make careful adaptations to the delivery of the curriculum to ensure that pupils with SEND can successfully access the same learning as their peers.

Pupils behave well in lessons and move around the school in a calm and orderly manner. Children in the early years quickly learn how to follow the school's routines.

Staff understand how to positively manage pupils' behaviour. They use consistent, nurturing strategies to support pupils who struggle to regulate their emotions.

Pupils, including those with SEND, have opportunities to develop their talents through attending a range of extra-curricular activities.

This includes music, singing and a range of sports clubs. The personal, social, health and economic education curriculum is delivered well and is woven into the wider school life. This is adapted where needed in response to the experiences and needs of pupils.

Staff are proud to work at the school. They are confident that the school is considerate of their well-being. For example, governors and leaders fully considered the impact on staff's workload when making decisions about the curriculum.

Governors provide support and challenge to the school. They check the impact of the school's work towards improving the quality of education for pupils.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, the school has not finalised the identification and order of key knowledge that pupils should learn from the early years to Year 6. This means that teachers do not have the guidance that they need to deliver these subject curriculums well. The school should ensure that the knowledge that pupils should learn and when this should be taught are clear across all subject curriculums.

• The curriculum in some subjects is not implemented consistently well to enable pupils to make connections with, and to build on, prior knowledge. Consequently, in those subjects, pupils do not understand and retain key knowledge sufficiently well. The school should ensure that subject curriculums are implemented as the school intends so that pupils develop a rich and secure body of knowledge.

In many subjects, the school does not have assessment systems in place to check whether pupils have learned the intended curriculum knowledge. As a result, it is difficult for staff to identify gaps in pupils' knowledge, or for leaders to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of subject curriculums on pupils' learning. The school should ensure that assessment strategies support teachers and leaders to address any gaps in pupils' learning so that pupils build on their knowledge securely over time.