St Mary’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

Almost all pupils make good or better progress and learn well in their lessons. From broadly average starting points, pupils make good progress to reach standards that are above average by the end of Year 6. All groups of pupils, including disabled pupils, those with special educational needs and those known to be eligible for the pupil premium funding, make good progress and achieve well.

Pupils enjoy coming to school and feel safe. Attendance is consistently above the national average. The behaviour and attendance of pupils are good.

Pupils show caring and respectful attitudes to each other in lessons and around the school. Te...aching is good over time so that pupils leave the school well prepared for the next step in their education The school is very effective at promoting pupils' spiritual, moral, social and physical development. Spiritual development and a caring ethos are very strong features throughout the school.

The headteacher has a strong focus on improving the quality of teaching to a consistently high level. She is supported effectively by a new leadership team and members of the governing body. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Pupils, particularly the more able, are not always given work that is hard enough.

School leaders do not always apply clear systems for checking how well the school is performing. At times, pupils are not given enough opportunities to respond to their teachers' written comments in marking.

Information about this school

This is a larger-than-average sized primary school.

Most pupils are of White British heritage. A small minority of pupils are from different ethnic groups and the number who speak English as an additional language is much lower than average. The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium (additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families and children who are looked after by the local authority) is significantly lower than the national average.

The proportion of disabled pupils or those with special needs supported through school action, school action plus or with a statement of special needs is below the national average. The school meets the government's current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectation for pupils' attainment and progress. There was some instability in staffing during the last academic year; at the time of the inspection, there were five new teachers, including one newly qualified teacher.

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