St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School, Prudhoe

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a welcoming school where pupils are nurtured and supported to be confident learners.

The changes that the school has made to the curriculum are paying off. Pupils remember the important knowledge the school wants them to know well. Pupils achieve well.

Pupils' behaviour is exceptional. From the start of school life, in early years, children are taught the vocabulary that they need to communicate effectively. Staff model positive relationships.

This helps pupils to get along when they play together. The school encourages pupils to describe their feelings and talk about their worries. Pupils know who to talk to when they need help.

This helps p...upils to feel safe.

Pupils value their school and the local community. They work with local charities to support fundraising and provide food for families.

This is helping pupils to be caring citizens. Pupils celebrate difference through a range of approaches deliberately planned into the curriculum. For example, the school's series of assemblies, called 'Lifesong Legacies', helps pupils to learn about the lives of significant individuals, such as American slave abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Pupils demonstrate high levels of respect and tolerance.

The school ensures that there is a wide range of clubs and extra-curricular experiences for all pupils. Sports clubs such as tag rugby, netball and archery are helping to build pupils' health and fitness.

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

The school has developed an ambitious curriculum for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). For each subject, the curriculum is clearly sequenced for every year group, including early years. The school ensures that staff receive training to help them teach the curriculum.

Pupils are ably supported to remember the important knowledge that they need for future learning.

The curriculum starts in nursery. Children regularly sing songs and rhymes.

They learn to recognise and count to five. This helps to prepare children in Reception to learn number bonds to 10 and 20 in mathematics. In phonics and mathematics, the school makes checks on how well pupils remember important knowledge.

The curriculums in some foundation subjects, such as geography, have been revised to ensure that pupils remember the most important knowledge over time. The school has not made checks to see whether pupils remember the identified important knowledge. Leaders have started to develop systems for checking pupils' knowledge of the revised foundation curriculum subjects.

Teachers use their expert knowledge to break down learning into small steps. In art and design, for example, pupils practise sketching techniques before drawing figures. Staff provide immediate feedback to address pupils' misconceptions.

This helps pupils to improve their work so that they do not develop gaps in their knowledge. Some younger pupils struggle to write. Pupils do not receive the support and feedback they need to help them to improve their spelling and handwriting consistently.

These pupils are not well prepared for future learning.

Pupils like reading a wide range of quality texts. 'Reading breakfasts' for pupils, parents and carers run every half term.

Pupils enjoy discussing their favourite books at these sessions. Pupils love the online stories on 'Tucked up Thursday', where they listen to leaders reading their favourite books. These activities are helping pupils to develop a love of books.

Staff skilfully teach pupils the phonics knowledge they need to be successful readers. They help pupils to catch up if they fall behind in their reading. Books are well matched to pupils' phonics knowledge.

This is helping pupils to read fluently.

The school ensures that pupils with SEND take part in all aspects of school life. Leaders make careful checks to identify the needs of pupils with SEND.

Staff seek advice from external professionals such as speech and language therapists. This ensures that pupils with SEND are fully supported to access all subjects across the ambitious curriculum. Staff make sure that pupils with SEND receive the precise support that they need to help them learn.

As a result, pupils with SEND are well prepared for future learning.

The school's behaviour curriculum, 'ready, respectful and safe', is followed extremely well by pupils. Pupils are calm and focus on their learning well.

Low-level disruption is extremely rare. If it happens, staff are swift to deal with it. Pupils behave beautifully at St Matthew's.

Support for families to ensure that pupils attend school is exceptional. As a result, pupils have high attendance.

The opportunities for pupils' personal development are exemplary.

Leaders ensure that the curriculum for personal, social and health education is preparing pupils exceptionally well for life in modern Britain. This includes helping pupils to understand how to keep safe when working and playing online. There are many opportunities to develop pupils' talents and interests.

For instance, older pupils enjoy participating in the 'Shakespeare School's Festival' annually. Pupils are proud to be sports leaders and ambassadors for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Governors make regular visits to the school.

They check that leaders' actions benefit all pupils. Governors support and challenge leaders incisively. Staff feel valued.

They enjoy working in a supportive team. Leaders at all levels, including trust leaders, ensure that staff are supported to manage their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has not implemented systems to assess pupils' knowledge in a small number of recently revised foundation subjects. In these subjects, gaps in pupils' knowledge are not identified and addressed. The school should ensure that systems are in place to check how well gaps in pupils' knowledge are identified and addressed in all subjects of the curriculum.

• The school does not address younger pupils' misconceptions in writing well. This means that these pupils are not prepared well enough to write as they progress through the school. Leaders must ensure that staff check pupils' misconceptions in writing and provide timely and clear feedback.

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