St Michael’s Primary School and Nursery, Colchester

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils consistently display the school values of 'include, achieve, inspire' in their behaviour and attitudes.

They say that everyone is kind at the school.

Pupils are safe. They enjoy their lessons and their time at school.

They remember their learning and achieve well in most subjects. Pupils particularly enjoy visits that show how their learning relates to the outside world. These include visiting a theme park, science and war museums, zoos and conservation areas.

Pupils have extensive opportunities to develop their talents and interests. These include playing various musical instruments, singing publicly in the choir and participating in public s...peaking events. Pupils fulfil active roles in school productions.

These include choreographing younger children and staging a talent contest. The wide range of clubs are very well attended by pupils, including disadvantaged pupils. These clubs include sports, music, young carers and military troopers.

Pupils, including children in the early years, are proud to undertake active and meaningful roles within the school learning council and the 'anti bullying league'. Many pupils relish the opportunity to work in collaboration with pupils from other schools. These opportunities help to prepare them to be responsible future citizens and develop their self-confidence.

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

The school has developed a curriculum that is ambitious. It is designed to motivate and inspire all pupils, including children in early years. The curriculum builds the most important knowledge that pupils should learn over time.

Learning to read is prioritised from the moment children start school. In Nursery, children listen carefully to environmental noises, stories, songs and rhymes. The emphasis on communication and learning language ensures that children are very well prepared for their formal phonics learning in the Reception Year.

Staff are highly trained to teach the phonics programme. Their interactions are skilful. They help pupils to learn to read and quickly identify those who need additional help to keep up.

The school ensures the books that pupils read match the sounds that they have learned. This supports them to become confident and fluent readers. As a result, most pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, achieve well in reading.

Some pupils did not achieve as well as they could last year. Consequently, the school has revised and improved the curriculum to address this. For example, the school has successfully made changes to improve the quality of pupils' writing.

Pupils now write extensively, practising handwriting as soon as they begin in the Reception Year. Pupils use complex vocabulary and language structures accurately as they write, taking care to use the spelling, grammar and punctuation skills they have learned. However, in some other subjects, the school's expectations for writing are not consistently reinforced.

This means that, sometimes, pupils' errors in their spelling, grammar and punctuation are not identified and addressed. As a result, some pupils' writing is difficult to read and does not reflect their depth of knowledge in these subjects.

The curriculum is carefully designed to build on the solid foundation of learning that children have secured in the early years.

However, in a few subjects, the school's approach to checking what pupils have understood is not consistent. This means that gaps in pupils' subject knowledge are not fully identified and addressed. Consequently, in these subjects, pupils do not progress as well as they might.

The school's provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is a strength. Identification of individual pupil's needs and the initiation of support are rapid and effective. Staff are highly trained to adapt learning activities and to understand pupils' behaviour and support their emotional well-being.

The school's well-being club, life skills programme and therapy dog all provide therapeutic support. Consequently, pupils with SEND achieve well from their various starting points.

Pupils' personal development is exceptional.

They gain a rich understanding of different faiths and beliefs through the curriculum, visits and visitors to the school. This means that pupils understand the importance of tolerance and respect for all. The school is committed to ensuring that pupils are very well prepared to be active citizens in modern Britain.

Pupils hear from visitors about potential careers that banish stereotyping, for example female firefighters and mechanics. Regular 'core values events' give pupils the opportunity to work with different age ranges. This develops their team building, collaboration and resilience skills in preparation for secondary school.

Staff are highly positive about working at the school. They feel very well supported by leaders in terms of their well-being and in managing their workload. The governing body holds the school to account effectively.

It has a strong understanding of the school's strengths and continuing areas for development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Across the wider curriculum, pupils do not consistently receive the support that they need to resolve weaknesses in their spelling, punctuation and use of grammar.

As a result, the quality of pupils' written work across the curriculum does not always reflect how well they are learning. The school should ensure that expectations of pupils' written work are consistently high across all subjects and throughout the school. This will enable pupils to develop the necessary skills and confidence to prepare them well for their next steps.

In a few subjects, the school's approach to checking what pupils have learned is not yet consistent. This means that pupils do not always consolidate or make links within their learning. The school should ensure that the strategies used to check pupils' understanding enable future learning to build effectively on their prior knowledge.

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