St Paul’s CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

This is a good school. It takes good care of its pupils, including those who need most help, and they gain confidence and self-esteem and achieve well. Pupils respond well to high expectations of behaviour and most aspects of pupils' personal development are good.

Staff say they feel valued members of the team. They pay tribute to the role of the headteacher in galvanising the enthusiasm of staff to carry out the changes which have resulted in considerable improvements in the school's work since the last inspection. Children make satisfactory progress overall in the Early Years Foundation Stage from a low starting point.

However, attainment is below what is typical for their age when they lea...ve the Reception class, particularly in boys' early reading and writing skills. Staff plan an increasing variety of activities outdoors to enhance provision and to engage boys' interest, but they are not always clearly focused on what children need to learn. When children are learning through play adults do not always have the confidence to guide them sufficiently towards developing their skills.

The school has many strategies in place to improve boys' performance from a low base at the start of Year 1. Whilst most pupils make good progress in Key Stage 1 the progress of boys has not accelerated sufficiently to close the gap with girls' attainment in reading and writing by the end of Year 2. Standards are improving, particularly in English.

Attainment has been broadly average in mathematics by the end of Year 6 for several years, though attainment in English was significantly lower. Improvements in teaching, in marking, and in the opportunities for writing have resulted in a good improvement in English over the past three years. Attainment was broadly average in 2010 and the results of the most recent assessments indicate that this improvement has been maintained and pupils are achieving well.

The attendance of the very large majority of pupils is satisfactory. However, despite many efforts by the school and other professionals, a small number of families fail to send their children to school regularly and this affects their progress. The school's self-evaluation is based on rigorous monitoring of its work and is accurate in most respects.

Whole-school initiatives have resulted in good improvements in leadership and management, attainment, teaching and the curriculum since the last inspection. This indicates the school has a good capacity to improve.

Information about the school

The school is smaller-than-average and most pupils are from a White British background.

All the classes apart from one contain just one age group. More than half of the pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals, which is well above average. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is broadly average.

The number of pupils speaking English as an additional language is below average. A new deputy headteacher joined the school almost three years ago, filling a vacancy that had existed for some time. The adjacent Children's Centre is inspected separately and the report will be available on the Ofsted website.