St Paul’s CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils' positive attitudes to school help to ensure that St Paul's is a friendly, welcoming place where individual differences are valued. Pupils maintain strong relationships with staff and with each other. They behave well and they are respectful to others.

This makes the atmosphere in the school calm and harmonious.

Pupils access a range of visits and clubs that help to develop their interests. The school ensures that trips are designed to add to pupils' education or to develop pupils' personal qualities, such as their resilience.

For example, older pupils fondly remember visiting a local theatre to perform on stage because this helped them to develop thei...r confidence.

Pupils are responding well to the high expectations that the school sets for their achievement across the curriculum. In the main, most pupils remember their learning well.

This means that they are ready for the next stage of their education and they are confident to accept new challenges.

Pupils have a strong understanding of what it means to be equal. For example, they have been involved in an art project that focuses on inspirational people with disabilities.

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

In 2022 and 2023, the attainment of pupils at the end of key stage 1 for reading, writing and mathematics was low compared with other schools nationally. The school has responded to these results successfully. Staff have been provided with comprehensive training so that they deliver the intended curriculums for these subjects consistently well.

As a result, pupils in key stage 1 are knowing and remembering more of their learning than was the case in the past. This is beginning to raise pupils' achievement across key stage 2. However, there are a small number of pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who have not caught up quickly enough in reading and mathematics.

The gaps that these pupils have in their prior learning mean that they are not able to build on new learning securely.

Children in the Nursery class learn about sounds in readiness for starting to learn phonics in the Reception Year. Pupils in key stage 1 use their phonics knowledge accurately to read unfamiliar words.

Staff ensure that the books that pupils read match the sounds that they know. This helps to reinforce pupils' learning. Children in the early years and pupils in key stage 1 benefit from suitable support to help them keep up with the phonics programme.

Across key stages 1 and 2, the school has ensured that the subject curriculums specify the most important knowledge that pupils should know. Staff check pupils' learning carefully to make sure that they have understood what has been taught. Pupils across Years 1 to 6 successfully recall their knowledge of different subjects.

The early years curriculum is equally well thought out. However, at times, staff do not choose the most appropriate strategies to help children learn what is intended during independent activities. This hampers children's progress through the curriculum.

The school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND at the earliest opportunity. In the early years, it uses information from the assessment checks to identify any needs, particularly those related to language and communication. Most pupils with SEND receive the support that they need to progress well through the curriculum.

The school places a strong emphasis on the need for pupils to attend school regularly, right from the time that children enter the early years. The school takes great care to understand the reasons why some pupils are absent. There are suitable strategies in place to help pupils to overcome any barriers to attendance.

This is beginning to make small differences for some individual pupils. However, the rate of persistent absence remains high.

The arrangements in place to ensure that pupils behave well are effective.

Pupils demonstrate the school values of compassion and respect in their everyday conduct. They focus well on their work and there is no disruption to learning.

The provision for pupils' personal development includes helping them to understand how they can make a difference in their community.

This is evident in their charity work, such as donating exercise books to prisons or making Christmas cards for older people. Pupils also have a well-developed knowledge of other faiths. The school has put in place some opportunities for pupils to experience leadership roles, such as the welcome ambassadors who help pupils who are international new arrivals to settle into the school.

Trustees have an accurate understanding of the school's performance. They delegate responsibilities to the local advisory board, which is skilled at supporting and challenging leaders about the quality of education in the school. Trustees ensure that their quality assurance arrangements enable them to receive regular and accurate updates about the school's work.

The school has made best use of the development opportunities for staff that are available from the trust. Whether they are improving their teaching or leadership skills, staff feel well supported. They are appreciative of leaders' approach to protecting their work-life balance.

School and trust policies are focused on ensuring that tasks are not overly onerous.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• There remains a small number of pupils in key stage 2, including some with SEND, who have not been supported well enough to catch up on the learning that they lost during key stage 1.

This means that they have gaps in their knowledge, especially in reading and mathematics. This makes it difficult for them to build on new learning successfully. The school should ensure that these pupils receive the support that they need to access the curriculum content designed for their age group.

• In the early years, some of the independent activities are not shaped well enough to make sure that children learn all that they should. This means that some children are not as ready for key stage 1 as they should be. The school should ensure that the design of activities enables children to progress through the early years curriculum.