St Peter’s Catholic Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

St Peter's is an outstanding school. The inclusion of all pupils, whatever their background or particular need, is given very high priority and is central to the school's work.

As a result, the school is an exceptionally harmonious community where pupils value each other's different traditions and beliefs. Expressing the views of many, a pupil said, 'Everyone is different, but it doesn't matter because everyone in our school is special.' The curriculum is vibrant and the excellent range of activities beyond lessons is greatly enjoyed by pupils and adds depth and richness to their learning.

High-quality care, guidance and support and outstanding arrangements to safeguard pupils ensure that man...y aspects of pupils' personal development are outstanding. As a result, from the nursery onwards, pupils feel extremely safe, happy and behave exceptionally well. They grow in confidence and self-esteem, develop excellent life skills and a genuine enjoyment of learning and are well-prepared for their next stage of education.

Systems to welcome and support pupils who join the school throughout the year, and who are often at a very early stage of learning English, are excellent. Consequently, pupils settle swiftly, make new friends and are quickly engaged in learning. Attendance is average.

Rigorous arrangements to monitor and promote attendance have resulted in a significant reduction in absenteeism. Value for money is outstanding as outcomes are first class. When children start in the nursery their skills are exceptionally low compared to expectations for their age.

They get a superb start to their education as their achievement is outstanding and this lays a very firm foundation for their future learning. The overall quality of teaching is outstanding. The work pupils are given is carefully tailored to their varied needs, including the more-able.

The development of pupils' basic skills, particularly language, is a real strength. However, sometimes opportunities are missed to boost pupils' reading, writing and mathematical skills even further. For example, pupils do not have enough chances to practise their numeracy skills across different subjects, and there is a lack of variety in the range of books they can read independently.

Nevertheless, taking account of each individual pupil's need, ability, the point at which they joined the school and their various stages of learning English, progress for all groups is outstanding. By the end of Year 6, pupils' attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is average. This represents good achievement.

Leaders and managers are highly effective. This is a major factor in the success of the school. There is regular, close co-operation between the federated schools which has a very positive impact on many aspects of provision at St Peter's.

This excellent partnership, and those with external agencies and the parish, help to raise pupils' aspirations and the quality of their learning. Self-evaluation is exemplary and links with and drives sharply-focused development planning. Since the previous inspection, almost every aspect of the school's work has improved and the areas identified for improvement have been tackled successfully.

As a result, the school demonstrates an outstanding capacity for sustained improvement.

Information about the school

This is an average-sized primary school. Almost all pupils come from minority ethnic backgrounds, with the largest represented groups being Pakistani and Bangladeshi.

The vast majority of pupils are at the early stages of learning English. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well above average. A much higher than average proportion of pupils are assessed as having special educational needs and/or disabilities.

In all year groups, an exceptionally high proportion of pupils join or leave the school at times other than the start of the school year. The school is part of a federation with a nearby Catholic primary school, with the headteacher providing leadership for both schools. The school holds Healthy School status and has achieved the Activemark award.

Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms