St Peter’s Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Peter's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a caring place with a distinctive family ethos.

Pupils are happy and kept safe. With their families, they are made to feel welcome from day one. Staff provide pupils with positive role models for good behaviour and exemplify the importance of equality.

Pupils look out for each other. Most behave very well. On the rare occasion that disputes arise, they are quickly sorted out.

Pupils are thoughtful and caring, particularly if anyone is upset or left out.

Pupils thrive when there are high expectations for their achi...evements. This is particularly the case in reading and mathematics.

Pupils learn clearly defined content and receive helpful support when they struggle. However, there are subjects for which pupils produce work that does not reflect their potential for building knowledge and skills.

Beyond the taught curriculum, pupils can join various clubs and activities.

Older pupils enjoy playing chess and competing in sports teams. Pupils in key stage 1 and children in the early years like to be creative. They relish building models, drawing, music and movement.

Pupils learn to respect different beliefs and cultures. They also develop leadership qualities through various roles and responsibilities as they get older.

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

The school provides a broad programme for all children from Nursery through to Year 6.

This includes all required areas of learning in the early years and all national curriculum subjects. Effective planning ensures that pupils cover all necessary curriculum content. Imaginative links between subjects, including through the forest school, make learning interesting and enjoyable.

These experiences are also accessible for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

In most subjects, particularly English and mathematics, teaching is well organised. Leaders thoroughly evaluate these subjects.

This helps them to identify and resolve issues by fine tuning the curriculum and arranging staff training. For example, changes in mathematics have improved pupils' reasoning skills. Teachers typically present information clearly.

This helps pupils to understand the lesson content.

Pupils with SEND have their needs accurately identified. This serves to identify barriers to learning and guide decision-making on the best support for them in lessons.

For example, teaching assistants reiterate instructions and break down learning into smaller steps. This inclusive approach helps pupils with SEND access the same activities as their peers.

The way the school teaches some foundation subjects is not helping all pupils build strong knowledge and skills.

Sometimes, the way that pupils' work is completed in some subjects makes it difficult for them to build on previous learning and remember what they have learned. The work produced by pupils in these subjects is not always as good as it could be. This also makes it difficult for staff to check what pupils have learned.

The school is aware of these issues but has not yet made the changes needed to fully address them.

In Nursery, children develop strong language and communication skills. Learning to speak and listen well helps them start learning letter sounds from their first day in the Reception Year.

This is supported by the school's successful phonics strategy. After the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders noticed that some areas of reading needed improvement. More pupils are now meeting the expected reading standards.

Those who need extra help receive effective support. Pupils are enthusiastic readers and have access to a good variety of books in their classrooms and school libraries.

The school is proud of its pupils' good attendance and behaviour.

Very few are frequently absent and most behave well both in and out of the classroom. Staff consistently model politeness and consideration. It helps pupils be attentive and respectful.

Younger pupils may need reminders during key stage 1, but they develop into thoughtful and responsible pupils by the end of their time at St Peter's. By then, they are well prepared for secondary school.

The school takes some particularly creative approaches to pupils' personal development, including around environmental and spiritual matters.

Pupils are chosen to be 'Wise Owls', leading others in discussion and thinking. Elections are held for the school council and for sports captains. This supports pupils' understanding of democracy and has a direct benefit on their behaviour and attitudes.

Staff are happy working at St Peter's. They appreciate the care taken with their workload and with their well-being. They work well as a team, supporting each other.

The knowledgeable governing body plays an important part too, through supporting and challenging the school in equal measure.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, the way pupils complete their work makes it hard for them to review and build on prior knowledge.

This also complicates assessment for staff and leaders, affecting the quality of pupils' work. The school should review curriculum planning and organisation to ensure that all subjects enable pupils to produce high-quality work that builds on their previous learning.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in October 2014.

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