St Peter and St Paul Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at St Peter and St Paul's primary thoroughly enjoy coming to school.

The warm relationships that they have with the adults in school make them feel safe and happy. Through their positive attitudes, pupils demonstrate the school's mission statement to 'love, aspire and serve'.

The school is ambitious for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Pupils, including children in the early years, rise to meet these expectations. They work hard in lessons and try their best to succeed. Most pupils achieve well across the curriculum.

Pupils behave respectfully towards one another and to adults. They trust s...taff to deal with any rare occurrence of misbehaviour quickly. Pupils take pride in their learning.

Across the school, there is a calm and purposeful atmosphere that enables pupils to focus diligently in lessons.

Pupils are encouraged to apply for and be democratically elected, to responsible roles in school. They are proud to carry out their duties, for example as school councillors, librarians and as buddies to help younger children.

Pupils take full advantage of the wide range of activities that the school provides for them. These include football, choir, chess and darts clubs. These opportunities nurture their talents and add considerable value to pupils' wider development.

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

The school has prioritised certain areas of the curriculum and worked effectively to secure improvements to the quality of them. These developments have ensured that most subject curriculums are ambitious, coherent and well ordered. In the main, staff, including those in the early years, have clarity about the important learning that they need to focus on.

However, the school's approach to writing in Years 3 to 6, lacks the precision of the rest of the curriculum. The small steps of learning that pupils should learn are not specific enough. This hinders staff in creating learning that helps pupils to build a fluid, automatic writing style.

As a result, this reduces pupils' ability to consider the content and organisation of writing, as they are so focused on the physical act of writing itself.

Staff have benefited from high-quality curriculum training. They explain new concepts with clarity and use a range of strategies to check on pupils' understanding.

Staff use this knowledge to identify where pupils may have gaps in their knowledge and to shape their future learning. Typically, pupils achieve well.

The school has successfully promoted a love of reading.

Staff deliver the phonics programme consistently well. They successfully share this knowledge with parents and carers, who attend school workshops. This enables parents to support their children to develop greater fluency and confidence in reading.

Skilled staff provide pupils with additional support when this is needed. This is effective and helps those pupils to keep up with their peers.

In contrast, the reading curriculum beyond the phonics programme does not set out the precise knowledge and skills that pupils should learn across Years 3 to 6.

This delays some children in becoming confident and fluent readers. As a result, they do not read and understand text as speedily as they could.

Staff have the knowledge and skills to quickly identify pupils with potential SEND.

The school ensures that pupils with additional needs are supported to access the same curriculum as their classmates and to achieve well.

The school prioritises pupils' attendance. Staff build trusting partnerships with families and work with them effectively to make sure that pupils attend school regularly.

Children in the early years settle into school quickly. The learning environment in the Reception Year is well thought out so that every opportunity is provided for children to develop their communication and listening skills. Pupils across the school build on this positive start.

Pupils learn to become responsible young people. They value diversity and they celebrate the many differences that people have. Pupils talked excitedly about visitors to school like authors, theatre companies and rugby players.

They enjoy the opportunities to raise money for different charities and provide food for the local food bank. The school ensures that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

Staff feel valued and are proud to work at the school.

They understand that the recent changes are bringing about improvements. Staff appreciate that these changes have been carefully planned so as not to overload them.

Those responsible for governance are dedicated to the role.

They understand and know the school well and are committed to supporting the school on its improvement journey. The governing body supports leaders' well-being but also holds them to account for the quality of education that children receive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has not identified the specific knowledge in the reading curriculum that it wants pupils to acquire across key stage 2. This results in some pupils receiving a disjointed approach, which slows their progress in becoming confident and fluent readers. The school should identify the precise knowledge that pupils need to learn, so that they can build on their prior learning effectively and quickly become confident and fluent readers.

• Some pupils do not build on the positive start that they make with writing. This hinders their fluency and automaticity in writing as they move through the key stage 2 curriculum. The school should ensure that there is a smooth progression in the teaching of writing skills beyond the phonics programme.