St Peter and St Paul Church Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is an inclusive school where there is a positive sense of community between pupils and staff.

The school's values of 'courage, wisdom, hope, respect and love' are embedded into school life. As one parent rightly described to inspectors, 'Staff are kind, caring and aim high for the children.'

Pupils are safe and cared for well.

Staff promote pupils' positive behaviour successfully. Pupils move around the school in a calm and orderly manner. They show respect for others.

Pupils understand the school's expectations and take pride in reaching them. Breaktimes are energetic and fun, with lots of opportunities to run and play.

Pupils embrace... and celebrate difference.

They are kind to one another. The school and pupils ensure that bullying is not tolerated. Pupils are proud advocates for the school.

They enjoy taking on responsibilities as school counsellors and eco-leaders.

Parents enthuse about the school and the journey of improvement. The school has created a culture of high expectations in which pupils' achievements are promoted and celebrated.

It has markedly improved the curriculum and teaching so that pupils learn, remember, and can do more over time. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well.

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

The school has taken decisive action to improve the quality of education that pupils receive.

Investment in a carefully considered and ambitious curriculum is supporting teachers to know exactly what to teach and when. This helps teachers to design coherent learning that builds successfully on pupils' prior knowledge. As a result, most pupils learn and achieve well.

In most subjects, the curriculum is taught well. Teachers value the support that the school provides to develop their subject-specific knowledge and reduce unnecessary workload. Across the school, teachers introduce new skills to pupils step by step.

They make effective use of resources and practical examples to help pupils understand difficult concepts. Teachers check pupils' understanding in lessons. In subjects such as mathematics, teachers routinely use assessment information to adjust their teaching and to tackle any gaps in pupils' learning.

However, in other subjects where the curriculum is newer, teachers are not yet confident in delivering all aspects of learning as intended, and assessment is not being used to make routine checks of pupils' understanding.

Reading is prioritised appropriately. A successful programme to teach pupils to read is now well embedded, starting in the early years.

Staff have received effective training, which enables them to deliver this consistently well. Skilled staff support pupils who find reading more difficult to keep up with their peers. A love of reading is promoted well through access to a carefully considered range of books and regular trips to the local public library in Caterham.

The school prides itself on its inclusive culture. It has an increasing number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Clear systems are in place to identify pupils' individual needs.

Staff know pupils well. Pupils with SEND experience success and learn the same ambitious curriculum as their peers. Most of the time, teachers adapt their teaching successfully and use approaches and resources that work for different pupils.

Where pupils need even more help, the school is developing how additional support from professionals beyond the school is accessed and used.

Overall, pupils behave well. Their eagerness to learn means that lessons take place without interruption.

Working hard in lessons is the norm. The tone is set in early years, where children listen carefully and follow instructions well. Across the school, staff model positive behaviours and encourage positive attitudes to learning.

As a result, classrooms are calm and purposeful. A small minority of pupils struggle to meet the school's high standards for conduct. Work is ongoing to ensure that these pupils receive appropriate support for their particular needs so that their behaviour improves.

The school places equal importance on pupils' academic and wider personal development. The school's well-structured personal, social, health and economic education curriculum ensures that pupils learn about how to keep themselves safe online. Pupils have an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships.

They enjoy the extra-curricular opportunities available to them. Pupils have an impressive understanding of different faiths and cultures in modern Britain. As a result, they show warm appreciation and respect for differences.

The school is well led. Leadership at all levels is united in its vision to deliver high-quality education for all. Governors know the school well.

They use their extensive knowledge and skills to offer appropriate support and challenge to the school. Staff receive the training they need, and most staff feel well supported.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Assessment in some subjects is not as effective as it could be. Consequently, checks on what pupils know and identification of gaps in their knowledge are not precise enough. The school needs to continue its work to develop and embed an approach to assessment that informs teaching, to ensure that work builds on what pupils already know.

The curriculums for a small number of foundation subjects are new and are still in development. This means that they are not being implemented to the same high standards as other subjects and that pupils are not consistently learning as well as they could across the whole curriculum. Leaders should ensure that staff receive training that will give them the expert knowledge they need to implement the curriculum as intended and help pupils build knowledge over time.

• A small number of pupils struggle to meet the high standards of behaviour that the school expects of them. As a result, learning is occasionally disrupted. The school should ensure that ongoing extra help for those who need it is effective in supporting all pupils to achieve the highest possible standards of behaviour.

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