St Winefride’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Winefride's Catholic Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

St Winefride's pupils are happy to see their friends and the staff each morning. Pupils are very proud of their school.

They said that it is a special place.

Pupils know that they are expected to do well in their lessons. They enjoy learning and try hard in class.

In turn, most pupils achieve well. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are well prepared for the next stage in their education.

Children in the early years and pupils throughout the rest of the school are friendly and polite.

They ar...e kind to one another and welcoming to visitors. Pupils are proud to be chosen as their class 'beacon of light' for the week when they become a role model for their excellent behaviour. The school's core values of excellence, happiness, respect, resilience, compassion and faith are evident in the way that pupils treat one another.

Relationships between pupils and staff are kind and caring.

Pupils, including those with SEND, benefit from the wider opportunities that the school provides. This includes clubs such as construction, nature, football and drawing.

Pupils are compassionate. They think about others and this extends to the wider community. For example, pupils suggest ways in which they can raise money for local charities.

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

The school has placed a high priority on pupils learning to read. This starts swiftly in the Reception class, where skilled staff deliver the phonics programme effectively. Children enjoy voting for their favourite book at story time.

They listen intently and join in with the story. Pupils in Reception and key stage 1 who struggle to keep up with the programme are given the support that they need. The books that pupils read match the sounds that they know.

This helps pupils to experience success. The school works closely with parents and carers so that they can support their children at home with reading. Pupils, including those with SEND, are fluent readers by the end of key stage 1.

Older pupils are confident readers and can talk about authors and books that they enjoy.

The curriculum is ambitious for pupils, including those with SEND. The school has carefully designed its curriculum.

The order in which knowledge is taught is clear. This enables most pupils to achieve well. However, in a small number of subjects, the school has recently revised its curriculum.

The key content that pupils will learn has not been clearly identified. This means that teachers do not have all of the information that they need to teach. Some pupils do not achieve as well as they should in these subjects.

The school regularly checks how well pupils are learning. Staff swiftly intervene to give pupils support when it is needed. The school quickly identifies the needs of pupils with SEND.

Staff help these pupils to have access to the same curriculum as their peers. Staff are well trained to offer the right support. This enables pupils with SEND to achieve well.

Pupils behave well. They show their school's core value of resilience by not giving up when their work is challenging. Pupils, including children in the Reception class, work together to help one another to overcome problems.

Pupils enjoy talking about their learning. They take pride in their work.

Pupils experience a broad range of activities that enhance their personal development.

Pupils take on leadership roles that contribute to the smooth running of the school. For example, Year 6 pupils act as buddies to children in the Reception class. This helps the youngest children to settle quickly into the life of the school.

Pupils understand about different types of families. They admire differences between people and said that everyone should be treated with respect.

Staff reported that the school cares about their well-being.

Staff said that they benefit from the training that they receive which helps them to deliver the curriculum well. The school carefully considers workload when making changes to the curriculum.

Governors know the school well.

They support and challenge the school to maintain the good quality of education that pupils receive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the school has not identified the most important knowledge that pupils should learn.

This means that teachers do not have all of the information that they need in order to build pupils' knowledge in the subjects that they study. The school should ensure that these subjects are further refined to enable teachers to teach well so that pupils know more and remember more.

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 January 2014.

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