Stafford Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy their vibrant and inclusive school.

Pupils work hard to live up to the school's motto of, 'be the best we can be', in all areas of school life. They embrace the school's 'four pillars of learning' - challenge, engagement, feedback and independent learning. They recognise that they can always improve.

Pupils are attentive to feedback and persevere in the face of challenge.

The school provides pupils with a strong quality of education. Teachers are well trained to understand pupils' needs.

They confidently insist upon the highest standards of behaviour in classrooms and around the school, so that pupils can focus on their learning. The sch...ool has ensured that teachers have good subject knowledge across the subjects they teach. They explain things clearly and pupils are keen to learn.

As a result, pupils at the school achieve well.

Pupils enjoy the 'Stafford Offer', a wide range of enrichment available throughout the school day. At lunchtime, for example, pupils enjoy a range of clubs, such as 'cheerleading club', and some of which are pupil led.

Despite the engaging education and enriching activities provided, some pupils do not attend as well as they should. The school works to support pupils with low attendance back to school, but this work has not yet been impactful for all pupils.

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

The school has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

The educational offer has been fully redesigned and there are clear and well-sequenced curriculums in place. The school has carefully considered the needs of pupils with SEND. In the strongest subjects, the curriculum is carefully broken down into small steps of learning.

This helps teachers to focus on the important knowledge that pupils need to learn to successfully progress through the planned curriculum.

Teachers have good subject knowledge across most subjects, and this enables them to explain learning clearly to pupils. However, this is not yet consistent across year groups and subjects.

In some subjects, including English, the curriculum is not consistently well-adapted to meet the needs of all pupils. As a result, pupils with SEND, do not consistently learn as well as they might. The school has a clear programme of professional development and support for teachers, and their work to develop teacher subject knowledge and expertise is ongoing.

The school prioritises reading. Pupils are carefully assessed when they arrive, and those who continue to need support to learn to read are identified. The school ensures that staff are well trained to support these pupils to learn to read.

The school is working to ensure that all staff deliver early reading support in a highly effective way so that all pupils catch up as quickly as possible. The wider reading curriculum has been very carefully developed to support pupils to read a wide range of genres, and over time, to be able to tackle increasingly complex books, stories and poems with confidence. Most older pupils read widely and talk with enthusiasm about their reading preferences.

The school have developed an exceptionally strong programme to support pupils' personal, social and health education (PHSE). Leaders have thought very carefully about exactly what pupils at Stafford Junior School need to know and understand to thrive now and in the future. Pupils talk very positively about how the school's PSHE programme has helped them, for example, to learn to manage their anxiety and to build positive friendships.

The programme has also supported the school in transforming behaviour within the school, as pupils learn to self-regulate and develop their working memory, flexible thinking and self-control. Alongside, the school have developed a very clear primary careers programme. This teaches pupils about a wide range of careers and pathways and helps pupils to understand the connections between what they learn at school, their own interests and possible further education and career options.

The school ensures that pupils have opportunities to take on a wide range of leadership roles within the school. To support all pupils to take on these roles with confidence, and to engage more fully with the whole curriculum, pupils are supported carefully to develop their oracy skills. Pupils' confidence in public speaking is highly evident.

For example, pupil career ambassadors regularly lead whole school assemblies.

To support pupils with particular needs in relation to their behaviour and well-being, the school has developed the 'LEAP'. This provision is on the school site and is led by a suitably experienced teacher.

Pupils who attend the 'LEAP' receive highly effective support that enables them to successfully reintegrate into the main school.

Leaders, including those responsible for governance, are ambitious and committed to the school. They are determined that pupils at Stafford Junior School receive a highly effective education.

They have a strong understanding of what is going well, and the areas of the school that need further refinement to enable them to fully realise their vision for the school. Teachers feel very well supported in their roles by senior leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The curriculum in some subjects, including English, is not consistently well adapted in response to the needs and starting points of pupils with SEND. As a result, not all pupils are building their knowledge and understanding as well as they might. The school should continue their work to refine the curriculum in these subjects and ensure that teachers are supported to develop their understanding of how to meet pupils' needs effectively in all subjects.

• Some pupils, particularly those with SEND, are too frequently absent from school. These pupils do not benefit fully from the school's strong educational offer. The school should continue its work to improve the attendance of disadvantaged pupils.

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