Stamshaw Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are flourishing both academically and pastorally because of the school's high expectations.

At the heart of the school is the vision of 'Be kind. Do your best. Achieve together'.

Pupils show kindness to each other and include everyone. Indeed, one staff member commented, 'This is the most caring school I've worked in.'

Everyone recognises the improvements in the education that the school provides.

The curriculum is ambitious and sequenced carefully. This means pupils learn and remember key knowledge and skills which is leading to increasingly positive outcomes in pupils' learning.

Pupils' behaviour is strong.

The school has ...clear expectations that both pupils and staff follow. Pupils reflect maturely and recognise their contribution to the school. They give back to the school in a range of leadership roles.

For example, school councillors, prefects and librarians all help to improve their school. These pupil leaders are strong role models for younger pupils to look up to. Pupils make good use of the range of clubs available to them and appreciate the school trips staff organise to enhance their learning.

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

The school is ambitious. It expects its pupils to do their very best. An effective curriculum is in place with reading at the centre of it.

Pupils show a genuine enthusiasm for reading. The school ensures all pupils have a book that they can read with fluency and understanding. Pupils consider and analyse texts that teachers have chosen with thought.

However, some pupils struggle to learn their early reading phonics skills. While these pupils receive daily, dedicated support, it is not always delivered with the precision needed. This means that pupils do not always catch up as quickly as they could.

The curriculum includes the important knowledge, skills and vocabulary pupils will learn. Teachers teach the core subjects of English and mathematics effectively. Many of the other subjects are also taught well.

For example, in geography pupils build specific fieldwork skills which get progressively harder. In physical education, pupils can describe how the skills they learn in one sport can transfer to another. Teachers adapt the provision for disadvantaged pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), effectively.

This means all pupils can participate in lessons and other activities. However, teachers do not routinely check how well all pupils have learned the curriculum in all subjects. As a result, there are some gaps in pupils' learning which teachers have not identified and addressed as fully as they could.

Most pupils work hard in class. While some younger pupils can be overexuberant in lessons, most pupils know how to behave and concentrate well. This is because the school teaches pupils how to behave effectively.

Pupils play well together outside and are confident that bullying does not happen. When pupils disagree, they know the staff will help if they cannot solve the problem.

The school wants its pupils to be a key part of the community.

Pupils learn to be part of a diverse community, to recognise and challenge inappropriate comments and to support those in need. This includes local, national and global charity work. They also learn how to keep themselves safe both in the real and online worlds.

This all helps pupils to prepare for the next steps in their lives.

Committed trust members and governors play their part to ensure the school is successful. They monitor diligently to ensure that staff deliver a good-quality education for the pupils and that they keep pupils safe.

Parents overwhelmingly recognise what the school offers the children. For example, one parent commented, 'I honestly wouldn't want my children to go anywhere else. It's not just a school.

We are a community, one big family.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The support some pupils receive to address the gaps in their phonics knowledge is not as effective as it could be.

This limits these pupils' ability to decode texts accurately and fluently. The school should ensure that support for pupils who remain at the early stages of reading enables them to secure and apply their phonics knowledge so that they quickly become confident and fluent readers. ? Although the curriculum is ordered sequentially, teachers are not consistently checking how well pupils are learning it in all subjects.

This means teaching is not always as precisely targeted as it could be. Teachers should ensure that they check how well pupils are learning the subject-specific content both during and after it has been taught. This will enable pupils to demonstrate and utilise more of the knowledge they learn in all subjects.