The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your deputy headteacher have been in post since September 2017. You have quickly and accurately identified priorities to drive the school forward through robust development planning. Leaders’ and governors’ selfevaluation of the school is accurate. Parents and carers and pupils hold this school in high regard. Parents that I spoke to had nothing but praise for the school. Parents appreciate the levels of communication between home and school; they are happy that their children are cared for well. One parent, with a view typical of many, stated, ‘There have been real improvements in this school over the last 12 months. Communication with parents has been fantastic. The headteacher has made some serious attendance commitments and I feel that it will only improve further.’ Pupils that I spoke to said that they enjoy school. Pupils know that they can talk to adults about their worries and that adults value their contributions. The older pupils that I spoke to were enthusiastic about their learning and the responsibilities that they have around school. Pupils were keen to talk about the many charities that the school supports. For example, the school council recently coordinated fundraising, through the sale of cakes, to raise money for a local animal shelter. Pupils that I spoke to in classes said that work is hard but their teachers make it fun. Governors are active in the school and have a detailed understanding of the strengths and areas for development. You provide them with detailed information, which enables them to hold you and school leaders to account. Governors are knowledgeable about standards in the school and know how well different groups of pupils are doing. Since the previous inspection, school leaders have taken effective action to address the identified areas for improvement, the focus of which was to improve teaching across the school so that all pupils achieve their potential. Since then, the leadership of the school experienced a significant period of turbulence because of a high turnover of senior staff. A new leadership team is in place and the school has once again entered a period of stability. One of your first actions as headteacher was to introduce a new teaching and learning policy, which linked more closely to teacher performance management targets. Teachers and leaders engage in a variety of monitoring activities to improve the quality of teaching. For example, you scrutinise pupils’ books and you observe teaching and learning regularly. Records of your monitoring show a positive picture of teaching across the school. Governors are kept well informed of the outcomes of monitoring activities. For example, you recently provided them with a detailed report about the effectiveness of interventions that are delivered across the school. Together, you and I looked in pupils’ books and talked to pupils in lessons; we saw that levels of challenge are evident across a range of subject areas. You give pupils every opportunity to achieve their full potential and develop a range of skills across a broad curriculum. For example, in key stage 2 we looked at the wonderful artwork and writing linked to the Ancient Egyptians and the Tudors. Safeguarding is effective. In your role as designated safeguarding lead, you work diligently, ensuring that pupils are safe and that all safeguarding measures are effective. You make sure that all staff and governors have received up-to-date safeguarding, basic awareness training and ‘Prevent’ duty training. There are clear procedures for staff to raise concerns; you deal with these in a timely manner. All records of the suitability of staff to work in school are in place. You work with a range of outside agencies, including children’s social care. You keep detailed records of all referrals and partnership working. Governors are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities in school. Parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, overwhelmingly feel that their children are well cared for and well looked after at this school. Inspection findings During this inspection, I focused on three lines of enquiry. The first of these focused on the quality of the provision in the early years. Children enter the Reception Year with skills below what is typical for their age. For several years, the proportion of children leaving the early years with a good level of development has been below what is achieved nationally. Governors acknowledge that systems that were in place last year were not effective.