The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You correctly identify areas to improve, based on a detailed analysis of assessment information. You are assisted by the effective and knowledgeable senior leadership team and are proud of how leaders develop staff expertise across the school. Subject leaders have received training and devise appropriate action plans for their subjects, making regular and thorough checks on standards. As a result, subject leaders have a clear overview of pupils’ progress. You have created a warm and welcoming environment. Leaders have high expectations of pupils and strive for them to ‘learn to succeed’ across the school and within the community. The governing body makes a positive contribution towards moving the school forward. Governors understand their statutory responsibilities, have a good view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and provide strong challenge to senior leaders. The local authority has an accurate picture of the effectiveness of the school and offers appropriate support where it is needed. Those parents and carers who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, were supportive of the school. One comment that represented the views of others included, ‘The school is a great place and helps each child in their all-round development, not just their academic learning.’ Pupils told me they enjoy coming to school because of the family atmosphere. As a result, relationships between pupils and staff are positive and pupils’ behaviour is a strength of the school. They told me that all pupils are welcome at Bradley and they make friends easily. At the last inspection, leaders were asked to improve pupils’ attainment and progress in mathematics. The mathematics leader has worked effectively to oversee pupils’ improvement in this subject. Pupils are now competent when applying their calculation skills to solve problems. Improved planning and assessment, together with coaching and training for staff, have resulted in pupils’ stronger progress in mathematics across the school. Pupils’ books show that mathematics skills are promoted well across the curriculum, for example in science, history and geography. As a result, in mathematics pupils are making good progress and are acquiring the knowledge, understanding and skills they need. Leaders also provide pupils with opportunities to work in groups or independently, as needed, to move their learning on. As a result, much of pupils’ learning is adapted to their needs. You were also asked to improve outcomes for the most able pupils. We agreed to look at this as part of the inspection. During the inspection, we discussed the next steps required to enable the school to improve further. Leaders’ own evaluation accurately highlights that further work is required to ensure that boys make even more progress in writing. Additionally, the challenge for middle-ability pupils should be increased to ensure that they make even more progress across the school. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team ensures that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and a strong safeguarding culture runs throughout the school. The record of the checks made on adults, so they can be considered safe to work in school, is accurate. Leaders take effective action to ensure that pupils get the help they need. Your thorough knowledge of each child and family helps you to know when pupils are facing difficulties. Pupils told me they feel safe. They feel that the ‘Listening Ear Club’, a lunchtime club pupils can attend, is effective in dealing with any worries they have. As a result, they appreciate adult support in the school and told me that all staff listen to their worries and resolve them. Pupils say there are rare instances of name-calling, but adults are effective in dealing with them. Adults also teach pupils how to stay safe. For example, pupils know how to stay safe online. This includes knowledge about the risks of social networking and playing games online. Inspection findings We agreed several areas of enquiry for this inspection. The first of these was the effectiveness of actions taken by leaders to improve outcomes across the early years and key stage 1. Children at Bradley join the early years with skills and knowledge below those typical for their age and stage of development. The early years environment has been developed to ensure that children have access to good-quality learning. Adults play an effective role in supporting children’s progress and they quickly become confident in their relationships with one another. The quality of discussion between children and adults is of a good standard. Adults encourage the use of language by modelling key words for children to repeat. For example, an adult supporting children in the shop area skilfully questioned them and used precise words to develop their vocabulary. Improvements in staff knowledge about children’s reading and writing have strengthened the impact of their teaching. This is leading to more children making good progress from their starting points than in the past. As a result, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development has now risen. In key stage 1, staff monitor carefully pupils’ progress. They then use the information they gather to focus their teaching on best meeting individual pupils’ needs. As a result, the quality of teaching across all subjects continues to improve. Progress in mathematics across key stage 1 is strong. This is because pupils’ understanding of problem-solving is secure. Progress in reading is also strong. Pupils are expected to read widely and often. Pupils especially like the school’s ‘reading bus’ on the playground, a double-decker bus in which they are invited to read at lunchtime. This is raising the profile of reading. Pupils in key stage 1 are also making good progress in writing. Leaders identified the need to develop pupils’ vocabulary and pupils are now encouraged to practise using new language. The next area we looked at was the effectiveness of actions taken by leaders to improve outcomes in writing. The English subject leaders are developing writing to ensure that it links to pupils’ needs and interests. A focus on spelling and handwriting across the school is also improving progress in writing. Senior leaders review the progress of pupils on a termly basis through a variety of methods, including data analysis, pupil progress meetings, and discussions with the coordinator for the provision for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. As a result, teachers understand which further skills pupils need to acquire in order to improve their achievement and this has strengthened the quality of teaching. Pupils frequently apply their English skills across the curriculum. For example, pupils’ work on the Anglo-Saxons develops both their writing skills and their historical knowledge. This enables pupils to deepen and extend their vocabulary and to persevere with longer pieces of writing. As a result, most pupils make strong progress. However, leaders recognise that boys, especially those in key stage 1, are sometimes not making the progress of which they are capable across the school. Another line of enquiry for the inspection was to see how effectively teachers are challenging the most able pupils. The school places a strong emphasis on pupils making good progress. This means teachers accurately identify the next steps in pupils’ learning, to enable those who are capable to attain at the highest level. Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong. This allows them to make adaptations to planning so tasks are more precisely matched to individual pupils and group needs. You have raised the expectations of what pupils can achieve and incorporated these into teachers’ yearly professional targets. Successful work with younger pupils who speak English as an additional language has also improved the progress of the most able of these pupils. Inspection evidence and data from school leaders and the local authority show that teaching is increasingly challenging pupils. As a result, the most able pupils are currently making strong progress in their learning. While discussing the progress of the most able, we also reviewed the progress of pupils in the middle ability range. Although this group of pupils are making good progress, there is still scope for a greater proportion to reach higher standards in their work. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: they embed the recent developments in the teaching of writing so outcomes for boys improve, especially at key stage 1 they further improve the progress of middle-ability pupils, so that a larger proportion achieves the higher standards at the end of each key stage. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Lancashire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Simon Hunter Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I spoke with pupils, both formally and informally, about their work and school life. I held meetings with you and I also spoke with senior staff to discuss improvements in their areas of responsibility. Together, we looked at learning in pupils’ books. I also spoke with an adviser from the local authority. I reviewed documentation, which included your evaluation of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement and the school development plan. I considered six responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. There were no responses to the pupil or staff online surveys. I visited classes, together with you and the deputy headteacher, to observe pupils’ learning. I met with governors to discuss aspects of school leadership and management. I reviewed a range of documentation about safeguarding, including the school’s record of checks undertaken on newly appointed staff.