The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the school’s last inspection. Since your appointment in January 2019, you have carefully evaluated the school’s work. You have worked with your leadership team, governors and advisers from the local authority to ensure that your self-evaluation is accurate. As a result, you have identified appropriate areas for improvement in the school development plan. Parents and pupils value the school. As one parent commented, ‘I have found the teachers and teaching assistants extremely passionate about the teaching and care they give to the children.’ Almost all of the parents who completed Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, would recommend the school and all said that it was well led and managed. All of the pupils I met said that they enjoy school and were keen to share their successes with me. This included work that they were proud of and, for older pupils, the responsibilities they held as school councillors, junior road safety officers and sports councillors. At the previous inspection, leaders were tasked with improving the quality of teaching by developing the roles of middle leaders and ensuring that pupils have sufficient opportunities to broaden and deepen what they are learning. Subject leaders provide effective support for their colleagues, which enables them to improve aspects of their teaching. This has enabled teachers to develop their questioning skills to support pupils to explain their understanding. Leaders have also been successful in promoting pupils’ wider use of vocabulary and this can be seen in their writing and in discussions between teachers and pupils. Leaders ensure that children get a good start in Reception. In 2018, the proportion of children attaining a good level of development was above the national average. In key stage 1, pupils typically make strong progress from their starting points. Year 6 pupils’ progress in 2018 was average in reading, writing and mathematics. Overall, pupils’ workbooks show that current pupils are making strong progress in the core curriculum. Parents, pupils and governors agreed that pupils behave well in the school. In lessons, and around the school, pupils follow adults’ instructions and this contributes to an orderly and calm environment. Pupils work enthusiastically and were keen to show me what they were learning. When working in small groups, pupils cooperate to solve problems and are supportive of each other. Pupils know what bullying is, say that it is extremely rare and know what to do if they have any concerns. Governors know the school well. They have a clear grasp of the effectiveness of the school. Governors review their work regularly and use this information to plan their training and to recruit new governors. As a result, governors provide leaders with suitable challenge and support in meetings and during their regular visits to the school. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders, including governors, have ensured that there is a strong culture of safeguarding. Staff know what to do if they have concerns about a pupil. Records of concern are well organised and enable leaders to monitor pupils closely. Leaders work effectively with outside agencies to meet pupils’ needs. You ensure that safeguarding has a high profile at the school. It is discussed in each staff meeting. Training for safeguarding is comprehensive and records are used to ensure that staff do not miss important updates. All of the required checks are made on the suitability of adults to work in school. Governors include safeguarding as a focus when they visit the school, and this includes checking the single central record of pre-appointment checks to ensure that it meets requirements. Pupils of all ages told me that they feel safe at school, and parents agreed. Pupils know how to stay safe when using the internet and say this is because of lessons the school provides about e-safety. Inspection findings ◼ At the start of the inspection, we agreed that I would look at how effectively leaders are ensuring that the curriculum is meeting the needs of all groups of pupils. This is because you identified the curriculum as a priority for improvement. ◼ Pupils are being provided with a broad curriculum. They could talk about, and show me, examples of their work in a wide range of subjects. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development includes opportunities to learn about world religions, other countries and the work of artists. For example, in Year 3 and Year 4 pupils found out about the lives of people in India and Aboriginal Australian people. ◼ Subject leaders have identified inconsistencies in the depth of coverage of each subject across the school. When asked about the subjects they enjoy, almost all pupils said that they liked English, mathematics and physical education (PE). They were less enthusiastic about other subjects. Pupils did not always recognise when they were doing subjects such as geography or design and technology. Pupils’ workbooks show that their work does not always enable them to deepen their knowledge of the foundation subjects (subjects other than English and mathematics) they learn. ◼ Strong leadership of PE is ensuring that all pupils are active each day, have access to a wide range of sporting activities, and have opportunities to represent the school in competitions. Leaders ensure that all pupils leave the school able to swim at least 25 metres. They also support pupils to find clubs, outside of school, to pursue their interest in a range of sports. ◼ My second line of enquiry was to explore how leaders are ensuring that disadvantaged pupils make strong progress from their starting points. This was because there were variations in the progress made by disadvantaged pupils in the past. You have recently reviewed the use of pupil premium funding for disadvantaged pupils. Although this group of pupils is small, you have identified common barriers that are having a negative impact on their progress: gaps in their basic skills in English and mathemactics. ◼ Disadvantaged pupils who attend the breakfast club have made improvements in their attendance and are more prepared for learning. The provision of short reading sessions throughout each day is building disadvantaged pupils’ confidence and reading fluency. The support for pupils with social and emotional needs has resulted in improved behaviour in lessons for individuals. ◼ The new plan sets out a range of actions to support the needs of disadvantaged pupils. However, it does not always provide useful measures for leaders to use when checking that they are working for each pupil. ◼ My final line of enquiry explored how effectively leaders are increasing the proportion of pupils attaining greater depth in writing. This was because the school’s assessment information shows variations in the standards being attained for current pupils and improving writing is a priority in your school improvement plan. ◼ Pupils told me that teachers are setting expectations that they improve their presentation and handwriting, and this is reflected in their workbooks. Pupils also told me that teachers are encouraging them to use a wider range of vocabulary when they are writing. During a lesson in a Reception class, the teacher introduced new words to describe parts of insects, such as ‘thorax’ and ‘antenna’. Children were encouraged to use the words when talking and use their phonics skills to write them. In writing lessons in key stage 1 and key stage 2, pupils have been taught the skills to independently edit and improve their work. Pupils’ workbooks show that this is contributing to pupils making better progress. However, the quality of writing in foundation subjects is inconsistent and does not match the standard seen in English, particularly for the most able pupils.