Over recent years, the leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school. Since 2016, leaders have reviewed all areas of the school, correctly identifying and prioritising areas for improvement. Following the retirement of the previous headteacher in 2018, the trust restructured the senior leadership of the school. The trust appointed you, an experienced executive headteacher, to work alongside your head of school, and two very knowledgeable assistant headteachers. New middle leaders were also appointed to lead core subjects. An experienced member of staff works as lead practitioner for mathematics across the schools in the trust. As a result, leadership and management have been strengthened further. Since your appointment, you have been relentless in your ambition for continuous school improvement and you always put the children and pupils in your school at the heart of what you and your staff do. The school’s ethos of being ‘a caring, cooperative community with high aspirations’ is woven through the fabric of the school. Your determination and passion have ensured that leadership, at all levels, is focused not only on the progress of pupils, but also on their whole-school experience. As a result, over recent years, outcomes of pupils have been strong, overall. Governance is a real strength of the school. The membership of the local governing body has been stable over recent years. The experienced chair, with a background in education, leads the governing body very effectively. Governors have a wide range of skills and expertise and are routinely involved in school life. They provide robust challenge and support to leaders and know the strengths and weaknesses of the school very well. The trust, and its representative with an overview of primary school performance, provide very effective support and challenge to staff at all levels. There is strong capacity in the school’s leadership to achieve the improvements you aspire to. Over time, the school has improved the quality of teaching by ensuring that most lessons include activities which cater for the needs of most pupils, including the most able and the disadvantaged pupils. Staff value and support your determination to bring about improvements in teaching and learning and professional development. Your passion has created a very strong culture of collaboration and a team ethos among your staff. You and your senior leaders regularly monitor the quality of teaching and have put in place effective monitoring systems and procedures to support further improvement. As a result, all teaching across the school is now strong. Safeguarding is effective. You and your assistant headteacher have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed. There is a strong safeguarding culture in the school. You and your staff know the pupils well and the monitoring of pupils’ welfare is thorough and detailed. Supported effectively by your business manager, you ensure that you carry out appropriate checks on the suitability of all staff who work with pupils. Your experienced safeguarding governor evaluates all areas of safeguarding thoroughly. You, with the support of the trust, have ensured that staff and governors receive appropriate training in child protection, including the dangers of radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation. All staff are vigilant and know what to do if they have any concerns about the children and pupils in your school. Your designated safeguarding leader and your staff meet regularly to discuss the latest updates on safeguarding policy and practice, and to scrutinise all concerns raised about pupils. The school shares information with external agencies effectively. Leaders take action swiftly, and they monitor the impact of actions closely. Pupils report that they feel safe in school, including online, and know who to go to if they have any concerns. They also say that bullying is very rare and, when it does happen, teachers deal with it effectively. Inspection evidence and the views of parents and staff also support this. Inspection findings Over time, the progress of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 has been strong and in line with national averages. However, in 2018, the proportion of pupils achieving the higher standards at the end of Year 6, including the most able and the disadvantaged pupils, in reading, writing and mathematics combined, was below national averages. You acted quickly and, working with the trust, ensured that all staff received appropriate training in improving the quality of questioning and challenge across the school. You also ensured that teachers’ aspirations and expectations of what pupils can achieve are high. Inspection evidence, scrutiny of pupils’ work and current school assessment information indicate that attainment of the higher standards for the most able pupils and the disadvantaged pupils by the end of key stage 1 and 2 are improving compared to last year. However, they remain below national averages and you agreed with me that improving this should continue to be the focus of leaders’ efforts. Over recent years and, more specifically, since your appointment, you have strengthened further monitoring systems which show that the quality of teaching is good and better in the vast majority of lessons. Together with your senior leaders, you check the impact on the quality of teaching and the progress of pupils, based on a carefully planned schedule. You and the trust provide effective support to staff that need it. Teaching assistants are deployed effectively and support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. As a result, most teachers provide appropriate challenge for most pupils, including the most able and disadvantaged pupils, and use targeted questioning effectively to probe understanding and support pupils’ progress. You and your experienced assistant headteacher reviewed the curriculum, including the teaching of mathematics and science. You have ensured that all staff provide learning activities that match the needs of most pupils. Pupils are excited about learning, they stay focused and they work hard on their activities. Pupils in mathematics quickly move on to appropriate reasoning and problem-solving tasks and are confident in explaining their answers to complex questions. In science, pupils have increased opportunities to apply their extended writing and numeracy skills when conducting scientific investigations. As a result, the progress of most pupils in mathematics and science, including the disadvantaged pupils, is improving. You agreed with me that further improving this should also continue to be a focus of leaders’ efforts. Your determination to ensure that pupils in your school receive the highest standards of education is infectious. Your knowledgeable and committed assistant headteacher works hard with the community to ensure that aspirations and levels of engagement with school are high. The ‘chat and choose’ initiative and various workshops for parents are examples of effective engagement with parents, not only for improving standards of living in the community, but also for brokering support for families from external agencies and improving employment prospects. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: they continue to improve the progress disadvantaged pupils make at the end of key stage 2, particularly in mathematics they further strengthen the consistency of the challenge provided to the most able pupils, across both key stage 1 and 2 so that the proportion of pupils achieving the higher standards by the end of Years 2 and 6 continue to increase.