The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment as co-headteachers, you have brought stability to the leadership of the school and galvanised staff with a culture of ambition. You have introduced more rigorous and regular assessment procedures to measure the impact of teaching in raising attainment and improving rates of pupils’ progress across the school. You have created a caring and inclusive ethos. Staff and governors share your high expectations and work effectively to continue to improve the school. There is a good team spirit, and one member of staff commented, ‘Clifton Primary is a wonderful school with a real community feel.’ Pupils enjoy coming to school and are very proud to be part of the school community. They are polite and well behaved and show respect to other pupils and adults. Pupils’ attitudes to learning are good and they work hard and apply themselves well in lessons. They said that teachers support them well and make learning fun. One pupil stated, ‘Teaching is amazing and teachers encourage us to do well.’ The previous inspection report highlighted several strengths, such as the outstanding behaviour and attitudes of pupils and the rapid progress children make in their English development during the early years. Efficient action has been taken to address the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. You have a good understanding of the strengths of Clifton Primary but are also aware of what still needs to improve. In 2018, pupils’ attainment and progress in reading at the end of key stage 2 were below the national averages. As a result, leaders have made changes to the teaching of reading but recognise that these need time to become embedded. There is still further work to do to improve the attainment and progress in reading of current pupils as they move through key stage 2. Children in the early years continue to achieve well and make a good start to their education. The teaching of early reading is effective, and results in the Year 1 phonics screening check have been consistently high. Attainment at the end of key stage 1 is broadly in line with national levels in reading, writing and mathematics. Standards in mathematics at the end of key stage 2 have improved. However, not enough pupils are attaining the higher standard in reading and writing. When we observed a range of lessons, we agreed that, sometimes, the most able pupils were not given work that stretched and challenged them. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements and procedures are fit for purpose. Detailed checks are carried out when recruiting staff, governors and volunteers. This is systematically recorded on the single central record, which is checked for compliance regularly by the chair of the governing body. Staff are fully aware of the safeguarding policy and understand the procedures to follow to keep pupils safe. They are confident in sharing any concerns about pupils’ well-being with the designated safeguarding leaders in school. Communication between safeguarding team members is effective. Any necessary actions are taken promptly and are followed up in an efficient manner. The school works well with a range of external agencies. Regular staff training is provided to ensure that all staff are well informed about child protection matters and know how to keep children safe. Pupils say the school is a safe place to be and know who they can talk to if they have any concerns. They demonstrate a good understanding of how to stay safe online, which is supported by ‘cyber mentors’ in each class. The majority of parents and carers responded that their children feel safe at school. Pupils say that behaviour at school is good and has improved further with the introduction of report cards. Inspection findings In order to establish whether the school continues to provide a good standard of education, we agreed three key lines of enquiry to focus on during the inspection, as well as the effectiveness of safeguarding. In 2018, pupils’ attainment and progress in reading were below national levels.