The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Supported by a strong leadership team, you have secured an atmosphere where the nurture of pupils is combined effectively with high ambition for their achievements. To this end, you and your staff team are proud of the support you offer for pupils’ personal, emotional and social development, as well as for their academic successes. This supportive ethos extends through the staff team and creates a climate where pupils and staff, alike, flourish. Your evaluations of the school’s effectiveness are accurate. You use these well to identify priorities and lead improvements. At the last inspection, leaders were asked to increase teachers’ expectations of pupils’ achievements and strengthen pupils’ progress in mathematics. Following this, leaders have provided targeted professional development for teachers and have introduced a new approach to teaching mathematics. As a result, in 2018, Year 6 pupils’ progress in mathematics was above average and the proportion of pupils reaching the higher standard of learning was also above average. You place a heavy emphasis on ensuring that rich educational experiences feed pupils’ aspirations and broaden their horizons. For example, pupils speak positively about visits to local manufacturers, businesses and organisations which have given them inspiration for their future careers. Similarly, Year 6 pupils appreciate the opportunity for a residential visit which they say built their confidence and team work skills, as well as showing them that they can overcome their fears. Pupils’ experiences in the arts, including music, are given high priority by leaders, representatives of the trust and staff. Pupils enjoy performing in the school orchestra, drama productions and poetry readings. Parents and carers who made their views known say they appreciate the opportunities they have to share in such events. Representatives of the trust share your high expectations of pupils’ achievements. They provide a range of crucial support and professional development opportunities for staff, such as specialist training for phonics teaching and leadership training opportunities. This contributes to staff feeling valued and, hence, the high morale which is evident. You provide representatives of the trust and members of the academy scrutiny committee with detailed information about pupils’ outcomes, attendance and behaviour. Consequently, they use this to hold you and other leaders to account effectively. Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that a culture of safeguarding exists in the school. Staff are aware of their responsibilities in keeping children safe. There are strong relationships between members of staff and pupils and families. Pupils and parents appreciate the care shown by staff. The introduction of an emotional and well-being team has ensured that vulnerable pupils and families receive high-quality support. Pupils are taught about staying safe in a range of contexts. They know how to avoid online risks and are supported with this by pupils who take on the role of e-safety officers. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff with designated responsibility for safeguarding work with external agencies effectively and make swift referrals where necessary. Their records in respect of child protection are detailed. Appropriate checks are in place to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. Records in respect of this are well maintained. Inspection findings Along with senior leaders, you have worked hard to foster pupils’ enthusiasm for reading. You have employed a range of strategies, including the development of enticing reading areas in classrooms, as well as in communal indoor and outdoor areas. Visits to the school from authors and poets have left a lasting impression on pupils. As a result, pupils are generally keen to read and understand what they gain from reading. You are clear in your view that reading underpins pupils’ learning across the curriculum. As such, you have ensured that children’s love of reading is fostered from the start of their early years education. Children in the early years acquire a bank of rhymes, traditional tales and stories through daily storytelling, followed by children participating in retelling and re-enacting. Children then use their knowledge of story structures and their broadening vocabulary to create their own stories. They quickly become authors, telling and performing stories which the adults then scribe. This approach is effective in supporting the children’s language development and literacy skills, as well as their confidence and social skills. Since the last inspection, you and your staff team have developed a clear approach to the teaching of reading comprehension skills. Teachers choose ageappropriate books and texts which are aimed at sparking pupils’ interest. For example, the books chosen often contain pertinent or topical issues, such as those relating to equalities. Teachers place a heavy emphasis on expanding pupils’ vocabulary, often using books and texts as meaningful stimuli for this work. The school’s published outcomes for reading in 2018 showed considerable improvements for pupils at the end of key stage 2. Pupils’ progress was well above average and was in the highest 10% of schools nationally. As a result, pupils’ attainment at the higher standard of learning was just above average. This was a marked improvement on key stage 2 outcomes in 2016 and 2017. Pupils have frequent reading lessons. In these lessons, teachers typically provide effective explanations and demonstrations which ensure that pupils develop a firm understanding of what they are reading. Teachers ask pupils probing questions, including those which require pupils to infer meaning from a text. Pupils usually provide detailed answers which they justify by using evidence from the text they have read. However, sometimes the pupils give underdeveloped answers. At these times, some teachers in the school do not consistently ensure that pupils show a deep enough understanding. This means that some pupils’ progress is not maximised. You have ensured that the teaching of phonics is effective. By engaging the support of an external phonics specialist and through fidelity to a clear approach, you have strengthened the teaching of phonics considerably. You recognised that the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check has been below average for the last four years. Acting on this, you have ensured that pupils, including lower-attaining pupils, have frequent opportunities to hear and practise reading. As a result, pupils have secure strategies for sounding out and blending and, hence, they develop early reading skills well. Although the teaching of reading and phonics presents as a positive picture, you rightly identify that, sometimes, reading and phonics activities are not challenging enough for the most able pupils. For this group of pupils, they sometimes have to complete activities which are too easy before moving on to work which requires them to think deeply. Adults have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and pupils rise to this. Pupils are polite, respectful and hard working. Lessons and assemblies ensure that they demonstrate tolerant views of diversity. As a result, instances of derogatory language and bullying are rare. You have rightly identified pupils’ attendance as a priority for improvement and have strengthened leadership in this area. Your efforts have ensured that attendance rates have improved and are now just below average. You have effectively raised the importance of attendance. As a result, pupils value their education and teaching staff take opportunities to reinforce these messages. Leaders have introduced incentives for good attendance and have systems in place to address low attendance. Strategies such as breakfast club have been effective in ensuring that considerable numbers of pupils start their day positively and on time. However, too many pupils remain regularly absent from school. You acknowledge that there is further work to do to maximise the effectiveness of leadership in this area and improve the attendance of this group of pupils. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the reading comprehension and phonics activities given to the most able pupils provide a suitable level of challenge pupils’ reading comprehension work consistently shows a suitably deep understanding the leadership of attendance is further strengthened to reduce the proportion of pupils who are regularly absent.