The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. Finchingfield Primary School is a positive and welcoming place. Staff and pupils are friendly, polite and demonstrate respect for each other. As a very small village school, all staff know the pupils and families well; it is like a big family. Pupils say that their school is a special place where they take good care of one another. Younger pupils enjoy mixing with the older pupils. Older pupils say that the school is a lovely fun place where the adults help them to do the best they can. They are happy at school and feel well looked after. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of this school. Many of them went out of their way to explain the good support that their children receive. Parents particularly value the care staff show towards their children. They are also pleased with the progress that pupils make and the variety of after-school clubs available. One parent said, ‘Children run into school because they are so excited to learn here.’ You have a good understanding of both the strengths of the school and the areas that need to improve. You took up the post of headteacher in September 2015, and were the fourth headteacher to join the school within a 14-month period. The considerable staffing changes across the school have provided opportunities for you to appoint staff who have specific skills and expertise to attend to the areas that you have identified as priorities for improvement. Consequently, you have established a strong, effective team who are all working effectively towards securing further improvement. The local authority has supported and challenged you effectively. You have diligently acted on their advice and this has helped you to develop and improve the provision for all children and pupils further. An interim governing board was put in place to enhance the improvement at the school further. As a result, the governing body has been re-established. Under the direction of the new chair, governance is now a strength, and is supporting the school well. Governors appropriately challenge you to continue to move the school improvement journey forward. In addition, you and all leaders work closely with the Braintree Area School Led Improvement Partnership. Your focus on collaboration with this local school group is ensuring that initiatives undertaken are appropriate, purposeful and mindful of the needs of the children and pupils at Finchingfield. Safeguarding is effective. A strong safeguarding culture runs through all aspects of daily school life. You, your staff team and the governing body ensure that the safeguarding of pupils is always of the highest priority. Staff, governors and volunteers are vigilant and proactive. Records are of a high quality and are well kept. The school has an appropriate safeguarding policy which staff understand; they know what to do if they have any concerns. Leaders work effectively with agencies, parents and carers to keep all pupils safe and so all are well looked after. In particular, leaders are very sensitive to vulnerable pupils’ needs and take great care to ensure that these pupils are closely monitored. For example, a case study we looked at showed the exceptional support that has been given to a pupil in your care. You told me, ‘We do for these children what we would do for our own kids.’ Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, especially when accessing the internet and online. Parents are kept up to date with how to support their children online at home with tips in your weekly newsletter and online safety parent events. Pupils told me that they know whom to go to if they are unhappy, and feel that their concerns are quickly dealt with and resolved by staff. Subsequently, pupils feel safe and well cared for. Inspection findings The first line of enquiry for this inspection was to explore how effectively the school promotes good attendance for all pupils. This was because attendance was below the national average in both 2015 and 2016.