The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement in specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection. The school’s mission statement, ‘Believe, achieve, together we succeed’, has become a reality across the school. Since the last inspection, you have improved teaching, raised expectations and established a strong leadership team. As a result, standards have improved. You have developed the skills of senior and middle leaders so that the capacity of the leadership team has increased. You, the leadership team and governors have a clear understanding of the strengths of the school and the areas for development. However, further work is needed to ensure that a greater proportion of pupils make better progress across the school and achieve the higher standard in mathematics by the end of key stage 2. Staff continually reflect on their practice and take decisive and effective action to ensure that they achieve the best possible outcomes for pupils. Governors have high expectations of all staff. They use their skills and expertise to monitor specific aspects of school life. As a result, they have had a positive impact on whole-school improvement. Governors regularly visit school to undertake learning walks and scrutinise pupils’ work. They ask leaders appropriately challenging questions based on their observations. Governors work closely with the designated leaders for safeguarding and fulfil their statutory responsibilities. They keep themselves up to date with training. They check safeguarding procedures and the school site so that pupils are kept safe. Governors are committed to the school and are proud to be part of the school community. Most parents and carers who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and those who spoke to inspectors during the inspection, shared positive views about the school. They agree that their children are safe, happy and well looked after. Many parents commented on the care and support that their children receive and the wide range of additional opportunities that the school provides, for example singing, drama and sporting activities. You have continued to address the areas for development identified at the last inspection. The quality of teaching and learning is now stronger across the school. Teachers’ subject knowledge is exceptional, and they use technical vocabulary accurately and confidently. Regular and accurate monitoring is carried out by leaders at all levels. Lesson observations, scrutiny of pupils’ work and discussions with pupils, alongside information about pupils’ progress, show that most make good progress in the core subjects. Mathematics in key stage 1 is now taught more effectively, and pupils’ attainment and progress in mathematics have been consistently above national figures for the last three years. Safeguarding is effective. The culture of safeguarding is strong. You ensure that all staff and governors are well trained and are clear about policies and procedures. The record-keeping for the recruitment of staff is thorough and precise. Concerns about pupils are carefully logged and appropriately detailed. You follow up concerns in a timely manner and escalate them further when necessary. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe and are confident that if they have a problem it will be sorted out. A group of pupils known as ‘peer mediators’ are trained to support other pupils with their safety and welfare. Through the curriculum and assemblies, you teach pupils about e-safety, road safety and selfawareness, and these messages are reinforced by a range of visitors, including West Mercia Police. Inspection findings Most pupils by the end of key stage 2 make progress in line with other pupils nationally. Pupils’ progress matches that of pupils nationally. However, some of the more able don’t reach the standards of which they are capable. This is particularly the case in mathematics. The inspection found several positive strategies being implemented to address this. These include effective questioning and timely intervention by support staff, which helps pupils to deepen their thinking and understanding. Tasks set in lessons enthuse and excite pupils and there are high expectations in terms of what pupils can achieve and, as a result, pupils are now making stronger progress. Staff implement whole-school approaches to tackle persistent problems. For example, a number of high-frequency words were being misspelled by pupils across the school. The school told all pupils about the ‘spelling goblins’ that were invading the school in order to raise their awareness, and this resulted in greater accuracy in pupils’ spelling. Since the last inspection, the role of middle leaders has developed significantly. There are two new core subject leaders who took up post in September 2018 and a newly appointed assistant headteacher. Middle leaders devise targeted action plans to improve the quality of teaching and learning and are held to account by senior leaders for outcomes in their phase or subject area. The very strong leadership of the headteacher and senior leaders is a result of their clear vision for school improvement. Self-evaluation is clear and concise, based on internal and external monitoring and analysis of data. Pupils achieve well and teaching over time is good, with some excellent features. Pupils’ progress throughout the school, from Reception to Year 6, reflects this whole-school improvement. Pupils’ work confirms this. The curriculum is rich and interesting and provides every opportunity for all pupils to develop a full range of skills, knowledge and understanding over time. Leaders make best use of staff’s specialist skills, such as the ability to teach French and music. Pupils are highly engaged and focused in their learning. The school places great emphasis on performing arts and physical education, achieving both a music mark and the ‘School Games Mark Gold’ in 2017. The school has a highly effective social and emotional programme that links to the curriculum. Nurturing learning environments, for example the sensory room, and effective support and challenge provided by staff ensure that pupils’ attitudes to learning are exemplary. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: they continue to improve progress so that even more pupils make strong and sustained progress towards the expectations for their age a greater number of pupils achieve the higher standard in mathematics by the end of key stage 2. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Worcestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Heather Phillips Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, my colleague and I met with you, other members of the leadership team and teaching staff. I met with three governors and the school’s business manager. We carried out short observations in different year groups and looked at pupils’ work in books and on display. We talked with pupils in lessons and at breaktime and met with a small group to talk about school life and work. An inspector spoke with parents at the beginning of the school day. I paid attention to several key lines of enquiry. These included safeguarding and the impact of leadership and management on pupils’ progress and attainment across the curriculum. By the end of the inspection, there were 188 responses on Parent View and 98 written comments. I took account of these responses and considered 33 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire. I looked at several documents, including the school’s evaluation of performance, records relating to the work of governors, pupils’ records and several school policy documents. I also checked the school’s website and the procedures for keeping pupils safe.