The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. There has been some instability in staffing in recent years, but you have managed this well. You have an accurate and reflective view of the school’s strengths and priorities for improvement. As the school has grown in numbers, you have set out clear actions to enable ongoing improvement. For example, you have increased teachers’ expectations and improved how they challenge pupils so that an increased number are working at the highest standard. This is enabling pupils to make progress across a range of subjects that is at least good. The governing body and the local authority have worked well together to establish an effective co-headship that has not just maintained standards but improved them, especially in reading and mathematics in key stage 2. Although the local authority provides a ‘light touch’ level of support, it has a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. Governors are well-informed and challenge appropriately and make a constructive contribution towards improving the school. Parents are supportive. All comments from the parents I met were positive, as were the majority of the responses to Parent View. Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary as is their attitude to learning. Pupils enjoy school and comment on how much they value their learning. Haslam Park is an inclusive school where pupils are valued as individuals. Comments from pupils included, ‘I’m proud of being here because we are a multi-faith school.’ The previous inspection identified the need to provide more opportunities for pupils to develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills in a wider range of subjects. It also highlighted the need for you to make more effective use of technology to support pupils’ learning. You provide a wide variety of activities for your pupils to enrich their learning across a range of subjects. Staff development has been a strength, which has also led to better outcomes in a wide range of subjects because staff now have secure subject knowledge across the school. Teachers have high expectations and challenge pupils so that an increased number are working at the highest standard. The curriculum changes have also involved parents, who commented that they welcome the support that the school provides for them to help their children at home. The use of technology to support learning is now a strength. You have invested in new equipment that is used across the curriculum. The quality work that pupils produce is displayed in corridors to celebrate their achievements. During the inspection, we discussed the next steps for the school to improve further. You acknowledge that there is a need to further improve outcomes, especially in the early years, by refining teaching of communication, literacy and language skills. This is particularly the case for pupils who have English as an additional language. You also agreed that you should embed the recent changes made to the teaching of reading and writing, to improve outcomes in key stage 1. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders ensure that there is a strong culture of safeguarding in your school. All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose, including protocols and practices for record-keeping. Systems to ensure that only suitable people are recruited to work with children in the school are secure. Governors are very knowledgeable about their responsibilities for safeguarding pupils. Leaders and staff know pupils and their families extremely well. This, coupled with the training that staff receive, means that you are all well placed to spot any signs or symptoms of abuse. Safety is taught throughout the curriculum and you work with local services to teach pupils about issues arising in the local community. Pupils discuss how they are taught to keep safe such as in e-safety lessons and through visits from the fire brigade. Inspection findings We agreed a number of key issues that this inspection would focus on. The first of these was how leaders are improving outcomes in early years and key stage 1, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. You monitor how you are spending the pupil premium funding closely. This enables you to identify the strategies that are working and those that are not. If additional teaching is not helping pupils to make progress, then you will look for alternative strategies. Barriers to pupils’ learning are identified and strategies put in place to remove them. Strong progress in early years from starting points is clear in children’s work, in discussions with children and in your internal assessment information. For example, parents are invited to stay and play with their children and this results in parents being highly involved in gathering evidence to show their own children’s achievements at home. This adds depth to the teacher’s judgements.