The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. During this time, you have redesigned and reinvigorated the senior leadership of the school. Leaders at all levels are well trained and given the right amount of challenge, trust and support to thrive in their roles. Parents are, rightly, delighted to send their children to the school. One parent summarised the thoughts of many, noting, ‘I love the school, the staff here are so friendly and caring.’ This is a happy school where everyone is welcome and able to achieve. Pupils are polite, hardworking and courteous. They value their school and appreciate the range of opportunities to pursue their interests. They particularly enjoy the clubs and activities they are able to attend, such as hockey, tag rugby, fencing and archery. Pupils play happily together in the well-equipped playground. They report that they feel safe in school because bullying is extremely rare and staff are always on hand to help out when needed. At the time of the inspection, pupils in the early years had only been at school for three weeks. Nevertheless, these pupils have integrated well, following the rules and showing great attitudes towards their learning. In class, pupils are diligent and attentive. They try hard to meet their teachers’ high expectations and work well with their classmates to discuss their thoughts and ideas. For example, in Year 1, pupils investigated ways to partition numbers, patiently listening to and recording each other’s different methods for solving the problem. Teachers and teaching assistants know the pupils well and offer tailored support to help pupils understand and complete their tasks. As a result, classrooms are happy and productive spaces where pupils feel confident and try their best. Governors are well organised and appropriately curious. They understand their roles and responsibilities and use these to ensure that their work is sharply focused. For example, the safeguarding committee checks the absence patterns of groups of pupils in the school to ensure that no group is disadvantaged by poor attendance. The governors have relished the opportunity to work with other governing bodies. This has enabled them to strengthen their expertise and challenge leaders to improve the school further. Since the previous inspection, you have improved systems for supporting and developing teachers. Leaders at all levels visit classrooms often, offering staff bespoke and focused feedback to help them improve their practice. Using this information, leaders pair staff with particular skill sets, allowing them to share ideas and learn from each other’s strengths. As a result, the quality of teaching across the school is continually improving. Safeguarding is effective. Child-protection documents are detailed and well maintained. Leaders and governors ensure that statutory checks and training are completed on all new staff before they commence employment. Staff know their pupils well and use their training to identify and report any concerns they have to leaders. When a concern is raised, leaders waste no time, working with families and external agencies, in getting pupils the help they need. Parents receive useful information on internet safety, which helps them to keep their children safe from harm online. Pupils spoke confidently about staying safe in the community, particularly around roads and rivers, and about what to do if approached by a stranger. Pupils understand their responsibility to keep themselves and their friends safe. Inspection findings At the start of the inspection we agreed to look at: the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements; the progress of pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, in writing; the quality of teaching in mathematics; and how effectively leaders and governors evaluate and improve the school. Over the past two years, leaders have worked hard to improve pupils’ skills and attitudes towards writing. They have revitalised the range of books and texts pupils read to ensure that they develop a broad range of vocabulary and an understanding of the different ways that writing can be used. In English lessons, pupils write well for a range of purposes. Their writing is thoughtful and interesting, conveying clear messages to the reader. However, in some lessons, particularly the humanities, pupils do not write at the standard they are capable of.