The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your appointment as executive headteacher in June 2017 followed a period of turbulence within the West Tyneside federation of schools that required diocese and local authority intervention and support. As a result of this support, a temporary acting executive headteacher was appointed to manage the schools and stabilise teaching and learning. The size of the federation was reduced from four schools to two, and strong and effective governance was secured. While much was achieved, there remained weaknesses in teaching and learning which you have tackled swiftly and effectively since your arrival. You have wasted no time in establishing your strong vision for the future and your high expectations now permeate all aspects of school life. All staff are supportive of your leadership and they share your aspirations. This bodes well for the future. Parents are equally supportive of your calm and purposeful leadership, which has turned the fortunes of the school around. Parents value the many opportunities they now have to be fully involved in the school. The parents who spoke to me at the end of the school day were complimentary of the changes you have made. They were particularly pleased with the new improved levels of communication. You are held in such high regard that one parent felt compelled to write to the governing body to express her gratitude at your appointment and leadership. Governors were equally emphatic that the most important decision they had made was to appoint you. You have secured an accurate evaluation of the school as a result of the thorough checks you make on teaching and learning and other aspects of the school’s work. Together with governors, you have developed a clear and strategic plan for the future that plots key milestones for success over the next three years. Subject action plans supplement this and identify specific short-term improvement priorities. As a means of measuring success, you set challenging targets for pupils’ achievement at the expected standards. These transfer into staff appraisal targets effectively. Although cohort sizes are too small to link targets to the achievement of key groups of pupils, you accept that setting targets for the proportion of pupils identified to reach the higher standard would sharpen your plan even further. One of the improvements required from the previous inspection was to improve teaching in key stage 1, particularly in mathematics. You have tackled weak teaching successfully and appointed new staff to the school. At the same time, you have introduced a planning tool which enables teachers to plan for the progression of pupils’ learning in mixed-age classes effectively. Teachers are clear about your expectations for them to plan for pupils’ arithmetic fluency, reasoning and problemsolving. Your expectations to make practical resources freely available to support pupils’ mathematical learning and understanding are now commonplace across all classes. You have introduced a new approach to planning that has re-energised the wider curriculum and pupils’ enjoyment of school. Pupils learn through topics, which provide pupils with a meaningful context for their learning and make links between subjects appropriately. Each topic starts with a question that pupils have to research. This provides pupils with regular opportunities to apply their numeracy and literacy skills in other subjects. While you have invigorated the school’s curriculum, there is more you want to achieve. Together with governors, you have exciting plans to develop pupils’ skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics even further. Children start school with skills that are typical for children their age. They quickly settle in because transition with the private nursery is effective and strong bonds are formed successfully with the children and their parents. This continues throughout the school. Pupils say they are happy and well cared for and parents endorse this. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and governors place a high priority on all aspects of safeguarding and have ensured that arrangements are fit for purpose, including for those times when you are present at your other school in the federation. You make rigorous checks on the suitability of all staff and volunteers to work with children. Regular training and updates ensure that all staff are fully aware of the important role they play in keeping children safe.