The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your staff continue to provide an inclusive learning community where pupils and their families feel highly valued. Parental views are summed up in their comments describing your school as ‘lovely, caring and nurturing’ and ‘a fantastic family for children to be part of’. You, your senior leaders and governors have an accurate and reflective view of the school’s strengths and priorities. Together, you are determined to improve the school further. You have high expectations of what you can achieve, while being mindful and realistic about staff workloads. As a result, staff morale is high. The school improvement plan identifies precise aspects needing attention and actions to resolve them. As a result, you have made several changes to how reading is taught and acknowledge the need to embed these changes. Staff are swift in developing the speaking of English for those who cannot speak English when they join the school. You and your staff are keen to continue improving the quality of teaching and training further. From low starting points, you and your staff ensure that children get off to a good start in the early years. Many children start school with skills that are much lower than are typical for their age, particularly in speech and language and their personal development. By the time they leave Year 6, pupils make good progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics and are well prepared for the next stage in their education, and for life generally. Since the previous inspection, an increasing proportion of pupils have joined the school during key stage 1 and key stage 2. Many of these pupils speak English is an additional language. At the previous inspection in 2014, inspectors asked the leadership team, including governors, to ensure that teachers have high expectation of what pupils can achieve. You place a high priority on training to keep your staff up to date. You have made new appointments to strengthen staff expertise. Teachers provide bespoke challenges for individual pupils and records of pupils’ progress are accurate and detailed. The impact of this has led to achievement improving for all groups of pupils as they move through the school. Inspectors also asked that teachers focus on increasing pupils’ skills in mathematics. Your leader of mathematics has been in post for two years and has established a whole-school approach to the teaching of mathematics. Leaders ensure that there are daily sessions to build pupils’ confidence in knowing their times tables. Teachers develop pupils’ ability to use their skills to solve mathematical problems, both in mathematics lessons and in subjects such as science. As a result, pupils are making good progress in mathematics in key stage 2. Finally, you were asked to boost the achievement of those pupils supported by the pupil premium. The proportion of pupils who are supported by this additional funding has increased since the previous inspection and for many of these pupils English is an additional language. You plan a range of support and the gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally is diminishing. These pupils are making steady progress across the curriculum. It was evident during the inspection, and from talking to pupils and their families, just how much pupils enjoy coming to school and learning. This is reflected in pupils’ attendance, which is consistently higher than national average. Parents and carers told me how effectively the staff team boosts the confidence of pupils and builds their resilience for learning and for life generally. You ensure that pupils benefit from a totally dedicated staff team which provides high levels of pastoral support and academic challenge. As a result, pupils aspire to work as vets, nurses, police officers, teachers and in many other professional lines of work. Safeguarding is effective. You and your deputy designated safeguarding leaders ensure that all safeguarding arrangements meet requirements. Together, you make sure that staff fully understand their duties and follow the new online systems and procedures for logging concerns. You ensure that all necessary checks are made on the suitability of staff to work with children. Close scrutiny is given to visitors to the school. You make sure that the promotion of safeguarding throughout the school has a high profile. Staff attend regular, up-to-date training, so that they and members of the governing body understand the current guidance. You and the safeguarding team 2 are prompt in making referrals to the local authority. Together, you diligently follow up all concerns and make sure that pupils are kept safe. You work well with a range of external agencies to secure expertise to support pupils’ welfare, as and when necessary. You and your staff provide exceptional care and support for pupils and their families. Inspection findings As part of this inspection, I focused on several agreed key aspects. We looked at how effectively you and your staff are nurturing a love of reading in the early years. Together, staff have developed a culture that promotes the excitement and anticipation that comes with reading a book. At the start of each school day, children are given a choice between one of two books that will be read to them in a storytelling session towards the end of that school day. Staff encourage them to look at the illustrations on the front cover and use their phonics knowledge to work out the title of the book. Children then make choices on which story they would like to hear. Older pupils help to encourage reading with Reception children. From a young age, children enjoy stories and make good progress with their reading in the early years, including the increasing proportion of those for whom English is an additional language. Some parents routinely read to their children at home. However, there are parents who lack the skills and confidence to promote reading beyond school. Your teachers provide workshops for parents, but these are not well attended. We looked at how effectively you and your staff are taking action to improve outcomes in the phonics screening check in Year 1. You have a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics in the early years, key stage 1 and, when necessary, for older pupils. The leaders who have responsibility for reading throughout the school ensure that staff have the knowledge, skills and resources they need to teach phonics and reading effectively. Leaders regularly analyse information to identify any pupils who are struggling. They act swiftly to ensure that pupils receive help to catch up quickly. As a result, pupils make good progress in learning phonics. There are a few occasions when pupils do not pronounce certain sounds correctly. For example, saying ‘f’ instead of ‘th’ is not always picked up by staff when pupils are reading aloud. I explored the way you have improved the way that reading is taught across the school. You have ensured that teachers have the correct skills and knowledge to use assessment information accurately to build effectively on what pupils already know. As a result, learning activities now closely match the needs and interests of the pupils. Pupils have opportunities to extend their vocabulary through wellcrafted challenges. Staff skilfully use questions that develop pupils’ ideas and refine their skills. Teachers identify pupils who are struggling and ensure that they have the help that they need to catch up quickly, particularly pupils who speak English as an additional language. Previously reluctant readers told me how much they enjoy reading to Sofia, the school dog, and this is having a positive impact on pupils’ confidence to read out loud. Teachers and teaching assistants record the additional support provided for pupils and the progress being made. However, leaders are not always vigilant in spotting that a small minority of pupils may miss too many reading sessions to attend other activities. 3 This hinders pupils’ progress. The school’s assessment information and examples of pupils’ work show that progress in reading in key stage 2 is now improving. Observations of reading sessions in Year 3 showed teachers and teaching assistants using questioning skilfully to develop pupils’ understanding. The good start pupils make in key stage 1 is now being built upon more effectively in key stage 2. Pupils say they enjoy using the school’s new library, which is well stocked with a good selection of fiction and non-fiction books. The older, most able readers talk confidently about their book choices and favourite authors, and are confident, fluent readers. They recognise there is a greater focus on teaching reading effectively and are positive about its impact. Occasionally, pupils use incorrect grammar when speaking, and this is not always corrected by teachers or teaching assistants. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: teachers and teaching assistants encourage pupils’ accuracy in the pronunciation of the sounds of some letters and in using correct grammar when speaking leaders make sure that pupils do not miss important reading sessions they review strategies to provide parents with confidence and skills to help their children with their reading at home. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Salford, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Lancashire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Naomi Taylor Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I observed teaching and learning jointly with you. I held meetings with subject leaders and spoke to the vice chair of the governing body. I held a meeting with you as the designated safeguarding leader and as the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator. I spoke to a representative from the local authority. I also spoke informally with parents at the school gates and took account of the 23 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I took account of 22 free-text responses from parents. There were 22 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire which I also analysed. However, I spoke informally to staff informally during the day and held a meeting with several staff after school. There were no responses from pupils to Ofsted’s online pupil questionnaire. I held a meeting with pupils and spoke informally with pupils during breaktimes and in 4 lessons. During the inspection, I reviewed a range of school documents. These included: the school’s development plans and self-evaluation documents; minutes of the governing body’s meetings; safeguarding documentation; records relating to pupils’ behaviour and attendance; the school website; school policies; and pupils’ work and their reading logs.