The leadership team has maintained and built on the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Leaders bring an ambitious, positive approach to making sure that children are happy and successful in their learning. Creating a vibrant, welcoming and safe learning environment has been high on the agenda. You are described by many of your pupils as kind, a good listener and someone who always helps them. Staff and pupils throughout school have similarly positive relationships. You and your team know each pupil very well. Through your careful checks on learning, you quickly spot where any pupil needs additional support. The support for pupils to catch up, when necessary, is impressive. It includes frequent one-to-one breakfast sessions, focused groups after school across different subjects, and activities with parents before and after school. Pupils say that teachers offer to work with them at break- or lunchtime if they have found a task tricky. In addition, highquality support from teaching assistants has a positive impact on developing pupils’ confidence and self-esteem, as well as giving them clear direction as to how to improve. Governors and the local authority quite rightly have a positive view of the school, particularly the strengths in leadership and pupils’ outcomes. Governors have worked with other schools in the cluster and the associate improvement adviser to ensure that the support and challenge they provide to you and your team are top notch. They have an in-depth understanding of the school. They check how effectively leaders are monitoring the quality of teaching and learning and the impact of the resulting actions they take. Areas for improvement from the last inspection have been successfully tackled. Teachers and teaching assistants lead a wide range of activities to develop children’s skills in early literacy, because many children start school without confidence in speech. The teaching of phonics is high profile. Consequently, pupils quickly develop their reading and writing skills, as well as their confidence to talk about and explain their learning. Pupils use accurate language and mathematical vocabulary confidently when sharing their work, because teachers model use of accurate language often and well. Productivity across lessons is high and pupils are encouraged to be confident, independent learners. Pupils’ attitudes to learning are very positive and they take pride in their work. There are high expectations in the way pupils present their work, particularly in writing and mathematics. Pupils’ current work, their books from last year and school assessment information demonstrate the school’s effective work in improving standards in writing. Leaders’ work has included engaging pupils in exciting, purposeful and collaborative opportunities across different schools. For example, pupils have been involved in termly work on a joint newspaper project, the Swarton Scribblers, with pupils from another school. Others have written a story, developing the text one paragraph at a time by passing the story backwards and forwards between two schools. Pupils regularly take part in writing and poetry competitions. Pupils have also written to the Queen, the Prime Minister and local councillors about current issues. Consequently, pupils have developed a real understanding of the purpose of highquality writing. Partnerships with other schools have also been successful in supporting teachers in making accurate assessments of pupils’ attainment in writing. Because of this work, standards in writing overall are improving. The greatest impact can be seen for the lower and middle-ability writers. The successful direction and support that teachers and teaching assistants give have helped these pupils make strong progress. While direction for improvement is given to the most able pupils in writing, this is not tightly focused enough to support pupils to write with the accuracy and flair needed to reach higher standards. Leaders agree that while they have concentrated on checking on the progress each pupil makes, they have not focused on the progress of this group of pupils in comparison with the lower and middle-ability groups. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and embedded in everyday life at the school. A team of personnel, including you as the designated safeguarding lead, the senior administrative officer, the learning mentor and a team of governors, work in partnership to ensure that this area of the school’s work is highly effective and that pupils are safe. Information is recorded in detail and the procedures and systems are understood well by everyone. Records are detailed and of high quality. The school’s work in liaising with external agencies is thorough and successful in supporting pupils and their families well. All parents who completed the Ofsted questionnaire and all pupils spoken to during the inspection had confidence in the school’s work to keep pupils safe. Pupils could explain their learning in the classroom and through focused assemblies about a range of ways to keep safe. This included online safety, safety on the school site and how to keep safe when out in the community. Inspection findings During the inspection, I investigated specific areas of the school’s work. These included the impact of leaders’ work to improve pupils’ attendance, the effectiveness of the support given to the most able pupils and the progress children make in early literacy skills. I also looked at the impact of work to improve pupils’ outcomes in writing, covered earlier in this letter. Leaders welcome opportunities for partnership and collaboration outside their own school, to widen horizons and develop strong practice, for the benefit of pupils and staff. Leaders, including governors, speak highly of the partnership and work with the cluster schools. Work between the headteachers, the deputy headteachers, middle leaders, staff and governing bodies in the cluster schools has had a positive impact on school improvement. Leaders’ response to anything less than good, in terms of attendance, is rigorous. The headteacher, senior administrative staff and the learning mentor provide daily checks and support to pupils and their families. The use of the bus to collect pupils, which is funded by the local cluster of schools, has had a considerable impact on better attendance. A member of the governing body carries out extensive work on analysing school attendance information, researching ways to improve, and implementing some of these strategies with school leaders. Consequently, attendance overall has improved, particularly in the persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders show determination to improve this even further. The school’s work to support higher ability pupils in reading and mathematics is confirmed in strong school and external assessments. The school’s emphasis on developing speech and language skills and early reading as soon as pupils enter school helps them make rapid progress through key stage 1. Pupils have rich opportunities to read to staff and reading helpers. They display an enjoyment of, and confidence in reading. An ambition to deliver high-quality reading activities through engaging texts has captured pupils’ interests and made their learning meaningful and relevant. In mathematics, careful planning and teaching to address the higher national expectations, particularly in terms of pupils’ ability to use their skills to reason, make choices and solve problems, have resulted in higher standards.