The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Moorside Community Primary School is a friendly and welcoming school where pupils are happy, safe and enjoy their learning. Teaching engages pupils well, meaning that they behave well and are keen to do well. Parents are positive about the school. They report that staff, including you and other leaders, are approachable and work very hard for their children. They also report that where concerns are raised, these are dealt with quickly and effectively. At the last inspection, inspectors identified two areas for improvement. The first was to ensure that teaching activities challenged the most able pupils more and to make the pace of learning more appropriate to push pupils always to work hard. Following the previous inspection, outcomes for pupils and the quality of teaching declined for a period of time. This was because these areas were not immediately worked on. However, since your appointment in January 2016, the quality of teaching and pupils’ attainment and progress have improved. Now there is consistently strong teaching in the school and some teaching is particularly strong. This means that most groups of pupils are challenged well, although the most able pupils are not always sufficiently challenged. Teachers use various checks on learning to ensure that when pupils are ready to move on, they do so rapidly. Equally, where pupils need further support, teachers provide this in a timely manner. The second area for improvement was to improve pupils’ achievement in writing and ensure that pupils were given regular opportunities to write at length and that they present their work with neat, clear handwriting. Again, following a period of weaker outcomes in writing, pupils’ writing standards are now improving. This is clear in the standard of writing seen across the curriculum in pupils’ work. Teachers have high expectations of pupils’ writing and ensure that pupils have regular opportunities to practise and use correct English grammar, punctuation and spelling, which ensures that writing is now more accurate. Furthermore, thanks to the engaging curriculum in place, pupils regularly write on a variety of topics. Teachers give pupils useful feedback on writing, which pupils use well. Pupils are used to editing their own work and improving it. This has led to better outcomes in writing for different groups of pupils. In addition, the regular reinforcement of reading and writing across different subject areas helps pupils make good progress. This is not always the case for mathematics, however, and opportunities to bring these skills into other subjects are sometimes missed. In recent years, pupils’ outcomes have been disappointing. Following the appointment of a new governing body by the local authority and then your own appointment two years ago, there has been a much sharper evaluation of the school’s provision and of the issues in teaching, leadership and pupils’ behaviour for learning. In turn, expectations have heightened considerably, and training for teachers has improved. You, alongside your deputy headteacher, governors and the local authority, have maintained a strong focus on teaching quality and on the accuracy of assessment. This means that pupils’ achievement over time is clearly understood and any underachievement is quickly identified. Support for pupils, as necessary, is then provided, ensuring that different groups of pupils are achieving well. As a result, 2017 pupil outcomes and work in pupils’ books have shown clear improvement in terms of both attainment and progress across all classes. This improvement has also been seen in the teaching of phonics. Following leaders’ review of phonics teaching, there has been an increase in the proportion of Year 1 pupils passing the phonics screening check, as well as the proportion of Reception children reaching a good level of development in reading by the end of early years. Since the last inspection, attendance has been below average and the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent much higher than average. Again, since your appointment, systems for tracking pupils’ attendance have sharpened considerably and attendance has increased. These improvements have secured pupils’ well-being and welfare. Not only do pupils attend more frequently but they have a better chance of making good academic progress. Improved attendance also means that these pupils are safe and properly safeguarded. However, as you are fully aware, there is still more to do to ensure that harder-to-reach families are aware of the importance of their children attending school. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and governors have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Adults receive regular training so that they know how to keep children safe and understand their responsibilities if they have concerns about pupils’ safety.