The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement in specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection. Since the last inspection, pupils’ outcomes have improved. For example, the gap in writing for disadvantaged pupils has closed at the end of key stage 2. The leadership team has addressed they key issues raised. For example, leaders now track and analyse behaviour effectively and this has allowed them to target support where it is needed. You, the leadership team and a skilled and proactive governing body have an accurate understanding of the school’s current strengths and weaknesses. From this, you have been able to plan and implement effective strategies that have underpinned the improvement in pupils’ outcomes, most notably at the end of early years and key stage 1. During the inspection, pupils were confident, polite and articulate. Staff respond well to senior leadership. They appreciate the opportunities they are given to improve the quality of their teaching and to develop their leadership roles. Parents who responded to Ofsted’s online survey agreed overwhelmingly they would recommend the school to others. Parents are very positive about the school and your leadership. One parent stated that their child ‘has loved school since the day she started. She really looks forward to going to school because the teachers and support staff are excellent’. This was typical of the many positive comments from parents. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team have created a culture of safety and vigilance that is embedded across the school. Pre-employment checks on adults working at the school meet statutory requirements. All staff have regular and appropriate training and staff spoken to during the inspection were knowledgeable and confident about the school’s systems for referring concerns. Records are detailed and well organised. Leaders, including governors, hold regular meetings where safeguarding compliance and caseload is checked and follow-up actions agreed. This ensures that you have a rich knowledge of pupils and enables the school to provide the right level of support in a timely manner. The vast majority of parents who responded to the online survey stated that their children are happy, safe and well looked after at school. Pupils feel that behaviour is typically good. Pupils acknowledge that the systems for ensuring positive behaviour work effectively. You have designed aspects of the curriculum to heighten pupils’ awareness of safety issues beyond the school including the risks of extremism, gang affiliation, knife crime and staying safe online. Pupils spoken to during the inspection could identify confidently a number of ways the school keeps them safe. They know what to do if they ever feel unsafe and could identify a number of trusted adults in the school. Inspection findings At the start of the inspection, we agreed three lines of enquiry. The first focused on the actions leaders have taken to ensure strong outcomes for pupils in the early years and key stage 1. This was because, from low starting points, pupils’ outcomes over time have been stronger than those typical nationally. Visiting classrooms with leaders and a review of work in pupils’ books demonstrate that leaders have the highest aspirations for pupils. Children have low starting points on entry. Leaders have identified the need to provide opportunities for children to engage in high-quality speaking and listening and to heighten children’s independence and confidence to engage in more-challenging learning. From the very beginning, routines enable children to make the most of these opportunities. As a result, children in the early years are able to work independently, sustaining focus and making sensible and varied choices about the learning they engage in. They work well with a variety of peers and are responding increasingly well to the heightened challenge provided to them. Across key stage 1, pupils’ reading, writing and mathematics is very well developed. Visits to lessons and work in books demonstrate that pupils develop the confidence and stamina to write at length. As their stamina for writing develops, pupils’ range of vocabulary, technical accuracy and readability is maintained, resulting in often lively pieces of writing. In mathematics, opportunities for fluency and reasoning have resulted in increased challenge for pupils. As a result, they are now more adept at explaining and justifying their mathematics thinking using increasingly precise vocabulary. Adults’ questioning is generally skilful. As a result, pupils are confident to speak about their learning, speak in full sentences and use a range of increasingly complex vocabulary. On occasion, however, adults’ questioning does not always allow pupils to explain or justify their thinking fully. The second line of enquiry focused on the actions leaders have taken to ensure that pupils make strong progress in reading across key stage 2. This is because, over time, progress in this area has slowed. Leaders have been swift to identify the key challenges pupils face in acquiring and demonstrating more-demanding reading skills. From this analysis leaders have developed an ambitious reading curriculum that is underpinned with well-thought-out staff development. As a result, staff are ambitious, committed and skilled in ensuring that pupils are continually supported to achieve their best. Teachers use challenging and inspirational texts confidently to ensure that pupils develop as successful readers. The pupils I spoke to could talk with confidence about the books they read in class and independently. This group of pupils are beginning to make more complex inferences about characters and plot and understand often very complex language. Pupils are highly motivated readers who read widely, frequently and are familiar with a range of authors and their works. As a result, their understanding of more complex vocabulary is developing well. Pupils typically read with confidence, expression and intonation, demonstrating a secure understanding of the text. On occasion, however, texts are not as well matched to pupils’ reading ability or vocabulary knowledge. Where this gap exists, pupils cannot access texts, limiting those pupils in securing the outcomes they are capable of. The final line of enquiry focused on the effectiveness of leaders’ actions to ensure that the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is of high quality, leading to strong outcomes for those pupils. This was because you and the leadership team identified this area as a particular strength of the school. Leadership of SEND is very strong. Leaders are focused on prioritising developing independence and engaging pupils who find it challenging to access learning. The approach to teaching and learning across the school demonstrates a thorough understanding of the barriers faced by these pupils that affect their learning. The structured environment allows pupils’ complex needs to be met through small, focused groups to build their language and skills. They then have ample opportunity to apply these skills in a range of contexts. As a result, pupils demonstrate increasing independence in the choices they make and take great pride in their work. In many cases the gap between their current outcomes and those of an age-appropriate curriculum is narrowing rapidly. Additional adults are very well trained and skilfully deployed to support pupils’ range of needs. Typically, they facilitate learning, developing skills, language and independence well. On occasion, feedback from adults supporting pupils is not always precise enough to allow for accurate and meaningful next steps to be planned. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the precision and quality of support given to pupils, through, for example, the questions adults ask, the matching of texts to vocabulary knowledge and the feedback from adults are consistently strong and accurately pitched to their needs, enabling all pupils to make the progress of which they are capable. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Redbridge. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Nick Turvey Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection The inspection began with a discussion of your self-evaluation and we agreed the key lines of enquiry. Together, we visited lessons and looked at pupils’ work, including the books of pupils in Years 5 and 6 who were on an educational visit during the inspection. I spoke with pupils about their learning and how the school helps to keep them safe. Meetings were held with a group of staff, including those responsible for leading the early years, key stage 1, reading and safeguarding. I met a group of governors and a representative of the local authority. I reviewed a range of the school’s documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, development plan and single central record of employment checks. I also considered responses to the staff survey, pupil survey and Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents.