The leadership team has maintained and further improved the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have gained the confidence of the parents, who state that ‘things have improved dramatically’ following your appointment and that this ‘fantastic school is now even better’. You and your leadership team have a very good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Your evaluation is accurate. The school’s development plan focuses on raising attainment and continually improving the quality of teaching, which your robust analysis has identified as priorities. Middle leaders, in addition to being highly effective teachers themselves, are driving the school’s improvements with tenacity as a result of a very impressive coaching and appraisal system. Governors are very supportive and knowledgeable. They are a reflective group and have good procedures for holding leaders to account for the achievement of pupils. They make effective use of the information they receive, which, coupled with their first-hand experience of school life, enhances their strategic role. Children enter school in the Nursery and Reception classes with skills that are below those typically expected, especially in language acquisition, reading and writing. This is due, in the main, to the significant numbers of children who speak English as an additional language. Teaching is well focused on personal, social and emotional development and language acquisition to prepare children well for their future learning. Work in pupils’ books indicates that they are making good progress in key stage 1 from their low starting points. As a result of effective teaching, pupils’ books across key stage 2 show that pupils make good progress towards national averages in writing and significantly better progress in reading and mathematics. Attainment at the end of key stage 2 in 2016 was below national averages in reading and writing, but above in mathematics. However, you and your leaders are very aware that, despite good progress, attainment in the national assessments at key stage 1 last year was below national averages. Leaders have tackled the areas identified for improvement at the last inspection with drive and purpose. An area for improvement was to improve the impact of leadership and management by developing the role of subject leaders. Highly effective coaching and the use of research methods to improve practice and provision has resulted in much more focused leadership in these areas. Leaders draw up detailed action plans which they implement and monitor closely, often with appropriate support and challenge from governors. Another area was to improve standards of achievement. There are admissions to school at times other than the normal admission round, with a constant flow of pupils in and out of school. Leaders and governors are aware that this means that the headline figures for improvements in attainment and progress can constantly change. However, information about those pupils who join school in Reception and remain throughout their primary years shows that these pupils attain well and make really good progress. Leaders are beginning to see this improving picture across the early years foundation stage and Year 1, as the school’s nursery provision becomes the first choice for parents. This is due to its growing reputation in the community. However, attainment in reading and writing in national assessments at the end of the Reception Year and key stage 1 remains below national averages. The teaching of language acquisition and phonics is very effective. These aspects of the curriculum, along with the huge variety of first-hand experiences and a strong focus on oracy, are key to the progress that pupils make across all curriculum subjects. Pupils enjoy school. They value the support that teachers give them when they are stuck with their work and comment that teachers ‘make every lesson fun’. ‘Military school’ is valued by pupils as a programme to help with their emotional development. Pupils participate in a wide variety of extra-curricular opportunities, including clubs, visits and residential visits (including the opportunity to visit Barcelona). Safeguarding is effective. There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose. Leaders and governors fulfil statutory requirements when appointing new members of staff. Parents and pupils feel that the school is a safe place to be. Leaders, including governors, ensure that staff receive high-quality training. As a result, staff know how to recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse. Staff are very clear about the school’s procedures for reporting and recording any concerns they have regarding the safeguarding of pupils. Leaders are tenacious in their work to protect vulnerable pupils. Pupils are taught about how to stay safe and keep themselves safe. Leaders have introduced and implemented clear programmes to teach pupils about personal and internet safety. Pupils understand the dangers associated with internet use and report concerns to staff. Attendance rates of all pupils and groups of pupils are currently in line with, or better than, national averages. Leaders have implemented very good procedures to tackle absenteeism; records show the positive impact these are having. Leaders take their responsibility very seriously for pupils being safe and attending school regularly. Leaders have implemented a balance of rewards for good attendance, sanctions and support. Where attendance and punctuality are an issue for families, they are supported, for example using the school’s minibus to collect pupils from home. Sanctions include issuing penalty notices and fines. Inspection findings  Pupils at Pleasant Street Primary School make good, and often significant, progress from their starting points. Your analysis of pupil performance and progress in 2016 was robust. It identified the successes and weaknesses in the progress made by significant groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils who speak English as an additional language and those born in the summer months.  During this inspection I considered the reasons why pupils made strong progress across key stage 2. In 2016, the progress made by boys was stronger than that of the girls in reading. However, in mathematics, both boys and girls made significantly better progress than similar pupils nationally. This is because you have ensured that teachers have an excellent working knowledge of the school’s assessment system. They monitor the progress and attainment of all pupils (including boys and girls) and take swift action in response to any differences in progress that they spot. As a result of better-focused teaching and a variety of first-hand experiences, pupils make good progress from their starting points.  Year 6 readers, especially boys, read with confidence. They have good wordattack skills and use these appropriately to understand their texts. Their comprehension skills are good and they read with good intonation. They selfcorrect using phonics knowledge. Their inference and information retrieval skills are well developed, enabling them to have a good understanding of what they are reading. They can also make appropriate predictions based on what they have already read. In key stage 2, pupils experiment with sentence structures and more-exciting vocabulary to create interesting pieces of writing. Year 3 pupils use the available writing prompts and resources to improve their work by, for example, including more-descriptive settings.