The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have led your team with quiet determination to make sure teaching is of a high quality and pupils, including those who have a special educational need (SEN) and/or disability, are making strong progress in improving their reading, writing and mathematics skills. Teachers and teaching assistants are skilfully bringing out the best in pupils. You and your capable deputy headteacher have guided the school to agree a set of values. Consequently, parents, carers and pupils are very supportive of the school and staff morale is high. One of your most notable achievements is that you and other leaders have established a calm and purposeful atmosphere in which pupils thrive. Many pupils face significant difficulties in their lives but, with the school’s help, they are successful in overcoming those barriers to make good progress. Pupils who have identified behaviour difficulties develop successful ways of improving their behaviour. You and your team have also been successful in reducing the number of pupils who are persistently absent. You use a ‘walking bus’ to support families facing difficult circumstances in getting pupils to school. As a result, the number of pupils who are persistently absent and the number of fixed-term exclusions are reducing. You have led the school effectively to review the curriculum. Pupils are motivated by the content. Teachers and leaders have made sure that learning is finely tailored to pupils’ needs. Teachers support pupils to explore themes and issues raised in classic novels through a range of subjects. Because of this careful work, pupils are enthused, enjoy their learning and they are developing a rich vocabulary and secure general knowledge. Pupils’ understanding of key concepts and skills, such as investigation, are developed well in mathematics and science. However, pupils’ progress in developing these skills in other subjects are not as strong. At the time of the previous inspection, the school was asked to make sure that pupils applied the skills that they learned in reading, writing and mathematics to other subjects. You and your team have been successful in raising teachers’ and pupils’ expectations about the quality of work that pupils do in topic and science. You acknowledge that there is further work to do to make sure that teachers’ expectations continue to rise. Pupils’ handwriting and presentation skills are of a high quality when they produce their best work, but they do not adopt these high standards for all their work. Subject leaders are developing their roles well. They take responsibility for offering other teachers guidance about subject knowledge and highlighting the best practice. They look at the quality of work in pupils’ books and intervene when necessary. Subject leaders track pupils’ progress carefully and use the information to inform their plans. Some subject leaders have developed stronger skills than others. You have ensured that children in the early years develop strong communication skills. Most children enter Nursery with skills and abilities below those typical for their age. Staff are skilled in introducing them to new vocabulary through a storybased approach. As a result, children are confident to talk as they play and use new words. However, the outside area is under-developed and opportunities to consolidate children’s learning are not fully exploited. The opportunities and equipment for writing lack imagination and flair. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You and your leaders are committed to making sure that each pupil is safe and healthy. It is one of the school’s values and staying safe and healthy is top of the agenda. As a result, the safeguarding culture in the school is strong. Leaders have made sure that safeguarding systems, policies and processes are effective and reviewed regularly. You and your team maintain a systematic overview of referrals and support so that you have an impressive knowledge of vulnerable pupils and their families. Your team make best use of external agencies to get the right support for pupils. They make sure referrals and any subsequent follow up is done in a timely fashion and recorded securely. Staff are confident about spotting the signs and symptoms that might indicate a pupil is at risk. They know how and who to report to when they have concerns. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe from a variety of risks. The new curriculum is also effective in helping pupils develop safe behaviours.