The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your vision to ensure that the school is fully inclusive is clear in all that you do. You have created a culture where staff know families well and can therefore respond to their needs swiftly and effectively. Staff feel well supported and staff morale is high. Staff are proud to work at the school. You place high importance on developing pupils’ confidence and building their resilience. Consequently, pupils are happy and display positive attitudes to their learning. You place equal weighting on supporting pupils’ pastoral development and expect all pupils to be polite and courteous. The vast majority of pupils behave well. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the school. The parents I talked to during the inspection are happy with the quality of education provided for their children. Parents feel well supported. All parents who responded to the online Ofsted survey Parent View said that their child is happy and feels safe. One parent commented on the ‘great relationships between teachers and pupils’. Another said: ‘the headteacher and teachers are very approachable and deal with problems efficiently’. Since the previous inspection, you have ensured that middle leaders are increasingly accountable for their areas of responsibility. They have a clear rationale for the curriculum and have rewritten long-term plans to ensure consistency across the school. You ensure that they have the time to check the quality of provision within their subjects. Strong partnerships with the local cluster of schools provide opportunities for teachers to share best practice and moderate pupils’ work. You also ensure that staff have the opportunity to contribute towards the school development plan. This means that they understand the key priorities for improvement. However, you acknowledge that the development plan would benefit from the incorporation of interim milestones to judge the impact of actions on pupils’ progress. Since the previous inspection, you have ensured wider opportunities for pupils to develop their independent learning skills. Pupils are encouraged to help and support each other. You place high importance on developing pupils’ speaking and listening skills. Effective questioning by teachers ensures that pupils’ misconceptions are addressed. During the inspection, I saw pupils who were confident to discuss and share their ideas. You set aspirational targets for pupils. Detailed tracking of pupils’ progress and attainment enables you to identify pupils who are at risk of underachieving, or who need additional support. As a result, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined is improving year on year. Last year, 58% of pupils achieved this standard compared with 52% in 2016. Inspection evidence would indicate that the improving trend is set to continue. You, your senior leadership team and governors know the strengths of the school well. However, you are not complacent. Your assessment of what needs to be done to improve the school further is accurate. You and governors acknowledge that the quality of writing across the curriculum needs to improve. You have rightly prioritised improving the progress in writing of White British disadvantaged boys and most-able pupils in particular. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and governors have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff and governors take their safeguarding responsibilities seriously. The assistant headteacher with responsibility for safeguarding provides strong leadership. She ensures that referrals to other agencies and professionals are made in a timely manner. This means that pupils and their families receive the necessary support quickly. The school’s record-keeping is detailed and of high quality, showing the impact of actions taken. You ensure effective and regular training for all staff and governors. This includes regular updates in daily staff briefings. Pupils told me that bullying is rare. If it does happen, they are confident that staff will deal with it quickly and effectively. A very small number of pupils, in response to the Ofsted online survey, said that they did not feel that bullying is always dealt with effectively. However, the vast majority of pupils in response to the online survey did say that there was an adult they could talk to if they were worried about something. Inspection findings Pupils’ attendance has improved this year and is now broadly in line with the national average. Persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils had improved significantly. You are disappointed that, despite your focus on improving attendance, persistent absence still remains stubbornly high. You are tackling this through a wider range of rewards and sanctions. This is beginning to show some impact. However, persistent absence remains too high despite your efforts. Consequently, you rightly prioritise continuing to improve attendance as a whole-school priority.