The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. Despite the extra challenge of managing a sizeable building project, you remain firmly focused on the school’s core purpose: ensuring that pupils are looked after and achieve of their best. As a result, parents and carers are highly positive about their children’s experiences of the school. Some captured the ethos well when they said, ‘St Denys is clearly a very caring, close-knit and vibrant school [where] children thrive and are happy and confident to learn.’ This is testament to your empowering leadership, supported ably by your deputy headteacher, and to the capable work of your dedicated team of staff. St Denys is a happy and welcoming place. Pupils’ enthusiasm for their school was evident at the start of the day, as they joined in with ‘wake up Wednesday’ on the playground before heading purposefully to their classrooms. A strong sense of ‘family’ permeates the school and is valued by pupils and parents. Around the school, warm relationships between pupils and adults are evident. Staff know pupils well, recognising their diversity and different needs. They make careful provision for pupils who need extra help, which enables them to feel safe and to be successful. Adults help pupils who join the school late or for a short period of time, such as while their parents are studying at Southampton University, to settle in quickly and to make good progress. This includes the above-average proportion of pupils who speak very little English when they join the school but develop their language quickly because of the useful support they receive. Since the previous inspection, you have thought carefully about the areas identified for improvement, looking for sustainable ways to move forward, rather than ‘quick fixes’. Sensibly, you have looked at practice that has proved effective in other schools, considering whether and how it might support the quality of pupils’ experiences at St Denys. You pilot new approaches to check that they have the impact you are looking for before rolling them out across the school. Consequently, some improvements to the school, such as those around developing pupils’ accurate use of spelling, punctuation and grammar, have been put in place gradually and so remain an ongoing focus to ensure their impact over time. In comparison, your work to strengthen pupils’ problem-solving and explanations in mathematics is more firmly established. During the inspection, a consistent approach to thinking deeply was evident, both in the lessons we visited and in samples of pupils’ books. Over time, this piece of development work has helped to raise pupils’ attainment and improve their progress in mathematics by the end of key stage 2. Pupils learn well at St Denys. The proportions of pupils reaching the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of each key stage are at least in line with national averages. A high proportion of pupils meet the expected standard in the phonics screening check by the end of Year 1, which supports their future learning well. However, progress in reading and writing by the end of key stage 2 declined last year. A whole-school response that focuses on challenging pupils consistently well is having a positive impact. As a result, the proportion of pupils on track to reach a greater depth or higher standard of learning is increasing over time. Safeguarding is effective. An ethos of inclusion is evident at St Denys. The school’s values, built around a culture of mutual respect, are promoted successfully. Increasingly, parents choose your school because they trust that you will strive to meet their children’s specific and diverse needs. Pupils feel safe, are well cared for and accept each other’s differences, resulting in a harmonious school where pupils behave respectfully. Staff and governors carry out their safeguarding duties effectively and diligently. Helpful training empowers them to act swiftly and in pupils’ best interests. Leaders have recently improved attendance notably, which has reduced potential risks linked to pupils not being in school. Open and effective working relationships between families and school staff support safeguarding work successfully. Leaders and governors ensure that policies and processes are fit for purpose, keeping careful records of the actions they take when a concern arises. Consequently, risks to pupils’ well-being are identified quickly and managed well.