The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You took up your post as executive headteacher of St Dominic CofE VA School, which is part of a federation with St Mellion School, in September 2015. You bring to your role experience as the leader of a nearby outstanding teaching school, Sir Robert Geffery’s School, and as a national leader of education. You are very ably supported by the head of schools in the federation who is responsible for the dayto-day running of St Dominic; she also took up her post in September 2015. Together, you work very well as a team and have a clear insight into the school’s strengths and also into the areas that you have rightly identified as needing further work. Consequently, after a period of uncertainty in senior leadership, you have both given the school a renewed and clear strategic direction. For example, the quality of school development planning has improved. It is now closely linked to other key aspects of the school’s work, such as performance management and the improvement of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. The federation has a single governing body which acts as the local governing body of St Dominic School. Governors are developing their understanding of their roles and responsibilities in providing strategic oversight. Recent changes to the governing body, accompanied by a diocesan review of governance and a skills audit, have increased the capacity of the governing body. For example, governors’ visits to the school are now more focused and linked closely to the priorities in the school’s development plan. Governors are actively considering strengthening the partnership with Sir Robert Geffery’s School as they plan for the future development of the school. Safeguarding is effective. St Dominic is a small school and you and the staff have established a culture of vigilance based on all staff knowing the needs and any vulnerabilities of all pupils very well. Staff are thus well placed to identify quickly any pupil that might be potentially at risk and are able to put into practice the concept of early help enshrined in the government’s latest guidance, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (September 2016). Governors are also clear about their responsibilities with respect to safeguarding and the nominated safeguarding governor brings expertise as a serving police officer to that role. All staff training is up to date and the single central register of checks on the backgrounds of staff and their suitability to work with children is in good order. Inspection findings Pupils are making good progress in the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics, and also in science. Effective teaching is promoting this progress. Such teaching is characterised by constructive questioning and good use of the technical vocabulary of the particular subject under consideration. Teachers are precise in their use of language and expect pupils to display the same precision. This helps pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding of key concepts, whatever the subject. In the 2016 national curriculum assessments at key stage 1, undertaken by pupils currently in Year 3, the proportions of pupils reaching the expected standard and working at greater depth were at least equivalent to the national average. Performance in mathematics was particularly strong. These pupils are clearly well prepared to make further progress in key stage 2. In the key stage 2 national curriculum assessments, attainment was below average. Nonetheless, pupils had made good progress from what were low starting points. School leaders are aware, however, that improving attainment at key stage 2, whatever pupils starting points, is a key priority. A particular focus of the inspection was the work of the most able pupils. Their work in English is characterised by extended writing which demonstrates the ability to produce complex sentences, fluent prose, efficient paragraphing and sound punctuation. In mathematics, they can solve problems in a variety of ways, discuss the merits of each one and explain why they have chosen one method in particular. Overall, teaching effectively addresses the needs of these most able pupils and they are making good progress as a result. This includes the most able disadvantaged pupils who work well with their most able peers; in some cases their work demonstrates rapid and sustained progress over time.