The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You provide strong leadership, which is securing more sustained improvements. Since the previous inspection, leaders and governors have strengthened and maintained good teaching and planned very effective training and professional development of staff. This is resulting in good and outstanding teaching across the school so that an increasing number of pupils reach or exceed age-related expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. The most able pupils are achieving well throughout the school as a significant proportion of pupils in every year group exceed age-related expectations in English and mathematics. You, your staff and governors foster a strong ethos, culture and community spirit with the church and wider community. You engage with parents and the church community very well. Parents are right when they say that the school takes exceptional care of pupils. Leaders and governors make an excellent contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils thoroughly enjoy their time in school and are exceptionally well behaved, polite and courteous to others. Many pupils told me that they enjoy school very much because they know that they can be trusted to take on responsibilities. There are extensive opportunities for pupils to develop personal skills through membership of various councils and taking on additional roles to support and care for other pupils. They also told me that they form long and lasting friendships and that the staff care very much for their safety and welfare. The parents I spoke to confirmed this and one in particular, reflecting the views of most, stated, ‘The headteacher and her staff value our children and do a great deal for them, I feel very privileged and am so grateful.’ The staff work closely with a very skilled governing body. Regular monitoring of pupils’ progress correctly pinpointed the reasons why some pupils did less well in mathematics last year compared with previous years. Leaders and staff recognise that mathematics lessons did not always provide enough opportunities for pupils to use reasoning skills to tackle problems efficiently and logically. You are all, rightly, focusing on problem-solving as a core priority. Teachers have already implemented improvements. We observed these improvements in lessons during the inspection, which included problem-solving tasks that are now more challenging and varied. The early years provision has improved enormously since the previous inspection and is now very strong. The percentage of children reaching a good level of development by the end of Reception is well above average. In addition, there is highly effective planning which helps children transfer from Reception into Year 1. This is building further capacity for sustained improvement as pupils in key stage 1 achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics. National assessments also show that the strong foundations laid in the early years enable Year 1 pupils to reach well above average standards in phonics (the sounds that letters represent). You and your governors appointed a highly effective and very well-qualified coordinator to manage provision for pupils who have special educational needs or disability. Pupils who have additional learning needs achieve very well as a result and are catching up rapidly with their classmates. Special educational needs provision is monitored and managed very well. This too is a significant improvement since the previous inspection. In response to a recommendation at the previous inspection, you and your colleagues have focused successfully on improving the way teachers use assessment. Your staff continue to improve and refine assessment information as part of the revised national curriculum without levels. These changes help teachers analyse how well pupils are doing. However, you recognise that further improvements are needed to assessments to identify as early as possible any pupils who fall behind and to gauge how much progress pupils make. The school development plan and subject action plans set out the right priorities for improvement. These priorities were identified through regular and robust monitoring of lessons and pupils’ work. The development plan sets out clear measures of success to gauge progress, but does not identify who is monitoring or evaluating each of the planned actions. This makes it difficult for governors to hold leaders to account for their evaluations or to be sure that evaluations are accurate by checking with other staff and leaders. You and your staff plan a stimulating and engaging curriculum for pupils. This is having a very positive effect on their academic and personal development. There is a well-established tradition of sporting excellence, creative arts and music, as well as a strong focus on science and outdoor education. Excellent use is made of the extensive school grounds and wild areas. A thriving gardening club provides opportunities for pupils to nurture and grow vegetables, flowers and shrubs. As a result, pupils develop a strong sense of responsibility and care for the world around them. This is enhanced by a very well-managed pupil ‘eco-council’ that contributes extremely well to the school community and local environment. Safeguarding is effective. All safeguarding procedures and policies are fit for purpose. Safeguarding and staff vetting procedures are robust and include all staff, visitors, volunteers and governors. Governors undertake systematic reviews of the school’s safeguarding and child protection procedures. Risk assessments are carried out to make sure that pupils are safe when engaged in outdoor activities and educational visits. Pupils also contribute through the school’s elected ‘safety committee’, which reports any potential hazards or safety concerns. The committee recently carried out its own ‘safety survey’ and reported this to leaders and governors. Parents trust the staff and believe that pupils are safe in school. Inspection findings There has been good progress since the school’s previous inspection. You and your governors have recruited highly effective teachers and trained newly qualified staff who have settled into their roles very well. You have strengthened leadership further with the promotion and appointment of a very capable deputy headteacher and a strong special educational needs coordinator. In addition, there is highly effective leadership of the early years which has seen a remarkable improvement to teaching and learning in the Reception class since the previous inspection. You are an ambitious school leader who has earned the respect and admiration of pupils and families. Leaders and staff value and praise pupils for their achievements and provide a curriculum that successfully fosters pupils’ academic achievement and outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils thrive on the many and varied opportunities they have to contribute to the management of the school. They make a significant contribution to the church and local community. Pupils told me, for example, that they really enjoy opportunities to be elected to the school council, safety committee, house committees, or to volunteer as playground buddies, librarians, ecocouncil members or members of the school and church liturgical committee. You and the deputy headteacher responded immediately after seeing that some pupils did not achieve as well as they should in mathematics last year. Teachers are responding very well to more focused training, support and changes to the way mathematics is being taught. These changes have secured some immediate improvements and I could see this during our joint observations of lessons and the work in pupils’ books. Improvements have been monitored very well by the deputy headteacher who leads by her excellent example when teaching mathematics. Currently, pupils across the school are achieving well in mathematics.