The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Yours is a caring school that provides a supportive environment for your pupils. One parent who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, wrote, ‘St Joseph’s has provided an exceptional learning and nurturing environment for my son.’ Another explained, ‘My daughter is encouraged to develop as an individual. Her strengths are recognised, and she is known and cared for by staff.’ These typify the very many positive comments received from parents and carers. In addition, staff morale is high, and pupils are happy to be at school. Pupils at your school typically feel part of a vibrant and inclusive community. Pupils talked animatedly about how pupils of all faiths, or none, are welcomed into your school family. There is a focus on the arts at school, and the number of opportunities available linked to the arts is impressive. Where music is concerned, for example, pupils can be part of an orchestra, choir or ensemble. They can learn to play string, brass or woodwind instruments. There are pop-up groups across the course of the year, which have included jazz bands and rock groups. Your pupils are currently practising for ‘High School Musical’, part of your biennial performance programme, which brings the whole school community together. Sporting activities on offer to pupils are equal in number, variety and quality. Yours is a school that develops pupils’ skills through high-quality additional curriculum experiences. Teaching at your school is characterised by high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Subject knowledge is at the centre of lesson planning, and this, together with teaching that sparks pupils’ interests, ensures that the standards that pupils reach are high. The focus and commitment of pupils in class are first rate. Teachers plan a variety of activities that engage pupils and they observe them keenly when learning. Teachers then question pupils further, or change tack, depending on how quickly individuals grasp specific concepts. This agile approach on the part of the teachers helps pupils to learn effectively. Strong classroom routines are adhered to by pupils. This tight classroom management supports pupils who need more encouragement to stay focused or behave. These pupils rise to meet your requirements for behaviour. You are aware that the profile of teaching at school is stronger at key stage 3 than at key stage 2. You are working with your senior team and members of staff to address this. Since your appointment, and that of your highly effective deputy headteacher, you have moved quickly to identify any areas of weakness at school and improve provision for the good of the pupils in your care. You both now have a proven track record of so doing. Initially, you set out to develop assessment systems. You wanted to improve the way that you track the progress that pupils make and the standards that they reach. This system is now strong. You then noted that some elements of the transition process into Year 5 could be improved. This area of school life is now also strong. More recently, you have identified that a greater number of pupils ought to be reaching the very highest levels of attainment. Inspection evidence confirms that you are seeing success in this endeavour too, as a greater proportion of pupils now exhibit knowledge, skills and understanding commensurate with higher standards in national tests. Your understanding of school improvement is secure. You and your team have been addressing the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. You have overhauled the accountability processes in school and these are now effective. Your work to continually improve the quality of teaching continues. There is evidence of an improvement in the progress that pupils are making in mathematics. Standards of attainment are high across the curriculum. These developments show that you have had success in improving provision. You, together with your team and members of the governing body, are by no means complacent. In advance of this inspection, you had already identified aspects of teaching that could be further improved. You are aware that, although disadvantaged pupils are making strong progress, their attainment needs to rise even further so that they can ‘fly’ when they reach high school. The commitment of your senior team, middle leaders, members of staff and governors is palpable. Your care for the pupils at school is clearly evident. The impact of this is that yours is a happy school, where pupils work hard, make strong progress and develop into rounded young people ready for the next stage of their education.