The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have put together a cohesive and effective team of teachers and support staff who are committed to pupils’ achievement and wellbeing. Staff share your passionately held belief in the importance of a nurturing environment and a rich, broad and varied curriculum. At the time of the previous inspection, inspectors identified pupils’ good progress in their learning and their outstanding behaviour as strengths of the school. Inspectors also praised the consistently strong teaching seen in the school and your role in securing pupils’ positive attitudes to their learning. You have maintained and continued to build on these strengths over the last four years. Inspectors also identified two areas for improvement. First, they recommended that teachers should give pupils more opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning and ensure that they know their next steps. You have been successful in addressing this recommendation. You have given teachers opportunities to work together to plan an exciting curriculum, share good practice and check that their assessment of pupils’ work is accurate. As a result, pupils in the school, in particular the most able, continue to make strong progress in their learning. This is because of the well-planned opportunities they have to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding, and the accurate information they receive about their current achievement and next steps. Inspectors also recommended that you improve the quality of subject leadership by ensuring that leaders make regular checks on the quality of pupils’ learning. Consequently, you have invested heavily in training for your subject leaders, which means that they now have a sharp understanding of effective approaches to teaching and learning in their subjects. They use this understanding to good effect, making frequent checks on how pupils are doing and giving teachers sensible advice on how to improve their practice. Working with your leadership team and governing body, you continue to improve pupils’ outcomes. You have wisely identified a small number of carefully chosen priorities for the current year. These include a focus on pupils’ problem-solving skills in mathematics across the school, and on pupils’ writing, particularly in key stage 1. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. Those who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and those who spoke to me informally at the start of the day rightly praise the school’s nurturing culture. They also appreciate the many opportunities the school provides and the willingness of staff to go the extra mile for their children. One parent wrote, ‘My children have made excellent progress and the school has a caring ethos’, while another said, ‘I feel very lucky that our children attend this lovely village school.’ Safeguarding is effective. Pupils’ welfare is of paramount importance to you, your staff and your governors. You have made all the appropriate checks on people who work or volunteer at the school. In addition, all staff and governors have received safeguarding training that reflects the most up-to-date guidance. Staff are ever vigilant to any changes in pupils’ behaviour. They report concerns promptly and leaders responsible for safeguarding follow up any concerns assiduously. Where it is necessary to involve social services in a safeguarding matter, leaders are tenacious in ensuring that pupils’ needs are prioritised. Pupils feel safe and know how to keep themselves safe, including when using the internet. They report that bullying is rare, but that when it does happen, teachers deal with it effectively. They are hugely proud of their school, and their behaviour is always good and at times impeccable. The school is a warm, open and tolerant community. One pupil said, ‘It’s like being part of a family here.’ Inspection findings At the start of the inspection, we agreed to focus on the following areas: how well pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do in their learning; how well pupils perform in reading, writing and mathematics across the school; how well the curriculum promotes equality of opportunity; how well leaders ensure that pupils attend school regularly; and how effectively governors carry out their duties.