The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your assured leadership has inspired staff and pupils alike to set higher goals and aspirations. Pupils progress well and enjoy learning that challenges them to think carefully. They are polite, well mannered and respectful of others. The relationships between staff and pupils are exceptional. Parents are positive about the school because they know that their children feel safe and cared for. Pupils are a credit to staff and parents alike. Since the last inspection, the school has been recognised as a centre of excellence for inclusion and has been awarded a number of quality marks in different areas of the curriculum. Leaders have addressed the recommendations made at the previous inspection effectively. You have taken great strides to improve the challenge in pupils’ learning, particularly in mathematics. You have also ensured that plans to improve the school are specific and measurable. The findings of the inspection match leaders’ and governors’ accurate evaluation of the school. The teaching of phonics and the promotion of pupils’ attendance continue to be priorities for development. Leaders have ensured that work is already underway to address these issues. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Leaders have provided staff with training so that they are acutely aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse. Staff are highly vigilant and there is an exceptionally nurturing culture at the school. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations. This includes when they are online. They feel comfortable approaching staff with any concerns that they may have. The school has built close links with a number of external agencies to meet children’s needs. Vulnerable pupils are identified well and early help is put in place quickly to support pupils and families who are in need. Inspection findings The first line of enquiry for this inspection focused on how effectively the early years provision prepares boys for Year 1. Children in the early years settle quickly and engage well in activities. The provision for two- and three-year-old children is calm and settled. Teachers build on boys’ curiosity by accurately identifying children’s next steps in learning. By the end of the Reception Year, boys make good progress, often from low, and sometimes very low, starting points. This is particularly evident in the progress that they make in their speech, language and communication, although some language problems persist into key stage 1. The early years leader is dedicated and knowledgeable. She is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the provision and is continually looking to improve the curriculum by ensuring that it engages boys’ interests. We also looked at the steps that the school is taking to improve the proportion of pupils who reach the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics check. Attempts to improve pupils’ phonics skills have stalled. Attainment has been below that seen nationally for the last four years, and there has been little improvement. Leaders’ monitoring is not developed enough to unpick the reasons why this rate of attainment persists. Some pupils find it difficult to apply their phonics strategies. They falter when reading words with long vowel sounds because there are gaps in their knowledge. Although strategies to improve attainment by the end of Year 2 are having some effect, leaders’ actions have not had the desired impact in improving attainment in the Year 1 phonics check. For the next line of enquiry, we looked at what leaders are doing to improve attendance and reduce the rate of persistent absence. You have developed a project to support pupils and their families to reduce high rates of persistent absence. This has been successful in reducing the persistent absence of targeted pupils. You have developed a nurture base and now employ a medical officer to administer medicines. These improvements are enabling pupils with complex medical needs to attend school more regularly. Pupils are engaged by the wide range of rewards that leaders have introduced. They especially like the ‘attendance monkey’, which is the school’s mascot and a positive role model who never misses a day at school. Pupils are motivated by this innovative approach and by the prizes that are on offer for high rates of attendance. However, despite some improvements, attendance is still below that seen nationally. Finally, we looked at how effectively pupils are being challenged to achieve the highest standards in mathematics in key stage 1 and key stage 2. The knowledgeable mathematics leader has brought consistency to the quality of teaching and learning across the school by putting in place extensive training for staff. At the end of key stage 1, pupils’ attainment is broadly in line with the national average. This is because pupils consolidate basic skills well. Teachers accurately assess that pupils make good progress from their starting points. Progress in key stage 2 accelerates because staff set consistently high expectations for pupils’ reasoning and problem-solving skills. Pupils rapidly recall facts and explain their understanding using precise mathematical terminology. The frequent opportunities that pupils in key stage 2 have to apply their skills result in outstanding progress. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the monitoring of phonics attainment in Year 1 leads to more effective actions to improve pupils’ attainment they continue the good work already underway to further improve attendance and reduce persistent absence. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for St Helens. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Steve Bentham Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection We met with leaders and governors to discuss safeguarding and aspects of the school’s leadership and management. We visited classes with leaders and spoke to pupils informally about their work during lessons. We heard pupils from Year 2 read and listened to pupils as part of their classroom activities. We reviewed documentation about attendance, behaviour and safeguarding, which included the school’s record of checks undertaken on newly appointed staff. We spoke with pupils about safeguarding, behaviour and different aspects of their mathematics work. We conducted a scrutiny of key stage 1 and key stage 2 pupils’ mathematics work. We analysed leaders’ records of the monitoring of teaching and learning, the school’s evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses and the school development plan. We took into account 48 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, 28 responses to the staff survey and 184 responses to the pupil survey.