The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since becoming headteacher last September, you have quickly won the support and confidence of staff, pupils, parents and carers. Parents were delighted by your appointment, not least because of your long-standing work as the school’s deputy headteacher. You and your staff are rightly proud of the school’s many strengths. The pupils love coming to school. One Year 6 pupil, typifying the views of her classmates, said, ‘The worst part about being in Year 6 is knowing we have to leave at the end of the year.’ The pupils are happy and safe and their attendance is consistently high. Pupils’ excellent behaviour makes a strong contribution to their learning. It also contributes to the lovely, welcoming atmosphere that permeates the school. During the inspection, I lost count of the number of pupils who approached me, introduced themselves and wished me a ‘good morning’ or a ‘good afternoon’. The most confident pupils were also keen to shake my hand. The school continues to provide a curriculum which enriches the whole child. The well-trained subject leaders ensure that their pupils learn well in subjects across the national curriculum. The school environment is enhanced by pupils’ excellent work, for example in history, geography and religious education. Provision for music and the arts is strong and the curriculum is enhanced by a wide range of additional clubs and visits, including to diverse places of worship. Pupils were keen to tell me about how they are building their resilience as a result of the school’s work to enhance this aspect of their personal development and well-being this year. Your evaluation of the school’s strengths and weaknesses is accurate and is helping to drive improvements to the areas which you know need further attention. You have refined the school’s approach to the monitoring of teaching, for example, by ensuring that: teaching is observed more frequently than before the scrutiny of pupils’ work focuses more sharply on those pupils at risk of underachieving staff are challenged more precisely about the impact of their work to raise the achievement of different groups of pupils. The staff told me that they welcome this increased rigour and focus because it means that they are really clear about what you expect from them. They share your determination to bring about improvements to pupils’ achievements where they are needed. They also value the way in which you have strengthened the school’s performance-management arrangements to ensure that teachers’ targets are genuinely developmental, are linked to the school’s priorities, inform training and are revisited regularly. One teacher told me, ‘I have never before had my professional development folder out so much as this year!’ Since the last inspection, children’s achievements by the end of the early years have improved considerably. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year has risen from being well below average to average. Children’s achievements in reading, writing and mathematics are much better than at the time of the last inspection. From their different starting points, the children make good progress throughout their time in the early years, including those who learn in the pre-school. Pupils continue to achieve well in phonics and standards by the end of key stage 1 have been in line with or above the national average for the past two years. You and your staff are rightly focusing attention on improving pupils’ achievements by the end of key stage 2. You know that, since the last inspection, pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of key stage 2 have not been as consistent as in key stage 1 when compared to other pupils nationally. The most able pupils have not all achieved well enough in reading and mathematics and disadvantaged pupils’ progress has been mixed by the end of Year 6. The evidence gathered from this inspection shows that the work you and your staff are doing to remedy these weaker aspects of teaching, learning and assessment is beginning to make a difference.