The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You lead with passion and determination. Your aim, which is reflected in the statement of your values, is to bring out the best in every child. This is evident in the positive relationships between adults and pupils in your school. Your deputy headteacher and senior leaders are a fully committed team. They share a clear understanding of the strengths and areas for development of your school. Their vision for further improvement is evident and they have the drive to ensure that they succeed. The pupils I spoke to were confident and enthusiastic about their learning. They welcome the opportunities that you give them through the range of pupil voice groups to represent their school. Such opportunities include acting as sports ambassadors, being members of your ‘think tank’ and participating in music, art, dance and drama committees. Staff provide opportunities which excite pupils and include links across the curriculum to help to bring learning alive. In the previous inspection, the inspector reported that leaders need to ensure that all teaching is good or better in order to raise the attainment of all pupils further, particularly that of the most able. In addition, the inspector required further improvements to the quality of leadership and management to take place. This was to ensure that targets set for pupils were sufficiently challenging, especially for those who are capable of reaching very high standards. You have addressed these points successfully. You have made the appropriate adjustments to your teaching staff to ensure that they focus on challenging all groups of pupils. You have adapted your curriculum to ensure that pupils receive opportunities for further challenge. There is a new system to check pupils’ progress across the curriculum. This has enabled leaders and teachers to ensure that pupils, including the most able, receive appropriate levels of challenge. As a consequence, the attainment of most groups of pupils in the school is in line with or higher than the national average. The previous inspection also noted that leaders need to engage further with parents to ensure that they support their children’s learning. Again, you have addressed this issue. You provide parents with regular information on how well their children are progressing. Your website is detailed and informative. It provides parents with a broad range of information about the curriculum. Additionally, the website includes information about the homework teachers expect pupils to do and allows communication between home and school. Your class blogs and links allow parents to share their children’s learning, gain information on teaching methods and offer further support at home. Teachers begin each year with a meeting where they provide parents with a range of relevant information linked to their children’s learning. You also provide workshops on issues such as e-safety. As a consequence of these actions, parents are well equipped to support their children’s learning at home. We discussed an area where further work is required to improve your school. Generally, pupils’ attainment throughout the school is in line with or higher than the national average. However, pupils’ progress by the end of key stage 2 is broadly average. You and other leaders have identified progress as an issue in your own evaluation of the school’s effectiveness and in your improvement planning. You understand that leaders must accelerate the progress of all pupils, particularly those who are disadvantaged, middle and higher attainers and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities as they pass through key stage 2. Safeguarding is effective. You ensure that the school site is safe and secure. Your staff closely check the identity of visitors. Pupils are safe because clear procedures are in place to protect them. Governors and staff undertake a broad range of training which ensures that they are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities. You make sure that pupils learn how to keep themselves safe. You do this by providing them with a range of exciting workshops on topics including mental-health awareness, gang culture, mindfulness and online safety. As a consequence, pupils feel safe and say that their school is a safe place to learn in. Governors have a clear understanding of their statutory responsibilities in relation to safeguarding. You have appointed a governor who monitors the needs of all pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. This ensures that there is directed support for this group of pupils. Inspection findings Over recent years, the persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils has been higher than the national average. You have implemented a range of strategies to improve this situation. You and other leaders analyse your attendance data closely. This identifies pupils whose attendance falls below an acceptable level. You identify the causes of absence through detailed case studies and you work with parents to address avoidable absence. Nevertheless, we agreed that continued tracking of attendance is essential in the future so that recent improvements are sustained. In key stage 1, the proportion of most-able pupils who achieved the highest standards in reading in the Year 2 tests was below the national average in 2016. In 2017, the school’s most recent published data suggests a similar picture for writing. You have addressed this issue and ensure that leaders and teachers regularly check and monitor closely the levels of challenge provided for the most able pupils. You have purchased additional reading resources and teachers provide opportunities for pupils to write about exciting experiences which bring learning alive. For example, in Year 1 and Year 2, pupils enjoyed a visit from an actor as part of their study of the Gunpowder Plot. This visit enabled pupils to develop their understanding of this historical event via a range of activities which stimulated their learning. As a result of this focused approach by leaders and teachers, the most recent performance information indicates that the number of pupils in Year 2 achieving the higher standards in reading is now broadly in line with the national average for almost all groups. A significant majority of pupils leave your school achieving higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics than is seen nationally. However, governors and leaders are aware that the progress of pupils by the end of key stage 2 is broadly average. In 2016, pupils’ progress in reading at the end of key stage 2 was below average. Senior leaders were instrumental in bringing about improvement in this area. The regularity of checks on pupils’ progress has increased and additional resources support pupils’ learning. Your efforts have been successful. In 2017, progress scores increased in writing, mathematics and, most notably, reading. Pupils’ progress in reading is now broadly in line with the national average. You are aware that there is still room for additional improvement to increase further pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics. You have accurately highlighted in your most recent evaluation and development planning the need to improve further the progress scores of pupils by the time they leave key stage 2. Your curriculum is broad and balanced. You provide pupils with opportunities to understand people and communities beyond their immediate experience. For example, pupils made links with a reporter in Florida following Hurricane Emily. This enabled them to contact other schools and explore global issues from the point of view of others. The pupils I spoke to were able to discuss, enthusiastically, a range of subject areas with a good overall level of understanding. Middle leaders report that pupils make good progress across the curriculum. My analysis of pupils’ work in books and discussions with pupils support this evaluation. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  they accelerate the progress of pupils by the end of key stage 2, particularly disadvantaged pupils, middle and higher attainers and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Liverpool, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Sefton. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Gill Pritchard Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you, your deputy headteacher and members of your senior leadership team. I also met with six members of the governing body, including the chair of governors, and your office manager. I spoke with your school improvement partner and had informal discussions with parents and a group of pupils. Finally, I met with a group of teachers and teaching assistants. Accompanied by you, I visited all year groups in the school. I scrutinised examples of pupils’ work, together with a book which highlighted special activities undertaken by pupils. I observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and as they moved around the school. A number of documents were reviewed, including your record of checks on the suitability of staff to work with children, the school’s self-evaluation form, the school improvement plan, assessment information, minutes of governing body meetings and attendance case studies. I also took account of the 61 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. I considered information posted on the school’s website.