The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You know your school well and you are determined to provide the best education possible for every pupil. You are building a strong and ambitious leadership team. Your vision statement ‘exceeding expectations’ is widely shared: your deputy headteacher, assistant headteacher, subject leaders and governors are eager to play their part in securing further improvements in the school’s work, building on the good education that pupils already receive. You have established a strong and positive ethos and have made considerable improvements in developing stronger links with parents and the community. Pupils at the school are polite, friendly and welcoming to visitors. Their behaviour during lessons and breaktimes is exceptional. The pupils are courteous and hold doors open for adults. They are keen and enthusiastic to share their learning and contribute their thoughts and ideas. In all of the classrooms we visited, pupils were attentive and very focused on their learning. The relationships between staff and pupils are strong. The pupils’ enjoyment of school is reflected in their aboveaverage rates of attendance and low levels of persistent absence. Most parents and carers who made their views known as part of the inspection are happy with the school. As one parent commented to me at the start of the inspection, ‘This is not my local school, but I made the decision to bring my daughter here because it’s got an excellent reputation in the community.’ As another commented on Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, ‘My children are progressing very well at this school. Overall, I am pleased with my children’s development due to the support and encouragement of the teaching staff. They are an asset to the school.’ At the time of the last inspection you were asked to ensure that the quality of teaching in lower key stage 2 was consistently good. As we looked in pupils’ books, we saw that that pupils’ presentation of their work and the quality of their handwriting are now strengths; pupils take pride in their work. Teachers identify pupils’ mistakes, which they address before moving on. The school’s assessment information, and work in pupils’ books, indicates that these pupils are making good progress. You were also asked to develop the skills of middle leaders. Subject leaders have improved their skills in checking on the quality of teaching and learning in their subject areas. You have made good use of individual staff members’ skills and subject knowledge when assigning subject leader roles. Subject leadership of English and mathematics is strong. As a result, by the end of key stage 2, pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics has improved over the last three years. In 2018, pupils’ progress in writing was in the top 10% of schools nationally. In mathematics, pupils’ progress has been in the top 20% of schools nationally for the last two years. The governing body provides effective support and challenge. Governors check that the information you provide is accurate, visiting the school regularly to fulfil their roles. Leaders and governors share a clear passion for the school and the community and the commitment to enable all pupils to succeed is central to your work. Leaders and governors have worked together effectively to make sure that any weak teaching is addressed. Leaders and governors have an accurate view of what is working well in the school and have identified specific areas for improvement. For example, while the curriculum is broad and pupils find it interesting, you have recognised that more work is needed to provide greater challenge to the learning that takes place in subjects other than English and mathematics. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. There is a strong safeguarding culture within the school. Pupils say that they feel safe in school and can describe how school leaders have made sure that their school site is safe and secure. They do not have any concerns about bullying in their school and say that staff look after them well if they are worried about anything. Leaders carry out appropriate checks on staff and governors to make sure that they are suitable people to work with children. These checks are recorded diligently. Staff and governors receive regular training covering different aspects of safeguarding so that their knowledge of good practice is up to date. Staff understand the procedures to follow if they are worried about a pupil’s welfare, and leaders ensure that any such concerns are followed up swiftly. Inspection findings At the start of the inspection, we agreed on the key lines of enquiry we should follow. The first line of enquiry looked at how effectively leaders are improving the progress middle-attaining pupils make in reading by the end of key stage 2. This is because in 2018 the progress of these pupils in the school was weaker than that of other pupils from their individual starting points. Furthermore, pupils’ progress in reading in 2018 was weaker than in writing and mathematics. Leaders’ recent work on fostering reading across the school, and developing pupils’ reading skills has been successful, particularly for middle-prior-attaining pupils. Reading is a priority and is given a high profile in the school. Teachers use well-chosen texts as the basis of much of their teaching in English. They use their good subject knowledge to help pupils to develop their vocabulary and question pupils effectively to ensure that they develop skills such as prediction, summarising and inference. Leaders have provided training for teaching assistants and deploy them well to provide support outside of reading sessions to ensure that pupils catch up quickly. As a result, middle-attaining pupils are making good progress. Pupils talk enthusiastically about texts that they have read, with many saying that reading is their favourite subject in school. My next key line of enquiry looked at the quality of teaching and learning in phonics. This is because results in the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2018 had dipped to be below the national average. You have made changes to the way phonics is taught across school, which has had a positive effect. Recent whole-school training has resulted in clearly planned phonics sessions. Teachers tailor activities well to meet pupils’ needs and more regularly check pupils’ progress. Pupils use their phonic knowledge confidently to help them tackle unfamiliar words and read with great enthusiasm. Evidence from our classroom visits confirmed that phonics teaching is typically well paced and engaging, and that it is well matched to pupils’ needs. My final key line of enquiry looked at the curriculum and how well pupils develop knowledge and understanding in subjects other than English and mathematics. You are passionate about developing a creative and rich curriculum that sparks pupils’ interests. A range of visits and events enhance the curriculum. Pupils particularly value opportunities to visit a range of places, for example the theatre, London, an aquarium, and a museum to find out about the history of chocolatemaking, as part of their learning. Pupils also enthusiastically told me about the range of extra-curricular clubs available to them, including football, netball, coding club, dance and fitness club. The school provides pupils with a curriculum that covers a wide range of subjects and topics, and which fosters pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and appreciation of British values effectively. However, in subjects other than English and mathematics, the breadth of pupils’ learning is not yet matched by its depth. In these subjects the level of challenge of activities does not build up sequentially to enable pupils to develop their knowledge and skills over time. On occasions, teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not consistently high enough. This is a priority in your school development plan. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: in subjects other than English and mathematics, there is clearer progression in how pupils’ knowledge and skills are built up over time, so that the curriculum deepens pupils’ learning well teachers have consistently high expectations of what pupils can achieve across a wide range of subjects. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Kirklees. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Mark Randall Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you; your deputy headteacher; your assistant headteacher; your English, reading and early years leaders; six members of staff and a group of eight pupils from key stage 2. I also spoke to five governors. I talked to a representative of the local authority. I spoke informally with pupils during lessons. I visited classes with you, where we observed teaching and learning and looked at pupils’ work. I considered the 30 responses from parents to Parent View, including free-text responses. I also met with six parents before school. There were no responses to Ofsted’s staff or pupil surveys. I also evaluated a range of school documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation of its overall effectiveness, the school development plan, safeguarding records and information about current pupils’ achievement and attendance. I undertook a review of the school’s website.