Pupils like school and know staff care and want the best for them. Pupils feel safe and valued but, from an early age, they quickly fall behind in their learning. Gaps in pupils’ knowledge increase as they get older, which makes it difficult for them to access new learning. When this occurs, teachers struggle to adapt the curriculum for the wide-ranging needs of pupils within the classroom. Staff have low expectations of pupils. As a result, pupils lose interest, their presentation in books suffers and low-level disruptions occurs. For a few years, the rate of pupils’ absence from school has been too high, with too many pupils regularly missing school. Leaders introduced ‘William the Bear’ to help improve pupils’ attendance, rewarding the class with the strongest attendance from the previous week. These recent actions have brought about improvements but there is still much more to do. Pupils behave well around the school. They follow the school’s ethos, and staff reward pupils for their endeavours during weekly achievement assemblies. Parents come to these assemblies to celebrate with their children. This a positive feature of the school.