The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are an established leader who leads with a clear moral purpose. The areas for improvement which were highlighted in the previous report have all been fully addressed. For example, you have made changes to the quality of teaching so that learners have enough time in lessons to complete tasks independently. Similarly, additional adults in the classrooms are used well and support learning effectively. Parents told me that you, your staff and your governors are approachable and support their families well. Academically, the school has a range of strengths. For example, high standards have been maintained in writing, and pupils perform well in mathematics. Pupils have access to a stimulating curriculum, and many other opportunities are also provided. For example, the teaching of French is a strong and notable feature. Many outside visits are available to pupils, including a Year 6 residential stay. Pupils also enjoy visits by important national figures. For example, a very prominent senior politician recently visited the school. Such visits enhance the provision for the promotion of British values, the rule of law and democratic institutions. Additionally, the variety and range of extra-curricular clubs, including, for example, Latin, stimulate the pupils’ interests and are very popular. Pupils say that they enjoy being part of the school’s community. They are happy to come to school and be with their friends. They trust school staff implicitly and know that they will be kept safe. A girl explained that new children are welcomed freely, no matter what their background or life experience. This example is typical of the thoughtful, generous and positive attitudes that pupils have. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They are friendly and polite, reflecting the school’s 10 character virtues which the school has embedded in its ethos: resilience, teamwork, compassion, respect, volunteering, pride, curiosity, reflection, dignity and determination. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. Staff manage pupils’ wellbeing meticulously. Leaders work with outside agencies and liaise with them quickly in order to secure strong support for children and their families. Leaders manage concerns sensitively and effectively. All staff have a secure knowledge and understanding of current safeguarding guidance and procedures. Pre-employment checks on adults working at the school meet statutory requirements. Staff training is up to date and their safeguarding practice is effective. Governors carry out appropriate checks on safeguarding during the school year. There is a culture of vigilance where children’s welfare is actively promoted. Children are listened to and feel safe. Inspection findings The first focus for this inspection was to evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken to raise pupils’ progress in reading across the school. We agreed upon this because recent reading outcomes have been variable. In particular, standards in reading dipped in 2017 and you suggested that you had put in place effective strategies to address this. A range of changes and improvements have begun to secure higher rates of progress. For example, you have introduced more challenging texts and materials for reading comprehension, and there is a stronger emphasis on teaching key skills of deduction, prediction and inference. In their books, the most able pupils clearly demonstrate sophisticated skills in literary construction in their writing. Because pupils write well, the improvements made to the teaching of comprehension enhance their ability to answer complex questions. In their reading, pupils can incorporate concepts they have learned and can describe these, using correct vocabulary. Older pupils understand and explain the meaning of ‘figures of speech’, such as, for example, ‘let the cat out of the bag’. They can predict what might come next in a text, how a character might feel or react, and how writers use devices, such as ‘cliff hangers’, which ‘grip’ the reader. Evidence found in pupils’ books, and apparent through listening to pupils read, shows that current pupils, regardless of their starting points, make consistently strong progress. They read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age, and develop secure knowledge, understanding and skills. We agreed that it would be appropriate to continue to focus on improving pupils’ reading skills still further.