Larmenier & Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are encouraged to be proud of themselves and their achievements. A culture of high academic excellence is promoted here.

This is reflected in the consistently strong published outcomes for pupils in English and mathematics. Weekly celebration assemblies are used to praise pupils' accomplishments and showcase their individual passions. The school enables pupils to explore their talents and interests.

This is achieved through the wide ranging extra-curricular clubs on offer and experiences, such as inter-school competitions. Clubs include gymnastics, science, football and fencing. The school ensures all pupils have access to what is on offer.

Pupils are ...genuinely happy here. School staff foster nurturing professional relationships with pupils. In the early years, children eagerly join in with songs, poems and rhymes about being friends.

Pupils are taught to love and respect one another. When breaktime finishes, pupils readily and instinctively help others tidy away the equipment. Pupils behave responsibly and with maturity.

The school creates a close-knit, supportive community. Parents and carers are welcomed and encouraged to join in with school life. This includes invitations to share information and expertise during assemblies or to attend workshops on how to help their child with reading at home.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The governing board and leaders are committed to providing a positive education for pupils. They lead the school effectively. Teaching staff appreciate the decisions leaders make to support them to manage their workload.

Pupils study a range of subjects in line with the national curriculum. The school sets out the important knowledge and skills they want pupils to learn in each subject. Important knowledge is sequenced logically from the early years to ensure it builds cumulatively as pupils move through the school.

For example, in the early years the curriculum provides robust opportunities for children to learn to name, draw and recognise patterns in shapes. This helps pupils when they are taught about shape symmetry and angles in Year 1 and beyond.

In most subjects, the school ensures the curriculum is put in place securely.

Where this is the case, important subject content is emphasised and revisited routinely. Teachers regularly check on what pupils know and remember. When they spot any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge, teaching and resources are adjusted to address them.

The school collaborates with external professionals and experts to provide training for teaching staff. As a result, teaching staff get the right training to teach the curriculum in these subjects effectively. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive effective help and support to learn the curriculum alongside their peers.

In a few subjects, the curriculum is not implemented effectively. In these subjects, teachers do not always emphasise the most important subject knowledge. Their checks do not focus consistently on the key information pupils should know and remember.

As a result, teachers do not spot or address pupils' gaps in knowledge and misconceptions routinely.

The school fosters a love of reading and stories from the start. In the Nursery Year, children vote democratically for the story they want to listen to during daily story time sessions.

Older pupils are eager to read and are enthusiastic about visiting the school library. Pupils at the early stages of learning to read receive effective phonics teaching. Teaching and reading books are matched to the letter sounds that pupils know so that pupils get plenty of practise.

The school checks pupils' knowledge of phonics to spot any gaps in learning. Pupils, including pupils with SEND, receive extra help with reading if they need it. Consequently, pupils become confident and competent readers swiftly.

Published outcomes are well above national expectations.

From the early years, children learn the routines and expectations of school quickly. This helps them settle in well.

Across the school, learning in lessons typically takes place without interruption from low-level disruption.

The school's provision to support pupils' wider development is extensive and well organised. Pupils enthusiastically take on additional responsibilities, such as digital leaders and playground buddies.

They proudly contribute their ideas for school events to celebrate diversity and difference in society. Pupils are taught about the importance of showing respect for self and others from the start. When children join the school in the early years, they are taught about friendships and what healthy relationships look like.

Pupils are encouraged to recognise their own emotions maturely and how to maintain a healthy mind. Pupils value the regular 'Talk time' sessions to help them express their feelings and talk through any problems that may arise. The school emphasises the importance of safety.

Pupils are taught how to stay safe when online.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, teaching does not emphasise the most important subject knowledge.

Checks on pupils' recall and understanding do not focus on the key information that pupils should know and remember. As a result, gaps in pupils' knowledge and misconceptions are not spotted or addressed routinely. The school should ensure that teaching makes important subject knowledge routinely clear and checks that pupils know and remember it.

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