Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend this happy school where everyone is made to feel welcome. Pupils who join the school partway through the academic year settle in quickly.

These pupils told inspectors that they had made new friends easily. Staff give careful thought to how they support those pupils who speak English as an additional language.

Caring staff build strong, positive and supportive relationships with pupils, including children in the early years.

This helps pupils to feel safe and secure in school.

The school is ambitious for all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils do their best to live up to... the school's high expectations.

During lessons, most pupils work hard, and they learn with enthusiasm and interest. Typically, they achieve well across a range of subjects.

Pupils are polite and respectful to each other and staff.

This creates a calm environment in which pupils can learn the curriculum successfully. Staff encourage pupils to be proud of what they can achieve. Pupils enjoy sharing what they have accomplished with the school community, including their parents and carers at weekly celebration assemblies.

Pupils value the clubs on offer, such as football, multi-sport and athletics. They appreciate the opportunity to take on leadership roles, such as being part of the mission team and the eco-council. Through these roles, pupils feel that they make a valuable contribution to school life.

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

The school has designed a curriculum that meets pupils' needs and interests, including pupils with SEND. Added to this, the school has made it clear to teachers the important knowledge that pupils should learn. For instance, teachers know to emphasise the key vocabulary that pupils should acquire and be able to use within subjects.

This knowledge is ordered logically from the Reception Year to the end of Year 6. This helps pupils, including children in the early years, to build securely on what they know already.

The school has provided high-quality training to enable teachers to deliver the curriculum effectively.

Teachers use their detailed subject knowledge to design activities that help pupils to learn the intended curriculum. Teachers explain new learning clearly, and they routinely check that pupils' understanding of earlier content is secure. When necessary, teachers identify and address any misconceptions that pupils may develop.

Over time, this helps pupils to acquire a rich body of subject knowledge.

The school has prioritised the teaching of early reading and phonics. The school ensures that staff adopt a consistent approach to delivering the phonics programme.

This begins as soon as children join the school in the Reception Year. Staff ensure that the books that pupils read are carefully matched to their phonics knowledge.

Those pupils at risk of not keeping up with the phonics programme are identified quickly.

Skilled staff ensure that these pupils receive appropriate support to enable them to catch up quickly. Older pupils talked enthusiastically about the books that they have read. Pupils have access to a diverse range of high-quality texts.

This supports them to further expand their vocabulary and to develop a love of reading.

The school ensures that the needs of pupils with SEND are identified swiftly and accurately by well-trained staff. Added to this, in the main, the school ensures that staff receive appropriate training to enable them to tailor their delivery of the curriculum.

This is so that pupils with SEND can learn the same ambitious curriculum as their classmates. However, on occasion, some staff do not adapt how they deliver the curriculum for some pupils with SEND as well as they could. From time to time, this hinders how well these pupils learn in some subjects.

Pupils learn about cultures, faiths and types of families that are different to their own. This helps them to respect each other's differences. Pupils know and understand the school's 'bee' values of kindness, respect and responsibility.

They do their best to demonstrate these values in their actions towards others each day.

Pupils relish opportunities to welcome guest speakers into school. Pupils enjoy visits to places of interest and taking part in residential trips.

Through the curriculum, pupils learn how to stay physically and mentally healthy. They also learn how to keep themselves safe, both online and in the wider world.

The school has ensured that there are robust procedures in place to monitor pupils' rates of attendance.

Pupils know why it is important to attend school every day. There is very little disruption to learning. Children in the early years settle well into school routines.

Staff provide strong support to ensure that pupils' social and emotional needs are well met.

Governors understand the school's priorities and the context of its local community. They provide rigorous challenge and support to the school when required.

Governors ensure that they are well informed about the quality of education that the school provides for pupils.

The school engages well with parents and carers and encourages them to be active partners in their child's learning. For example, the school promotes activities such as 'bedtime story workshops' to help parents to understand the importance of reading with their children regularly.

The school considers the workload and well-being of staff in the decisions that it makes, for example about the curriculum. Staff also appreciate the support that they receive from leaders to carry out their roles effectively. As a result, staff said that they feel valued and they enjoy working at the school.

Staff said that they feel like part of a supportive community. This feeling is echoed by many parents, most of whom hold the school in high regard.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some staff do not use the information that they have about pupils with SEND to adapt the delivery of the curriculum as effectively as they could. From time to time, this hinders how well some pupils with SEND learn the curriculum in some subjects. Leaders should ensure that staff use the information available to them to adapt their pedagogical and activity choices to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.

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