St Columba CE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an inadequate school Over time, there have been widespread changes to the school's leadership. This has had a negative impact on the quality of education and on parents' and carers' confidence in the school.

Leaders do not have a fully clear understanding of how well groups of pupils are achieving. This limits their ability to target improvements accurately enough. Outcomes for pupils are inadequate because : pupils make weak progress across the school.

This includes pupils from vulnerable groups. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate. Teachers' expectations of what pupils can achieve are too low.

Leaders' improvement ...planning lacks clarity. In some lessons, disruptive behaviour prevents pupils from learning as well as they should. Teachers deal with poor behaviour inconsistently.

Behaviour records are not evaluated well enough. The early years requires improvement. Until very recently, there is little evidence that children have been provided with challenging opportunities to learn across all areas of the early years curriculum.

Teachers do not provide pupils with enough opportunities to reason and solve mathematical problems. Teaching lacks challenge, especially for the most able. The teaching of some aspects of reading is particularly weak.

The school has the following strengths The arrival of the current principal heralded greater capacity for improvement, and the impact is becoming evident. As a result, the quality of teaching and learning is beginning to improve. Middle leaders have a good understanding of how well subjects are taught.

Attendance has also improved. Recent improvements in the leadership of the early years have strengthened this area of the school. Arrangements to safeguard pupils are effective.

The broad curriculum supports pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well.

Information about this school

St Columba Church of England Primary Academy is a smaller-than-average primary school. There are seven single-age classes.

It is sponsored by Portsmouth and Winchester Diocesan Academy Trust, which is responsible for the governance of the school. The school has a local governing body, and the trust's 'scheme of empowerment' clarifies what governance functions are delegated to this body by the trust. The school also has a resource-based provision for 10 children from Reception to Year 2 who have a range of needs, including language and developmental delay.

The principal took up the role in September 2018. An interim principal led the school for two terms after the previous principal left in December 2017. Since then there has been a period of considerable turnover, in which many teachers, support staff and governors have come and gone.

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above the national average. Levels of deprivation are above those seen nationally. The proportion of pupils who are from ethnic minorities is below the national average.

The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below that seen nationally. The proportion of pupils with SEND is well above that seen in other schools across the country. The school had its most recent inspection of denominational education given to pupils and of the content of the school's collective worship, under section 48 of the Education Act 2005, in March 2018.

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