St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The executive headteacher, ably assisted by her team, provides effective leadership. Their strong actions have revitalised the school ethos and have led to rapid improvement.

Governors share leaders' passion and ambition to improve. They are knowledgeable and effective in their support. They challenge leaders to ensure that resources are well used to help pupils overcome any barriers to learning.

Leaders and teachers have a shared ambition that all groups of pupils achieve well from their different starting points. They have higher expectations of what pupils can achieve. Staff morale is high.

Teachers are proud to work at the sc...hool and are flourishing under the changes made. Teaching is now good and has resulted in improved outcomes for pupils. Effective teaching in the early years ensures that children's learning gets off to a good start.

In key stages 1 and 2, pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Standards of attainment by the end of Year 6 have risen. Pupils are better prepared for secondary school.

They are increasingly well challenged, although too few pupils, especially the most able, reach the higher standards. Work is now underway to improve pupils' achievement in subjects beyond English and mathematics. The skills of some subject leaders in supporting this are still developing.

The strong pastoral care and attention provided for pupils ensures that they are happy, safe and secure in school. Pupils have every confidence in adults to keep them safe. Pupils behave well and show good attitudes to learning.

The present their work neatly. Their written work is of a good standard. However, some pupils spell everyday words incorrectly, and these are sometimes not corrected.

An above-average proportion of pupils join the school at times other than the start of the early years, sometimes speaking little English and often with low starting points. These pupils are making good progress, but they do not make the rapid progress needed to catch up with their peers by the end of key stage 1, especially in reading and writing. Parents and carers are positive about, and have confidence in, the school.

They especially appreciate the family ethos and the high level of care provided for their children. They recognise and appreciate that the quality of education has been improved. The partnership between home and school has been strengthened.

Even so, some would like to be more involved in their children's learning and inspectors agree that there is scope for them to do so. Leaders have worked with families to improve pupils' attendance and with some success. However, attendance still remains below average.

Information about this school

This is an average-sized primary school. There have been significant changes to the structure of the school's leadership team since the last inspection. The headteacher was appointed as acting executive headteacher in September 2016.

She became the permanent executive headteacher in 2017. A new assistant headteacher with responsibility for teaching and learning was appointed in January 2018. A new school manager was appointed in September 2018.

Over half of the pupils in the school are from minority ethnic groups. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is double the national average. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils in the school is broadly average.

The proportion of pupils who have support for SEND is average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is average. A larger-than-average proportion of pupils join or leave the school within the school year.