St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

This is an outstanding school. It is much loved in the local community, and many parents and carers used the word 'family' when describing the school's ethos. Pupils' achievement is outstanding.

Year 6 pupils consistently outperform their peers in the country as a whole in national tests. Pupils learn exceptionally well, because much of the teaching is outstanding. Teachers have high expectations of their pupils, and consequently pupils are keen to rise to the challenge.

Very occasionally, pupils are kept sitting on the carpet for too long, or teachers do too much that the pupils could do for themselves, and then the pace of learning drops. However, this is quickly picked up by leaders and man...agers in their highly effective programme of classroom visits to monitor the quality of teaching, so that pupils continue to make outstanding progress overall. Pupils are eager to learn, and behave exceptionally well.

They consider the feelings of others and are protective of one another. They feel extremely safe in school and are kept safe. Leaders and managers know their school extremely well and are rigorous in their self-evaluation.

They plan in meticulous detail to ensure that the pupils receive the highest quality education based on an outstanding curriculum. As a result, the school is consistently one of the top-performing schools in the country for the progress made by its pupils. Leaders and managers have met the recommendation from the last inspection to raise the quality of teaching.

The extremely strong provision for developing pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural qualities ensures that they are kind and respect one another's values. The relentless pursuit of excellence by leaders, managers and members of the governing body shows that the school is well placed to continue to improve.

Information about the school

This one-form entry primary school is average in size.

Around one third of pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals, and this proportion is higher than usual. Approximately nine out of ten pupils are from a wide range of minority ethnic heritages. Approximately 30% of pupils speak English as an additional language, of whom very few are at an early stage of learning the language.

An average proportion of pupils are supported by school action plus or have a statement of special educational needs. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress. The breakfast and after-school clubs are managed by outside providers and are subject to separate inspection.

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