St Mary’s R.C. Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

St Mary's R.C.

Primary School provides a safe learning environment in which many pupils feel well cared for and happy. A majority of pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. A few enjoy their leadership responsibilities and have helped to make improvements to the school, such as making choices about outdoor play equipment.

Overall, the attendance of pupils is too low, and leaders do not undertake rigorous enough actions to address this. The school has had a prolonged period of instability in leadership and teaching, with many staff changes. The acting headteacher has undertaken this role for the last seven years.

This instability has had a significant impact on the school's ability to address important... shortcomings in their provision. Leaders have started to make improvements, including the appointment of new members of the governing body and the implementation of a positive behaviour policy. However, there are still significant shortcomings in the way leaders address important weaknesses in the school's work, and the rate of improvement is too slow.

In nearly all classes, teaching does not ensure that pupils make strong progress. As a result, pupils do not always achieve the standards of which they are capable, particularly the more able. In addition, staff do not always ensure that they provide pupils with stimulating and authentic learning experiences.

They do not take into account the views of pupils about what and how they would like to learn well enough. The provision to support pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) is generally effective. Staff identify pupils' needs at an early stage and put in place suitable plans to help address their individual needs.

Recommendations R1 Establish stable and effective leadership, with the capacity to secure the improvement identified in the report R2 Improve the quality of the teaching and learning experiences pupils receive so that they make the progress they are capable of R3 Develop provision for the progressive development of pupils' skills R4 Improve attendance and establish a positive culture around the importance and value of being in school What happens next In accordance with the Education Act 2005, HMCI is of the opinion, that special measures are required in relation to this school. The school will draw up an action plan which shows how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will monitor the school's progress usually every four to six months.