St Michael’s R.C. Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

develop the provision and improve pupils' standards further.

The headteacher has devised a suitable monitoring schedule that includes leaders at all levels, and keeps all staff informed about monitoring and review activities. She has provided guidance for less experienced leaders, which supports them to monitor the school's work systematically. Together, leaders undertake a robust programme of monitoring activities that are beginning to inform their accurate understanding of the school's strengths and shortcomings.

For example, senior leaders listen to learners' views about their school, and are beginning to act on their findings to improve the provision. They use this information to devise improvement priorities for examp...le regarding assessment for learning, and the new curriculum. More recently, leaders have revisited monitoring activities to check that planned improvements have happened.

Leaders identified that, over time, teachers' assessment of what pupils can do has not been accurate enough, and have taken bold steps to recalibrate the assessment information. They have provided worthwhile support to ensure that all staff know how to assess pupils' achievements accurately. In addition, staff work together to moderate their assessments and share their expectations of pupils' progress.

However, leaders rightly recognise that this recent recalibration of assessment information means that their tracking system does not yet provide a clear picture of the progress of groups of pupils, or robust evidence that, over time, all pupils make the progress they should. The school has strengthened relationships with parents. Leaders receive feedback through the parent council and the parent teacher association, and through informative parents' meetings with the headteacher and governors.

There are regular communications through social media and the school's website, and an app for pupils to share their work with their parents. In addition, parent questionnaires provide all parents with a platform to contribute their views to the school's self-evaluation processes. The governing body has taken a more active role in providing leadership and direction to the school's work.

A few governors visit the school regularly to see for themselves the improvements that have happened since the core inspection, the provision that pupils receive and the standards that they achieve as a result. Governors rightly recognise the need to extend this first-hand monitoring to the wider governing body, in order to assure themselves of the accuracy of reports they receive, and to stimulate discussion to support and challenge leaders. R5 Address the shortcomings in safeguarding identified during the inspection Leaders have taken swift action to revise the safeguarding and anti-bullying policy documents and procedures.

The school has shared its updated approaches with all stakeholders. There are clear systems and processes for staff to take urgent action when they have concerns about a child's wellbeing, or identify a safeguarding issue. In addition, adults have devised consistent, well-thought-through procedures to manage rare incidents of unacceptable behaviour, or any alleged bullying.

As a result, all adults working in school are knowledgeable, resolute and determined in their work to keep their pupils safe. The headteacher has worked with the local authority to provide suitable safeguarding training for new and existing members of staff. In addition, new senior leaders have received further training in additional aspects of safeguarding, to enable responsibilities to be shared appropriately between the leadership team.

Leaders have taken robust action to make the school buildings secure and to ensure that only authorised people can enter the building. There is also an appropriate lock down procedure. Teachers now use a commercial recording system to consider and record the risks of trips and visits that take place out of school.

The headteacher has instituted suitable new risk assessments wherever appropriate, or when she identifies a need, for example when there is a change of use for areas of the school. Leaders are developing an appropriate and proportionate understanding of the culture of assessing risk. © Crown Copyright 2019: This report may be re-used free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is re-used accurately and not used in a misleading context.

The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the report specified