St Peter’s Church of England First School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

The school motto, 'Together on the Learning Journey', permeates all aspects of this good school's work.

Since belonging to the federation the school has focused on developing pupils' positive attitudes to learning. In this they have been extremely successful and pupils' behaviour is outstanding. The outstanding level of nurture and care, guidance and support afforded to pupils means that they feel extremely safe in school.

This is demonstrated by the positive relationships and the productive way in which pupils work and play together. Parents and carers are pleased with how well their children benefit from the curriculum opportunities offered through the federation. Current school data and pu...pils' work show that the progress of all groups of pupils is improving, and is now good.

However, not enough time has passed for this improvement to feed through into raising standards by the time pupils leave in Year 4. The school has a good capacity to make the improvements necessary to raise standards further because of: the ambition, drive and commitment of leaders, governors and staff in responding to the needs of pupils excellent governance strong leadership by the executive headteacher the systems in place to track and evaluate pupils' progress the school's close monitoring of teaching and learning which leads to good self-evaluation the actions leaders have taken to ensure good teaching and rising progress. Since St Peter's has become part of the federation it has gained from an improved reputation in the community.

The school intake has increased and new families report that the induction is 'fantastic', particularly for the children in Reception. Pupils are polite, very friendly and confident to try out new learning in lessons. There are good links with a broad range of partners and professionals both within the federation and wider afield.

These are having a positive impact on the well-being of pupils and their families. Although attendance, for example, remains broadly average, as at the last inspection, it is rising because of the measures put in place through the federation partnership. The improvements in teaching since the last inspection are a result of the school's sharp focus on improving the relevance and interest of the curriculum.

This has helped to develop pupils' positive attitudes to learning. Consequently the gap in performance between groups of pupils is narrowing. However, teaching in English and mathematics is not always sufficiently challenging because expectations are not always high enough.

Assessment during lessons is limited, so opportunities to change the direction of the lesson to increase challenge can be missed. The marking of pupils' work does not always focus enough on correcting basic skills nor give enough guidance on how to improve. This means that pupils have limited opportunity to respond to the targets they are set to improve their written work and their mathematical skills.

Information about the school

St Peter's Church of England First school is smaller than average. The school shares the federation governing body. Changes in staffing have resulted in the school now being led by the federation executive headteacher.

The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is above the national average. Most pupils come from White British backgrounds. The percentage of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average.

Pupils are taught in five single-age classes. A breakfast club and a range of extra-curricular clubs are run for pupils. The school has the Basic Skills Quality Mark.

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