St Saviour’s Catholic Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of St Saviour's Catholic Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 22 January 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in March 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You arrived in the school in September 2017 with the determination to build upon the school's many strengths.

Since then, you have identified precise areas for further improvement. In particular, you are taking steps to improve... the breadth and depth of the school's provision across the full range of curriculum subjects. You are supported by the staff team and a core of dedicated governors who know the school well, and all are rightly proud to be a part of its continuing improvement.

Together, you are ambitious for the school's future so that pupils achieve well across a wide range of subject areas by the time they move on to the secondary phase of education. Your school is a caring and happy place. Pupils behave well and show good manners towards adults and each other.

They like their teachers and appreciate the lengths they go to to make learning enjoyable. Pupils engage well in their lessons and, as a result, they are rarely absent from school. They welcome the adaptations you have made to breaktimes because they now have more space to play and access to equipment.

Pupils told me that this change has stopped the playground arguments that used to occur. Almost all parents praise the way in which the school nurtures their children and enables them to achieve high standards. Parents have noticed that the school is continuing to develop under your guidance.

One of them said, 'It's been pleasing to see the school flourish, achieving good results and broadening the curriculum.' In particular, pupils and parents value the increasing time allocated to physical education and sport. Although there have been a number of staffing changes since the last inspection, leaders and governors have diligently followed up the areas of improvement that inspectors asked the school to make.

Inspectors asked leaders to improve the quality of teaching still further for the most able pupils and to ensure that pupils learn to solve mathematical problems with independence. They also asked leaders to improve handwriting and spelling, and to use assessment more sharply to support the next steps in learning in the Reception class. During our visits to classrooms, we observed Reception children learning successfully in their stimulating environment.

We also saw adult-led activities that were carefully matched to meet children's individual needs. Teaching focused effectively on developing literacy and language, including by extending children's vocabulary. Equally impressive was the independence that we saw during child-initiated learning, which allowed children to develop good skills.

In key stages 1 and 2, we saw how well pupils in all classrooms listened to their teachers, reflected upon the learning content and worked hard at their tasks. Learning time was particularly well used in mathematics, when pupils responded to challenging questions and used practical apparatus to organise and explain their ideas. The school's work to improve pupils' handwriting has been a more recent focus for improvement.

The new approach is not fully embedded. Pupils' work is not presented to a consistently high standard because, at times, teachers' expectations are too low. Leaders are supporting their colleagues to ensure that these inconsistencies are addressed.

The most able pupils make good progress. Most recently, at the end of 2018, a larger proportion of key stage 2 pupils achieved the higher standard in reading and mathematics than was found nationally. However, the wider curriculum subjects have only recently begun to deepen pupils' learning and engagement.

The most able pupils' workbooks show that they are using their writing skills effectively in English and increasingly in other curriculum subjects, such as religious education, science and history. Safeguarding is effective. As the designated lead for safeguarding, you have developed a strong team around you.

You take effective action to support any pupils about whom there is a safeguarding concern. Senior leaders and governors have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You know all pupils and their families well, which helps your team to work closely with parents.

Successful relationships with other professionals, including your own pastoral team, ensure that pupils and families receive appropriate and timely support. You are alert to the local issues that may affect pupils' well-being so that preventative strategies can be put into place. You train staff fully to understand their responsibilities to keep pupils safe and they welcome your regular updates and reminders.

Staff are vigilant of the signs that may indicate a concern about a pupil's welfare, including any patterns of behaviour or absence. Pupils say they feel safe in school and those I spoke to were adamant that there is no bullying or discriminatory language. They understood the severity of such behaviour and said that, should it occur, they would trust school staff to stop it from happening.

Teachers help pupils to understand the risks of using the internet and older pupils know the rules that keep them safe when they are online. Inspection findings ? My first line of enquiry was to explore what the school does to sustain consistently good outcomes in mathematics. In 2018, key stage 2 pupils made progress that was well above the national average.

Enthusiastic and skilled subject leadership has supported high-quality teaching over time by developing teachers' confident subject knowledge. ? In their mathematics lessons, pupils have ready access to helpful practical resources. Many pupils access supportive homework resources, that are available online, to support their mathematical fluency.

During our learning walk, we saw how, right from the start of the lesson, teachers' questioning supported pupils to think deeply. Pupils make correct use of mathematical language to explain their reasoning, which helps them to solve challenging problems. ? Currently, there are some minor variations in the quality of provision for mathematics across the school.

Sensibly, you have identified the need to improve teaching and learning still further so it is all as good as the very best that the school offers. ? Pupils' attainment and progress in reading and writing have been typically in line with other schools nationally. Where there are differences, these are due to a few pupils who have particular needs, which prompted my second line of enquiry.

Your leaders helped me to explore how well disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are helped to make good progress. ? Teachers know each pupil well and, as a staff team, you use assessment intelligently to identify any pupil who is not achieving as highly as they should and target well-matched support. You showed me how successfully Year 2 pupils who did not reach the expected standard in the phonics screening check last year are responding to extra teaching and are catching up.

Similarly, your pastoral team supports pupils with emotional needs to become increasingly resilient. ? There are a few pupils who have SEND of a more complex nature. Leaders check their progress carefully, in line with individually agreed objectives.

You ensure that staff are well trained to meet their needs, particularly to help pupils develop their social and communication skills and become independent learners. ? Pupils and parents recognise that the school has continued to improve by providing an increasing number of curricular opportunities, such as community events, relevant field visits and varied physical education and sport activities. Pupils say that the school now more frequently takes part in sports tournaments and they enjoy their regular sessions at the local sports centre.

• The improvements to the curriculum that you, your leaders and teachers have implemented are having an impact on pupils' engagement with learning. They enjoy interesting lessons that cover appropriate content in the wider curriculum subjects. Year 5 and 6 pupils, in particular, have applied their literacy and mathematics skills in their topic work on 'space' by researching key facts and using large numbers.

• You are committed to sustaining the strong progress that pupils make in reading, writing and mathematics. In order to build upon this success, you have rightly identified the need to deepen pupils' learning and achievement in key stages 1 and 2 across the wider curriculum. Leaders' current work to develop their subject areas has started well.

However, they have not yet had enough time to ensure that pupils develop their knowledge, skills and understanding so as to make consistently strong progress in the different subject areas. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? support for teaching and learning continues to reduce minor inconsistencies in the quality of provision ? subject leaders further develop their roles to become increasingly effective in supporting school improvement priorities ? pupils continue to make strong progress and deepen their learning across the wider curriculum I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Portsmouth (RC), the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Isle of Wight. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Linda Jacobs Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I visited the school for one day. Together, we visited each class to observe pupils' learning. I met with the governors and held meetings with leaders to talk about their work and its impact on pupils' progress.

I talked to pupils in class and when they were outside at breaktime and I met a group of Year 6 pupils more formally. I spoke to a representative of the local authority. I analysed a range of school documentation, including information about pupils' achievement and the school improvement plan.

I reviewed the school's safeguarding checks and the procedures you use to keep children safe. We discussed your own evaluation of the school's effectiveness and we looked together at a sample of pupils' workbooks across different subjects. I took into account the views of parents and carers to whom I spoke informally at the start of the school day, as well as 40 responses to Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, and 26 accompanying free-text responses.

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