Saint Peter's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Luisa Rinaldi-Oxley Saint Peter’s Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy London Road Hinckley Leicestershire LE10 1HJ

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Academy

Following my visit to the school on 28 November 2018, 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 2013.

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Academy

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Academy

In partnership with the leadership team, governors and more recently the trust the school has joined, you have set about raising aspirations for all pupils. You have improved the systems for monitoring pupils’ progress, thus ensuring that greater support is given to those pupils at risk of falling behind in their learning.

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Academy

Pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics and are attaining at least in line with, and sometimes above, the expectations for their age.

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Academy

The leaders for English and mathematics have a good understanding of how to continue improving their subjects. They have reliable evidence of previous improvement strategies, for example, for improving spelling in English and fluency in mathematics.

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Academy

Pupils flourish in the school. By Year 6, they are well prepared, both socially and academically, for the next stage of their education. They benefit from a rich curriculum, and the strong values of care and perseverance that underpin the work of the school. As a result, pupils respond well and behave very sensibly throughout the day, including at the well-organised breakfast club. They are friendly, sociable, articulate and keen to learn. There is a friendly atmosphere on the playground, with older and younger pupils playing together happily and supporting each other well. You have ensured that any decisions have been made with the best interests of pupils in mind. For example, you have ensured that the changes to governance have ensured a consistent approach to the school’s safeguarding arrangements. You set high expectations, especially for the most able and disadvantaged pupils. Teaching is characterised by high expectations, good questioning informed by

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Academy

appropriate subject knowledge, and a positive classroom atmosphere. However, teaching does not currently ensure that a high proportion of the most able pupils achieve greater depth in subjects other than English and mathematics. There is some inconsistency in teachers’ expectations across all subjects, for example in science.

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Academy

Pupils enjoy school and keenly take responsibility. Younger pupils, for example, like the way that older pupils help them as pastoral leaders or chaplaincy members. Through the school council, pupils have a voice in the life of the school. They feel that their views are listened to and adults respond to their concerns.

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Academy

Governors have an accurate view of what is working well and what could be even better. They remain vigilant and challenging in their new role as ‘local’ governors, to ensure that safeguarding is effective, and standards continue to rise.

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Academy

Parents and carers are very positive about the school. A typical comment was that it was a ‘brilliant school’; another, ‘the best school in the county’. They rightly feel their children are well cared for and fully support and welcome the strong values and high expectations that characterise the school. They welcome the way you and the staff successfully support children’s social and emotional needs, as well as their academic development. For example, work is now mostly well matched to pupils’ needs, and comments in books clearly show how they can improve.

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Safeguarding is effective

You have ensured that the culture of safeguarding permeates the work of the school. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. There is strong pastoral support for pupils and their families. You have invested in additional support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and/or language difficulties. Leaders keep careful records of concerns and work closely with other agencies. You will challenge if you are not happy with any decisions that are made that affect the pupils.

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Safeguarding is effective

Staff have established positive relationships with families over time. They have built up a level of trust whereby families approach the school for support. Pupils said that they feel safe in school and bullying is not an issue. They said they can approach staff with any concerns and are confident that these would be dealt with appropriately and quickly.

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Inspection findings

 In order to check that the school remains good, I followed a number of lines of enquiry. Teaching meets well the needs of most pupils. Many teachers make particularly good use of questioning and discussion to extend the skills and understanding of the most able pupils. However, when visiting lessons together, we saw that not all teachers move on the learning of the most able quickly enough. This happens most often when they have to complete the same piece of work as others, before moving on to a more demanding task.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils in school is low compared with the national average. Nonetheless, historic and current data shows a pattern of these pupils underperforming.  As part of pupil progress meetings, you ask leaders and teachers to identify the specific needs of each pupil, the ways in which these have been addressed and the impact that different strategies to raise these pupils’ achievement is having.

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Inspection findings

The coordinator of the provision for pupils with SEND also has detailed knowledge of disadvantaged pupils and can illustrate the positive impact on the achievements of pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils of the specific strategies put in place to improve their performance.  Governors receive detailed reports about the support that disadvantaged pupils receive. They meet regularly with you and other leaders to see how well pupils are progressing and to consider, in detail, the impact of the spending of the additional funding on these pupils’ progress. They understand the issues that are arising as a result of your analysis. Current school assessment information and work we saw in books show that the strategies to improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils are working.  Pupils were very positive about the provision in science, information and communication technology, sport and history. They said that they have plentiful

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Inspection findings

opportunities to develop skills in these areas, both in lessons and through clubs and external visits, such as to the National Space Centre. Opportunities for pupils to apply their writing, reading and counting skills in different subjects are plentiful. Pupils practise these skills across the curriculum.  I found that pupils’ work in subjects such as science and history and geography topics is varied in quality. We could see in workbooks that teachers do not always expect enough of the most able pupils so that they develop a full range of skills, knowledge and understanding. They do not always expect the same quality and quantity of work as that found in English and mathematics books.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 there is a consistently high level of challenge for the most able pupils, so that a greater proportion achieve the higher standards  the work in subjects such as science, geography and history demands enough of pupils to deepen and develop a wider range of skills, knowledge and understanding.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body and the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust, the director of education for the Diocese of Nottingham, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Leicestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with you, other school leaders, two governors (including the chair of the governing body), the director of primary education for the trust, and pupils. We visited all classrooms to look at the impact of teaching on pupils’ learning over time. We looked at samples of pupils’ work and talked to them about their learning.

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Information about the inspection

I examined a range of documents, policies and assessment information. I considered the 39 responses from parents to Ofsted’s questionnaire, Parent View, and free-text responses and spoke with parents in the playground before school.

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