Leyland St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School

Inspection of Leyland St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School Haig Avenue, Leyland, Lancashire PR25 2QA

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leyland St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School is a caring and nurturing school. Leaders’ focus on children’s personal development helps pupils to thrive. Leaders’ strong Christian ethos and vision to ‘live and learn, sharing God’s love’ run throughout the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

We spoke to many pupils who said that they like coming to school and feel safe. Some pupils, reflecting the views of others spoken with, said that the school was amazing. Others said that teachers were kind.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils said that they understood what teachers expected from them and that they were grateful for their education. Pupils benefit from calm and warm relationships with the adults that work with them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils who we spoke with said that bullying was rare in school, but when it did happen, teachers dealt with it well. Pupils felt that behaviour has improved over time because their headteacher does not want bullying to happen. 11–12 September 2019

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Pupils show positive attitudes to their learning. They are curious, confident and interested. Pupils are particularly proud of their sporting achievements. The school has achieved a gold award for sport and pupils are keen to achieve even higher.

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better?

The school is well led and managed. Over time, leaders have developed strong curriculums for reading, writing and mathematics. As a result, pupils are achieving well. Leaders work hard to ensure that pupils’ learning is linked effectively with other subjects. This is because pupils sometimes have difficulty making connections in their learning over time in subjects such as religious education. On occasion, a lack of challenge in the curriculum means that some pupils lose concentration at times and their learning falters.

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better?

Staff prioritise the teaching of reading. The school environment is rich in literature and pupils say that they love reading. Phonics is taught effectively but leaders do not always ensure that the books pupils take home from school help them to practise the sounds that they are learning in class . Teachers help pupils who have fallen behind in their early reading to catch up.

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better?

Pupils develop their mathematics and writing knowledge and skills effectively. They are enthusiastic about these subjects and try hard. When we spoke with pupils about these subjects, they talked confidently about their learning and knew how well they were doing.

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better?

The history curriculum has been designed to interest and motivate pupils. Pupils particularly love the occasions where they take part in special subject days and weeks where they dress up and experience life in, for example, the time of the Romans or the Stone Age. The history curriculum has strong links with the local area and visitors are invited in to school to talk to the pupils about their memories.

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better?

Leaders make sure that the curriculum meets the needs of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). As a result, these pupils make the same strong progress as other pupils in the school over time.

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better?

Children are safe and happy in the early years and get off to a good start. They work well with teachers and use their knowledge of phonics to help them to read and write. Children share, take turns and enjoy each other’s company. In the nursery, staff encourage children to be independent as they prepare for their snack time. Children enjoy lots of different activities, both indoors and outside, which develop their knowledge and skills. For example, children help to pick pears from the trees. The fruit is then used in art lessons and some is prepared for eating.

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better?

Pupils’ personal development is enriched by many interesting activities and opportunities. Pupils raise funds for charities and work well with their local church and community. Through links with a school in India, pupils develop friendships with other pupils from a different country and culture. Pupils enjoy learning through 11–12 September 2019

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activities such as residential visits, extra-curricular clubs and visits to museums. Pupils told us that they would enjoy going on more educational visits.

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Leaders have built positive relationships with staff and are realistic about the pressures on them in terms of workload. Teachers spoken with during the inspection and those who responded to Ofsted’s online survey said that they feel well supported.

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Governors have a broad range of knowledge and a clear understanding of their role. They support and challenge leaders. Governors work hard with senior and subject leaders to continue to improve the school.

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All parents who spoke with inspectors and the majority of those who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, were supportive of the school’s work.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The school site is secure, and the identity of visitors is checked on entry. The school’s procedures for managing safeguarding are strong. Staff are well trained to identify signs and symptoms of abuse. Children feel safe in school and receive help to understand how to stay safe both in the real world and online. Staff recruited to work in school are checked thoroughly to ensure that they are safe to work with pupils. The school system for recording safeguarding incidents shows that leaders and staff respond appropriately to any inappropriate behaviour from pupils.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some subjects, there are parts of the curriculum which lack challenge for some groups of pupils. Teachers need to make sure that their curriculum plans meet the needs of all groups of pupils.  Pupils do not always make clear enough connections within and between subjects in the wider curriculum. Leaders need to ensure that curriculum plans build on pupils’ past knowledge and prepare them well for learning that is to come. The school’s curriculum is not yet sufficiently coherently planned and sequenced in some subjects. However, it is clear from the actions that leaders have already taken that they are in the process of bringing this about.  Teachers have been trained well in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders now need to ensure that teachers develop a deeper understanding of the way in which learning can be sequenced, both within the foundation subjects and between subjects, so that pupils know more and can remember more.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Pupils make good progress in reading. However, leaders need to ensure that pupils in early years and key stage 1 consistently use books which include the 11–12 September 2019

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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How can I feed back my views?

If you’re not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 11–12 September 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10087849 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.st-marys-leyland.lancs.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 1–2 March 2017

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Information about this school

 The school is an average-sized, Roman Catholic voluntary-aided primary school. A section 48 inspection took place in June 2018.  There was a larger than average decrease in the number of pupils in 2018.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 We observed teaching and learning in all year groups.  We examined a range of documents including: information about pupils’ attendance, improvement plans, self-evaluation information, safeguarding records, curriculum planning and staff training records.  We spoke with parents at the start of the school day.  We met with a representative of the local authority who is the school’s advisor. We also met with the chair of governors and five other governors.  We talked with pupils informally at playtimes, visited the dining hall at lunchtime and observed pupils’ movement around the school. We talked with pupils about 11–12 September 2019

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their learning and listened to pupils from Year 1 and Year 2 read.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, subject leaders, the special educational needs coordinator, the leader for disadvantaged pupils and with some teachers.  Inspectors considered the 20 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, 14 responses from the online staff survey and 11 responses to the pupil survey.  The subjects considered as part of this inspection were reading, history, mathematics and religious education.

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Inspection team

Gill Pritchard, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Suzanne Blay Ofsted Inspector 11–12 September 2019

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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