Our Lady and St Teresa's Catholic Primary School

Inspection of Our Lady and St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School Windmill Hill, Cubbington, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 7LN

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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 Previous inspection grade Good 11–12 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

For leaders and staff at Our Lady and St Teresa’s, pupils’ well-being is as important as their academic achievement. In this small school, adults and children get on well and respect each other. During the inspection, parents and carers commented on the ‘heart-warming’ assemblies that celebrate pupils’ achievements.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy lessons, because teachers make them interesting and fun. The curriculum is ambitious. Pupils study a wide range of subjects from the start of Year 1. Teachers and support staff help pupils when they find tasks difficult. Teachers encourage pupils to work together and to help each other. Pupils know that teachers want them to do well. Results in national tests were much improved last year.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in the school. Staff are attentive to their needs. If pupils do something wrong, teachers give them the opportunity to reflect on their behaviour. This approach is successful. Pupils and staff told us that it works well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils understand what bullying is and why it should not happen. They told us that it is not a problem in the school. When it happens, pupils know who to talk to and staff address it.

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better?

To give pupils a well-rounded education, leaders have redesigned the curriculum. Pupils now study all the subjects in more depth. Teachers make the content of lessons relevant to pupils’ lives. In geography, for example, conservation is the theme that links all the topics. Teachers use that theme to help pupils understand and remember new concepts. In history, the theme is social justice. These themes are part of the school’s values.

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better?

Work in pupils’ books shows that the new curriculum is helping them to learn well. Pupils are making connections between subjects. They develop their reading and writing skills across the subjects they study.

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better?

Teachers started teaching the new curriculum in September. They still need to embed the new, effective ways of teaching. They also need to review the few aspects that are not yet effective, for example when the learning within each topic does not quite link together.

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better?

Leaders have organised teachers in three teams to develop foundation subjects in the new curriculum. In the teams, teachers lead the development of subjects they have an expertise in. This is a new responsibility for some teachers. Leaders need to continue to support those teachers’ professional development as subject leaders.

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better?

One of the school’s priorities is to ensure that all pupils learn to read well. When they join the school in Reception, children learn phonics. Most make rapid progress, 11–12 February 2020

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because the teaching is effective. Teachers and support staff help children who find reading difficult. This help allows children to catch up. Most pupils meet the required standard in the phonics screening check by the end of Year 1. Reading remains a priority up to the end of Year 6.

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Staff provide effective support to pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers plan lessons with the needs of all pupils in mind. Staff are well trained to help pupils with SEND in lessons. Sometimes, staff need to take pupils with SEND out of lessons for support. Teachers make sure that these pupils do not miss out on key learning opportunities.

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Pupils take part in a lot of trips, visits and other activities that enrich the curriculum. During the inspection, Year 2 pupils took part in an Indian culture afternoon. Year 5 pupils attended a science workshop led by a student from Warwick University.

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Leaders encourage pupils to contribute to the school life. Pupils take on roles in the ‘school parliament’, the ‘eco team’, the library team and many other pupils’ groups. The school organises many clubs after school. These clubs allow pupils to develop their interests and talents in sport, art or music.

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The induction programme for children and their parents at the start of the Reception year is very effective. Children settle well into the routine of the Reception class. Staff get to know children well. They assess children’s abilities and skills when they join the school. They set activities that help children to develop their social skills, independence and knowledge. The indoor and outdoor areas are safe and well equipped to support children’s development. The early years provision is well led and managed. Staff are caring and vigilant. Teaching is preparing children well for learning in Year 1.

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Leaders and governors work together to make sure that the school serves the community well. The school is welcoming to parents, and links with the local community are strong.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The school’s safeguarding policies and procedures are fit for purpose. All adults in the school understand their responsibility to keep children safe. Staff training is up to date. Leaders and governors review the effectiveness of policies on a regular basis. When pupils are at risk, leaders work well with families and external agencies to support them.

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Safeguarding

Pupils feel safe at the school. They trust adults to look after them. The school has comprehensive programmes in place to teach pupils about safety. Pupils know how to avoid risk when using the internet or social media. 11–12 February 2020

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The revised curriculum that the school is currently implementing is having a positive impact on the quality of teaching. There are still some variations that can limit pupils’ learning. Leaders should ensure that the effective practices that are being implemented are embedded and shared more systematically across year groups.  Overall, the revised curriculum is mainly well planned and sequenced. However, there are still adjustments to be made in some subjects to continue to develop the curriculum so that learning is always well sequenced and that tasks meet pupils’ needs. This is to fully secure pupils’ long-term memorisation of knowledge. Leaders should ensure that the sequence of learning is further refined in some subjects, such as geography.  Some teachers are new to subject leadership. Their inexperience means that their skills in curriculum development are only just starting to build. Leaders should

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

provide leadership training for teachers who are new to leading subjects. They need to embed the new subject leadership structure to continue to develop the curriculum for the foundation subjects.

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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 are the school and you are 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 February 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10088592 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website http://www.ourladyandstteresasprimarys chool.com Date of previous inspection 11–12 June 2015

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Information about this school

 The school is a catholic school. It was inspected by the Diocese of Birmingham under section 48 in October 2016 and had a monitoring visit from the diocese on Friday 7 February 2020.  The headteacher was appointed in January 2017.  The deputy headteacher was appointed in January 2019.

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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 held meetings with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and special educational needs coordinator. We also met with the chair of the governing body and four governors and had a telephone conversation with a representative of the Diocese of Birmingham who supports the school.  We did deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, geography and art. We met with curriculum leaders, visited lessons, scrutinised pupils’ work and spoke with teachers and pupils. 11–12 February 2020

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 To inspect safeguarding, we checked that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records, including the single central record, are detailed and of high quality. We discussed policies and case studies with the designated safeguarding leads. We talked to teachers, teaching assistants and lunchtime supervisors about the safeguarding training they had, and how they put this training into practice as part of their duties. We checked that the site is safe.  We observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktimes and lunchtimes. We talked to parents at the start of the school day and considered the 43 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire Parent View and the 30 responses to the free-text facility that were received during the inspection. We also considered 19 responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey. We checked behaviour and attendance records.

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Inspection team

Patrick Amieli, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Gill Turner Ofsted Inspector 11–12 February 2020

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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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