St Mary's CofE (VA) Primary School

Inspection of St Mary’s CofE (VA) Primary School Stoney Lane, Kidderminster, Worcestershire DY10 2LX

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 11 and 12 March 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at St Mary’s CofE Primary. This is because this is a school where adults work hard to ensure pupils are made to feel welcome. This helps pupils to feel secure and ready to learn. This welcome starts with the breakfast club, where pupils can talk to an adult as well as enjoy nourishing food. As one pupil summarised, ‘St Mary’s is a safe and friendly place where they give you support.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave with high levels of respect and consideration for each other, both in lessons and at social times. They understand the school’s values of respect, forgiveness and generosity. For example, pupils can explain what the school’s values mean in how they conduct themselves and how they should be treated. Pupils speak highly of the leadership opportunities they have and how they help in the school. Pupils enjoy the many animals that the school has and the work they do to look after them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for pupils’ achievement. It is achieving these with increasing consistency. This means pupils are motivated to achieve well, and adults work with increasing coherence to support them in this.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The curriculum is increasingly secure and consistent across the school. The school recognised the need for improvement following the Year 6 results last academic year, especially in mathematics. As a result, they reviewed the curriculum extensively and have ensured that teachers have a clearer understanding of the key knowledge that pupils need to know. The tasks that teachers select build well on what pupils already know. Generally, teachers check carefully to ensure that pupils understand their learning. However, sometimes this is not the case, and when gaps in learning are not identified, they can persist. As a result, some pupils develop gaps in their knowledge, which can slow their progress over time.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school identifies the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) with precision, ensuring that staff have clear information to support their learning. However, in lessons, the adaptations these pupils need are not always present, or they do not provide pupils with the appropriate level of independence. When either of these happen, pupils’ learning can be less secure, or they do not have the independence needed to practise their learning effectively. The youngest children in the resource base have their needs rapidly identified, and a range of support is put in place to support their speech and language development skills and to aid their transition into Reception.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school teaches early reading very well and with a significant degree of consistency. This means that pupils learn the key sounds they need and how these correspond to letters or groups of letters. Pupils who need support to read with appropriate fluency are rapidly identified and have significant support to do so. All this helps ensure that pupils read well so they are equipped to learn the curriculum. The school ensures that the curriculum is structured around key books as well as exposure to other texts. This supports pupils to read a range of books with enthusiasm as they progress up the school. 11 and 12 March 2025

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Children in the early years have their needs rapidly identified. Well-trained adults guide them to learn from a range of opportunities, both indoors and outdoors. The school takes considerable care to ensure adults know how to enrich the conversations they have with the children. This helps the children to make an effective start for their transition to key stage 1.

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The school takes pride in its provision for pupils’ personal development. This includes a range of opportunities to develop their interests and independence, including clubs, trips and residentials. The school is tracking the uptake of these opportunities with increasing precision to ensure all pupils’ benefit. Pupils learn how to keep themselves healthy, understand their rights and responsibilities and develop tolerance and respect for other faiths and traditions.

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The school has managed some changes in leadership with support from the local authority. The school has also conducted extensive reviews of the curriculum to ensure it is delivered and learned consistently. However, some subject leaders are less secure in evaluating their areas of responsibility. This means that inconsistencies can persist.

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Governors are highly supportive of the school and are ambitious for its success. They have worked effectively to develop relationships with parents and carers. Staff speak highly positively of the improvements in place. They appreciate that leaders engage with them around workload and other developments to the provision in the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 On occasion, staff do not check if pupils have a secure understanding of their learning. When this is the case, gaps in learning can occur. The school should ensure that teachers have the subject knowledge across the curriculum to use assessment effectively to identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge, and adaptations are put in place to close the gaps.  In some lessons, teachers are not using the information provided by the school to adapt learning activities to the needs of pupils with SEND, or the support provided does not enable pupils to work with appropriate independence. This means that these pupils do not learn the curriculum as well as they could. The school should ensure that teachers understand how to adapt activities for pupils with SEND such that they acquire and practise their knowledge and skills at an appropriate level and with greater independence.  The school’s evaluation of its work in some subjects is at an earlier stage of

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

development. This means that there are pockets of inconsistency as the subject vision is not systematically in place. The school should ensure that subject leads regularly 11 and 12 March 2025

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review and lead on the development of their areas of responsibility, such that best practice continues to be spread through the school.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 11 and 12 March 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Valerie Houghton

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 9 and 10 November 2022, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not use alternative provision.  The school has a specially resourced provision for up to 24 pre-school children with a focus on speech and language, the Kidderminster Early Years Language Class.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision. 11 and 12 March 2025

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  As part of this inspection, the inspectors met with the chair of the governing board and governors. They met with senior leaders, subject leaders, teaching staff and other employees in the school. Inspectors also talked informally to pupils to gather general information about school life. The lead inspector also spoke with a representative of the local authority by telephone. He scrutinised records of external visits to the school.

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Governing body minutes were reviewed.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, art and history. For each deep dive, the inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work in these subjects and others.  The inspectors reviewed the school’s extra-curricular activities, enrichment programme and their careers and personal development programmes with leaders and pupils.  The inspectors reviewed the school’s behaviour and attendance records with school leaders.  A range of documentation was scrutinised, including plans to improve the school.  The inspectors met with members of staff and spoke to pupils, both formally and informally, at various points in the inspection. They took account of responses to Ofsted surveys for staff and pupils, Ofsted Parent View and the free-text responses. An

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inspector also spoke with a selection of parents informally.

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Inspection team

Andrew Madden, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Donna Wright Ofsted Inspector 11 and 12 March 2025

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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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