St Peter's Primary School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: St Peter’s Primary School Cherry Tree Close, Winslow Road, Bromyard, Herefordshire HR7 4UY

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Outcome

St Peter’s Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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Outcome

The headteacher of this school is Heather Yarnold. This school is part of Three Counties Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Martin Farmer, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Mac Henderson. There is also an executive headteacher, Martin Farmer, who is responsible for this school and others.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a friendly and welcoming school. Staff manage their classes kindly, calmly and effectively. They expect pupils to do their best, and pupils respond well to this. They are attentive to their teachers, work hard and support one another.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school values teamwork and effort and supports pupils to develop and celebrate these qualities. It also teaches pupils about the importance of honesty, empathy and resilience. This helps pupils to develop healthy attitudes and constructive outlooks on life. These attitudes show in their positive behaviour, both in class and at breaktimes. Pupils are happy here. They feel safe, secure and enjoy their lessons. This enjoyment and appreciation of school shows in their regular attendance and keenness in class.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s high expectations feed into classroom learning. Staff celebrate pupils’ successes and support them when they need help. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in all the school does. This inclusive approach supports all to achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Beyond lessons, there are many extra activities for pupils to do. Clubs, trips and special events add further interest to the school day and enhance the curriculum. The school’s grounds are also used well for learning and play. 7 and 8 May 2025

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

After a period of change, the school now has a stable staff and leadership team. Together, they have an informed understanding of the school’s strengths and development areas. There is a culture of strong teamwork, clear communication and high expectations. This helps everyone to feel valued and supported. It also ensures that the school’s actions to drive improvement are united and effective.

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

Over the last year, the school has strengthened the teaching of early reading. There is a well-resourced reading scheme, and staff training has been refreshed. In addition, there is daily catch-up support for those who need it. These changes have improved the consistency and effectiveness of phonics teaching. This shows in the quality of pupils’ reading, which, after a dip, has improved in recent times.

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

The early years give children a strong start. The curriculum takes account of their needs and interests, while also building readiness for key stage 1. Communication with parents and carers is excellent. Parents rightly speak highly of the school’s calm, nurturing and supportive expectations.

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

Key stages 1 and 2 build securely on this positive start. For instance, the school’s effective work on handwriting establishes good habits that endure over time. Similarly, pupils practise using numbers during group learning and purposeful play. This helps them to apply their early mathematics knowledge fluently.

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

In the wider curriculum, the school ensures that staff know what to teach and when. For the most part, new learning builds on earlier learning so that pupils gain increasingly complex knowledge in different subjects. Nevertheless, staff subject knowledge is stronger in some subjects than others. In addition, changes to the way the school manages some subjects mean that a few staff are still getting used to their new responsibilities. These factors mean that, currently, the quality of pupils’ learning is not equally strong across all subjects. Senior leaders are alert to this. They take a thoughtful and strategic approach to staff training and development. Consequently, staff get helpful professional development but are not overwhelmed by too many new initiatives at once. Staff appreciate this and value the guidance and support they receive.

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

The school identifies pupils with SEND accurately. In designing the curriculum, the school has thought carefully about these pupils. For instance, leaders have identified key knowledge in many different subjects. This helps pupils, especially those with SEND, to remember the most important things that will help them with later learning. However, in a few foundation subjects, the curriculum does not place sufficient emphasis on some of the big concepts that reoccur and help to connect learning.

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

The school places a high priority on pupils’ broader development. There is an extensive extra-curricular programme. This includes different sports that help to build healthy exercise habits and get pupils involved in constructive competition. The school also offers a residential trip to an activity centre and introduces pupils to activities such as climbing and roller-skating to build their resilience and self-confidence. Other clubs, such as choir 7 and 8 May 2025

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and gardening, are well attended. These, together with educational trips and special events in school, serve to enrich the taught curriculum.

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The trust maintains appropriate oversight of the school’s work. It has established reliable systems for checking on pupils’ academic performance, attendance, behaviour and safety. This enables the trust to support the school in the right ways.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Staff subject knowledge is stronger in some foundation subjects than in others. This means that pupils’ learning is not as consistently effective across all foundation subjects. The school should continue to strengthen staff subject knowledge so that all pupils achieve as well as possible across the whole curriculum.  In a few foundation subjects, the curriculum does not focus enough on some of the big concepts that reoccur within them. This makes it harder for pupils to see connections between new and previous learning. The school should review aspects of the curriculum to help pupils make meaningful links between important content and ideas in these subjects.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately. 7 and 8 May 2025

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This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the predecessor school, St Peter’s Primary, to be good for overall effectiveness in January 2014.

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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). 7 and 8 May 2025

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school provides before- and after-school childcare.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in the evaluation of the school.  The inspector considered published performance data about the school. The inspector also examined several school documents. These included information about pupils’ behaviour, attendance, the curriculum, extra-curricular activities, school improvement plans and documents published on the school’s website. 7 and 8 May 2025

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 During the inspection, the inspector met with the headteacher, other leaders, school staff and pupils. The inspector also spoke with the chair of the local governing body, three trustees and the CEO of Three Counties Academy Trust.  The inspector visited lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: 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.  The inspector talked with pupils, parents and staff to gather general information about school life. He took account of the responses to Ofsted’s surveys of staff, pupils’ and parents’ views.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour in classrooms, at lunchtime, on the

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playground, at clubs, in assembly and at other times during the school day.

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Inspection team

Martin Pye, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 7 and 8 May 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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