Crigglestone St James CofE Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 22 November 2023

Pupils at Crigglestone St James C of E Academy are happy and safe. The school has high aspirations for what pupils learn and achieve. They have made effective improvements to the curriculum. These changes are supporting pupils to develop their understanding well and make better progress. Although the good quality of education provided does not reflect in the reported outcomes from previous national tests and assessments, improvements mean that, overall, current pupils are achieving well. The school has high expectations for behaviour. This is realised and pupils behave well in lessons and at playtime. While pupils say that bullying can happen, they say that adults always sort it out. Pupils access a range of clubs. This includes football, tennis and rock choir. Pupils are happy with the range on offer. These clubs support pupils to develop their talents and interests. Pupils take on leadership roles within the school. Well-being ambassadors support other pupils at breaktimes and collective worship leaders create and deliver worship assemblies throughout the year. Pupils say that these roles builds their confidence. They say they give them opportunities to understand their responsibilities and to support others. The school ensures pupils learn how to keep themselves safe in the wider community. Pupils are taught about aspects of safety in the community such as online safety, road safety and cycling safety.

What the school should improve

• Some older pupils have gaps in their reading comprehension skills. Efforts to close these gaps are too slow. This prevents pupils from achieving as well as they could. The school needs to ensure that gaps in older pupils' reading comprehension skills are quickly addressed so that pupils can achieve to the best of their abilities.
• The processes that leaders use to check what the pupils know and understand in the wider curriculum are not strong enough. This means that leaders are not able to identify strengths and areas for improvement as effectively as they could. Leaders should develop better ways to check how well the curriculum is being learned in order to sustain ongoing improvement.
• In some wider curriculum subjects, the school has not clearly identified the important knowledge that pupils will learn. This means that pupils do not develop their knowledge as securely over time. The school should ensure that important knowledge is clearly identified across all subjects.
• Some parents say that they are unhappy with the school's communication. Parents are not always well informed about what is happening in school and why. The school needs to ensure that communication with parents supports collaboration and engagement so that all stakeholders are in a position to work together and support pupils' learning and development.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)