Darwen St James CofE Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 9 July 2025

Pupils are proud to attend this school. They enjoy positive relationships with their friends and staff. Pupils know that the school expects them to behave well. Peer mediators support pupils to enjoy positive breaktimes. Most pupils are respectful and kind to each other. This makes pupils happy. Pupils are starting to benefit from the school's higher expectations of what they can and should achieve. They are now experiencing a more ambitious curriculum. Nevertheless, many of the improved curriculums are in the early stages of being taught. Pupils in key stages 1 and 2 have gaps in their knowledge, which are sometimes not identified or addressed swiftly enough. In addition, some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not receive the support that they need to succeed. Pupils' learning across a range of subjects is uneven as a result. Conversely, children in the early years benefit from well matched support. They develop curiosity, independence, and enjoyment in their learning. Pupils enjoy a range of experiences beyond the academic. This includes clubs, such as dance, drama, and netball. Pupils also benefit from trips to beaches, parks, and residential visits. These opportunities capture their interests. The school supports pupils to become responsible and active citizens through leadership roles such as being members of the school council.

What the school should improve

• Improvements to the design and quality of many of the school's curriculums, including writing, are fairly recent. It is too soon to see the full impact of this work. This means that pupils have significant gaps in their knowledge and do not remember what they have learned as well as they should. The school should make sure that the new curriculums are implemented consistently well so that pupils gain a strong body of knowledge in the longer term.
• At times, the school does not use the information that it has about the needs of pupils with SEND to adapt the delivery of the curriculum as effectively as it should. This hinders how well some pupils with SEND learn. The school should ensure that staff use the information available to them to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.
• The school has not ensured that some pupils' misconceptions or gaps in learning are addressed before they move on to new learning. This means that some pupils' learning is not as secure as it should be. The school should check that pupils have successfully embedded the prior knowledge that they need before they move on to learning new content.
• Subject leadership of some areas of the curriculum is at an early stage of development. As a result, some subject leaders lack at the necessary skills and confidence to drive further improvements in their subjects. The school should provide these curriculum leaders with the expertise and knowledge that they need so that they are equipped to lead their curriculum areas effectively.

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