Padiham St Leonard's Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 8 May 2024

Pupils' school experiences are enriched through a variety of initiatives. For instance, older pupils take turns learning to fish during 'Fishing Fridays'. They learn how to play instruments such as the ukelele during their music lessons. Some pupils benefit from the sporting clubs on offer. The school also arranges clubs for pupils' families to participate in, such as pasta club, in which families learn to cook together. Pupils told inspectors that they enjoyed regularly using the school's woodland area as part of their learning activities. Pupils are happy and safe at this school, and they generally behave well. However, the school does not consistently uphold its expectations for pupils' conduct, which leads to low-level disruption at points in the school day that sometimes goes unchecked. The school is ambitious for what pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), should achieve. However, at times, these ambitions are not fully realised. In part, this is because there is some variability in how consistently the school delivers its curriculum. In some cases, pupils do not achieve all that they could. For example, the proportion of pupils in key stages 1 and 2 who reached the expected standards of attainment in reading in 2023 was significantly below national averages.

What the school should improve

• The school, including governors, lacks sufficient insight into the delivery of the curriculum and how well it helps pupils to acquire new knowledge. As a result, the school is not addressing the deficiencies in curriculum design and delivery that are currently evident. These deficiencies prevent pupils from developing a secure body of knowledge. The school should review how it evaluates the effectiveness of subject curriculums so that it can identify and respond to the weaknesses in curriculum delivery.
• The school does not carry out effective checks on pupils' learning. This sometimes means that staff do not identify when pupils are struggling with their learning. In turn, pupils do not receive enough help and guidance to address their misconceptions and errors. The school should make sure that staff have sufficient strategies to identify and respond to pupils who need further guidance with their learning.
• The school's phonics catch-up support does not sharply focus on addressing pupils' individual knowledge gaps. Additionally, the books that pupils read are not well suited to their current knowledge of sounds. Consequently, pupils struggle at the early stages of learning to read for longer than they should. The school should ensure that pupils are provided with accessible books that match well to their current reading abilities and ensure that catch-up support helps pupils to close their individual knowledge gaps.
• The school does not consistently uphold high standards of behaviour and conduct throughout the school day. Particularly during social times, pupils do not behave as well as they should. This sometimes puts them at risk of harm. The school should ensure that its policies and procedures related to behaviour management are clearly understood and routinely upheld by staff and pupils.

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