Porter Croft Church of England Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 10 June 2025

Pupils love attending this warm and welcoming school. Many pupils say that school is like a 'second family'. Pupils enjoy learning and behave exceptionally well, upholding the school's values of 'respect, acceptance and fellowship'. When pupils join the school, they quickly build strong relationships with each other and staff who nurture a caring and inclusive culture. Pupils are confident that staff will listen to any worries that they may have. From the Reception Year, children receive an excellent start to their education. They are supported extremely well to gain the language and communication skills to build strong foundations for future learning. As pupils progress through the school, they continue to develop positive attitudes to learning. Expectations for pupils' achievement are high. Many pupils join the school from overseas unable to speak English. The school welcomes these pupils, celebrating cultural differences through activities such as the 'cultural fayre'. Highly skilled staff support pupils to overcome any language barriers. Consequently, pupils thrive and achieve well overall, particularly in reading. Pupils benefit immensely from the school's exceptional range of experiences, which cater for a range of interests. Activities include participating in inter-school sports and performing in the choir in Sheffield Cathedral.

What the school should improve

• The school's approach to teaching and checking pupils' writing is variable. There are inconsistencies in the quality of pupils' writing. In some subjects, pupils' writing is hampered by weak sentence construction, punctuation and spelling. The school should ensure that all staff are trained to implement the new writing strategy so that they support pupils to improve their writing to a high standard.
• On occasions, information on what pupils know and can do is not used well enough to inform the learning activities that pupils are set in some foundation subjects. Consequently, pupils' learning does not build as securely as it could. The school should ensure that staff are helped to use assessment information to design activities that enable pupils to build knowledge and deepen their understanding, so that pupils achieve highly across all subjects.

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