St Augustine's Catholic Primary and Nursery School, A Voluntary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 30 January 2024

The school's values of service, love, forgiveness, courage, justice, compassion and hope sing out from the school walls. These values guide the school's work and serve as a model for how leaders, staff and pupils treat each other. Pupils know the school's values inside out. St Augustine's is a calm, welcoming school. Pupils are friendly and polite. They enjoy meeting visitors and are proud to tell them about their school and their work. Pupils feel happy and safe, knowing they can turn to their 'trusted adult' if they have any concerns. Pupils behave well. They move sensibly around the school, using their 'fantastic walking'. Staff use consistent routines to reinforce their high expectations. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are included in all aspects of school life. The school proudly celebrates the many different cultures that pupils come from. On heritage day, pupils enjoy wearing national costumes. They and their families take joy in sharing food from their different cultures together. Pupils value the opportunities they get to be leaders, for example by 'leading the line', as house captains and as members of the school council.

What the school should improve

• In a few wider curriculum subjects, approaches to checking on how well pupils remember the taught curriculum are less well established. This means that leaders are not always aware of pupils' misconceptions and do not adapt the curriculum accordingly. Leaders should continue to develop subject leadership so that there are firm mechanisms in place to review and adapt the curriculum in all subjects, from the early years upwards. Academy 3
• The environment for learning in the early years does not always support children's learning as well as it could. This means that children do not always have resources and activities to extend their learning. Leaders should continue to improve the environment in the early years.
• Teaching does not always ensure that the needs of pupils with SEND are met in the classroom. The curriculum is not adapted well enough to take account of the strategies to support these pupils' learning. The school should ensure that all teaching consistently uses the strategies in pupils' SEND profiles to enable these pupils to make progress against the intended curriculum.

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