St Augustine's CofE School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 18 March 2025

Pupils love attending this warm, caring school that is a place of sanctuary for the community it serves. Pupils are respectful towards school staff and each other. They feel safe because they have excellent relationships with staff. Pupils arrive in the morning confident that they will enjoy their day of learning. One pupil, echoing the views of many, described the school as 'a beacon of hope'. The school has high ambitions for pupils' achievement. The curriculum provides interest and challenge. Pupils learn with enthusiasm and build their knowledge over time. Some pupils join the school following gaps in their education. These pupils build effectively on their starting points. They glow with pride when they talk about their work. Children get off to an effective start in the early years, where they enjoy and benefit from well-considered days of learning and discovery. There is a calm sense of purpose all around the school. Pupils are confident and independent. Their behaviour is positive, both in and out of lessons. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about their leadership roles and their contribution to the life of the school. Pupils know that they are all equal and are clear that it is okay to be different in this school, and they value diversity.

What the school should improve

• The number of pupils who are persistently absent remains high. These pupils are unable to fully access school life and lose out on learning. The school and trust should further accelerate their work to improve attendance, working with outside agencies to engage parents where necessary to support these pupils to participate in school much more regularly and catch up with their learning.
• At times, the activities that pupils complete do not consistently encourage them to use their knowledge in reasoning and problem solving. This means that some pupils do not become adept at applying what they know to increasingly challenging mathematical problems. The school and trust should develop the curriculum to build up pupils' reasoning and problem-solving skills over time so that they can apply this learning to more complex questions with success.
• In the early years, learning opportunities in the continuous provision are not sufficiently focused on developing and securing the essential vocabulary that many pupils at the very early stages of language development need. This means that language development is not as effective as it could be. The school should ensure that the curriculum in the early years explicitly outlines the important vocabulary that children need to learn and understand at each stage, so that activities in the continuous provision successfully support language acquisition for all children.

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