St James's CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 27 June 2023

Pupils are proud to attend this welcoming school, and they greet each other cheerily. They enjoy learning new things and playing with their friends. Pupils live out daily the school's vision of faith, friendship and fulfilment. These permeate school life and support pupils to thrive in their learning. Pupils are happy and safe. They know there are many staff to speak with if they have concerns or worries. It is rare for bullying to happen. If it does, staff deal with it speedily. Some parents comment favourably on how fast the staff react to ensure that pupils are not picked on by their peers. Most pupils know the schools' behaviour expectations. They behave well, and they are polite and well mannered. Leaders, including governors, have high expectations of pupils. In response, pupils work hard in all year groups. They reach the high expectations set by leaders. Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs and activities available to them. These include a building brick club, school choir, cooking club and a range of sports clubs. The before- and after-school clubs are well attended. Pupils enjoy the fun activities on offer.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, teachers do not use assessment consistently to check on how effectively pupils are learning. As a result, some teachers do not match new learning activities well enough to the learning needs of all pupils. Leaders should ensure that assessment consistently informs future learning for all pupils.
• Some pupils do not know how their current learning links to the key knowledge they should know and remember over time. This is because teachers do not make this explicit enough for pupils, so pupils do not always remember the right things. Leaders and teachers should review how they identify and emphasise the most important learning so that it sticks in the long-term memories of more pupils.
• Subject leaders do not have enough knowledge of how the curriculum in early years prepares children for what is to follow in key stage 1. This restricts their oversight of how learning across the whole school builds securely and sequentially over time. The early years team should work with subject leaders to establish more joined-up curriculum thinking between early years and the rest of the school. They should do this to ensure that the learning journey for all children is as smooth as possible.

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