St John's Cathedral Catholic Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 12 July 2022

The atmosphere at the school is calm, joyful and purposeful. Pupils behave extremely well and take great delight in learning and working together. Children in the early years share and take turns while listening to each other attentively. Pupils in all classes are eager to achieve well because of the high expectations staff have of them. Pupils look forward to coming to school and the vast majority attend very regularly. Pupils form a diverse but close-knit community. They have high levels of respect for one another and prize equality. They know about people with different backgrounds, abilities and beliefs, learning to consider and understand them deeply. Pupils make good friends with each other. They socialise together enthusiastically and value each other's company. Pupils develop noticeably strong character traits during their time at school. These include honesty, compassion and a desire to support each other. Bullying is almost unheard of. Pupils have a clear sense of justice and know why this is important. They learn to be responsible for their own actions. They make a very positive contribution to school life which culminates in Year 6 pupils acting as role models and mentors for younger pupils.

What the school should improve

• Pupils' learning in certain subjects is stronger in some aspects than in others. This means that they do not yet achieve consistently highly across the curriculum. Leaders should ensure that all elements of the curriculum are equally very effective.
• Some pupils who are weaker readers are not learning to read as quickly as they could. At times, the support they receive is not matched to their needs closely enough, including the books they use to practise phonics. Leaders should make sure that all approaches and resources are focused on helping these pupils make the best progress that they can in reading.
• Leaders' and governors' strategies for managing staff workload are not yet fully effective. Specific expectations are not clearly or widely understood. Staff work extremely hard but do not have robust, systematic routes to engage with leaders and governors about workload. Governors and leaders should establish clear processes for communicating with staff about strategies to manage workload and for liaising with staff about how effective these are.

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