St John's Church of England Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 December 2024

Pupils are happy and find it easy to make friends at this kind and welcoming school. Staff keep pupils safe. The school is calm and orderly. Leaders have high expectations for pupils' behaviour, and as a result, pupils behave well and try their best in their learning. Pupils are caring towards each other. Staff deal quickly with any concerns. Adults provide pupils with lots of support and guidance to promote their well-being. The school has a clear vision for providing pupils with a range of enrichment opportunities to broaden their cultural capital. This includes visits to the theatre, places of worship and art galleries. This helps pupils to build their wider understanding of the world around them. Pupils enjoy the range of clubs on offer. The school focuses on ensuring that children get the best possible start in the early years. Children in Reception show enjoyment and independence in lessons. The curriculum develops their learning well, and this is supported by a stimulating and attractive learning environment. The quality of education in the rest of the school is not as strong. The school has started to make improvements. However, some pupils do not receive teaching that ensures that they learn well in all subjects. This limits how well some pupils achieve.

What the school should improve

• The school has not ensured that teaching in all subjects enables pupils to have a secure understanding of the important vocabulary that is needed to achieve well. This leads to some pupils not developing their knowledge and understanding in some subjects. The school should make sure that teaching enables pupils to develop a secure understanding of subject-specific vocabulary across all subjects and, in turn, successfully learn and remember key concepts and ideas.
• Sometimes, in Years 1 to 6, teaching does not ensure that subject content is presented clearly and accurately. As a result, some pupils are unclear about what they are learning, need to learn or do. Some persist with learning with misconceptions being in place. This prevents them from learning and achieving well. Leaders should make sure that teaching presents information clearly and accurately so that pupils build and secure their understanding.
• Sometimes, teaching does not check pupils' understanding carefully enough in Years 1 to 6. Consequently, some pupils are not secure in their understanding before teaching moves on to new subject content. The school should ensure that teaching consistently checks pupils' understanding and addresses misconceptions so that pupils are fully prepared for future learning.
• In some subjects, leadership's oversight of the curriculum is at an early stage of development. This has limited the school's work to secure and embed changes to curriculum implementation. The school should continue to develop its curriculum and leadership expertise so that the intended curriculum is delivered consistently and securely in all subjects.

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