St Joseph's Catholic Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 24 September 2024

Pupils are safe and well cared for at this school. Families speak highly of the warm and positive atmosphere that staff provide. Adults listen to pupils and are always on hand to help and support them. The school has a positive approach to managing behaviour. Adults encourage pupils, who in turn want to try their best while they are at school. Pupils understand the core values that are central to their school. They behave respectfully to one another. The school's clear rules and routines help to create calm classrooms, where pupils can focus on their learning. Leaders are ambitious for pupils at the school, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils rise to these expectations and, as a result, an increasing number of pupils now meet the school's high expectations for their academic success. Pupils relish the opportunity of taking on leadership roles. They are proud to be well- being champions, school councillors and faith leaders. Pupils recognise the importance of caring for one another. They play an integral role in making the school a happy place to be.

What the school should improve

• On occasion, staff do not consistently identify and rectify the gaps and misconceptions in some pupils' knowledge. This means that these pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. The school should support staff in identifying and addressing gaps in pupils' learning to ensure new learning builds on what pupils know and can do.
• In a few subjects, the curriculum is not fully clear or carefully sequenced. This means pupils do not learn the curriculum's essential concepts successfully. The school needs to ensure important curriculum concepts are well sequenced and sufficiently clear so that teachers can implement the intended curriculum successfully.
• In some of the curriculum areas in the early years, the key information that children should know is unclear and does not reflect their starting points. This makes it difficult for staff to understand which key concepts to introduce, explain and check that children remember so they can move children's learning on. The school should identify with greater clarity the foundational knowledge that staff in the early years will teach and assess.

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