St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 December 2024

Pupils enjoy attending school. Alongside staff, they create a friendly and welcoming environment. The school has recently reviewed its behaviour policy to clarify expectations of pupils' behaviour. Pupils understand and respond well to these. They know that staff will help them if they struggle to meet the school's expectations. The school does this effectively. Pupils understand the importance of respecting one another. This is reflected in their interactions. The school provides pupils with a range of opportunities to enhance their personal development. Some pupils hold positions of responsibility, such as play leaders, in the school. They enjoy the opportunity that this gives them to contribute to the wider school community. The school also works to broaden pupils' horizons. This includes exposing pupils to experiences that they may not otherwise have. One recent example of this included pupils watching a performance from a travelling theatre company. The school is aspirational for pupils. The majority of pupils achieve well. This is reflected in the outcomes that they achieve in national assessments. During a period of instability, some improvements have taken longer than intended to be fully realised. The trust has supported the school effectively to minimise any disruption to pupils' education during this time.

What the school should improve

• Some pupils require additional support to become fluent in writing transcription skills. These pupils are less able to express their views and ideas in the written form. The school should ensure that pupils who need it receive effective support to improve their transcription so that they are better prepared for future learning.
• Sometimes, the activities that teachers ask pupils to complete do not support pupils to learn important knowledge as well as they could. When this happens, pupils' learning of this most important content slows. The school should ensure that teachers select and use activities to strengthen pupils' understanding of the intended curriculum consistently well.
• Some of the school's systems have not supported leaders, including governors and trustees, to scrutinise the impact of its actions consistently well. This limits the school's ability to make informed decisions about further improvements to pupils' education. The school should embed recent changes to improve the ability of leaders at all levels to evaluate the effectiveness of the school's actions.

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