St Leonard's Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 November 2024

Pupils at St Leonard's are confident and happy. The school's core values of being responsible, reflective, respectful, caring, confident, and resilient citizens are promoted well and so have a positive impact on pupils. Pupils feel safe in school. The school is aspirational for all pupils. Recent changes to the curriculum mean expectations for pupils' learning are rising. However, more work needs to be undertaken to improve parts of the curriculum. This means pupils sometimes do not learn as much in some subjects as they do in others. Pupils show respect for one another; they behave well. Bullying is not tolerated. The school provides an extensive range of experiences for pupils to develop their talents and interests. Pupils take on leadership roles and contribute to the wider school community. Well-being champions lead assemblies, and older pupils support younger children with games on the playground. The school's 'rights respecting' philosophy is an effective part of the school's work in developing pupils' character, understanding of other cultures and individual liberty. Events such as careers week encourage all pupils to aim high. Pupils get to meet people from different walks of life and jobs, including those in medicine, legal, marketing and museum curating. By the time pupils leave St Leonards, they are confident, articulate citizens who take their responsibilities seriously.

What the school should improve

• Aspects of the curriculum have been recently developed to raise ambition, including in mathematics and the foundation subjects. However, there is variation in how well these subjects are being taught. The school should ensure that staff are trained and supported to implement the revised curriculum effectively so that pupils learn more and remember more across all subjects.
• The school does not check consistently well what pupils know and remember. This means that gaps and misconceptions are not addressed quickly enough, and some pupils move on to work that is too complex before they are ready. The school must ensure that checks on pupils' knowledge and understanding enable gaps to be identified and addressed speedily.
• The school's communication with parents is not consistently timely. This means that some parents do not feel well informed about their child's learning, progress and wider school matters. The school should improve their communication with parents so that parents and carers are well informed and can engage well with life in school.

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