St Luke's Church of England Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 4 June 2024

Pupils are receiving a rapidly improving education at the school. The trust has acted decisively to tackle weaknesses and stem the recent decline in pupils' outcomes. This has, understandably, resulted in some instability in staffing. Therefore, the trust has added capacity through specialist support. The incoming headteacher is already part of a detailed handover. The school has significantly raised its expectations for pupils. This is having a positive impact on pupils' attitudes to learning. The more challenging curriculum means pupils learn at a faster rate. They show increasing resilience and effort with their work. The school has taken effective action to address expectations for behaviour. The behaviour system is relatively new. It has already had a positive impact on behaviour that disrupts learning. However, this is not yet shown in pupils' general respect towards one another. Low-level incidents of unkindness or lack of respect still affect too many pupils. Pupils benefit from a range of clubs and curriculum enrichment activities which develop their interests and talents. Older pupils enjoy taking on additional responsibilities. There is a buddy system across the school. This helps younger pupils settle quickly when they join the junior site.

What the school should improve

• Staff do not have the subject and teaching knowledge they need in some subjects. This means they lack the expertise needed to teach the curriculum consistently well and support pupils sufficiently. The school must ensure staff have the professional development they need to support all pupils to follow an ambitious and clearly sequenced curriculum.
• Subject leadership in the wider curriculum is not well developed. As a result, the school is not able to use accurate evaluation to drive improvements in these subjects. The school must ensure that subject leadership is trained to provide support and challenge in the implementation of the curriculum. This is so pupils achieve consistently well across subjects and across year groups.
• Staff do not adapt teaching to meet pupils' needs sufficiently well. This can impede pupils' learning, especially pupils with SEND. The school must ensure that all staff adapt teaching well to meet the needs of pupils, including pupils with SEND.
• Pupils do not always show respect or kindness to their peers. Too many pupils feel that others are unkind to them. The school should ensure its vision and values positively impact pupils' words and actions so that there is a culture of respect in the school.

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