St Malachy's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 1 July 2025

St Malachy's is an inclusive and caring school. Pupils are welcomed by staff who prioritise pupils' safety and well-being. As a result, pupils know how much adults care about them. The school provides a safe haven, where pupils are happy and they grow in confidence. One pupil, typical of many, said that 'school helps us to be the best version of ourselves'. Positive relationships between staff and pupils ensure that classrooms are calm and productive places. Over time, incidents of poor behaviour have reduced significantly. Pupils recognise that behaviour is much better. Staff take time to talk with children about their worries. Bullying is rare. Pupils say that it is dealt with swiftly, when it happens. The 'regulation stations' in school, for example, provide spaces where pupils can calm down and reflect on their emotions. The changes that the school has made to the curriculum have raised ambition and expectations for what pupils will achieve. However, the positive curriculum changes have not had enough time for their impact to be realised in pupils' published outcomes. This means that too many pupils move on to secondary school without the skills and knowledge that they need to be successful.

What the school should improve

• At times, teaching adaptations to the curriculum affect the order in which pupils learn subject content. When this happens, pupils' learning is not moved on and pupils complete tasks that they can already do. The school should ensure that when staff make changes to the sequence of learning, these changes meet the needs of pupils consistently.
• In some subjects, the checks that the school makes on pupils' learning are not used to plan what pupils will learn next. This means that some pupils move through the curriculum with ongoing misconceptions and gaps in their understanding. The school should ensure that staff are equipped to use assessment strategies well, so that gaps in pupils' learning are addressed before they move on.
• The school's strategies to improve attendance for disadvantaged pupils are not yet having the impact that leaders want. As a result, persistent absence remains too high and pupils miss out on important learning. This is reflected in pupils' published outcomes. The school must re-focus and continue their tenacious approaches to attendance to reduce persistent absence further for these pupils.

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