St Margaret's CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 14 June 2022

Pupils at St Margaret's Church of England Primary School are happy and exceptionally well behaved. They live and breathe the school's values that help them to understand what thankfulness and forgiveness really mean. The Christian ethos of the school underpins all aspects of school life. Community links with the church provide rich opportunities for pupils to engage in charitable work, developing empathy and kindness. Leaders aim for all pupils to value, respect and care for others, and they do. Everyone is welcome in this inclusive school. Pupils develop very positive attitudes to learning. This is because they rise to leaders' high expectations of what all pupils can achieve. Staff are caring and supportive. Pupils enjoy the strong, positive relationships they form with teachers and other adults. Pupils know that bullying and the use of derogatory language are not tolerated. As a result of feeling happy, safe and well supported, pupils achieve well. From the start of early years, children settle in well. They are eager to get into school in the morning. Parents and carers are very happy with the way the school supports their children. If any issues occur, most parents say that staff sort things out quickly.

What the school should improve

• Teachers' use of assessment is variable in its effectiveness. As a result, some pupils make stronger progress than others because they receive helpful, timely feedback on their work. Leaders should ensure that teachers develop their use of assessment in lessons further to give all pupils more immediate, constructive feedback on their learning.
• Staff in early years do not support children's learning consistently well. This leads to some pupils making slower progress, particularly in writing and speech and language development. Leaders should take steps to improve the quality of provision in early years further by:  providing further training and development for staff to strengthen support for children's learning, particularly in relation to writing and speech and language  ensuring that planned activities are closely related to the learning objectives and that children are guided more deliberately towards the activities that will best support their learning needs.

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