St Mark's CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 15 October 2024

This is a school that is full of smiles. Staff want pupils to achieve their best. Pupils thrive personally and socially. However, despite recent improvements, pupils do not learn as well as they should across the curriculum and in national assessments. The school is rooted in its community. It serves an extremely diverse area. Many families speak English as an additional language. A significant number of families have recently arrived in the country and are new to speaking English. Many pupils move in and out of the school over time and this has an impact on their learning. Staff are deeply committed to ensuring that pupils and families settle into school life. Pupils said that 'everyone is welcome here'. Pupils behave well in and around school. Relationships are strong and pupils get along with each other well. There is little or no disruption in lessons. Pupils are keen to learn and spoke positively about behaviour across school. Pupils have a deep understanding of the school's values. Responsibility, equality, spirituality, perseverance, enthusiasm, commitment and trust are central to all that the school does. Pupils explain how these values impact on their actions in and out of school. They understand how they help to make them good citizens.

What the school should improve

• Some staff are not as adept as they should be in delivering the curriculum. This impacts on pupils' learning. The school should provide support and training to enable staff to deliver the curriculum well and pupils to learn well.
• Staff do not check how well pupils are learning in lessons and over time. This means that pupils' learning is slowed and gaps in learning are not addressed. The school should make sure that teachers assess how well pupils are learning.
• The evaluation and monitoring of some subjects is not as effective as it should be. Subject leaders do not have an effective overview of how well pupils are achieving or where there are gaps in teachers' and pupils' subject knowledge. The school should support subject leaders to fulfil their roles so they can fully monitor and bring about improvements in the quality of education in their subject.
• In some subjects, what children should learn in the early years has not been fully considered. As a result, there is a lack of clarity about how pupils build on their previous learning as they move into key stage 1. The school should ensure that all subject curriculum thinking fully considers what children should learn in the early years.

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