St Marys CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 December 2024

Children and pupils thrive in this caring and inclusive school. They have complete confidence that all staff have their best interests at heart. Consequently, pupils enjoy school life immensely. High expectations of behaviour start in the nursery, where children are quickly helped to understand sharing, turn-taking and considering others. All pupils are actively taught how to behave well. The six school values are modelled by every member of staff daily, and pupils understand how these help them to do what is right. Kindness to each other is the norm. Pupils achieve well because the school sets high standards and ensures that every pupil is supported to do their best. Pupils enjoy their learning. They speak with enthusiasm of what they can do and what they will be learning about next. The school has made pupils' personal development a priority. Pupils value the many clubs, visits and visitors they have. The recently introduced Enrichment Fridays are very popular. Pupils can select from a carefully designed range of opportunities to develop their cultural understanding, gain life skills and access new interests. As a result, pupils are excited about their experiences, and they look forward to the next opportunity to find out more about the world around them.

What the school should improve

• Until recently, the school has not focused enough on ensuring that pupils can record their learning clearly and legibly. This means that important information they have recorded as part of their learning is sometimes inaccessible. The school should make sure that the work started to address this is continued, and accelerated where necessary, particularly for older pupils.
• Occasionally, work set does not match well enough to the stage at which pupils should be learning. This means that sometimes pupils do not make as much progress as they could. The school should check that pupils are always set work at an appropriate level.
• Sometimes, assessment does not consider whether pupils are building the right skills to support their learning. In these cases, pupils do not always understand what they need to do to deepen their knowledge and develop subject expertise. The school should make sure that, over time, assessments check how well pupils have understood the disciplinary aspects of learning as well as factual recall. 17and 18 December 2024 3

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