St Michael's Primary School and Nursery, Colchester

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 14 January 2025

Pupils consistently display the school values of 'include, achieve, inspire' in their behaviour and attitudes. They say that everyone is kind at the school. Pupils are safe. They enjoy their lessons and their time at school. They remember their learning and achieve well in most subjects. Pupils particularly enjoy visits that show how their learning relates to the outside world. These include visiting a theme park, science and war museums, zoos and conservation areas. Pupils have extensive opportunities to develop their talents and interests. These include playing various musical instruments, singing publicly in the choir and participating in public speaking events. Pupils fulfil active roles in school productions. These include choreographing younger children and staging a talent contest. The wide range of clubs are very well attended by pupils, including disadvantaged pupils. These clubs include sports, music, young carers and military troopers. Pupils, including children in the early years, are proud to undertake active and meaningful roles within the school learning council and the 'anti bullying league'. Many pupils relish the opportunity to work in collaboration with pupils from other schools. These opportunities help to prepare them to be responsible future citizens and develop their self-confidence.

What the school should improve

• Across the wider curriculum, pupils do not consistently receive the support that they need to resolve weaknesses in their spelling, punctuation and use of grammar. As a result, the quality of pupils' written work across the curriculum does not always reflect how well they are learning. The school should ensure that expectations of pupils' written work are consistently high across all subjects and throughout the school. This will enable pupils to develop the necessary skills and confidence to prepare them well for their next steps.
• In a few subjects, the school's approach to checking what pupils have learned is not yet consistent. This means that pupils do not always consolidate or make links within their learning. The school should ensure that the strategies used to check pupils' understanding enable future learning to build effectively on their prior knowledge.

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