Barlaston CofE (VC) First School

Overview

This small, friendly primary school provides a happy and safe environment where pupils flourish due to high expectations and strong staff support. The report highlights a clear vision for pupils to ‘let their light shine’, with an ambitious curriculum that is mostly taught well and effective support for vulnerable learners. Parents are largely satisfied, with nearly all recommending the school to others.

Strengths

• Early reading is taught expertly using a new, well-established approach, ensuring pupils who fall behind catch up rapidly.
• Pupils behave well, are confident and articulate, and treat each other well, reflecting values of ‘family, friendship and faith’.
• Staff possess thorough subject knowledge in mathematics, helping pupils explain their reasoning confidently and make good progress.
• A rich variety of experiences, including worship assemblies, community activities, and clubs, promotes pupils’ wider personal development.
• Attendance is higher than the national average, supported by close work with parents of pupils with irregular attendance.

Areas to improve

• Older pupils make too many punctuation, grammar, spelling, and handwriting mistakes in foundation subjects because they do not receive enough guidance or reminders on accurate writing.
• Subject leaders lack a firm view on how to improve foundation subjects because they have not yet checked how well these subjects are being taught.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.