Bathwick St Mary Church School

Overview:

Bathwick St Mary Church School is a good school where pupils and staff are proud of their school, and parents are overwhelmingly positive about it. Pupils enjoy coming to school, behave well, and are enthusiastic about learning different subjects. The school has improved significantly since its predecessor school was last inspected.

Strengths:

• Pupils and staff are proud of their school, and parents are overwhelmingly positive about it.
• Pupils behave well around the school, and bullying is rare.
• Pupils are enthusiastic about learning different subjects, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and pupils who speak English as an additional language learn well here.
• Leaders have driven improvement at the school with great determination, and the curriculum has improved significantly.
• The school provides many opportunities to enhance pupils' personal development, and pupils have a secure understanding of British values.

Areas to improve:

• The essential knowledge that pupils need to learn is not clearly identified or well-structured in some areas of the curriculum, which means that in some subjects, teachers do not know the precise content to teach or how best to teach it.
• Teaching does not always check effectively on what pupils know and can do, which means pupils' difficulties or their misconceptions are not always identified quickly or addressed swiftly.

Safeguarding:

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders ensure that all staff have up-to-date safeguarding training, staff know what to do should they have a concern about a pupil, and leaders respond quickly when staff raise concerns about pupils.