Cardenden Primary School

Overview

This follow-up inspection confirms that Cardenden Primary School has made “significant progress” since the original inspection, particularly in leadership and culture. The report highlights that senior leaders have established “effective approaches to evaluating the quality of the school’s work” and created a “calm respectful ethos” where children feel valued. While improvements are evident in learning, teaching, and wellbeing, the report notes that further work is required to ensure consistent assessment practices and raise attainment in literacy and numeracy.

Strengths

• Senior leaders are described as “strong leaders” who model “very high standards” and demonstrate “kindness and compassion for all.”
• The school has established “effective systematic approaches to self-evaluation” which are “very well documented” and show measurable impact.
• Children benefit from “positive, nurturing and supportive relationships,” with behaviour-related incidents significantly reduced.
• Learning environments have been reviewed to ensure playrooms and classrooms are “attractive and welcoming,” supporting children’s motivation.
• Approaches to meeting the needs of children requiring additional support have “significantly improved,” with children making “much better progress.”

Areas to improve

• Staff must continue to develop approaches to gathering data on children’s progress to accurately indicate attainment over time.
• A more consistent whole-school approach is needed to improve children’s progress in reading and writing, as attainment remains below national expectations.
• Senior leaders should ensure rigour in using data to inform interventions and support raised attainment in literacy and numeracy.

Safeguarding

The report states that children benefit from “positive, nurturing and supportive relationships” and that staff use “nurturing approaches universally with consistency and understanding” to support wellbeing.