Lift St Helen's

Overview: St Helen's Primary Academy is a highly inclusive school with a friendly and happy atmosphere, where pupils are proud to be part of the community. The school has established a set of values that inspire staff to provide the best possible education for pupils, and leaders have implemented a curriculum that helps pupils to secure a deep knowledge of subjects.

Strengths:

• Pupils are inspired to live out the school's values through their conduct and attitudes towards learning.
• The school's work to broaden pupils' vocabulary is exemplary, having a very positive impact on pupils' confidence to read.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) learn the same ambitious curriculum as their peers, and leaders have made sure that all teachers successfully adapt learning to meet a wide range of needs.
• The school makes sure that pupils have a range of activities to help develop their talents and interests, such as badminton sessions and yoga.
• The trust provides highly effective support and professional development for staff, and the workload and well-being of all staff are priorities.

Areas to improve:

• Pupils have some gaps in their knowledge from previous years across a number of subjects, which means that pupils lack some of the prior knowledge that they need in order to build new learning.
• In early years, some activities that children are given to do are not focused closely enough on the knowledge, skills and behaviours that they need to learn, which means that sometimes, pupils are completing tasks that do not sufficiently deepen their learning.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.