Our Lady of Victories Catholic School

Overview

Our Lady of Victories Catholic School is judged as ‘Good’ across all inspection categories, marking significant improvement from its previous ‘Inadequate’ rating. Leaders have taken “swift and effective action” to address prior weaknesses, particularly in safeguarding, while maintaining high expectations for pupil achievement and personal development.

Strengths

• Safeguarding arrangements are now “effective,” with thorough recruitment processes and up-to-date staff training.
• The curriculum in core subjects like mathematics and history is “coherently sequenced,” helping pupils build knowledge over time.
• Pupils demonstrate “positive attitudes to learning” and behave well, with bullying and discrimination not tolerated.
• Early years provision is strong, with adults focusing heavily on developing children’s “early language and communication skills.”
• There is a “very broad extra-curricular offer,” including the ‘I collect’ approach providing memorable experiences such as travel to other cities.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must ensure support plan targets for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are “specific, measurable and time-bound” to provide precise support.
• Leaders need to consistently check the quality of practice across the school to resolve inconsistencies in reading instruction and behaviour policy application.

Safeguarding

The report states that “arrangements for safeguarding are effective,” noting that leaders have acted quickly to improve policies and that staff are alert to signs of abuse.