Rawtenstall Newchurch Church of England Primary School

Overview: The school is ambitious for pupils to achieve well and leave well prepared for the next stage of their education. However, it requires improvement in the quality of education due to gaps in pupils' knowledge across a range of subjects.

Strengths:

• Relationships between staff and pupils are warm and nurturing.
• Pupils celebrate and respect each other's uniqueness.
• The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour and conduct.
• The new behaviour policy has made a positive impact on pupils' behaviour.
• The school prioritises pupils' attendance and works well to support families to overcome any barriers to regular attendance.
• The school's personal, social, health and economic education curriculum is effective and enriches pupils' wider development.

Areas to improve:

• In some areas of learning in the early years, the key information that children should know and the order that they should learn this is not clear.
• The curriculums across many subjects are new and not fully embedded, resulting in pupils having key gaps in their knowledge.
• The school's systems for checking the impact of the new curriculum are in their infancy, hindering how well the school is able to identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.