Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Roehampton

Overview

The inspection describes a school where leaders have created a “nurturing school community” and staff care deeply about pupils’ well-being. Pupils “behave exceptionally well” and feel safe, contributing to an environment where they “love coming to school.” The report highlights strong relationships between staff, pupils, and families, alongside high expectations for learning and personal development.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate “exceptional” behaviour, treating others with “respect and understanding” and acting as a community responsible for each other.
• Leaders foster a “love of reading” through effective phonics teaching, ensuring pupils who fall behind receive additional support to catch up.
• Staff are trained to recognise special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), adapting teaching effectively so these pupils can “learn the curriculum well.”
• The curriculum is carefully sequenced, with teachers providing opportunities for pupils to “recall prior knowledge” and checks on learning.
• Pupils enjoy a wide range of wider curriculum opportunities, including educational visits, clubs, and “Go for It” sessions.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must ensure teaching “routinely checks pupils’ understanding” and addresses gaps, as occasionally pupils do not learn as well as they could when teaching does not pick up on uncertainty.
• Leaders need to ensure record-keeping is “comprehensive and well organised” so that records clearly show how concerns and issues have been resolved.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective,” noting that staff raise concerns rapidly and refer issues in a timely manner, although record-keeping is not always comprehensive.