Sacred Heart Primary School

Overview: Sacred Heart Primary School is a good school where pupils are at the heart of the community. Leaders and staff put pupils first, and the decisions they take and the learning activities they plan are in the best interests of the pupils. Pupils are happy, enthusiastic, and polite, and they develop resilience and resourcefulness.

Strengths:

• The school has a strong leadership team that shares a clear vision for improvement.
• The revised curriculum is broad and engaging, and staff know what to teach and when to teach it.
• Reading is a strength of the school, with pupils reading confidently and fluently, and teachers carefully considering the books they read to pupils.
• The school promotes early communication and language well from the start of school, and adults model for pupils and help them learn the words they need to express themselves clearly.
• The school has effective safeguarding arrangements, with staff committed to keeping pupils safe and leaders checking staff are safe to work with pupils.

Areas to improve:

• While the curriculum is well planned and sequenced, its implementation in a few subject areas is not consistently strong across the school, partly due to the pandemic and teachers' subject knowledge.
• Some staff do not always consider how best to teach each subject so that all pupils, including those with SEND, can access the learning easily.
• The newly implemented behaviour policy is not yet consistently applied fully in all lessons and situations.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with staff deeply committed to keeping pupils safe and leaders checking staff are safe to work with pupils.