St Anne's Catholic Primary School

Overview

This ungraded inspection confirms that St Anne’s Catholic Primary School has “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.” The report describes a welcoming environment where pupils are “cared for and loved” and feel safe, with strong relationships and high expectations driving good achievement. While the school remains effective overall, the inspector identified specific areas where curriculum design and monitoring require refinement to ensure consistent high standards across all subjects.

Strengths

• Pupils are “warmly met by friendly staff,” feel safe, and demonstrate “exceptional manners” and kindness.
• The curriculum is “ambitious for all pupils,” with effective support ensuring those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) achieve well.
• Reading is taught effectively from Reception, with pupils becoming “confident readers” and enjoying a wide range of books.
• Staff receive effective training and feel appreciated, while governors hold leaders to account with a “sharp focus on staff’s workload and well-being.”
• Pupils are well-prepared for life in modern Britain, learning about health, online safety, and tolerance through a “very well-considered, wider curriculum offer.”

Areas to improve

• The school must provide “regular opportunities to master the skills they need to write with fluency and accuracy,” as current writing provision is less effective than other areas.
• Leaders should “further refine its curriculum so it clearly identifies the knowledge it expects pupils to learn” in subjects where expectations are not yet clear enough.
• The school needs to improve how it monitors curriculum delivery, as leaders’ and governors’ insight into implementation is “not as effective as it could be.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”