St Anne's Church Primary School

Overview

St Anne’s Church Academy is described as a “happy and welcoming school” where the ethos of “learning without limits” permeates all activities. The report confirms that the school “continues to be a good school,” highlighting strong leadership, high staff expectations, and a supportive environment where pupils behave exceptionally well and feel safe.

Strengths

• Pupils are “polite and respectful” and “behave exceptionally well,” creating a “buzz of purposeful activity.”
• Staff “care deeply about pupils” and form “friendly and supportive relationships,” ensuring children feel safe and know there is “always someone to turn to.”
• The curriculum is “rich” and “broad,” with teachers using assessment effectively to plan “well-sequenced lessons” in most subjects.
• Children in the nursery “get off to a flying start” and are “well prepared for the start of Reception.”
• Leaders “inspire pupils to develop a love of reading,” with children enjoying a “wide selection of high-quality books.”

Areas to improve

• Leaders must “implement and embed the new phonics programme” to ensure reading books match learning, as the current mixed approach limits pupils’ ability to “practise, develop and consolidate their reading skills.”
• Leaders must develop “well-planned sequences of lessons” in a small number of subjects where they have not yet precisely identified learning outcomes, to prevent “gaps in their knowledge.”

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with a “strong safeguarding culture” where staff understand their responsibilities and leaders work closely with agencies to support vulnerable pupils.