St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Overview: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School provides a good education for its pupils, with a strong sense of community and a focus on inclusion and achievement. Pupils are proud to attend the school and enjoy their learning, with a wide range of activities and opportunities to participate, compete and perform. The school is aspirational for all pupils, with a well-designed and ambitious curriculum.

Strengths:

• The school places families at the heart of all it does, with a strong sense of community and a focus on building positive relationships with parents and carers.
• Pupils are proud to attend the school and enjoy their learning, with a wide range of activities and opportunities to participate, compete and perform.
• The school provides a well-designed and ambitious curriculum, with teachers having secure subject knowledge and explaining concepts clearly.
• The school has developed its own strategies to help pupils remember more of the curriculum over time, such as 'use it or lose it' sessions.
• Pupils with SEND are supported by staff who know them well, with information about pupils' specific needs being used to adapt learning in lessons effectively.

Areas to improve:

• Teachers do not consistently check pupils' understanding in mathematics and English lessons, leading to a lack of attention from some pupils and gaps in their learning.
• In some sessions, checks on what pupils know and remember lack consistency, particularly in reading.
• The school relies heavily on a later range of additional catch-up sessions to support pupils to catch up successfully.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.