St Chad's Catholic Primary School, Witton Park

Overview

St Chad’s Catholic Primary School is described as a “calm, happy and welcoming learning community” where “warm relationships exist between pupils and staff.” Leaders have designed a “broad and ambitious curriculum” with a strong focus on reading, resulting in high-quality phonics teaching and consistent support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Strengths

• The school fosters an inclusive environment where pupils are “polite and respectful” and bullying is “rare.”
• Phonics teaching is “consistent and high quality,” with staff well-trained and books accurately matched to pupils’ abilities.
• Staff “quickly identify and support pupils with SEND,” implementing expert advice “consistently well.”
• Pupils develop confidence through active citizenship, such as community litter picks and faith councils.
• Leaders are “knowledgeable and caring,” creating a “collegiate atmosphere” with good home-school communication.

Areas to improve

• Learning activities in some subjects, particularly in mixed-age classes, do not always closely match the planned curriculum, limiting how well pupils “deepen their subject knowledge.”
• The attendance of some pupils remains low, meaning they “miss important learning.”
• Fundamental British values are not taught explicitly enough, leaving some pupils with a limited understanding of them.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.