St Cuthbert's Catholic Primary School, Sunderland

Overview: St Cuthbert's Catholic Primary School provides a caring and welcoming environment where pupils feel safe and valued. Pupils are proud to attend the school and are keen to interact with each other and visitors. The school's unique approach to character development and its sequenced residential visits help pupils develop important skills and qualities.

Strengths:

• Pupils quickly learn to read from an early age, with expert staff ensuring that phonics lessons benefit all pupils.
• The school has a well-sequenced curriculum that helps pupils gradually build their knowledge over time.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from effective support, with the school working with pupils and their families to meet their needs.
• The school's approach to trips gives pupils lasting memories and helps them develop a range of important skills and qualities.

Areas to improve:

• The school should continue its work to embed effective assessment practice, so that it has an accurate view of what pupils have learned.
• Some activities in early years are not linked clearly enough to the key knowledge that children should learn, which means that children's consolidation of their foundational knowledge is not as effective as it could be.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.