St Edmund's Catholic School

Overview: St Edmund's Catholic School continues to be a good school, with a caring ethos and high expectations for pupils. Pupils feel happy and safe, and staff welcome them warmly each morning. The school's Christian values permeate through all aspects of school life.

Strengths:

• Pupils treat others with kindness and respect, and help staff and each other.
• Staff have high expectations for what pupils should achieve, including those with SEND.
• The reading curriculum is carefully planned, and staff are skilled at teaching phonics.
• The mathematics curriculum is carefully planned and sequenced, and clearly identifies what knowledge pupils should learn and when.
• Leaders work closely with parents, carers and other professionals to quickly identify any pupils with SEND.

Areas to improve:

• Leaders’ revised curriculums are in the early stages of implementation, and in some subjects, the curriculum is not being delivered consistently and effectively by staff.
• In the subjects that have recently undergone some refinements, assessment strategies are less well developed, making it harder for teachers to accurately pinpoint how successfully pupils have understood and retained important knowledge and skills over time.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with leaders ensuring that safeguarding is a top priority in the school. All staff receive regular safeguarding training, and they are alert to the signs of harm or neglect that a pupil may face.