St Hedda's Catholic Primary School, a Catholic Voluntary Academy

Overview

This is the first routine inspection of St Hedda’s Catholic Primary School under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The report describes a ‘happy and welcoming rural school’ where ‘pupils thrive’ and achieve highly across the curriculum. All four key judgement areas—quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management—are rated as ‘Outstanding’.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate ‘exceptional’ behaviour, showing ‘kindness and respect’ and embodying the school’s values of ‘excellence, self-belief and knowledge’.
• The curriculum is ‘highly ambitious’ and ‘implemented consistently well’, enabling pupils to ‘achieve highly in all subjects’ with ‘consistently high quality’ work.
• Reading is prioritised effectively; phonics is ‘taught very well’, and staff use checks ‘adeptly’ to support those falling behind, fostering a ‘love of reading’.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are ‘quickly identified’ and receive ‘extra help’ with ‘insightful guidance’ for staff, supporting ‘strong progress’.
• Leaders provide a ‘rich and rewarding range of experiences’, including outdoor learning and cultural visits, which broaden pupils’ understanding of the world.

Areas to improve

• The report identifies no significant areas for improvement.

Safeguarding

The report states that ‘the arrangements for safeguarding are effective’.