St John Catholic Primary School

Overview

This ungraded inspection confirms that St John’s Catholic Primary School has “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.” The school operates within a “close-knit community” where pupils thrive, demonstrating high aspirations and strong relationships with staff and peers. Despite significant challenges, including the demolition of its original building and subsequent relocation to temporary accommodation, leaders have successfully maintained educational quality and staff morale.

Strengths

• Pupils are “polite,” “well behaved,” and “learn free from distractions,” showing they “live up to the school’s well-embedded values.”
• The curriculum is “well-designed and typically well-taught,” with teachers providing “effective support” so pupils “do not fall behind.”
• Staff “skilfully adapt their teaching” for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), ensuring they “learn the curriculum well.”
• Reading provision is strong; after previous below-average phonics results, “effective measures” ensure most pupils “read fluently” by the end of key stage 1.
• Governors and trustees “hold leaders to account” using “precise and accurate information,” while staff feel “well supported” with a “reasonable workload.”

Areas to improve

• Teachers must receive training to ensure they consistently deliver “the most effective learning activities,” as some current activities fail to help pupils “thoroughly understand or remember” content.
• Subject leadership requires improvement; training is needed to ensure “all subjects continue to improve” and pupils consistently learn key content across all areas.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”