St Mary's Catholic Primary Academy

Overview

This ungraded inspection confirms that St Mary’s Catholic Primary Academy has “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.” The school is described as being “at the heart of its community,” with “very strong” relationships between staff, pupils, and parents. Leaders have successfully upheld the high expectations and quality of education established in earlier assessments.

Strengths

• Pupils are “polite, respectful and friendly,” contributing to a “calm and orderly environment” where bullying is “very rare.”
• The “aspirational curriculum” is well-designed, with staff delivering subjects “confidently and with enthusiasm.”
• Reading is “at the centre of the school’s work,” with staff acting as “enthusiastic role models” who promote a love of books.
• Phonics is taught “consistently well,” and pupils who need support receive “prompt help” to catch up quickly.
• Attendance is improving due to a “thorough and systematic procedure” to support families and challenge irregular attendance.

Areas to improve

• The school should “check pupils’ understanding equally well across all subjects” to prevent gaps in learning in foundation subjects.
• Leaders must “intensify its work to further improve the quality of pupils’ mathematics education” to ensure all pupils secure learning before moving to new topics.

Safeguarding

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