St Mary's Catholic School, Penzance

Overview: St Mary's Catholic School, Penzance has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection, with pupils feeling safe and valued, and high expectations of their achievement.

Strengths:

• Pupils know the school rules of 'be ready, respectful and safe' well, and these thread through their actions and learning.
• Staff build warm and supportive relationships with pupils, and the kindness and friendships that develop in the early years continue throughout the school.
• The school has high expectations of pupils' achievement, including those with SEND, and attitudes to learning are positive.
• Pupils make rapid gains, often from very low starting points, and by the end of Year 6, pupils achieve well.
• The school is proud of the high-quality personal development offer, which includes learning about online safety, healthy relationships, and respecting cultures and religions.

Areas to improve:

• The key knowledge the school wants pupils to learn in some wider curriculum subjects is not precisely identified, resulting in some pupils having gaps in what they know and remember.
• In a few subjects, checks that staff make on pupils' learning do not identify whether pupils have learned the curriculum as intended, resulting in some pupils continuing in their learning with gaps in their knowledge.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.