St Mary's Primary School

Overview

St Mary’s Primary School is described as a co-educational maintained primary school with a “welcoming school community” and high levels of parental satisfaction. The inspection found that the school “demonstrates the capacity to identify and bring about improvement in the interest of all the learners,” with particular strengths in literacy outcomes and staff collaboration.

Strengths

• Children are “enthusiastic, inquisitive learners” with “exemplary” behaviour who articulate views “clearly and confidently.”
• The “coordination of literacy is highly effective,” supported by robust action planning and performance data analysis.
• The leadership team fosters a “collaborative, open ethos” with “very good working relationships at all levels.”
• Teachers plan collaboratively, ensuring “progression and continuity in the children’s learning” with a clear focus on knowledge and skills.
• Parents highlighted the “high quality of care provided by the dedicated, approachable staff.”

Areas to improve

• Integrate “more consistently the use of ICT in the teachers’ planning and practice to extend the children’s digital skills.”
• “Review and update the individual education plans,” as some contain too many targets and children are not sufficiently involved in progress reviews.
• Provide “more opportunities for the children to make decisions about their own learning, particularly at key stage (KS) 2.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “arrangements for safeguarding children reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education,” though leadership needs to “monitor more systematically the arrangements for safeguarding.”