St Monica Primary School

Overview

The report describes a school where pupils are “safe and happy,” demonstrating a “strong sense of pride” and positive behaviour. Leaders and staff are “dedicated,” with the school having “improved rapidly” since becoming an academy. While current achievement in core subjects is improving, the report notes that published outcomes have not yet met the school’s high aspirations.

Strengths

• Pupils exhibit “positive” behaviour, sharing and taking turns happily, with staff applying the behaviour policy “fairly and consistently.”
• The curriculum is “highly ambitious,” with lessons “sequenced logically” to help pupils build knowledge, particularly in English and mathematics.
• Reading is “prioritised,” with staff delivering phonics “systematically” and providing “robust support” for those falling behind.
• Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is adapted “expertly,” with needs identified quickly.
• Parents are “overwhelmingly supportive,” noting that the school has “gone from strength to strength.”

Areas to improve

• Staff must check pupil understanding more consistently in “wider curriculum subjects” such as music and geography to address gaps in learning.
• Phonics books for early readers must be “matched closely to the sounds that they have learned” to remove barriers to fluency.

Safeguarding

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