St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Stockton

Overview: St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Stockton, is a good school that provides a welcoming and safe environment for its pupils. The school has high expectations for its pupils and provides a wide range of opportunities for them to learn and develop. Pupils show mutual kindness, genuine care and respect for each other, and the school has a strong sense of fairness and equality.

Strengths:

• The school has designed an ambitious curriculum for all, which prepares children for the next stage in their learning journey.
• The curriculum prioritises reading and has high expectations, with a phonics programme that starts in the early years and is taught with consistency.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) access the same curriculum as their peers wherever possible, with support, adaptations and resources to help them learn alongside their peers.
• The school provides a range of opportunities for pupils beyond the curriculum, including clubs, charity work and community service.
• Pupils understand about equality and that it is important that everyone has the same rights as each other, and they celebrate learning about different religions and cultures.

Areas to improve:

• In some foundation subjects, the curriculum is not routinely taught in a sequence that enables pupils to build deep knowledge.
• The school should work with teachers to improve the teaching of the curriculum in foundation subjects.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.