St Philip's Church of England Controlled Primary School

Overview: St Philip's Church of England Controlled Primary School has been judged to be 'Exceptional', with leaders and staff working above the standard expected of them. The school has made significant improvements in attendance, behaviour, and teaching, but still needs to address gaps in pupils' English and mathematics knowledge.

Strengths:

• Leaders are taking effective action to reduce pupils' absence rates and address barriers to regular attendance.
• Staff and pupils demonstrate a shared understanding of strategies to support and respond to pupils' behaviour.
• Pupils are typically polite and well-mannered, with incidents of bullying being rare.
• Leaders have ensured that subject curriculums are designed to help pupils build knowledge logically over time.
• Staff are provided with the support they need to teach confidently, and the curriculum is typically taught effectively.

Areas to improve:

• Leaders should continue to focus on ensuring that gaps in pupils' English and mathematics knowledge are swiftly addressed.
• Leaders should ensure that they support staff, including those in the early years, to further develop their use of checks on pupils' learning within and beyond lessons.
• Leaders should continue to take action to further reduce levels of absence for pupils, particularly for those pupils who are persistently absent.

Safeguarding: The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfilling their specific responsibilities and having established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed.