St Richard's Catholic Primary School, Skelmersdale

Overview

St Richard’s Catholic Primary School is described as a “calm and welcoming place” where pupils “enjoy learning” and develop “positive relationships” with staff and peers. The report highlights an “ambitious and well organised” curriculum, with staff providing “carefully tailored support” that helps pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to “grow in confidence” and “achieve well.”

Strengths

• The curriculum is “ambitious and well organised,” ensuring teachers know “precisely what to focus on” across all year groups.
• Staff use “effective and consistent approaches,” such as regular opportunities for pupils to “practise and recall their prior learning.”
• Reading is a “high priority,” with a “firm foundation” built in early years through songs, rhymes, and phonics.
• Pupils benefit from a “wide range of high-quality opportunities” for personal development, learning to keep “physically and mentally well.”
• Governors provide “effective support and challenge,” ensuring staff workload is not compromised by new initiatives.

Areas to improve

• In a “small number of subjects, including reading,” there is variability in how rigorously the school identifies and addresses gaps in pupils’ knowledge.
• Teachers in a minority of subjects do not check “carefully enough that all pupils have learned what they need to,” meaning some pupils’ learning is “not as secure as it could be.”

Safeguarding

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