St Stephen's Catholic Primary School

Overview

St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School is described as a “welcoming place” providing a “nurturing environment” where pupils feel “happy, safe and secure.” The report states that the school’s overall effectiveness, along with the quality of education, behaviour, personal development, leadership, and early years provision, is ‘Good’.

Strengths

• Staff foster a “keen sense of pride” among pupils, who are “polite and respectful” and “aspirational for their futures.”
• The curriculum is “suitably ambitious” and “delivered well by highly skilled staff,” with “carefully constructed learning activities” that build on prior knowledge.
• Early reading is a priority; staff teach phonics well, ensuring books “closely match the sounds that they have learned,” helping most pupils become “confident readers by the end of key stage 1.”
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified “with accuracy and in a timely manner” and learn “successfully alongside their peers.”
• Governors provide “effective support and challenge,” and staff appreciate guidance that helps them “manage their workload” and “look after their well-being.”

Areas to improve

• In a small number of subjects, teachers lack clarity on “important knowledge that they should teach and when this content should be taught,” leading to gaps in learning.
• Assessment systems in a few subjects do not sufficiently support teachers to check if pupils have learned the intended curriculum, preventing swift identification of knowledge gaps.

Safeguarding

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