The Cathedral Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Chelmsford

Overview: The Cathedral Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Chelmsford is an exceptional school where pupils achieve highly, and leaders provide support for pupils who need it to ensure they achieve well. The school has a strong standard in attendance and behaviour, with pupils enjoying coming to school and leaders tracking attendance with precision.

Strengths:

• Pupils achieve highly, including above-average outcomes in national tests at the end of Year 6.
• Leaders provide support for pupils who need it to ensure they achieve well.
• Pupils develop a detailed understanding of the topics and themes they learn across the curriculum.
• Pupils progress well through the curriculum.
• Attendance is rare, and pupils enjoy coming to school.
• Leaders track attendance with precision and analyse patterns closely.
• Pupils behave remarkably well, conducting themselves with high levels of respect and self-discipline.
• Pupils' attitudes to learning are excellent, contributing to a calm and purposeful atmosphere across the school.

Areas to improve:

• The school's provision for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with English as an additional language is not as effective as it could be, due to the school's changing context and the fact that the provision has not been adjusted as precisely as needed.
• The impact of staff development is not fully embedded and is not making the necessary impact on some groups of pupils.
• The school's disadvantage gap is not closing as quickly as it could be, with some disadvantaged pupils still performing below the national average.

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.