An Isle of Wight primary school has been praised for its progress by Ofsted, but has fallen shy of improving its rating.
Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, in East Cowes, said it is confident it can make it the best school it can be and still has work to do.
It had held a ‘good’ Ofsted rating until 2019, when it was downgraded to ‘requires improvement.’
Maintaining quality amidst challenges
It retained that rating at the latest inspection, in June.
Inspectors said pupils were happy, well-behaved and felt safe.
In four out of five areas, the school was rated ‘good,’ but it was let down by the quality of education, which inspectors said still required improvement.
Stability in leadership brings hope
Significant turbulence was highlighted by the government’s education watchdog, but inspectors acknowledged the work of the interim executive headteacher, governors and other senior leaders, which they said had brought much-needed stability.
Children get off to a strong start in their school life and are highly motivated to learn, inspectors said, adding the curriculum has been carefully designed for early years pupils.
Curriculum development: A road ahead
Leaders are ambitious for pupils to achieve well and have rightly focused on improving English and maths. The rest of the curriculum is not sufficiently developed and substantial improvement is needed, they said.
They said pupils do not always achieve as well as they should across the whole curriculum.
The need for comprehensive assessments
Inspectors said key knowledge and skills are not clearly defined. Leaders must ensure the curriculum development is completed, so pupils are fully prepared for the next stage of their education.
Assessment processes are not well developed in many subjects, Ofsted said, so leaders do not know how well pupils learn.
Safeguarding and special education at the forefront
Staff are well-trained in safeguarding and they know how to identify and report concerns in the strong, school-wide culture of safety.
Special educational needs pupils have appropriate adaptations to tasks and activities. to ensure they access the same curriculum as their peers, but they do not experience a clearly defined curriculum in all subjects.
The leadership of special education provision has strengthened.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: laura rivera under CC BY 2.0
