The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have worked with all your stakeholders, pupils, parents, carers, staff and governors, to formulate and refine a new vision and set out new values for Manorcroft Primary School, based on ‘respect, responsibility and resilience’. Of the parents who completed the online questionnaire, Parent View, most would recommend the school to other parents. As one parent commented: ‘We are absolutely delighted with the school and all its efforts in its approach to children’s learning and well-being.’ You have carefully steered the school through a period of turbulence in staffing since the previous inspection. Together, you and your deputy headteacher have ensured that all staff focus on the learning needs of each pupil. There is a greater emphasis on making sure that any hindrances that may affect pupils’ learning are identified and addressed. As a result of the ‘barriers to learning survey’ you carried out last year with pupils, you are now able to provide more targeted support for pupils, particularly vulnerable pupils and those who find learning more difficult. This supportive and nurturing environment helps pupils to be successful in their learning. You know that outcomes in the Year 1 phonics screening check have not been good enough. You have taken decisive action to improve pupils’ phonics skills by reorganising the way phonics is taught and making sure that new staff access goodquality training. This is having a positive impact on pupils’ ability to use their phonics knowledge to decipher new or unfamiliar words. Currently, a higher proportion of pupils are on track to achieve the expected standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 this year. The governing body has a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development for the school. School leaders have identified accurately the most important areas for the school to focus on. Governors take an active role in checking whether the actions identified in the school development plan are being addressed effectively. For example, recently, one governor met with the English subject leader with responsibility for phonics to look at the school’s assessment information and discuss whether the recently implemented strategies are having a positive effect on outcomes for pupils. Following meetings such as this, governors provide helpful reports to ensure that the whole governing body is appraised of the current situation. Senior leaders recognise that standards in reading and writing for pupils at the end of Year 2 have been lower than those found nationally in recent years. There is now a greater emphasis on making sure that pupils develop effective early reading skills during their Reception Year. Throughout the school, daily reading lessons and regular comprehension lessons provide pupils with good opportunities to practise their reading skills and fully grasp the meaning behind the texts they read. Pupils are enthusiastic about their reading and enjoy reading for pleasure at home. They are able to name their favourite authors and talk with interest and enthusiasm about the books they read. One pupil provided a compelling synopsis of ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar, which he thoroughly enjoyed reading. Your English subject leaders are fully aware that pupils’ early writing skills need to improve more rapidly. They have introduced new strategies for teaching writing and spelling. In the early years, children are encouraged to mark-make and begin to write about their own ideas during their self-initiated activities. Adults scribe stories and model writing to encourage children to ‘have a go’. You are fully aware that standards of writing for boys are not as good as for girls. Teachers are now actively engaged in an action research project focusing on improving outcomes for boys in writing. All pupils, including middle-attaining pupils, disadvantaged pupils, and the most able disadvantaged pupils, are encouraged to talk about their writing and share their ideas together, to stimulate their thinking and develop a love of writing. In addition to this, there is a strong emphasis on ensuring that pupils use accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar in their written work. This is having a positive effect on the progress pupils are making. Since the previous inspection, you have addressed the identified areas for improvement successfully. Pupils are now much more aware of their own learning, and consider regularly whether they have successfully achieved the learning objectives during lessons. They talk enthusiastically about learning new things, and know that if they find learning difficult, teachers support them to succeed. As one pupil explained: ‘Teachers break it down and make it easier to understand.’ Parents are also positive about ‘the valuable workshops that help them to better understand school practice and how to help at home’, although one parent commented that these would be more useful earlier in the school year.