The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since taking up the post of headteacher, you have skilfully moulded an aspirational learning culture for pupils, staff and governors by providing a clear strategic vision to improve the school further. You have recently appointed a new deputy and are expertly crafting a leadership team to continue to enhance the school leadership capacity. You are ably supported by middle leaders who correctly identify the next steps required to ensure continued positive impact on pupil outcomes. The school’s motto, ‘Aspire to be amazing’, is central to the high expectations that you and your staff promote for your pupils. You have tackled successfully the areas identified as being in need of further improvement at the last inspection and, as a result, governance is much stronger. Governors are highly skilled and provide a good level of challenge, using ‘comment, clarify and challenge’ as an approach to critical accountability. They have accurate knowledge of the strengths and development needs of the school and take effective actions to address any weaknesses identified. Governors actively seek training, including safeguarding, to ensure that they continue to fulfil their duties effectively. Pupils spoke enthusiastically about Ashton Hayes and are rightly proud of the school. They particularly enjoy extending the cultural links made with France and Uganda, through letter writing and associated curriculum activities. Older pupils enjoy taking responsibility for younger pupils and are encouraged to show respect and tolerance toward others. My observations around the school and my conversations with pupils showed them to be articulate, polite and enthused to learn. This demonstrates well the school ethos of determination and resilience. Parents are very happy with the education that their children receive. One parent summed up the views of many when they said: ‘Ashton Hayes provides a safe, stimulating and nurturing environment where my child makes excellent progress.’ You have identified the correct priorities for the next stage of development at Ashton Hayes and are taking the right steps to make the improvements. You have placed a priority on pupils’ writing across the school. This is evident in both the published and current school progress data and through the many impressive writing displays throughout school. However, the full impact of the application of grammar, spelling and punctuation in writing is not as evident. This continues to be a focus for the school to enable pupils to reach higher standards. Safeguarding is effective. The checks on the suitability of staff to work with children are fully compliant with government requirements. Staff and governors have received up-to-date safeguarding training and are aware of the different types of abuse and the signs to look for in monitoring pupils’ welfare. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose, and records maintained are detailed and of a high quality. Pupils said that they feel safe in school. You ensure that the curriculum provides pupils with the necessary skills to keep themselves safe, including when working online. Pupils understand the different forms of bullying and told me that bullying of any kind is rare. They were enthusiastic about sharing ‘cyber bullying events’ and about how this supported their understanding of staying safe. Inspection findings I explored a number of key lines of enquiry during this inspection. I looked at: how well leaders challenge learners to gain greater depth in mathematics at key stage 2 and expected levels of attainment in mathematics at key stage 1; how well grammar, punctuation and spelling support outcomes in writing; and whether governance continues to be effective from the last inspection. You have taken effective action to improve provision and pupil outcomes in mathematics. Your school’s improvement plan shows that you introduced new strategies to the teaching of mathematics, for example by providing more frequent and structured opportunities for problem solving and reasoning. Consequently, pupils are now making good progress across all year groups, and the most able pupils are making rapid progress, particularly in key stage 2. The effectiveness of these strategies is also clearly evident in the school’s current progress data as well as from the good standard of work in pupils’ books in both key stage 1 and key stage 2.