The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, your deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher make a strong leadership team. Leaders are ambitious for the school and have worked hard to maintain the good quality of education seen in most subjects, while improving writing across the school. Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They feel happy and safe. As one pupil told me: ‘It’s always safe here. We don’t have any worries when we’re at school. This is our safe place.’ At the last inspection, leaders were asked to improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress in writing. Pupils now work collaboratively to plan, discuss and improve their work. They edit their work effectively and produce writing of a higher quality. The work pupils complete is challenging, engaging and based on exciting themes. This has motivated pupils to learn. Pupils, including the boys, enjoy writing and say that they love writing about history. Pupils’ attitudes to learning are exemplary. Improvements in writing are also apparent in the work being done by Year 2 pupils, who use an impressive range of vocabulary. You have supported class teachers and teaching assistants in their understanding of the teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar rules. However, our joint observations of learning and reviews of pupils’ books showed that there is a lack of opportunities for pupils to use and apply their knowledge and skills in longer pieces of writing. You agreed that the most able pupils are unable to demonstrate their flair in writing at times because they are hampered by the number of writing conventions that they are required to include. Since the last inspection, you have managed to maintain pupils’ good outcomes in mathematics. You have continued to provide high-quality training and strong subject leadership in this area, which has paid dividends. Pupils continue to achieve well. In 2017, pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 2 was well above average and in the top 8% of all schools nationally. We checked carefully on the quality of teaching in key stage 1 because achievement in 2016 dipped below achievement in previous years. I found that teaching in key stage 1 is good. You have worked closely with teaching staff to ensure that they understand the increased expectations of the revised curriculum, and attainment is on the rise. Pupils are extremely polite, respectful, well behaved and hugely appreciative of the efforts of their teachers. One pupil said, ‘Everyone puts in 100% effort here, even the teachers; they make our lessons fun.’ Pupils do not feel that bullying is an issue. They are confident that any rare issues of poor behaviour are dealt with firmly and fairly through the consequence system, which has been recently introduced. In addition, the pupils say that the ‘playground mediators’ sort all of the problems out, so they do not need to go to an adult. The pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness is very strong. They show an excellent understanding of other cultures, faiths and different families. Pupils welcome differences. They said that any pupil would always be welcome at their school. The pupils are extremely proud of their ‘CHIC’ Club (children helping in the community). They were keen to talk about their recent visit to a homeless charity; they saw at first hand where their harvest donations went. They showed great empathy and were keen to continue raising money for the charity in the future. Governors bring a wide range of skills and expertise to their role and they are very clear about the school’s strengths and areas for further development. They share your vision for the future and they support and challenge you and your school leaders effectively so that the school continues to improve. For example, they are fully aware of the way that leaders use the pupil premium funding to raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. Safeguarding is effective. You have created a vigilant culture of safeguarding throughout the school. You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. You work closely with other professionals and services to ensure that children and families receive timely and effective support. You make sure that staff receive regular training updates so that they are effective in recognising and responding to signs of concern. Pupils behave very well and say that there is rarely any bullying. They feel safe and well cared for in school, and parents strongly agree. They have complete faith that adults in the school will listen to them if they are worried about anything at all. Records show that leaders and teachers respond with urgency to the rare incidents of poor behaviour and bullying. The curriculum provides countless opportunities to support children in keeping safe. Consequently, pupils talk confidently about how to stay safe, for example when they are busy online or when they are crossing the road. Inspection findings I checked how well leaders monitor the quality of teaching and learning and its impact on the progress made by pupils. Leaders have a clear understanding of the quality of teaching and learning. You know the strengths of the school well and use highly skilled staff to support the development of others across the school. You regularly check pupils’ learning though workbook trawls and lesson observations. Areas for development are accurately identified. As a result, staff know what they need to do to continue to get even better. However, this is very heavily led by senior leaders, with limited involvement of middle leaders or your special educational needs coordinator, when tracking the progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. A key line of enquiry was how well the quality of teaching meets the needs of all learners. It was evident that the small proportion of disadvantaged pupils are supported well. Leaders have used pupil premium funding effectively to provide bespoke interventions to support pupils’ specific needs. Additionally, support for the pupils who did not achieve the phonics standard by the end of Year 1 has ensured that they catch up with their peers by the end of Year 2. Leaders are keen to build on these successes. I checked carefully on the quality of teaching in key stage 1 because achievement in 2016 dipped below achievement in previous years. I found that teaching in key stage 1 is good. The school is highly effective at identifying and supporting the pastoral needs of vulnerable pupils. Pupils stated that all adults listen to them and help them. One pupil said that they had needed someone to talk when they had experienced some difficulties and adults in the school were always there to listen. Teachers use questions and assessment information to plan activities that are matched to pupils’ needs effectively. Approaches to the teaching of reading and mathematics are consistent across the key stages and in line with school policy. This supports pupils’ progress. Pupils are also encouraged to become independent learners. For example, a pupil in Year 4 explained that if they get stuck there are ‘loads of things to do before we ask the teacher’. As a result, pupils are effectively developing their resilience and confidence in learning. A further line of enquiry was pupils’ achievement in mathematics and reading. Pupils achieve well in reading and mathematics. In 2017, 93% of pupils achieved the national standard in reading, with 33% achieving the higher standard. In mathematics, 89% achieved the national standard, with 48% achieving the higher standard. Pupils’ attendance is above the national average. The persistent absence rate is also below average. Pupils stated that they want to come to school. If a pupil is absent from school, you have clear procedures in place to check that your pupils are safe. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: pupils are given more opportunities to write at length in English lessons and across the curriculum middle leaders, including the special educational needs coordinator, check on the progress that pupils make in their areas of responsibility more regularly and with increased vigour all teachers have a full understanding of the raised expectations at the end of key stage 1 and 2. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Calderdale. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Eve Morris Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you and senior leaders. I also met with three members of the governing body. I evaluated documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school development plan, information about pupils’ progress, minutes of governing body meetings, attendance records and information about safeguarding. I spoke with several parents at the start of the school day and considered the 47 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. Forty-five responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire and 10 responses to the staff questionnaire were also considered. I met with a group of pupils from a range of year groups and listened to pupils read. You and I visited several classrooms together to observe teaching and learning and scrutinise pupils’ work in their books.