The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have worked positively and constructively with staff, governors, parents and pupils since your appointment in September 2015. You have renewed the school’s values and strengthened teamwork. You have established a shared vision for the school’s future, making sure that all staff and governors are clear about their role in the school’s development. The appointments of key leaders, including your assistant headteacher and inclusion leader, have brought further strength to the leadership team. The school is very well placed for the next stage in its journey of improvement. Governors share your ambitions for the school and are just as determined as you are to ensure that all pupils achieve well. They appreciate the greater clarity you have brought to reporting the school’s work and your honest and professional approach. Parents speak enthusiastically about improvements in the school since your appointment. They are confident that you and your colleagues are moving the school in the right direction. One commented, ‘The school is on a journey. The headteacher has charted the route and is taking everyone with her’ – a sentiment echoed by many. Pupils are proud of the school and are polite and welcoming to visitors. Many welcomed me warmly during my visit, asking politely and with interest about my role. They were keen to tell me about their school and how much they love it. Their good behaviour and desire to do well make a strong contribution to the school’s positive, friendly atmosphere. You have secured substantial improvements in the quality of teaching. You have ensured that leaders and teachers have much higher expectations of pupils’ learning than previously. You work productively with teachers, providing effective training to help them to develop their practice. Improvements in teaching contribute to the school’s increasingly confident and upbeat atmosphere. You have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. Your assistant headteacher has worked effectively alongside you and your team to establish robust assessment procedures. Teaching provides improved opportunities for pupils to reflect on and improve their work. Pupils have responded maturely and responsibly to increased expectations. As a result of the changes you have implemented, pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and the most able, are achieving increasingly well. However, you recognise the need to make sure that disadvantaged pupils make rapid progress in order to catch up from previous underachievement. You know it is crucial that some disadvantaged pupils improve their attendance so they can benefit fully from the improved teaching on offer. You also recognise that the most able are not consistently stretched to the degree needed to maximise their achievement. Safeguarding is effective. You and your team give pupils’ safety an appropriately high priority. You have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You make sure that suitability checks for staff are completed efficiently and that staff and governors are clear about what to do if they have a concern. Any pupils who may be at risk of harm are suitably supported. When needed, leaders work in partnership with other agencies to keep pupils safe. Leaders make sure that records are of suitable high quality and detailed. Pupils say that their teachers take good care of them and sort out any worries quickly, so that they feel safe and secure in school. You and your team give them regular reminders about what they can do to help to keep themselves safe, including when using the internet. You make sure the school site and equipment are safe and maintained effectively. All this contributes well to pupils’ safety and wellbeing. Inspection findings During my visit, I focused particularly on: whether all groups of pupils make sufficiently strong progress from their starting points, especially in writing and mathematics; to what extent leaders and teachers ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well; how effectively senior leaders and governors use assessment information to support pupils’ learning and how thoroughly leaders and governors ensure that pupils are safe and attend well.