The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. The school provides a calm and purposeful atmosphere which helps to support pupils’ learning. Pupils know the school’s motto, ‘believe and achieve’, and understand why it is important. Pupils have a voice in their school with ideas from the school council being put into action. The school is very well organised so that it runs smoothly. Pupils and staff are proud of the things that the school offers. It was good to see younger pupils dancing for their parents with such enthusiasm. Governors and leaders have arranged for a number of improvements to the school’s facilities since the previous inspection. For example, additional playground facilities have been installed, and a new library and computer room created. You have an honest view of the school’s strengths and know what still needs to be worked on. The school’s self-evaluation document and improvement plan are detailed and accurately pin-point the most important things to do next. At the previous inspection, inspectors asked the school to speed up pupils’ progress; for example, by improving the quality of teaching and more closely tracking how well pupils are learning. In response, you have raised expectations and arranged for high-quality training for teachers and teaching assistants. You have ensured that teachers have common approaches, such as in the way they use classroom displays to help learning. You have continued to look for ways to further improve the school’s work and have recently introduced a new scheme to teach reading and writing to younger pupils and introduced a consistent approach to improving spelling across the school. You identify that these are already improving pupils’ English skills. Since the last inspection you and your leaders have introduced a commercially available tracking system to collect information about pupils’ progress. You have carefully thought about how this will best work in your school. Leaders have now established a regular cycle of assessments of pupils’ work. Leaders and teachers use the information they gather to plan for high-quality teaching to make sure pupils do not fall behind and to stretch the most able pupils. The school has recently received ‘Leading Parent Partnership Award’ accreditation in recognition of how the school works with parents. The parental survey recently completed by the school confirmed that parents were highly supportive of its work. This support was also clear from most parents who responded to Parent View. However, a minority were less positive. You are already aware that some parents currently have concerns and are working to make sure these are addressed. The pupils I talked with were very positive about the school and this was typically reflected in the responses to their questionnaire. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and governors have ensured that the arrangements for safeguarding pupils are robust and the records about safeguarding are detailed and complete. Staff are well trained so that they are confident about what they must do if they have any concerns. Pupils know who they should talk to if they have any problems. Leaders work closely with external professionals if they need advice or support with safeguarding matters. Helpful information about safeguarding for parents and the child protection policy are openly available on the school’s website. The pupils I spoke to said that they feel safe in school. For example, they talked to me about the regular lessons they have about how to be as safe as possible when they are using computers. Governors keep the safeguarding of pupils under close review. They have arranged for the safety and security of the school premises to be improved since the previous inspection. Inspection findings Leaders and teachers are dedicated to providing the best they can for pupils. The close partnership between you and the deputy headteacher is a particularly effective aspect of senior leadership. It supports the school’s well-understood high expectations of teaching and pupils’ achievement. Senior leaders are very open in their approach, for example, in sharing the school’s improvement plan on the school website and in their relationship with governors. This helps everyone to be fully involved and for the work of the school to be sharply held to account. Governors take their work very seriously and actively look for ways to have more impact on improving the school. They have recently reorganised the governing body because they felt that previous changes had made the number of governors too small. Governors’ skills and experience closely match the school’s needs. Over time, pupils’ outcomes have varied. For example, in 2015 the progress made by Year 6 groups in mathematics was slower than typically seen across the country. Last year there was a strong upturn. In contrast, when compared to pupils in other schools, disadvantaged pupils did less well in writing in 2016 than in 2015. Too few pupils exceed the rates of progress expected nationally. You use the school’s tracking system to provide detailed information about how well all pupils are currently doing and then plan how to make sure none fall behind. You have also arranged for additional teaching in English and mathematics for disadvantaged pupils. The school’s own data indicates that pupils across the school are making more consistently rapid progress than in the past. Leaders check carefully that teachers’ and teaching assistants’ work is good enough. You have a systematic programme of observation of classroom practice which, for example, has led to improvement to the way teachers assess pupils. Leaders make sure that teachers match their assessment standards to those in other schools. The school receives additional funding to support a small number of pupils who have physical or medical needs. These pupils, as well as others who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, are looked after well. Test results in 2016 showed that these pupils in Year 6 made progress at similar rates to others. Even though the building has been designed to be fully accessible for people with disabilities, leaders and governors seek to improve access further. Attendance rates at the school are high. Pupils know the school’s high target for their attendance and enjoy receiving rewards for excellent attendance. If pupils are absent for unknown reasons, there is rapid contact with parents. This means that leaders are able to challenge and support families to make sure that pupils attend well. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they: identify ways to make teaching, learning and assessment even more effective so that outcomes, and particularly for pupils exceeding national expectations, become consistently stronger continue to seek ways to help parents to engage fully with the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Wigan. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely David Selby Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you, the deputy headteacher, the learning mentor, and the special educational needs coordinator to discuss the school’s effectiveness. I discussed the school’s single central record of safeguarding checks with the school business manager and a member of your administration team. I also met with governors and had telephone conversations with the school improvement partner and the chair of your local consortium of schools. I met with a group of pupils and talked with others around the school and during lessons. I toured the school accompanied by you, and observed teaching and learning in classes across the school; this included a short visit to a session being taken by a visiting artist as part of the school’s ‘Go Green’ week. I heard some pupils read. In addition, I watched a small part of a dance display being given by pupils in the early years and key stage 1. I examined documents including the school’s information about safeguarding pupils, the school’s self-evaluation document and the improvement plan. I considered 24 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, together with 12 additional written responses from parents and spoke with some parents at the end of the school day. I also reviewed the responses to a much larger survey of parents recently completed in the school. Fifteen responses to Ofsted’s survey for pupils were received and 19 members of staff replied to their survey.