The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You lead and manage the school effectively and inspire your colleagues to share your high aspirations for the pupils and their families. Pupils grow and flourish in the caring ethos that underpins all that the school does. Parents and carers value the strong sense of community you encourage within the school’s very diverse cultural and social mix where everyone is treated with kindness and respect. Since joining the school, you have taken the necessary steps to improve the quality of teaching and learning. With effective support from governors and the academy trust, you have managed staff turnover successfully and made astute appointments to put the school in a strong position to improve rapidly. Your expectations of all staff are high and you provide effective support, guidance and training to improve their knowledge, skills and practice. Staff talk about being part of the school family, and are proud to work there. Despite a dip in the outcomes for pupils at the end of Year 6 in 2017, particularly in mathematics, indications are that all pupils are now making good progress and are on track to achieve well this summer in the national testing. In both key stages 1 and 2, an increasing number of pupils are exceeding expectations because they enjoy learning and want to do well. You, your senior leaders and the academy trust monitor teaching and learning closely. You all know the school’s strengths and weaknesses well and subject leaders are taking effective action to improve provision in their areas of responsibility. The procedures to assess pupils’ progress and achievements are accurate and reliable and successfully inform teachers’ planning. Pupils are being challenged well but there is still scope to raise expectations further, particularly in mathematics at key stage 2. Through close scrutiny of pupils’ progress, you quickly identify any pupils at risk of falling behind their targets and plan additional support to help them stay on track to make the progress they should. You also maximise advice from partner schools to improve provision for your pupils. The actions taken to improve provision for reading and mathematics are effective. Increased time devoted to writing in other subjects encourages pupils to explore their interests and extend their knowledge, for example about the age of steam and the effect of the industrial revolution on shaping people’s lives and the country’s landscape. The introduction of a new mathematics scheme has already had a positive impact on accelerating pupils’ progress. More pupils are now working at a greater depth of learning, especially in their mental agility in arithmetic and their reasoning skills. Occasionally, a few pupils at key stage 2, especially among the girls working on the borderline between the age-related expectations and greater depth, lack the confidence to attempt harder tasks. While the teaching of reading is good and pupils enjoy reading, a few explained that they would like to read to others more at school as they did not always have the opportunity at home. The teaching of basic literacy skills is good and pupils have a secure grounding at the end of Year 2. Older pupils at key stage 2, who possibly did not have this secure foundation, occasionally make careless errors in their grammar, punctuation and grammar; this remains an area for further work. Governors are highly ambitious for the pupils in their care. Through regular visits on business matters, monitoring activities and social events, including going with pupils on school trips and residential visits, they know the school community well and understand the many challenges that some pupils face in their lives. They question information they receive from the headteacher about pupils’ progress and challenge senior leaders to explain where improvements are not having the effect they should. Governors have the skills and expertise to support developments and ensure that all funds are maximised to accelerate the progress of all groups of pupils. Children start in the Reception class with skills that are below those typical for their age. A number have little or no pre-school experience. In addition, a rising number are from families who speak English as an additional language. Staff accommodate these diverse needs very effectively and children make good progress. The proportion that meet the expected standard when they move into Year 1 is in line with the national average. This rate of progress is sustained successfully at key stage 1 through continued good teaching. An increasing number are working at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 2. At key stage 2, all groups of pupils are now making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2017, disadvantaged pupils did not make the same level of progress as their classmates in mathematics. With effective support for these pupils, school data and work in pupils’ books do not reflect any significant difference this year. This is also the case for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, who make good progress from their starting points.