The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. There has been a number of changes in staff and governance since that time, including your arrival as headteacher in January 2015. You have developed a strong team of staff who are working with you effectively to build on the strengths already in place upon your arrival and to ensure that pupils thrive during their time in Ovingham. You are supported well by the governing body. Governors have raised their game since the last inspection. They are well informed about the school’s work. They use their collective knowledge and skills to hold you to account effectively for the impact of the school’s work on pupils’ learning and development. Work to promote pupils’ personal, emotional, social, moral, spiritual and cultural development remains a strength. Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They attend school regularly and are articulate and friendly. Their attitudes to learning are first rate. There was a real sense of community and of pupils’ support, respect and care for one another as we conducted our inspection activities. You and your senior team have, in the main, addressed the areas that required improvement at the last inspection. For example, the quality of teaching is improving because this has been at the forefront of your strategy to ensure that all pupils make the best possible progress from their starting points in Year 5. Training and coaching of staff as well as sharper arrangements to manage their performance are contributing to the improvements in the quality of teaching across the curriculum. Such actions are also contributing to improvements in the rates of pupils’ progress by the time they leave Year 8. Teachers have become more adept in developing pupils’ independence skills and enabling them to ‘have a go’ and work things out for themselves. This was an area that required improvement at the time of the last inspection. Occasionally, teaching assistants help pupils too much. This happens when teachers have set work for the supported pupil that is not at their current level of understanding. You, other leaders and governors, have a good knowledge of what is working well and what needs to improve. For example, last year you found that although pupils’ attainment was above average in the Year 6 national tests, the progress these pupils made from key stage 1 was not good enough, particularly in mathematics and for middle-ability disadvantaged pupils. Actions taken this year, including training for teachers, individual support to pupils and small-group work are diminishing the differences between disadvantaged pupils’ progress and that of their peers in school effectively. This is especially the case by the end of Year 8 when pupils have been at Ovingham for the full four years. The recently appointed special educational needs coordinator is providing strong leadership. Strategies she has developed along with support to, and training of, staff are diminishing last year’s differences in the progress of pupils who require additional support for their special educational needs and/or disabilities and other pupils in school effectively. It is too soon to see the full impact of this work. Assessment systems to check and track pupils’ learning and progress over time have been developed and improved over the last year. Staff usually use this information to plan work that moves pupils on well from their individual starting points in class. However, you know that on occasions, the most able pupils are not challenged to achieve their best consistently in lessons. This is an ongoing priority. Occasionally, in some lessons, teachers do not challenge poorly presented work. However, teachers in all subjects check pupils’ spelling, grammar and punctuation regularly and, as a result, pupils’ skills and knowledge are improving well. Safeguarding is effective. Safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. The recent external audit of the school’s safeguarding procedures has sharpened up practice and made sure that all procedures, including recruitment procedures, are robust. Leaders have ensured a strong culture of safeguarding across the school. The designated lead for safeguarding and the nominated safeguarding governor meet regularly and provide strong oversight of arrangements. Staff are trained in all aspects of child protection and safeguarding. Alongside statutory training, staff also receive regular updates to keep abreast of emerging guidance from the Department for Education and risks emerging locally or nationally. Staff respond quickly to any concerns that they identify. Leaders work closely with external agencies so that pupils are safeguarded. They ensure that pupils and their families get the right help and support in times of great need. Pupils report confidently that they are safe in school and are taught well to understand risks to their personal safety. They value highly the school counsellor who, along with any adult, they can turn to with any concern.