The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Pupils continue to make good progress in their time at the school. This includes children from service families, very few of whom attend the school for the whole of their primary education. Since the last inspection, there have been a number of staff changes, including the appointment of a new deputy headteacher which has strengthened the school’s leadership capacity. Your calm demeanour, sharp focus on improvement and high aspirations for every pupil at the school have proved key to the continued success of the school. Staff and governors support you in striving for the best for pupils. Members of staff and pupils new to the school are quickly welcomed into the safe and caring environment which you have created. You, your staff and the pupils work together to deliver the school’s motto and ‘fly beyond your limits’. You have maintained the significant strengths noted at the previous inspection. In particular, the quality of pastoral care remains strong. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. The parents who spoke with me during the inspection were united in their praise for how you have developed the perfect balance of respect and independence in the pupils. One parent commented that her child had ‘blossomed academically and her confidence increased incredibly’. Pupils behave well and demonstrate excellent attitudes to learning. From the moment that you open the school gates in the morning, pupils run excitedly to their lessons; their positive behaviour and enthusiasm remain throughout the school day. Pupils told me that the school encourages them to be the best that they can be. When the school was last inspected, the inspectors asked you to provide more opportunities for pupils to apply their literacy and numeracy skills across different subjects in order to raise their attainment. You have successfully done this by revising the school curriculum. As a result, these critical skills are now assessed every morning. Pupils then practise applying them every afternoon in crosscurricular topics. For example, in one class, pupils were using a bottle they imagined they had found on a beach to link to a map of Lincolnshire and develop their mapreading skills. Pupils then thought of nouns, adjectives and verbs to describe the bottle and to help develop their vocabulary for story writing. In another lesson, pupils used a video camera to film how a monster would move, before writing up the description. These activities helped pupils to use more adventurous words in their writing. Provisional results for writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2016 indicate that the pupils’ achievements improved significantly this year. Your school development plan now rightly focuses on further improving the proportion of pupils who attain the higher standards. You have appropriately worked on improving pupils’ outcomes in reading. This starts in the Reception Year where children learn how to decode unfamiliar words. Teachers reinforce careful handwriting and letter formation so that children recognise letters and sounds and therefore learn to read them correctly. In 2016, pupils achieved well above the previous national standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1. All pupils who retook the check at the end of Year 2 met the expected standard. The school’s assessment information indicates that pupils in key stage 1 are making good progress in reading. Pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage 2 in reading were disappointingly low in 2016. You have investigated the reasons for this and have identified that pupils struggled to make inferences and deductions about texts. Evidence in pupils’ books demonstrates that they are now given more opportunities to practise these skills. The school’s assessment information indicates that current Year 6 pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are making good progress in reading. Pupils’ attendance has been above the national average for the past three years. However, persistent absence rose in 2015, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. A very small number of pupils continue to be persistently absent from school. You are fully aware of this and have introduced a tougher absence policy to reduce the amount of time pupils miss school. The pupils I spoke with clearly understand the importance of good attendance and they value the introduction of 100% attendance awards. Safeguarding is effective. You are the designated safeguarding leader. You have completed all the appropriate safeguarding training and keep your knowledge current through regular online updates. You have put in place robust and thorough safeguarding procedures and ensure that all files are securely locked away. Records are detailed and of high quality. You and the chair of the governing body have completed safer recruitment training, and the single central record meets statutory requirements. You provide staff with a safeguarding handbook at the beginning of the year or when they start at the school. You then top this up with additional face-to-face training to check that they fully understand the school’s safeguarding policies. You have acted swiftly to ensure that the very latest government guidance has been passed on to staff. Staff have had training so that they can recognise how to protect pupils from the threat of radicalisation, extremism and female genital mutilation. As a result, staff all know what to do if they have any concerns. You deal with all referrals promptly and you are vigilant in pursuing any necessary further action with external agencies. Parents who spoke with me said that they are reassured that staff do everything they can to keep their children safe. One parent commented, ‘My children feel safe and happy which is by far the most important factor’. Pupils agree with this. They told me how they have total trust in their teachers. You have provided opportunities for them to learn about how to stay safe online, on their bikes and from strangers. Pupils told me how much they enjoy the regular visits from the local police community support officer and value being given good citizen awards. The school’s bullying logs confirm that incidents of name-calling are extremely rare. School records evidence that there has been no homophobic or racist bullying at the school. Pupils respect and support each other. Posters around the school encourage pupils to be kind to each other by saying, for example, ‘If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours’. Pupils told me that it is good to have different views and that the school has taught them ‘to treat others how you want to be treated yourself’. The school’s safeguarding practices, including health and safety, are adapted well to the needs of the school’s location within a Royal Air Force base. Inspection findings You have a clear and accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. You recognise that further improvements are needed in relation to standards in reading at key stage 2, the progress of the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, and the persistent absence of a very small minority of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The governing body provides you with appropriate support and challenge. Governors monitor the use of government funding for disadvantaged pupils closely. Like you, they recognise that it should be used more effectively to improve the attendance of those disadvantaged pupils who are persistently absent from school. High-quality assessment underpins the school’s work effectively and is used well to plan learning that is appropriate for most pupils from their starting points.