You and your leadership team have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment in September 2015, you have communicated an unwavering determination to provide the very best education for every pupil. Leaders, staff and members of the school governance committee (SGC) share your ambition. A culture of professional challenge and reflection exists, where everyone feels supported to achieve their best. Despite the changes in staffing and pupil numbers that your context brings, your continual checks on what is working well and where further improvement is needed are effective. The quality of teaching remains good and pupils consistently reach or exceed the standards expected for their age. You and your assistant headteacher are open and honest about the school’s strengths and areas for development. Together, you have worked quickly to build a close-knit team where everyone feels valued and respected. Indeed, listening to the voice and opinion of others, whether this be staff, parents or pupils, is the hallmark of your school improvement model. Through this effective partnership working, you have ensured that everyone ‘buys into’ your vision and takes shared ownership of the changes you are making. At the time of the previous inspection, leaders were tasked with improving the quality of pupils’ writing; following through rigorously on the outcomes of pupils’ assessments; and ensuring that pupils understood what they were learning. You and your team have addressed these areas for improvement successfully. Pupils now write more frequently and at greater length, applying their understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling in a range of meaningful contexts, such as when writing articles for the school newspaper. Your new assessment framework highlights where pupils have achieved well and where they still need to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding more clearly. You draw well on the support of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) advisers to verify the accuracy of these assessments. In this way, you are assured of an accurate baseline of standards across pupils’ reading, writing and mathematics. These whole-school approaches, together with more exciting and meaningful curriculum experiences, have led to greater consistency in the quality of teaching. Teachers are adept at using pupils’ assessment information to plan teaching activities that meet most pupils’ needs and abilities. Training for staff is developing their confidence in trying out new ideas during lessons. Staff also benefit from visits to good and outstanding schools both in England and abroad. Pupils report that they are enjoying their lessons more and appreciate, as one pupil articulated, ‘being able to see how their learning can be used in the real world’. You and your senior team keep a careful eye on how well these new initiatives are working in everyday practice. While the vast majority of pupils have reached at least what is expected for their age in English and mathematics over time, you are aware that the most able pupils could be stretched further to reach their full potential. Importantly, monitoring activities need to highlight this group of pupils more closely so that everyone, including the SGC, can offer more appropriate challenge and support. Safeguarding is effective. You and your leadership team ensure that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose, take account of recent legislation and model good practice. Regular audits of key systems and processes and their effectiveness in keeping pupils safe are used to continually adjust school policies and procedures. For example, one of your first actions as headteacher was to remodel the school site so that it is a safer environment for pupils. You also ensure that staff attend update training regularly so that they are vigilant and mindful of the potential dangers to pupils, including those that can arise due to exposure to extremist views. Close links and proactive work with other agencies, such as Interpol and social-work services, ensure that referrals for more specialist support are managed well, when needed. Pupils have a strong awareness of how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations. You cultivate a strong sense of belonging among pupils, teaching them about the values of respect, tolerance and open acceptance in a multi-faith and multicultural society. You and your team have created a culture where difference, in whatever form it may take, does not detract from pupils’ learning.