The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your ambitions for the pupils are high and underpin the way you lead and manage school improvement. Your staff, the governors and the academy trust share your aspirations for the school and its community, and support school developments with tenacity. The school’s strong Christian values put children at the heart of everything the school does. Pupils feel safe, happy and valued at school, and so grow and flourish in their personal and academic development. Parents and carers speak highly of the school’s pastoral care that enables their children to grow and flourish. The school’s harmonious cultural and social mix gives pupils a very good understanding of how to treat others with kindness and respect, and teaches them that everyone should be valued equally. Your staff know well the challenging circumstances some pupils face in their lives and that only the best is good enough for the children in their care. Every child really does matter in your school and this spurs everyone on to do their best at all times. You have high expectations of all staff. They know and understand their responsibilities and are quick to respond to any support and guidance they receive to improve their performance. They have access to any relevant training to improve their knowledge, skills and practice. Staff are very proud to work at the school and particularly appreciate that leaders support their well-being and personal development as well as their professional expertise. Despite a dip in the outcomes for pupils at the end of Year 6 in 2016, particularly in reading and mathematics, there was rapid improvement in 2017. There is strong evidence that current pupils are making good progress throughout the school and are on track to achieve even more this summer in the national tests. An increasing number of pupils at both key stages are working at greater depth. Pupils enjoy learning and want to achieve well because they know school is important. You and your senior leaders monitor teaching and learning very closely. Everyone knows the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and subject leaders take 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. Frequent meetings to discuss pupils’ progress enable staff to identify quickly any pupils at risk of falling behind their targets, and to plan further support to help them stay on track to make the progress they should. Most pupils are challenged well but expectations could be raised further at key stage 2, especially in reading and mathematics. The actions taken to improve provision for reading and mathematics are effective. Following the disappointing outcomes in 2016, the increased focus on developing pupils’ mental arithmetic skills and logical application of previous learning has had significant 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 to solve multi-step problems. While the teaching of reading is good and pupils enjoy reading, a few explained that they would like to read more to others at school because they do not always have the opportunity at home. At both key stages, pupils consistently achieve well in their writing because they write extensively in English and in other subjects to practise their skills. For example, pupils explore ‘raiders and invaders’ and Ancient Egypt to deepen their knowledge and understanding of how these civilisations affected society. 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 do not have this secure foundation, occasionally make errors in their grammar, punctuation and spelling. This is addressed effectively by making sure that pupils check their work carefully. Governors are regular visitors in school and know its strengths and weaknesses well. They understand the challenges that some pupils and their families face in their lives, and serve the school community effectively. They question information they receive from the headteacher about pupils’ progress and challenge leaders if pupils are not achieving as well as they should. Governors have the skills and expertise to support developments and they ensure that funds are maximised to accelerate the progress of all pupils. Children start in the Nursery with skills that are below those typical for their age. An increasing number are disadvantaged, have special educational needs and/or disabilities or are from families where English is not the home language. Also, a significant number join the school late in key stage 2, often with many interruptions in their learning. You accommodate these needs very effectively and pupils make good progress. The proportion of pupils who meet the expected standard when they move into Year 1 is close to the national average. Through consistently good teaching, this good progress is sustained successfully at both key stages. A good number are working at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Years 2 and 6, including disadvantaged pupils.