St Michael's Primary School and Nursery
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Primary
PUPILS
285
AGES
3 - 11
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
Community school
SCHOOL GUIDE RATING
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Can I Get My Child Into This School?

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This pupil heat map shows where pupils currently attending the school live.
The concentration of pupils shows likelihood of admission based on distance criteria

Source: All attending pupils National School Census Data, ONS
0845 603 2200

This School Guide heat map has been plotted using official pupil data taken from the last School Census collected by the Department for Education. It is a visualisation of where pupils lived at the time of the annual School Census.

Our heat maps use groups of postcodes, not individual postcodes, and have naturally soft edges. All pupils are included in the mapping (i.e. children with siblings already at the school, high priority pupils and selective and/or religious admissions) but we may have removed statistical ‘outliers’ with more remote postcodes that do not reflect majority admissions.

For some schools, the heat map may be a useful indicator of the catchment area but our heat maps are not the same as catchment area maps. Catchment area maps, published by the school or local authority, are based on geographical admissions criteria and show actual cut-off distances and pre-defined catchment areas for a single admission year.

This information is provided as a guide only. The criteria in which schools use to allocate places in the event that they are oversubscribed can and do vary between schools and over time. These criteria can include distance from the school and sometimes specific catchment areas but can also include, amongst others, priority for siblings, children of a particular faith or specific feeder schools. Living in an area where children have previously attended a school does not guarantee admission to the school in future years. Always check with the school’s own admission authority for the current admission arrangements.

3 steps to help parents gather catchment information for a school:

  1. Look at our school catchment area guide for more information on heat maps. They give a useful indicator of the general areas that admit pupils to the school. This visualisation is based on all attending pupils present at the time of the annual School Census.
  2. Use the link to the Local Authority Contact (above) to find catchment area information based on a single admission year. This is very important if you are considering applying to a school.
  3. On each school page, use the link to visit the school website and find information on individual school admissions criteria. Geographical criteria are only applied after pupils have been admitted on higher priority criteria such as Looked After Children, SEN, siblings, etc.

How Does The School Perform?

Good
NATIONAL AVG. 2.09
Ofsted Inspection
(18/07/2019)
Full Report - All Reports
46%
NATIONAL AVG. 60%
% pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics



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Progress Compared With All Other Schools

UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 9% of schools in England) Below Average (About 9% of schools in England) Average (About 67% of schools in England) Above Average (About 6% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 9% of schools in England) UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 10% of schools in England) Below Average (About 9% of schools in England) Average (About 67% of schools in England) Above Average (About 6% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 8% of schools in England) UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 10% of schools in England) Below Average (About 11% of schools in England) Average (About 59% of schools in England) Above Average (About 11% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 9% of schools in England)
Camulodunum Way
Berechurch Hall Road
Colchester
CO2 9RA
01206546412

School Description

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. You and your senior leaders have gained the full support and respect of staff, pupils, parents and carers. Your staff are fully behind you in your quest to make the school a centre of excellence where pupils thrive and are well prepared for the next steps in their education. You meet the challenges of high levels of pupil mobility very well. A significant number of pupils are children of service families and spend less time at the school than their peers. Your school improvement planning and evaluation processes are secure and enable you to identify the gains you have made as well as the challenges that remain. The governors told me: ‘Senior leaders find solutions and don’t just look for problems.’ For example, at your previous inspection you were asked to provide pupils with more opportunities to think more deeply about ideas and solve problems themselves. As a result, you have established the concept of mastery and are encouraging pupils to broaden their knowledge and understanding through the tasks they are set and through the detail in which they are expected to respond to questions. The school is an exciting and vibrant place to learn. Pupils are happy and, rightly, say they are kept safe. Bullying is a rare occurrence in the school, and pupils have a secure understanding of the risks associated with using social media. They are confident individuals who are proud to attend the school. They wear their uniform with pride, particularly those pupils who wear their distinctive purple uniform indicating they have been specially trained as ‘anti-bulliers’. Pupils are accepting of people’s differences and are adamant that everyone should be treated the same. Kindness and being nice to one another are typical traits of pupils in your school. Teaching is well planned and pupils are able to talk about their learning and, in particular, their progress. They know if they are on target or whether they are exceeding their targets. They are keen to attempt the ‘hot tasks’ set by their teachers as soon as they have developed the necessary skills and knowledge to tackle these confidently and competently. They have positive attitudes towards their learning. Parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, expressed many positive opinions about the school. One parent wrote: ‘All of the staff are professional and friendly. They do a great job and seem to genuinely care about the children as well as delivering a well-structured education.’ This comment is typical of the many received by Ofsted. Governance is strong and governors have a good insight into the work of the school through their regular monitoring visits. They do not readily accept what they are told and adopt pertinent lines of questioning to ‘dig below the surface’. Such challenging questioning is recorded in the minutes of their meetings. You work collaboratively with three other schools through your ‘quad’ system, using your partner schools to validate your assessments of pupils’ progress and to share good practice and learn from one another. The local authority has confidence in the quality of provision offered by the school. Safeguarding is effective. The school’s systems and procedures for managing safeguarding are fit for purpose. The strong culture of vigilance in relation to all aspects of safeguarding ensures that pupils are kept safe in the school. Staff have received and understand the key documentation and implement the school’s safeguarding policy effectively. Staff training is up to date, including in the government’s ‘Prevent’ duty. All the required pre-employment checks have been conducted and are appropriately recorded. Procedures for raising concerns about pupils are fully established. Records relating to child protection matters are detailed and securely stored, and record involvement of external agencies as well as details of resolutions. The school site is secure and procedures for signing in visitors to the school are robust. Inspection findings I looked at how well leaders and governors are improving pupils’ outcomes in writing, particularly for children in the early years provision and pupils in key stage 2. This was because writing was identified as a weakness within the early learning goals in the early years and pupils’ progress in writing was well below average at the end of key stage 2 in 2018. There has clearly been a greater focus on writing in the school over the past year. From the early years upwards, classrooms are adorned with displays and good examples of writing on the walls and on your ‘clothes lines’. Your chosen approach towards improving the quality of writing is reaping rewards. Pupils in key stage 2 have a good understanding of subject-specific terms. Many could explain to me the meaning of ‘alliteration’, ‘personification’ and ‘onomatopoeia’, and proudly attempted to use these techniques in their written work, ticking off these items on their assessment sheets as they wrote. Children in the early years were observed diligently writing individual words to form sentences, while those that needed to, drew upon their phonics skills. Provisional achievement information for 2019 shows improvements in both attainment and progress in writing across the school. However, improvements in writing rightly remain a whole-school priority for the coming academic year. I also investigated how well leaders and governors spend the pupil premium funding to diminish the differences in achievement between disadvantaged pupils in the school and others nationally. In addition, the school receives the service pupil premium for pupils whose parents serve in the forces. Historically, pupils in receipt of pupil premium in the school have not achieved as well as others. This was particularly the case in writing at the end of key stage 2 in 2018. Governors routinely challenge you on how you spend the pupil premium and question leaders about its impact on improving outcomes. You use the pupil premium fund for a range of supportive activities including additional intervention sessions and for partially funding literacy and numeracy programmes of study. Provisional achievement data for 2019 shows improvements in outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, particularly in reading and writing. However, these improvements are not yet marked enough and leaders and governors have identified the need to maintain the pupil premium expenditure as a key focus. The service pupil premium has been used particularly well in relation to the pastoral support offered to children of service families. You have just successfully piloted, at the request of parents, a ‘Military Little Troopers’ club which catered for all ages and involved a range of motivating activities including clay sculpture and cooking. This club will run from September 2019. Your spending of the service pupil premium has been positively acknowledged by the Ministry of Defence, and Winchester University are using the school as a case study in their research. I looked at how well the needs of the most able pupils are met in the school. This was because in 2018, no pupils achieved at the higher standard in writing at the end of key stage 2 in 2018 and this also led to no pupils achieving the higher standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined. Your improvement plan rightly identified the need to increase the proportion of pupils achieving the higher standard or working at greater depth. Teachers have raised their expectations and this was evident from the books I reviewed in the early years and in key stage 2. Teachers routinely plan activities which stretch and challenge children and pupils, and most pupils rise to the challenges presented to them. Provisional data for key stage 2 in 2019 shows that a proportion of pupils are now achieving the higher standard in writing and hence in the combined measure of reading, writing and mathematics.

St Michael's Primary School and Nursery Parent Reviews



unlock % Parents Recommend This School
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>61, "agree"=>35, "disagree"=>1, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>69, "agree"=>26, "disagree"=>4, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>55, "agree"=>35, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>4, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>57, "agree"=>34, "disagree"=>7, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>51, "agree"=>41, "disagree"=>1, "strongly_disagree"=>4, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>41, "agree"=>42, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>8} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>45, "agree"=>42, "disagree"=>7, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>4} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>43, "agree"=>26, "disagree"=>9, "strongly_disagree"=>5, "dont_know"=>16} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>51, "agree"=>41, "disagree"=>1, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>4} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>50, "agree"=>32, "disagree"=>12, "strongly_disagree"=>4, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>51, "agree"=>31, "disagree"=>7, "strongly_disagree"=>7, "dont_know"=>4} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019
Yes No {"yes"=>86, "no"=>14} UNLOCK Figures based on 74 responses up to 18-07-2019

Responses taken from Ofsted Parent View

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