The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have established a focus upon continuing improvement that is shared by all staff and members of the governing body. You have strengthened leadership by giving middle leaders responsibility for both implementing and evaluating the impact of improvement strategies. You and your teaching team have reviewed the teaching and the assessment of the new national curriculum and brought in changes that are providing additional challenge for pupils. As a result of effective teaching, strong systems and clear leadership direction, pupils make good progress and achieve good and improving standards. You and your team have addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. The school improvement plan is now carefully measured and monitored to evaluate its ongoing impact. Your staff have a clear awareness of areas for improvement, many of which are incorporated into their performance objectives. You and your team carefully consider the potential value of improvement strategies before committing time and funding to their implementation. You have given subject and phase leaders increasing responsibility for sharing good practice and there are signs that these approaches are improving pupils’ progress. You and your team have a sharp understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. Your English subject leader has brought in new strategies to improve pupils’ writing. Pupils are using discussion and dramatic gesture to strengthen their understanding of story structure. These approaches are being implemented with purpose and enthusiasm across the school. However, this initiative remains at an early stage and boys continue to make slower progress in writing than girls. Your mathematics leader is developing new initiatives to heighten pupils’ problem-solving and reasoning. In books and classes, there is evidence that these approaches are improving progress and enabling increasing proportions of pupils to work at a greater depth of understanding. In 2017, your team responded more purposefully to the demands of the new national curriculum, with improving outcomes across all key stages. Pupils made good progress in reading and mathematics at the end of key stage 2, although their progress in writing was not as strong. The proportions of pupils reaching expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics were above those seen nationally at keys stages 1 and 2. The proportions of pupils reaching a greater depth of understanding were below that seen nationally in reading and writing, particularly for boys, and above that seen nationally in mathematics and English grammar, punctuation and spelling tests. You and your team maintain a focus on high standards through regular monitoring. You review pupils’ progress on a termly basis and additional work sampling provides ongoing focus on the quality of provision. You and your team have sought additional scrutiny to check standards from external partners and the local authority. Advisers from the local authority worked with leaders to improve provision and assessment in the early years. Leaders’ actions contributed to a 10% improvement in the proportion of children achieving a good level of development in 2017, although more needs to be done to improve the proportions of pupils exceeding those standards. You and your middle leaders work with cluster schools to regularly moderate pupils’ work, leading to accurate standards of assessment. By balancing professional development with close monitoring, you are establishing strong processes that are supporting continuing progress. You and your team engender a culture of mutual respect and tolerance where the uniqueness of every child is valued. Pupils appreciate opportunities to take on responsibilities and Year 6 pupils provide support for children in the early years. Pupils value their education and this is reflected in the exceptionally high rates of attendance that you have sustained. Governors have a very strong understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. They apply their expertise well. Governors with professional experience in areas such as finance, safeguarding and special educational needs (SEN) use their knowledge to provide appropriate support and challenge. The chair of governors and her team have devised appropriate committee structures to hold leaders to account. They receive regular information on pupils’ progress and question leaders, including subject leaders, on aspects of progress. Governors carry out regular visits to the school to gain direct insight into pupils’ perceptions and progress.