The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. This is because you have successfully strengthened leadership capacity at senior and middle levels since your appointment in January 2016. You trust other members of staff to lead aspects of the school’s work. This, in turn, heightens the important contribution they make to improving pupils’ outcomes. Leaders know the school and its pupils well. You are aware of the areas for improvement, such as writing at key stage 2, and have set about tackling them swiftly and with vigour. Governors are also keenly aware of what needs to improve in the school. They provide the necessary degree of challenge and support to ensure that leaders stay focused on the key issues. Governors’ challenge is informed by performance information and the findings of external advisers. The area adviser for the multi-academy trust of which the school is a part has provided useful support to governors in this respect. As a result, they know the right questions to ask and can evaluate the answers to good effect. Strong leadership has nurtured a collective responsibility among staff to improve teaching and raise achievement for all pupils. The deputy headteacher and middle leaders create opportunities for staff to share expertise and moderate work externally. Leaders have ensured that staff understand, and can apply, the school’s assessment system. This means that pupils’ progress is closely tracked so that needs are understood well, and allows you to target any support that is required. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils, those who speak English as an additional language and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported. Pupils take advantage of various programmes, alongside the tailored support provided by teaching assistants, to improve their English and mathematical skills. This is helping them to achieve better than in the past. Pupils in most year groups, regardless of ability or background, make good progress in their different subjects as they move through the school. This is because they are taught well by teachers who use their subject knowledge confidently to prepare interesting, stimulating work. Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning as a result because they enjoy the work, are curious to know more and want to improve their work. Pupils not only behave well in lessons but also during breaktimes and around the school site. They are polite and respectful to one another. Leaders, working through staff, have created a welcoming school. Pupils enjoy their school experience. One pupil I spoke to said, ‘the teachers have such a good bond with the pupils.’ Parents are also highly supportive of the school’s work. All those who responded to the Parent View survey agreed that their child was happy in school, made good progress and was taught well. The overwhelming majority of parents also felt that the school was led well and would recommend the school to others. At the beginning of the inspection, we agreed on the key lines of enquiry to be considered during the day. These included establishing the effectiveness of actions taken to raise pupils’ achievement in different subjects at key stage 2, the effectiveness of actions to reduce absence and exclusions for different groups of pupils, and whether safeguarding is effective. These lines of enquiry are considered below under ‘Safeguarding’ and ‘Inspection findings’. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and the wider staff take their responsibilities for safeguarding seriously. The policies and procedures that inform day-to-day practice are robust and up to date. As a result of receiving the appropriate training, staff are clear about what they should do if they have concerns about pupils. Securely kept referrals and logs are comprehensively detailed and ordered, enabling staff to follow up issues in a timely and effective way. The chair of the governing body also has oversight of safeguarding, which further strengthens its monitoring. Pupils report that they feel safe. Pupils I spoke to said that there are many staff they would willingly talk to if they had concerns or felt anxious about anything. Adequate checks are in place to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. Procedures to establish the suitability of staff have become more rigorous to ensure that the school is compliant with current expectations. Multi-academy trust representatives have recently undertaken an audit of safeguarding records. As a result, leaders are ensuring that the records they hold are accurate and complete.