The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, your staff and governors have worked relentlessly to ensure that pupils make good progress and are well prepared for the next stage of their education when they leave Year 4. This has been a challenge for you, due to the low starting points of the children on entry to the early years of learning. In addition, you have used the analysis of the pupils’ performance information to address the different barriers to learning that many of them present. Your drive and high expectations have paid off. Year-on-year standards have risen. In 2018, by the end of Year 2, a large proportion of pupils achieved the expected standard in writing and mathematics and increased numbers of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading. This is testimony to your ambitious leadership, which requires teachers to place a high emphasis on teaching skills of reading, writing and mathematics. You are tenacious in seeking out creative approaches that engage pupils in ’real life’ learning situations. You and your staff have designed a curriculum approach that uses drama and imaginary experiences to ‘hook’ pupils into learning. Your work on curriculum design is highly regarded, and this has had a very positive effect on raising aspirations in the community. Parents are delighted with what the school offers their children. One parent, speaking for many, said, ‘This school is like the family you never had.’ Parents are very appreciative of the help you offer them, especially the workshops on how to support their children’s learning at home. Staff are very supportive of your vision and they value the opportunities that you give them to work alongside professional artists and leaders in the field of drama in education. You have created a learning community where teachers are keen to learn from one another and seek best practice. As a result, this has created high levels of enthusiasm among pupils, who willingly give up their Saturdays. Pupils develop and share their learning with visitors, who are interested in seeing how they learn through the medium of drama. At the time of the last inspection you were asked to increase the opportunities for pupils to develop their writing skills both in poetry and stories. You placed particular emphasis on developing pupils’ skills of writing for multiple audiences. As a result, standards in writing have improved. For example, when studying the poem ‘Attack’ by Siegfried Sassoon, pupils in Year 4 conveyed a strong sense of the fear experienced by soldiers when going into battle. You have correctly identified that consistently tackling errors in their spellings will also improve the presentation of some pupils’ work. You were also asked to set more demanding work for the most able pupils. Leaders have developed a clear structure to give pupils different levels of challenge. However, teachers do not yet consistently provide some of the most able pupils, including disadvantaged boys, with work that challenges them sufficiently. While the most able pupils are, in general, now making better progress, it is not as strong as it could be, and does not enable these groups to achieve as highly as they should in reading and writing. Safeguarding is effective. A strong culture of safeguarding permeates the school. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe and governors meticulously undertake spot checks. For example, they routinely question staff about their knowledge of appropriate procedures to follow when a pupil’s welfare might be at risk. Pupils know whom to go to for help should they require an adult to talk to. Concerns are taken very seriously. All information is stored and communicated effectively. The school works very well with a number of outside agencies, especially the educational psychologist, speech and language therapist and play therapist. The school has good links with the police and is kept abreast of any issues facing the community. Pupils are adamant that there is no bullying and that everyone respects one another’s differences in a safe learning environment. Parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, are unanimous in their view that the school keeps their children safe.