St Paulinus Catholic Primary Academy

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open and positive culture.
• Pupils feel a strong sense of belonging and attend in line with national averages.
• Behaviour is consistently good, with calm routines and rare serious incidents.
• Pupils have positive attitudes, respect others and benefit from effective dispute resolution.
• Personal development is comprehensive and woven through school life.
• Pupils learn age-appropriate life skills, online safety and British values.
• Pastoral support, including weekly nurture check-ins, is highly valued by pupils.
• Community outreach, such as linking elderly and young people, builds empathy.
• A range of educational visits and extra-curricular clubs enriches pupils' experience.
• Phonics is generally taught effectively and reading books match pupils' abilities.
• A new handwriting programme is improving letter formation and fluency.
• Leaders have an ambitious vision and a clear, accurate understanding of priorities.
• Staff wellbeing and workload are well supported, and staff are optimistic.
• Governance is realistic, reflective and fulfils statutory duties effectively.
• Leaders use pupil premium funding appropriately and have strengthened SEND identification.
• Early years provision meets statutory welfare requirements and has some early positives.

Areas for Improvement

• KS2 outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics are below or significantly below national averages.
• Disadvantaged pupils' outcomes are well below national, with a large disadvantage gap.
• Many pupils have gaps in basic knowledge and skills that hinder achievement.
• Pupils are not well prepared academically for the next stage of education.
• Teaching is not consistently high quality across all subjects and classes.
• Curriculum is not yet sufficiently ambitious and high quality across all subjects.
• Adaptations for pupils with SEND are not consistently effective or well matched.
• Disadvantaged pupils do not receive precise enough support in some subjects.
• Older pupils' reading misconceptions are not always quickly identified and corrected.
• Early years activities sometimes lack purpose, limiting children's learning and Year 1 readiness.
• Children with SEND in early years do not always receive support quickly enough.
• Extra-curricular attendance information is not used effectively to ensure clubs appeal to all pupils.
• Leadership improvement work is in early stages and impact cannot yet be measured.
• Governance acknowledges leaders historically did not act swiftly enough on weaknesses from last inspection.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools