School celebrating double inspection success

St Nicolas & St Mary CE Primary School, in Eastern Avenue, Shoreham, was visited by Ofsted before Christmas, shortly after it had hosted a Church of England Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) inspector.

The ungraded Ofsted inspection found the school had ‘taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection’, which had resulted in an overall ‘good’ rating.

The inspector’s report noted the school set ‘high expectations for pupils’ academic outcomes and behaviour’.

It went on: “Pupils achieve highly with their learning and in many areas they excel. They are well prepared for their next educational steps. Pupils behave well and are attentive learners. They live up to the school’s ‘rainbow rules’ in the way they show respect to each other and are kind and helpful.”

The report also noted pupils ‘enjoy coming to school, where they are happy and well-cared for’ and how they have a ‘genuine voice in decision-making’ at the school.

It added a strong reading culture was the ‘bedrock’ of the school with pupils becoming ‘extremely confident and skilled readers’. “The school is determined to translate the strength in reading to other subjects across the school,” the report said. “Their work has been highly effective across much of the curriculum, particularly in mathematics.”

The report also said pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities were ‘accurately identified and given the support they need to access the full curriculum’, and the school’s wider offer – such as music and work with community groups – benefits pupils’ personal development.

Working to improve pupils’ use of appropriate punctuation and grammar when writing was the only area where the inspector said the school could improve.

The earlier SIAMS inspection focused on the impact of the church school’s Christian vision on pupils and adults. The report listed as strengths the values of the school being deeply embedded and how school leaders had created a supportive culture of learning, adding: “This is a school where people know that they are loved.”

Head teacher Andy Lincoln said: “As a school community we are incredibly happy to have received such positive inspection reports.

“The school has coped wonderfully with a number of challenges over the last couple of years, which is why the acknowledgment that we are able to offer an environment in which everyone knows they are loved, the children receive a wide range of enrichment opportunities and they achieve well, and many excel by the time they leave the school, gives everyone involved in the life of our school an immense sense pride and desire to continue to allow our children to flourish.”