A PRIMARY school in Daresbury has been praised by Ofsted in a new report, the first at the school since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Government's education watchdog says that pupils across the school are motivated to read, and school leaders have high expectations of pupils.

Daresbury Primary School became an academy school in November 2016, and a new headteacher - Paul Holloway - came to the school late last year.

The primary school was inspected over a two-day period by Ofsted at the beginning of March this year, where the inspectors rated the school as 'good.'

However, this is a slight downgrade since the school's last performance, when Ofsted judged it to be 'outstanding' before the school became an academy.

Daresbury Primary School was marked as 'good' across the board on the following criteria:

  • The quality of education
  • Behaviour and attitudes
  • Personal development
  • Leadership and management
  • Early years provision

The Ofsted report says: "Pupils feel cared for and safe.

"They said that staff know them well. Pupils described, with enthusiasm, the many things that they like about their school, especially the friends that they make."

In terms of improvements, however, the report explains that some staff members may need to brush up on their subject specialisms: "Some subject leaders are not sufficiently skilled or confident in ensuring that their intended subject curriculums are delivered effectively.

"In these subjects, teachers are less confident in designing learning that helps pupils to learn the more ambitious subject content effectively.

"As a result, pupils are not able to apply what they know as confidently and independently as they do in other subjects."

That being said, the report opens by outlining that Daresbury Primary 'is a happy and welcoming school.'

In the main, the report seems optimistic for the outlooks of pupils at the school, adding: "The current leadership team have made significant improvements to the curriculum.

"They have worked closely with leaders from across the multi-academy trust to design an ambitious curriculum for all pupils, including children in early years.

"However, some of this work is still quite new which means it is early days in terms of these curriculums being taught."