Inspection Reports

Our latest Inspection reports from both Ofsted and the Diocese (Section 48) can be found here.

Ofsted - July 2026
The inspection team really captured the essence of St. Mary's: "Pupils thrive in this caring school. The culture is shaped clearly by the school’s values of pray, learn, love and enjoy. Leaders, governors, staff and pupils live out these values in daily routines and interactions, creating a warm, purposeful and respectful environment."

We encourage you to read the report in full but some of the highlights for us include:

• ...inclusive ethos creates a rich sense of belonging in this joyful community. 

• Warm, supportive relationships between staff and pupils underpin a culture of respect and belonging.

• Children secure excellent foundational knowledge in the highly effective early years provision, giving them a strong start to their education and preparing them well for key stage 1.

• Pupils know and remember important knowledge effectively, apply their learning with increasing confidence and leave the school well prepared for the next stage of their education.

• ...impressive pastoral care that enables pupils facing emotional challenges to engage successfully with school life.

New Framework

As you may know, Ofsted has changed its framework and schools are no longer given a one word-grade but a report card system is used. This link provides further information and please also see outlined the 'grade explainers:' https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-ofsted-report-cards-and-grades
 

What the new Ofsted grades tell you

The ‘expected standard’ is just that – it means the school or other provider is doing everything that it should be doing, so you’ll see the green colour coding on the report card. It’s a high standard, to make sure your children are receiving everything they need and deserve.

Moving up the scale, ‘strong standard’ marks out excellent, consistent work that’s making a real difference for children and learners.

And finally, there’s ‘exceptional’. We only award this grade when we see practice that is among the very best nationally, which should be shared with other schools or providers to help them improve.

‘Needs attention’ is an indication that there is work to be done to reach the ‘expected standard’. It’s not a ‘fail’ but it highlights where issues can be addressed before they become bigger problems that need ‘urgent improvement’.

You may see a mix of grades across a report card: it’s perfectly possible to achieve highly in some areas, and require a little more focus in others.