The last OFSTED inspection was in October 2007 and the school acheived an overall Grade 2 - Good. You can download the Inspection Report here:

www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_reports/download/(id)/88737/(as)/133288_316063.pdf

The Report has this to say about the Overall effectiveness of the school:

St Elizabeth Catholic Primary is a good school with many outstanding features. It is effective because it has good leadership and management, good teaching and a well-planned curriculum. Securely underpinning all of the school's work is the high quality provision for promoting the personal development of pupils through its strong Catholic ethos.

The school enjoys a well-deserved reputation within its local community for the education it provides. 'My husband and I are extremely happy with the school'; 'there is a strong sense of community'; 'I really made a wise choice by sending my children to this school' are just a few of the overwhelmingly positive comments received from parents.

The school has an excellent track record of ensuring that pupils achieve well. It consistently moves children from below average starting points when they join the Nursery to high standards by the time they leave at the end of Year 6. As they move through the school, pupils' progress accelerates. Progress is satisfactory in the Foundation Stage, good in Key Stage 1 and outstanding overall in Key Stage 2. The progress made by pupils in Key Stage 2 is particularly rapid because the school makes particularly good use of information from its close monitoring of pupils' performance in this key stage. This enables teachers to provide progressively more focused help to individuals. In addition, teaching in Year 6 is frequently excellent because it generates high levels of interest and enjoyment through the range of methods used by teachers. For example, a Year 6 English lesson captivated the pupils through the unfolding story provided by letters from a distant planet, and enabled them to develop skills in drawing inferences from text. The school is not content to rest on its laurels. It knows that in a few classes pupils only make satisfactory progress, because teaching is less effective than elsewhere. This is due to a variety of reasons. For example, in one of the classes observed, the activities provided for average and higher attaining pupils were not challenging enough. The school is working hard to ensure greater consistency in the quality of teaching. It is doing this through close monitoring of teachers' performance and high quality staff training.

An outstanding feature of the school, and one that contributes strongly to the very good climate for learning evident in all classes, is the personal development of the pupils. This is evident in the demeanour of its pupils, for whom qualities of respect, honesty and consideration for others are everyday features of school life. Pupils know very clearly how to keep healthy and safe. The school is helping promote this in many ways including, for example, the 'Walk to school on Wednesday' scheme. The work of the school council helps to promote pupils' excellent skills in citizenship and the strong sense of community within the school. The school councillors interviewed by the inspector were bright and highly articulate. They felt that the pupils have a voice in the development of the school, and spoke enthusiastically about a number of improvements initiated by them, such as the better playground facilities for pupils in Key Stage 1. Pupils get on extremely well together. The school is very good at promoting and celebrating the richness and diversity of pupils' cultural heritage. For instance, the school community greatly enjoyed a recent 'International Day'. This contributed well to pupils' excellent spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Behaviour is good overall. In closely controlled situations, such as in lessons and when entering or leaving assembly, it is often impeccable.

The school's average attendance rate does not reflect pupils' real enthusiasm for all aspects of school. The school reports that many absences are due to holidays taken in term time. The school has successfully improved rates of punctuality, and works closely in partnership with Inspection Report: St Elizabeth Catholic Primary School, 4 October 2007 4 of 9 parents. The 'Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities' project was well received by parents and proved to be very useful to them.

St Elizabeth is a school in which every child really does matter. The high quality day-to-day care provided for pupils is an excellent feature appreciated by the pupils. 'People really look after us here' typifies the sort of remarks made by pupils when asked what they thought about their school. Regular, accurate assessments of pupils' progress and targets for improvement, shared each term with parents, enable teachers to give very clear guidance to pupils about= what they need to do to improve their work.

The fact that the significant changes in senior management over the past few months have not affected the school's performance is testimony to the robust systems established by the headteacher. All adults working in the school share a clear sense of purpose and work very well together as a team. There are extremely rigorous systems for monitoring the performance of the school, and governors play a key part in this process. The acting headteacher is leading the school with energy and determination. Two consultant headteachers are working closely with her to provide good advice whenever she needs it.