Bordon Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Bordon Junior School enjoy their active school days. A wide range of clubs, including fencing and cooking, are used to encourage pupils to try new things and to enable them to nurture and develop their talents. Within the school day, pupils can learn to play a range of musical instruments, including in the context of joining a rock band.

Through their participation in these activities, pupils develop a sense of pride in being a member of the school community, and a greater confidence in themselves. Pupils in the hockey team are very proud of their recent success at an inter-school hockey competition and have reported on this in the school newspaper.

Leaders ...and staff have high expectations of pupils.

They teach pupils the behaviours, manners and courtesies that are expected of them now, but which will also serve them well in the future. Pupils are actively taught how to be a good friend and how to manage when something goes wrong in a friendship. They know when they can resolve a problem themselves and when they need an adult to help them.

Parents appreciate the ways in which the school helps their children with academic work but also develops their inter-personal and leadership skills. Parents with older children feel that Bordon has really helped their children to get ready for the next stage of education.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Since the last inspection, senior leaders have focused on realising their ambition to provide a high-quality education to all pupils.

Leaders recognise the importance of curriculum design, and across the subjects they have worked to map out precisely what children need to learn at each stage.

This work is at an advanced stage in many subjects. However, in a small number of subjects, leaders have not thought carefully enough about what pupils will learn about how each subject works.

In these subjects, although pupils learn the important factual information they need to, they learn less about how this information came about or is used. For example, in history, leaders have planned the features of historical periods that pupils will learn about very carefully. Their thinking has been less precise in relation to how pupils will learn about the ways in which historians investigate the past.

Alongside this work on the curriculum, leaders have also worked to develop teaching expertise so that every pupil, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, is able to achieve the best possible outcomes. This work is particularly well developed in mathematics. Precise pre-unit assessments enable teachers to identify the gaps that individuals, groups or classes might have.

These gaps are then addressed very quickly by expert teachers.Reading is well prioritised within the school. Teachers read to pupils each day, and pupils benefit from a well-stocked school library.

Leaders implemented a new phonics programme in September 2022. All staff have been trained in this new approach. Pupils at an early stage of reading are now getting the right support.

As the new approach embeds, leaders will need to ensure that pupils are becoming increasingly fluent and confident readers. This will enable pupils to access the rest of the curriculum.

Leaders have considered the texts that pupils will read within the English curriculum.

However, sometimes it is not clear why particular texts have been chosen. Some are too easy. Others are reinforcing the already narrow reading preferences of some pupils.

More widely, the precision of sequencing seen in most other subjects is not as clear in English. Some aspects of the English curriculum are not planned and taught as well as they should be. Leaders have identified this through their monitoring and are working with the multi-academy trust to review the English curriculum.

Curriculum thinking is a real strength within the school. However, some curriculums have been introduced recently, or have recently undergone review. At present, the quality of pupils' work in several subjects, including English, is still variable.

Leaders recognise that as the curriculum in each subject embeds, they will need to be monitoring carefully, making adaptations to curriculum design or to teaching to ensure that the work pupils produce reflects leaders' ambitious curriculum aims.

The school's personal development programme has been coherently planned, with the changing needs of the school's pupils firmly in mind. All pupils consistently benefit from a wide range of enriching and inspiring experiences.

Supporting pupils with their well-being is key. Pupils learn how to recognise their own emotional needs and how they can improve their own feeling of well-being and happiness. A range of pupil roles, including 'young governors', forest school leaders and secondary school ambassadors, enable pupils to contribute within and beyond the school community.

Staff feel supported by senior leaders. They feel valued and appreciate that leaders invest in their professional development. Staff benefit from the additional access to professional development that the trust provides.

Since the school has joined a multi-academy trust, the arrangements for governance have been significantly strengthened. Local governors are committed and passionate. They know the school and its local context very well.

Trustees bring a broad range of expertise to their roles and are rigorous in challenging senior school and trust leaders in the best interests of the school's pupils.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff know pupils very well.

They have been trained to identify when a pupil might be at risk of harm. Staff know how to raise their concerns with the school's designated safeguarding leads. Leaders responsible for safeguarding refer their concerns to external safeguarding partners.

School safeguarding leads are supported in their roles by the trust's safeguarding lead. With this support, leaders escalate their concerns with external partners when they do not feel a pupil is getting the right help. The school follow safer recruitment procedures.

Since the last inspection, there have been no reports of safeguarding concerns that relate to staff and no referrals to the local authority designated officer.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some aspects of the English curriculum have not been coherently planned and sequenced towards clear end points. This includes the texts that pupils will read within the curriculum.

As a result, pupils are not achieving as well in English as they should. Leaders need to ensure that all aspects of the English curriculum, including the texts that pupils read across the English curriculum, are coherently planned and sequenced. ? In a small number of subjects, leaders have not thought carefully enough about what pupils will learn about how each subject works.

Additionally, the important concepts that pupils should re-encounter as they move through the intended curriculum in each subject are not always clearly understood. This has an impact on how well pupils can integrate new knowledge with what they have learned before. Leaders need to review these curriculums to ensure that teaching develops pupils' understanding of these aspects of the curriculum in tandem.

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