Hall Green Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Hall Green Junior School provides its pupils with a good education.

Aspirations for pupils' progress are strong and their achievement by the end of Year 6 is outstanding. Attainment has risen from above average at the time of the last inspection and is now high, especially so in mathematics at the higher level 5. All groups of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make equally good progress and some pupils make exceptional progress, particularly in mathematics.

Key factors in pupils' achievement are the high expectations of staff, spurred on by the headteachers' continuous drive to unearth innovative methods for promoting pupils' learning. The school is a... learning community where ambitious new ideas are fully researched and measured steps are taken to ensure these are consistently implemented. Leaders are conspicuously successful in ensuring that recent appointments, including teachers new to the profession, adapt quickly and acquire the expertise necessary to share in the school's good practice.

Consequently, teaching is very rarely less than good and some of it is outstanding. Pupils are motivated by their 'learning passport' rewards, enjoy their learning and talk confidently about how they can improve their work. They have a very clear grasp of their personal targets which they review in individually timetabled meetings with their class teachers.

This enables them to understand whether they have succeeded in understanding concepts and this supports their capacity to learn independently in lessons. Pupils benefit considerably from the re-designed curriculum; for example, their lessons in the weekly core skills afternoon are to develop enquiry, problem-solving and risk-taking skills. Outside lessons, however, opportunities are missed to promote pupils' collaborative and leadership skills and thereby further extend their personal development.

The school's capacity for improvement is good. The school has maintained its overall quality since its last inspection. Leaders' unrelenting focus on pupils' achievement, the detailed tracking system and secure processes for monitoring teaching and learning ensure that these key aspects of the school's self-evaluation are accurate.

The school recently conducted surveys to measure the satisfaction of pupils, parents and carers with regard to the quality of provision. While the statistical returns were positive, inspection evidence indicates some disquiet about the quality of the school's relationship with parents and carers, especially with regard to communication, procedures and the ways in which their concerns are handled.

Information about the school

Hall Green Junior is larger than most primary schools.

A great majority of its pupils come from Asian backgrounds and one half of pupils are of Pakistani heritage. No pupil is at an early stage of learning English. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average.

The percentage of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average. Most of the teachers have joined the school in the last four years. The school has Healthy Schools status and its other awards include Investors in People and the Basic Skills Quality Mark.

A before- and after-school club for pupils aged from four to eleven years old operates on the adjacent infant school site. This is run by infant school staff and managed by the two schools' joint governing body. The club was observed as part of this inspection.