Hartside Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Senior leaders have high expectations of all staff and pupils.

A relentless drive to secure rapid improvement is evident everywhere. As a result the legacy of underachievement is being successfully overcome. The quality of teaching has improved because of rigorous monitoring, timely support and effective training.

Teachers plan interesting activities based on sound assessment of pupils' learning. Classrooms are now hives of purposeful activity where pupils work well together, readily sharing ideas and thoughts. Their attitudes to learning are good.

Pupils behave well and with consideration for each other. They are warm, friendly ...and polite. All groups of pupils have made good progress this academic year, including those with special educational needs or disabilities, disadvantaged pupils and the most able pupils.

Standards have risen rapidly, especially in Years 1 to 5. Pupils feel safe and have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe. They say bullying is rare but when it does take place, it is managed well by their teachers.

Attendance is better than average and gaps are closing between the attendance rates of disadvantaged pupils and those of their peers. Children in the early years get off to a flying start. They make strong progress and achieve levels of development that are well above average.

They play happily together and quickly develop skills in language, literacy and mathematics. Governors are deeply involved in the life of the school. They have made sure that they have the levels of skill and knowledge required to be effective.

Consequently, governors challenge leaders and successfully hold them to account. The rich curriculum provides well for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepares them well for life in modern Britain. It is not yet an outstanding school because : The standards reached by the current Year 6 in the recent national tests are below average.

Although they made good progress recently, there was insufficient time for them to fully overcome the gaps in their learning resulting from poor teaching in the past. Pupils have too few opportunities to apply their mathematical knowledge. As a result, they lack confidence and their skills in reasoning and problem solving are underdeveloped.

Information about this school

The school has increased substantially in size since the previous inspection with the addition of Nursery provision for three-year-olds in September 2014. It is now an average sized primary school. Almost all children are of White British heritage and most speak English as their first language.

The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is broadly average. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority. More pupils are identified as having special educational needs or disabilities than average.

The school runs a breakfast club before school and an after-school club at the end of each school day. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in English and mathematics. The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.