Haslemere Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Haslemere Primary is a good school with happy pupils and cheery staff.

Parents and carers are pleased with the warmth and care shown to their children. One parent commented, 'I have always been impressed with the ethos and atmosphere of the school and with the talents and dedication of the staff.' This was typical of the views of many.

Children, many with limited skills, get off to a flying start in the nursery class and continue to make good progress to leave Year 6 with attainment in English and mathematics in line with the national average. Pupils who speak English as an additional language are very well supported. On occasion, pupils at the early stages of learning English make exceptiona...l progress in their language skills.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities make similarly good progress to their peers. Due to concerted and successful efforts, the number of persistent absentees has decreased and attendance levels are good. Pupils are polite and courteous.

They move around the school sensibly and are proud ambassadors for their school. In an assembly, pupils were captivated by the tale of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, posing perceptive questions and offering imaginative suggestions. In lessons, most pupils behave very well but on occasion, learning lacks sparkle when pace and challenge slacken.

For example, more able pupils sometimes waste time sitting through lengthy explanatory introductions when they already know what they should be doing. However, most teaching is good and helps pupils to make good progress in their learning. Teachers mark work consistently well, boosting self-esteem and encouraging pupils to comment on the quality of their work.

All pupils have learning targets, but as they are not always up to date, pupils do not use them effectively to increase their independence in improving their writing, reading or mathematics across the curriculum. Teachers are well organised and make the most of their effective teaching assistants to ensure all pupils, whatever their ability, are well involved in learning. Boys are progressing just as well as girls because interesting themes stimulate their imagination.

A Year 6 lesson on the traditional Maori Haka dance proved a good basis for lively and imaginative writing. Over the last two years, the school has improved attainment in writing considerably by prioritising it in the school development plan and ensuring teachers are confident and knowledgeable in perfecting pupils' writing skills. Teachers make good use of detailed tracking data to ensure any pupil falling behind is given individual attention to catch up.

Senior leaders regularly monitor the effectiveness of teaching and give teachers very detailed feedback. Nevertheless, they do not distil this valuable information into a single whole-school focus to move the quality of teaching and learning up to consistently higher levels. The headteacher is ambitious for his pupils and frequently reminds teachers of the goals for improved attainment.

The senior leaders work well as a team, each taking full accountability for their areas of responsibility and keeping the governing body up to date with information about attainment and achievement. Self-evaluation is accurate and based on a detailed analysis of performance. The school has moved from being satisfactory to good by successfully tackling development areas from the last inspection.

Improved attendance rates and higher attainment in writing indicates that the school has good capacity for sustained and further improvement.

Information about the school

Haslemere Primary is larger than most primary schools. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is much higher than average.

Almost three quarters of pupils come from minority ethnic backgrounds, with the largest group of Black African heritage. Nearly half of all pupils speak English as an additional language, with nearly a quarter at the early stages of learning English. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, mostly relating to speech and language communication problems or behavioural and emotional difficulties, is higher than average.

The governing body manages a breakfast and an after-school club on the school premises. The children's centre on site was not part of this inspection. The school holds the Healthy Schools' Award.