Hawksmoor School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, staff and parents and/or carers acknowledge the significant improvements that leaders have recently introduced. One parent, reflecting the views of many, said: 'We love this school, including the teachers, the engagement from the leadership team with everyone, and the positive effect this school has on our children.' Leaders include them all in making this a community where pupils thrive.

Strong professional relationships with staff encourage pupils to report any concerns and feel safe.

The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve highly. Pupils do particularly well in reading and mathematics.

Pupils' behaviour is exemplary. The school encourages... them to be kind, resilient and to work with others. Pupils are considerate of the feelings and needs of others.

They readily offer help, and they take care of one another by including others at playtime. Pupils take up positions of responsibility, including through the school council.

A programme of visits and visitors enhances the planned curriculum, including outings to a local nature reserve and visits from artists.

Leaders provide a range of opportunities to broaden pupils' experiences and interests, including clubs for French, dance, football, basketball and multi-sports. Pupils take part in concerts, poetry competitions and sporting events. Pupils are encouraged to make a positive contribution to the local community by, for example, designing Christmas cards for a local community care service.

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

The school has devised a broad curriculum that is ambitious for all, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders have swiftly identified and addressed gaps in the curriculum. Staff are emphatically positive about the changes leaders have made.

They appreciate the support for their workload and well-being. For example, there are deliberate, carefully planned opportunities for reasoning and problem-solving in mathematics.

Generally, the subject content that pupils need to know has been carefully selected and ordered into a sequence that enables them to reach ambitious end points.

Typically, teaching and support are precisely focused on the main aims of the curriculum.

Checks on all pupils' learning are used to measure pupils' understanding and to inform future learning. All this helps pupils to learn the important 'big ideas' of the curriculum and build cumulative knowledge across different subjects.

For example, pupils in Year 6 drew reliably on prior knowledge of place value, multiplication and addition when solving long multiplication. This learning starts in the early years, where children practise and embed key knowledge, such as counting forward and backwards and singing number songs.

Curriculum thinking in other subjects is not as well developed, and teaching is less securely focused on helping pupils to learn key concepts and remember and refine their knowledge over time, including in early years.

As a result, sometimes, pupils struggle to recall their prior learning.

Concepts are explained clearly in class. Information is presented in ways that pupils find easy to understand, and learning helps pupils to understand key ideas.

Teaching helps pupils to recall important prior learning and to build new content on what they already know and understand. For example, in history, pupils in Year 6 compared the leadership of civilizations, empires and kingdoms by drawing on what they had learned about the Roman Empire in Year 4 and about ancient Islamic civilizations in Year 5.

Leaders have made reading a top curriculum priority.

All staff have received comprehensive training to teach reading. The school regularly checks how well pupils are learning to read. Pupils read books that are carefully matched to their phonics knowledge.

This supports their reading fluency. The school identifies any pupils who fall behind in phonics and provides support so that they catch up quickly. Pupils enjoy reading.

Carefully selected texts help to broaden pupils' vocabulary and knowledge.

The needs of pupils with SEND are carefully identified. Teachers make thoughtful adaptations to resources and teaching that help pupils with SEND to follow the curriculum.

Pupils are attentive, engaged and motivated in the classroom. They do not give up easily when they find tasks demanding. In early years, children are taught to share and take turns, which encourages children's social and emotional development.

Pupils are encouraged to make safe, informed, responsible choices. They are taught to recognise healthy relationships and about the beliefs, cultures and traditions of people from diverse backgrounds. Pupils are made aware of the importance of treating everyone equally and with respect.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Where the curriculum is less well developed, pupils are not helped to learn the main aims of the curriculum as securely as in other subjects, and their knowledge and recall are less strong than in other subjects. The school should ensure that curriculum thinking in all foundation subjects is equally strong as in other subjects.

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