Hazelbury Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

Pupils are extremely considerate of each other, valuing and celebrating each other's differences, and behaviour is exemplary. This is because the development of pupils' spiritual, moral and social skills is exceptionally good. It is given a high priority by the school, which very successfully encourages parents and carers to be fully involved in their children's education.

Pupils achieve well, and at times outstandingly well. Progress is good for all groups because leaders and teachers know how well pupils are doing and check none is falling behind. The school's promotion of equality and diversity is excellent.

Staff make sure t...hat there is absolutely no discrimination between groups so that all pupils have the same excellent opportunities to flourish individually and achieve well. The school uses additional funding from the government extremely effectively to support pupils and their families, including those eligible for free school meals. As a result, these pupils do well, and exceed similar pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics.

The outstanding leadership by the headteacher, deputy headteacher and assistant headteachers is acknowledged by parents, carers, staff, governors and the local authority alike. Their drive for improvement is described as 'relentless'. Together with other staff they constantly strive for ways to improve teaching and children's achievement.

Raising levels of achievement and securing a culture where pupils are really keen to learn and supported by families have been their priorities. Governors are particularly good at finding out for themselves how well the school is doing. They use such information extremely effectively to challenge leaders and hold them to account.

It is not yet an outstanding school because: Not enough teaching is outstanding. In some lessons teachers talk for too long and pupils are not involved quickly enough in learning that is well matched to their abilities. This hinders their progress.

In some lessons pupils who show they can do the work are not always moved on quickly enough to harder things, which slows their progress.

Information about this school

This is a larger-than-average size infant school. It shares its site with a children's centre which was not part of this inspection.

The school has agreed with Hazelbury Junior School, which also shares the site, to become part of a federation, the Hazelbury Learning Community, from September 2013. The headteacher of the infant school has been acting headteacher at the junior school from September 2012 and was recently appointed executive headteacher for the federation. The vast majority of children are from a wide range of minority ethnic heritages.

Approximately three quarters of the children speak English as an additional language. When they join most are at the early stages of learning English. Half the pupils are eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for children in the care of the local authority, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those from service families.

This is double the national average. The school currently has no pupils from service families. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs and receive support through school action is double the national average.

The proportion being supported through school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is also above average. The proportion of pupils who join the school after the Early Years Foundation Stage is broadly average. Of these most join at the early stages of learning English and a significant proportion have had no previous schooling.

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