Hensall Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have a great deal of respect for each other and for staff in the school. Staff expect pupils to listen carefully and to try their best in their work.

Pupils are keen to rise to these expectations and are proud of their achievements. On the very few occasions when a pupil is unkind to someone else in the school, staff intervene swiftly to stop it becoming a bigger problem, such as bullying.

Pupils enjoy learning important knowledge, such as how to make electric circuits in science or how to keep a pulse in music.

In many subjects, they remember what they have learned and use it in subsequent learning. However, in some subjects, pupils sometimes forget t...his knowledge in following years when it is does not clearly link to what they have already been taught.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in the life of the school.

Leaders make sure that all educational visits and clubs are suitable for all pupils. Staff ask pupils with SEND what helps them to be happy and successful. Leaders then set up opportunities and activities, such as the 'Hazel Hub' at lunchtime.

This is a quiet, indoor space for pupils to have a more relaxed breaktime, where they can chat to their friends and take part in a range of activities to support their well-being. This is open to all, so it benefits a wide range of pupils.

When pupils want a more adventurous breaktime, there is lots for them to do outside.'

Sports leaders' help pupils to keep fit and healthy by setting up games for them. Pupils enjoy running around the 'wellbeing way' and using the gym equipment. Pupils also have plenty of opportunities to play competitive sports against other schools or to sing in the school choir.

Pupils across different year groups get together for 'Feelgood Friday' to learn with, and meet, a wider range of pupils. They focus on whole-school themes, such as careers, charity and keeping safe.

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

Leaders are considerate of the needs of all pupils when designing the curriculum and how it is taught.

Nearly all pupils follow the curriculum as intended, and teachers make changes to the work they give to pupils with SEND to ensure they can access it. Pupils understand the need to help others, and they work with each other in lessons successfully. Everyone accepts and follows the need of the school community to achieve well.

Pupils with SEND achieve well and develop important social skills alongside their other learning.

Leaders have introduced a phonics curriculum that is clear and precise. They have trained staff to teach this curriculum well.

Pupils practise sounds they have been taught in the past, and they are then shown how to pronounce new sounds. Staff know exactly which sounds pupils do or do not know and make sure that pupils get to practise these specific gaps in their knowledge. Staff give books to pupils with words for them to decode.

Alongside this important work, pupils also enjoy a rich variety of stories and poems. Pupils learn poems and recite them in class, or sometimes in the local church for a wider audience

Some subjects, such as mathematics, science and computing, are very clearly planned in accordance with what pupils will learn and when. Teachers are clear about what to teach and check that pupils have remembered what they have been taught in the past.

However, in some subjects, such as history and geography, this is not as clear. Leaders have not clearly identified how what pupils learn in each year group builds on what they already know. Pupils remember some basic facts, such as their learning about the palaeontologist Mary Anning in history, but work set does not enable pupils to develop a body of knowledge around historical concepts.

Teachers are well trained to teach in mixed-age classes. They use effective teaching methods, such as using explanation to help revise previous learning for older pupils and to introduce new information for younger pupils. Teaching assistants teach pupils well when teachers decide that pupils need different inputs.

Leaders have clearly defined strategies that teachers should implement, such as the use of examples when teaching the spelling of words. Teachers use these strategies well, and pupils understand what they need to do, as the methods are used consistently. Teachers check on pupils regularly and help them if they do not understand something first time.

Children in the early years quickly settle into routines and can use resources independently. However, the curriculum in the early years is sometimes not being used well by staff. Staff sometimes ask children to carry out activities that are too complex for them or where they do not have enough knowledge to be successful.

Governors know the school well and talk to subject leaders about the quality of the curriculum. They challenge leaders to ensure that planned actions are followed through and are having a positive impact. Leaders pass on the information they obtain from talking to pupils and checking their work.

However, some of this monitoring of the curriculum is not precise enough. Leaders do not focus enough on what pupils can do or have remembered. Governors do not ask leaders enough questions about the content of what is taught.

This means that some actions are not as helpful in making improvements to the curriculum as they could be.

Leaders have ensured that pupils develop their maturity and decision making in the school. There is a clear focus on pupils becoming responsible and compassionate citizens, both locally and in the wider world.

Pupils learn about different people in society and how to celebrate these differences. Pupils raise money for local charities by thinking of innovative business ideas and then deciding which charity to donate to. Pupils are taught about different careers and aspire to be astronauts, artists or aviation engineers.

Pupils are given a variety of responsibilities, such as school councillors, librarians or sports leaders. The school council develops ideas for improving the school environment. Currently, pupils are using these ideas to improve a field to become a wildlife meadow with a quiet reading garden.

Leaders then link these opportunities by delivering messages in assembly about being respectful and the importance of democracy.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and governors have made sure that safeguarding pupils is truly at the heart of what they do.

Local risks to children are very well considered in the curriculum that pupils are taught. This knowledge is then brought to life through educational visits and visitors, such as a local police officer coming in to talk to pupils. If pupils are worried about something, they feel that they have an adult to talk to or can discuss it in their 'Wellbeing Wednesday' sessions in class.

Staff are also well trained in how to look out for local risks, such as criminal exploitation. Staff pick up on any small concerns and pass them on to leaders, who work well with agencies, such as social care, to deliver appropriate help for families.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, such as history, and areas of learning in the early years, such as understanding the world, there is a lack of coherence in the knowledge that has been mapped out by leaders.

Some of what pupils learn in one year group does not successfully build on what they have been taught in the past, and they forget important concepts. Leaders need to better define the important knowledge in some subjects and areas for learning. ? Staff in the early years sometimes select activities for children that are not suitable, as they do not help children to learn or practise the knowledge and skills identified in the curriculum.

Children do not secure the essential knowledge and skills as well as they could. Leaders should train staff to ensure that activity choices in the early years are matched more precisely to the curriculum design. ? Some of the monitoring activities that leaders carry out do not give them sufficient information about what pupils have remembered.

Governors do not ask enough questions about this. Some actions are not as clearly focused on improving the curriculum to the benefit of pupils' long-term memory as they need to be. Leaders and governors should ensure they are focusing on the content of the curriculum and what has been remembered by pupils when monitoring its success.