High Lawn Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

Almost every parent who returned a survey said they would recommend High Lawn to other parents. Pupils and staff are proud of the school which is very well led by the acting headteacher. Children get a good start to their school lives in the Nursery and Reception Classes.

The leader of teaching in the early years has made effective changes to improve teaching. All groups of pupils, across the school, achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics, and also in other subjects such as French, music, science and computing. Teaching in most subjects is good.

The school's effective use of high-quality teaching assistants is a streng...th which benefits the less-able and the most able pupils. Pupils' behaviour is outstanding and this is one of the main reasons why they make such good progress in lessons. Pupils are very keen, attentive, eager, and love facing challenging work.

They are a real credit to the school. Pupils' good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is shown in the way they play and work harmoniously together regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. Senior leaders and governors have invested in good quality staff training.

This has resulted in improvements to teaching and pupils' reading which is now a strength. Teaching for the youngest children has improved significantly. Teachers' questioning skills and their checks on pupils' learning during lessons have improved and enable all groups of pupils to make good progress.

It is not yet an outstanding school because: Across the school, the most able pupils who are supported by the pupil premium do not attain the highest standards. Although pupils feel safe and the school prepares them well to avoid danger when using the internet, more could be done to educate and protect pupils about extremist behaviours in society. Leaders at all levels check on the work of the school frequently and thoroughly.

The checks on the quality of pupils' work do not always identify precisely what should be done to further raise the quality of teaching. Governors do not thoroughly check the impact of external sources of funding on outcomes for pupils. The school has overspent its allocated budget.

Information about this school

High Lawn is much larger than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is lower than the national average. The pupil premium is additional government funding provided for those pupils who are deemed by the government to be disadvantaged because they are known to be eligible for free school meals or who are looked after by the local authority.

Just under a quarter of pupils have a minority ethnic heritage, which is a lower proportion than the national average. There are no disabled pupils. The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs is slightly lower than the national average.

There were no pupils at the time of the inspection educated off-site in alternative provision or with part-time timetables. The school manages before- and after-school provision and caters for pupils from neighbouring schools. The school has a 52 place part-time Nursery class which operates every day for a morning or an afternoon session.

The headteacher left at the start of the autumn term on a 12 month sabbatical. However, he resigned in the autumn term. Since the summer, the school has been led by the deputy headteacher as acting headteacher.

An assistant headteacher took over his role as an acting deputy headteacher in autumn 2014. Some teachers provide support for other schools in the local authority, verifying the accuracy of other schools' assessments of pupils' attainment. The school meets the government's current floor standards which are the minimum expectation for pupils' achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.