Highover Junior Mixed and Infant School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

In this good school, many things are done outstandingly well.

At the core of the school's success is the outstanding level of care, guidance and support provided for pupils. This contributes significantly to pupils' positive attitudes to learning, their outstanding behaviour and excellent understanding of how to keep fit and healthy. Pupils' outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development ensures positive relationships, effective collaboration and contributes to a friendly, happy environment.

The school benefits from the confidence of its parents and carers and works effectively to build and maintain very constructive relationships with them. The partnerships with other schools ...and a range of outside agencies have extremely positive benefits for pupils' personal development. The Early Years Foundation Stage prepares children outstandingly well as learners.

Pupils are proud of their school and their enjoyment is shown by their above-average attendance. Staff know pupils well as individuals and ensure all pupils are included as much a possible in activities which enhance and support their enjoyment. The school is especially successful in providing a wide range of enrichment activities such as sports, the arts and educational visits.

Good, and sometimes outstanding, teaching and the well-planned curriculum are significant factors in ensuring most pupils, including those who find learning difficult, make good progress overall. Assessment information is being used rigorously to inform lessons, monitor progress and hold teachers to account. Learning and progress are good at each key stage.

While the majority of pupils make good progress, there remains some unevenness across subjects and year groups. The school is aware of this and has already made a positive start to make the necessary improvements through a comprehensive programme of staff training and detailed monitoring. The success of the initiatives to improve teaching and learning, effectively implemented by school leaders, has meant that pupil progress has accelerated, particularly over the last year, and academic achievement is now good and rising.

Although pupils' attainment at the end of Year 6 is broadly average, it is higher in reading and mathematics than in writing. Pupils' skills in writing are improving, but there are not enough planned opportunities for them to consolidate and extend their writing skills in all their subjects. Pupils achieve well because of the good teaching they receive.

The school has made good use of the expertise of its own staff to develop a number of strengths in teaching. For example, good-quality questioning and the use of talk-partners helps pupils develop their ideas and take an active role in their learning. Even so, there are variations in its quality and in its impact on pupils' learning.

Strong leadership ensures that the school is on the right path of continuous improvement based on an accurate evaluation of strengths and weaknesses. The curriculum teams are influential and play an increasingly important role in motivating staff and improving provision in their areas. The shared vision of leaders and managers and their high ambition and success in implementing effective changes to raise achievement and improve many aspects of the school's work since the last inspection, demonstrate good capacity for further improvement.

Information about the school

Highover is an average-sized school and draws its pupils from the local area. Pupils are from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, with the largest group being those of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils who are learning English as an additional language is just above that found nationally.

Very few, however, are at the early stages of learning English. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average. Most of these pupils have moderate learning difficulty or speech, language and communication needs.

The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below the national average. The Early Years Foundation Stage comprises a Nursery and a Reception class. The school has achieved a number of nationally recognised awards including recognition of its work to promote healthy lifestyles.

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