Hill Mead Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Hill Mead Primary School is a small and welcoming school. Parents and carers appreciate the nurture and care that pupils receive.

Positive working relationships between staff and pupils are at the heart of the school. Pupils know that adults care for them. Pupils are happy and they feel safe in school.

There are inconsistencies in how well the curriculum is designed and taught. As a result, pupils do not remember their learning well. Pupils do not benefit from a consistently good quality of education.

They are not able to develop their knowledge across all subject areas securely. Pupils' outcomes in 2023 were significantly below national averages. Children ma...ke a strong start to their education in early years.

They become increasingly confident and play and work well together.

Pupils benefit from a range of wider opportunities. Trips and visits allow pupils to experience a range of activities that stretch their independence and resilience.

For example, pupils visit local museums, and all year groups go to the theatre. They value these opportunities. Pupils develop their leadership skills as members of the school council.

They are taught to be respectful. Pupils demonstrate positive behaviour in classrooms and during social time. They understand the importance of treating people from all backgrounds fairly.

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

The school is at an early stage of implementing the curriculum. There is a planned, appropriate curriculum in place for some subjects. For example, in mathematics, pupils benefit from a structured approach to develop their arithmetic.

However, typically, the school's curriculum thinking does not set out precisely the knowledge that pupils should learn and when they should learn it. This limits the development of pupils' knowledge and understanding across the curriculum.

The school's assessment procedures do not identify gaps in pupils' knoweldge securely.

As a result, misconceptions can go unaddressed, and so pupils do not remember their learning well over time. Teaching does not build routinely well on pupils' prior understanding. This means pupils move on to new content before they are fully ready.

Children in the early years benefit from a well-sequenced curriculum that builds progressively over time. Staff plan exciting and well-thought-out activities for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This enables children to progress well through the intended curriculum across all areas of learning.

Staff support children to develop their mathematical skills well in early years. Children in the Nursery benefit from effective interactions with adults.

The 2023 published data shows that the number of pupils who met the expected standard for reading in key stage 1 was low.

Leaders have since made reading a higher priority in the curriculum. For example, they have introduced a book club and library lesson. Staff give pupils who need help to keep up, including pupils with SEND, extra support.

Pupils encounter a broad range of genres and authors as they progress through the school's curriculum. Leaders have reviewed the way pupils learn to read. A new phonics programme is being introduced.

Communication and language are prioritised from the moment children start school. There is a language-rich environment in Reception, where children hear a wide range of stories and rhymes.

The school is a calm and orderly place.

Staff make sure that routines are securely in place so that pupils behave well. When any incidents of bullying take place, staff deal with these effectively. In Nursery, staff ensure that children have sustained concentration.

Leaders make pupils' regular attendance a priority. They use a range of external agencies to support families who struggle to ensure that pupils attended regularly. This has resulted in an improvement in pupils' absence rates.

The school caters well for pupils' wider development and is focused on developing their aspirations. Pupils are taught about different cultures and beliefs. Staff teach pupils about the importance of tolerance and respect.

The school also ensures that pupils know how to stay safe online.

Leaders care deeply about the school community. They are considerate of staff well-being and workload.

Governors do not have the information they require about the school's strengths and weaknesses. This means that they do not have a sufficient understanding of the quality of education pupils receive, including for pupils with SEND. Over time, they have not challenged leaders sufficiently about curriculum development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school's curriculum thinking does not clearly define the key knowledge and skills that pupils need to know and develop. This means that teachers do not have the required detail of which subject content to teach and when.

This limits pupils' knowledge and understanding. The school should make sure that important subject content is identified in all subjects so that pupils build on their subject learning progressively. ? The school's use of assessment is not routinely effective.

This means teachers do not have a clear picture of what pupils know and can do. Consequently, learning does not build on what pupils already know. The school needs to develop and embed an approach to assessment that routinely informs teaching across the curriculum, so that pupils' learning develops securely over time.

Leaders' oversight of the quality of education and SEND provision is not sufficiently robust. Those responsible for governance do not have the information they need to fully hold leaders to account for the quality of education pupils receive. The school should ensure that leadership has the information and expertise it needs to fully carry out its roles and responsibilities effectively.