Holly Mount Roman Catholic Primary School, Bury

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a friendly and welcoming school. Staff and pupils forge strong relationships with each other. Pupils know that they have adults in school to look after them and support them with any problems that they may have.

This helps pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to feel safe and happy.

Pupils are polite and display high levels of respect for one another. This fosters a purposeful and focused learning environment.

Pupils make effective use of the school's large outdoor space. At breaktimes, they enjoy spending time with their peers and they appreciate the wide range of equipment that they can play with.
...r/>The school sets high expectations for pupils' achievement.

Pupils, including those in the early years, are highly motivated to learn. They take pride in their work and most pupils achieve well.

Pupils proudly participate in events where they can represent the school, including in sports.

They also enjoy leading and taking part in various clubs, such as baking, choir, comic and art. This offers pupils the opportunity to nurture their talents and learn new skills.

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

In most subjects, including in the early years, the curriculum is carefully mapped out and broken down into small chunks of learning.

This enables staff to design teaching activities effectively. Pupils' learning is checked skilfully to ensure that they have the knowledge that they need to learn new content. This helps pupils to progress successfully through the curriculum and achieve well.

In a few subjects, the knowledge that pupils need to know and use is not organised well. Occasionally, some staff are not sufficiently clear about how pupils' learning builds on what they know already. At times, this means that staff are not equipped to deliver the curriculum effectively.

As a result, some pupils do not show the same depth of understanding of their learning as they do in other subjects.

The strong staff expertise in the early years means that the curriculum is designed and delivered extremely well. Developing communication and language is the bedrock of the curriculum in the early years.

Staff design learning activities which promote high-quality talk across all areas of learning. This helps children to use highly ambitious vocabulary with ease. The curriculum enables children to gain an exceptionally broad and deep understanding of the world around them.

They are more than ready for the next stage in their education.

The phonics curriculum is well designed and delivered consistently well. Children build a strong knowledge of sounds and letters from the moment that they join the Reception class.

This supports them to develop a secure knowledge of phonics by key stage 1. Pupils, including those in early years, regularly read books that closely match the sounds that they know. This enables them to practise reading with fluency and accuracy.

Pupils who do not keep up with the phonics programme are supported effectively to catch up quickly. This helps these pupils to become confident in reading.

From the outset, the school cultivates a love of reading.

Pupils, including those in the early years, read a wide range of texts with staff. The recent enhancements to the library resources have encouraged pupils to place more attention on reading. As such, most pupils are enthusiastic about reading.

The needs of pupils with SEND are identified rapidly. The school makes sure that pupils with SEND are supported well so that they can learn the same content as their peers. Most pupils with SEND achieve well.

Pupils, including those in the early years, display a positive attitude towards their learning. They understand and follow the school routines well. Prefects from the older year groups encourage younger pupils to move around the school in an orderly manner.

This creates a calm learning environment without disruption.

The school seizes every opportunity to promote pupils' wider development. Pupils learn how to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy.

They understand how to manage risks online, in the home and in the community. Pupils have a wide range of opportunities to develop as considerate and active citizens. For example, they thrive when taking on pupil leadership roles, such as 'happiness heroes' and 'Hollymount hands'.

These roles inspire pupils to support worthy causes and assist vulnerable members of society. Older pupils relish their roles as 'special friends' where they help children in the early years to settle into school. These opportunities build pupils' confidence.

They are well prepared for life beyond the classroom.

The governing body works closely with the school to improve the quality of education. Staff collaborate and provide feedback on new improvement strategies.

This supports the school to review the impact of any change and carefully manage staff's workload and well-being. That said, some of the school's systems to evaluate its actions are not sufficiently clear and accurate. On occasion, this means that the school and the governing body are unaware of the effectiveness of any improvement strategies.

At times, this hampers how well the school's priorities are addressed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, the knowledge that pupils need to learn is not organised as well as it should be.

This hinders how well teachers deliver the curriculum and build pupils' knowledge over time. Some pupils' learning is uneven as a result. The school should ensure that the curriculum provides staff with the guidance that they need to help pupils learn all that they should.

• Some of the school's evaluation systems do not provide a clear enough view of the impact of its actions. At times, this hampers how effectively the school identifies and addresses areas for improvement. The school should better analyse and evaluate improvement strategies to ensure that they have the intended positive impact.

Also at this postcode