Holy Trinity, Guildford, CofE Aided Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Holy Trinity, Guildford, CofE Aided Junior School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils flourish at this welcoming, ambitious school.

Staff place equal value on pupils' social, spiritual, cultural and academic development. The school's ethos of 'learn to live' underpins every aspect of school life. Pupils' talents and interests are promoted through a wide range of clubs and activities.

These include the school's high-performing orchestra, choir and sports teams. As a result, pupils thrive. They are kind, respectful and hard-working.

The school supports pupils to become accomplished learners and caring people who are well prep...ared for the next stages of their education.

Pupils behave well. Staff model the school's values and work with pupils and their families to build strong and caring relationships across the school community.

Pupils understand the school's values fully. These help them to make good choices in all that they do. Pupils know that there is always someone to talk to and that staff will resolve any worries quickly.

They rightly say this strong culture of care helps them to feel very safe.

Pupils enjoy learning about different cultures. They have a deep understanding of fairness and equality.

Pupils value differences in other people and the opportunity to learn from them. They are polite and respectful towards each other.

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

Reading is highly valued.

Thoughtful cross-curricular reading opportunities invoke pupils' curiosity and foster their love of reading. Knowledgeable staff recommend books from the well-stocked library and make sure that pupils read widely and often. There is lively and enthusiastic discussion about books throughout the school.

Teachers make good use of information from ongoing checks on pupils' learning. Pupils at the early stages of reading, and those at risk of falling behind, are identified quickly and receive effective support to become fluent readers.

The school has a broad and ambitious curriculum.

In most subjects, the curriculum is sequenced with precision, identifying the important knowledge and skills pupils are to learn. However, in a few subjects, the essential knowledge and skills are not always set out clearly. This means that teachers are not always clear about how to help pupils build their learning towards the challenging curriculum goals that have been set.

The school makes sure that resources and activities are of a high quality and help pupils to learn well. Teachers explain ideas clearly. They prioritise developing pupils' vocabulary.

For example, in mathematics, pupils are routinely asked to explain their thinking, using precise mathematical language. Pupils build well on what they already know, developing increasingly sophisticated understanding.

The identification of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is accurate.

The school works closely with teachers to ensure pupils with additional needs are provided with high-quality support. Staff benefit from well-organised training. Leaders, including those responsible for governance, review the impact of their curriculum rigorously to ensure all pupils have the opportunity to learn well.

This enables them to accurately identify the improvements needed to meet their determination for all to succeed. Leaders give thoughtful consideration to staff workload and well-being. They ensure that all adults work together towards improving the school further for pupils.

In the core subjects, such as English and mathematics, teachers consider pupils' progress carefully, identifying precisely where more support is needed. However, the checks on what pupils know and remember are not yet fully developed across every subject. As a result, pupils do not always build successfully on their prior knowledge and achieve as well as they could.

Pupils' wider development and pastoral support are at the heart of the school. Pupils' attendance is high because they simply love coming to school each day. Pupils and their families value the strong community connections.

Staff relish leading wider development activities, saying that it helps them to get to know the pupils better. Pupils take pride in their elected leadership roles, such as school councillor or 'eco-leader'. These help to develop their understanding of good citizenship and the democratic process.

Older pupils enjoy supporting others as peer mediators.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some foundation subjects, the school has not clearly identified and sequenced the precise knowledge that pupils need to learn.

This means that some pupils do not build on their prior knowledge and learn as well as they could. The school should ensure that the curriculum in all subjects specifies cumulative knowledge precisely and that the curriculum is implemented fully so that pupils produce work of consistently high quality. ? Assessment in some foundation subjects needs refining.

Consequently, staff do not always have a precise understanding of the gaps in pupils' learning, meaning pupils do not always achieve highly across the curriculum. The school should help staff to check pupils' understanding carefully and use this information to inform their future teaching.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2015.