Hope Primary School - A Joint Catholic and Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have a thirst for learning and are highly attentive in their lessons. They are happy and behave well.

Pupils are very polite to others when they move around the school. They are safe at the school and feel well cared for by their teachers. There are strong, trusting relationships between pupils and staff.

The school is a warm and caring environment in which to learn.

The school has high expectations for what pupils should learn. Pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well across many parts of the school's curriculum.

The school provides many opportunities for pupils to develop their musical ...talents and interests. Pupils get to learn instruments, including the ukulele and keyboard. Pupils often sing at school and local events.

Pupils have some opportunities to take on leadership roles, including through the junior leadership team. They have access to different sports clubs and to several other clubs, such as art. Pupils look forward to the residential visit to an outdoor activity centre.

They also enjoy their 'beach school' lessons. These take place several times each year at a regional coastline area and help pupils to deepen their understanding in subjects such as geography.

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

The school has designed an ambitious curriculum that builds logically from the early years through to Year 6.

The school has carefully considered the knowledge that pupils need to acquire over time. It delivers its curriculum well. Pupils, including pupils with SEND, achieve well in many subjects.

Those in the early years make a positive start to their schooling, often from low starting points.

The school carries out regular checks on pupils' learning to identify what pupils know and have possibly misunderstood. The school typically provides responsive guidance to help pupils correct their errors and misconceptions.

There are clear systems in place to identify pupils with SEND early. The school makes appropriate adaptations to the delivery of the curriculum so that pupils with SEND can access their learning. The school meets the needs of these pupils well.

The school has a strong focus on developing pupils' communication and language skills in the early years. It places a high priority on early reading and delivers its chosen phonics programme well. It provides appropriate catch-up support for pupils who struggle with learning new sounds.

The school helps many pupils to quickly become confident readers. However, the school is less successful in helping a small number of pupils, including some pupils with SEND, to develop the necessary skills to blend familiar sounds together when reading new words. This limits these pupils' ability to read as fluently as they otherwise could.

The school provides well for pupils' personal development. It helps pupils to gain a firm appreciation of the differences of others, which prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain. Pupils have a secure understanding of fundamental British values and how these are reflected in their school life.

They know how to look after their own well-being and how to keep themselves safe. They engage positively with fundraising activities for several chosen charities.

The school has recently embarked on a large-scale project to improve attendance rates, which have been stubbornly low since the COVID-19 pandemic.

This project has started to have a positive impact on pupils' punctuality. However, the school's overall implementation of this project is still in its early stages. It is too soon to see a sustained impact of the school's recent actions on overall absence rates and persistent absenteeism.

At present, the school's attendance rates continue to sit below local and national averages. This means that some pupils continue to miss out on important learning.

Governors fulfil their duties effectively.

Leaders, including governors, look after staff. They have made positive changes to the school's feedback policy to reduce staff workload. They also ensure that staff have dedicated time to carry out wider responsibilities, such as subject leadership roles.

Staff are happy and morale is high.

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 does not ensure that a small number of pupils, which includes some pupils with SEND, can blend the sounds that they know when reading words containing these sounds.

This hinders their ability to read books with confidence and fluency. The school should ensure that these pupils receive sufficient guidance to develop their fluency skills so that they can become confident readers sooner. ? Many of the actions that the school has taken to improve attendance are embryonic.

It is too soon to see a sustained impact of these actions on stubbornly low attendance rates. This means that some pupils continue to miss out on important learning. The school should ensure that its new approaches to tackling absenteeism are implemented successfully and bring about the desired improvements in pupils' attendance.