Horniman Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Horniman Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at Horniman Primary School. They feel safe because they know that staff care about them. They are confident to speak up if they have any concerns.

A parent or carer summarised the thoughts of many by saying: 'My children skip into school every day, delighted to attend.'

The school has high expectations of pupils. They achieve well, particularly in reading and mathematics.

The school is working hard to ensure that pupils achieve just as highly across all areas of the curriculum.

Pupils behave well, in and out of lessons. They are polite, courteou...s and articulate.

Pupils treat each other well, with kindness and respect. They respond to adult instructions promptly.

The school provides pupils with a rich variety of opportunities.

There is a wide range of after-school clubs on offer. These activities are popular with pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Take-up of these activities is high.

Pupils engage with their local community. For example, they invite faith leaders into school for celebrations of various festivals. They also raise funds to support the local food bank.

Pupils are encouraged to champion a cause important to them. Recently, pupils prepared and led an assembly on rainforest conservation.

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

The school's coherent curriculum starts with the early years.

It is carefully designed to ensure that pupils build sufficient knowledge over time. In mathematics, for example, children in the early years develop a secure understanding of numbers. This prepares them for when they begin to add and subtract numbers in Year 1.

By the time pupils get to Year 6, they perform more complex calculations involving fractions, decimals and percentages.In most subjects, the curriculum precisely identifies the knowledge and skills required to help pupils make sense of new learning. However, in a few subjects, leaders have not identified as clearly the concepts pupils need to learn, practise and remember.

This reduces how effectively pupils can deepen their understanding in a subject.

The curriculum is delivered well. New learning is introduced clearly.

Pupils receive plenty of examples to help them learn new concepts and deepen their understanding. Sometimes, however, the resources that pupils receive are not as effective as they should be in supporting them to understand new concepts. Pupils with SEND benefit from effective adaptations to teaching, and they achieve well.

The school is ambitious for all pupils to learn how to read. The phonics curriculum is carefully structured, and it is delivered effectively. Pupils learn the sounds that letters make and apply these when reading.

They read books that match the sounds they already know. The school regularly checks what pupils know and can remember. Pupils who are falling behind in their phonics knowledge are identified at the earliest opportunity.

These pupils receive timely and effective support. They catch up quickly. Pupils show a genuine love of reading and of books.

They enjoy listening to adults read to them daily.

Pupils engage well in lessons. They participate in discussions.

They are confident when talking about what they are learning. Disruptions to learning are rare. Pupils attend school regularly.

The school ensures that it knows the cause of absences for pupils whose attendance is a concern. These pupils and their families receive ample support to improve their attendance.

Pupils are proud to take up positions of responsibility.

Members of the pupil parliament help in running some aspects of the school. For example, they lead charity events, participate in 'take over' days, and help leaders choose books that represent the diverse school community.

The curriculum is enriched by many opportunities.

In geography, for instance, to support their learning about rivers, pupils enjoy observing the local creek as a tributary. Pupils relish the opportunities they have to perform in theatres. They talk fondly about their visits to museums, galleries and other places of interest.

Staff are proud to be a part of this school. They work as a team. They appreciate that leaders are supportive and approachable.

Leaders do all they can to ensure that workload remains manageable.

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 important knowledge and skills that pupils need to be taught and to learn have not been precisely identified.

Where these ideas have not been clarified, the curriculum does not consistently support pupils to develop a rich and deep body of knowledge. Curriculum thinking in these subjects needs to be refined so that what pupils should learn and remember is clear and explicit. n Sometimes, the learning resources that pupils receive are not as effective as they should be.

When this happens, pupils are not as well supported to develop a secure understanding of the concepts they are studying. The school should help teachers to provide resources that are consistently effective in supporting pupils' learning.

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 2014.

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