Howbridge Church of England Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school threads the values of friendship, compassion and perseverance through school life at Howbridge. The school is inclusive. Pupils have a strong understanding of difference and show tolerance in their relationships with peers.

Adults encourage pupils to work hard and have high aspirations. Pupils feel proud of their work. They enjoy their learning.

Pupils use what they know to learn even more and are inspired by the work they do. They are creative in their work, and produce high-quality pieces of writing, artwork and musical compositions.

Pupils participate in a range of activities out of the classroom, such as trips, the Community Speed Watch, fundra...ising, food collections and visits to the local care home.

Pupils are proud of their school's sporting achievements, including recently winning a district sports event.

The majority of pupils want to follow leaders' high expectations of how they should behave, and they behave well during lessons. However, there is a minority who find regulating their behaviour harder and need adult support.

This prevents them, and sometimes other pupils, from being able to learn.

A focus on outdoor play and learning to be social has made sure that pupils typically play well together at breaktimes.

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

The school has designed a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum.

It sets out the key knowledge pupils need to learn and breaks this down into manageable chunks. Pupils' learning builds gradually, and they learn to make links between different subject areas.

Teachers' subject knowledge is strong.

They explain things clearly and often recap on pupils' previous learning. This helps with pupils' recall. Teachers highlight the subject-specific vocabulary pupils need to learn.

Subsequently, pupils use appropriate language when talking about and recalling their learning.

The school promotes a love of reading. High-quality books underpin learning in all subject areas and enable pupils to deepen their knowledge of the curriculum.

For instance, in Year 6, pupils made inferences from a complex text due to their learning in history. Staff effectively deliver the school's phonics programme for those pupils who are still learning to read.

Most pupils behave well.

Adults model the behaviour they expect and apply the school's behaviour policy consistently. Classrooms are generally calm spaces, which help pupils learn. A school focus on developing breaktimes has ensured that pupils have more options for outdoor play and learning.

A small number of pupils struggle to meet adults' high expectations. These pupils get additional help to regulate their feelings and emotions. Although behaviour has improved over time, school leaders do not have a sufficiently clear overview of behaviour incidents.

The school has effective processes in place to support the identification of any pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils with SEND learn the same curriculum as their classmates, sometimes with adapted tasks or additional adult support. This typically works well in lessons.

However, support is inconsistent when pupils have one-to-one support. While some staff have had training in supporting pupils with more complex behaviour needs, others have not.

The personal development programme is a strength of the school.

It develops pupils' understanding of diversity as well as financial education. The school's programme allows pupils from all year groups to take part in enterprise and to develop links with the community. Older pupils learn about healthy relationships as part of their relationships and sex education curriculum.

Pupils develop as leaders, for instance through being a member of the school council or a classroom ambassador.

The school has been through a period of turbulence in staffing. The trust and the local governing body have ensured that the school has a highly skilled and dedicated leadership team.

They have also ensured that staff's workload is manageable. Parents are aware of the staffing turbulence and are generally supportive of the school's work.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• A few staff are not as well versed at managing the more complex behaviour of a few pupils. This means that some pupils struggle to learn in their lessons. The school should make sure that staff receive appropriate training for managing pupils' complex behaviour so that lessons are not disrupted.

• The current system for recording behaviour incidents does not give a sufficiently clear view of patterns or trends. This hampers staff's ability to identify issues and possible solutions. The school should review the current system so that the monitoring and evaluation of actions to improve behaviour are sharper.