Hurst Park Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to be members of Hurst Park Primary School.

They are happy and settled and have warm and supportive relationships with adults and one another. Staff have high expectations of pupils, and the pupils rise to meet these readily.

Pupils greet visitors warmly and are keen to show what makes their school special.

They talk about trips and visits they have experienced, including visits to musicals, and performances they have undertaken in the local area.

Around the school site, behaviour is calm and settled. Staff know their pupils incredibly well, and leaders reflect and adapt their approach to ensure that pupils are well supported.
...r/>This is especially true in terms of well-being, where the 'well-being woofers' and rooms such as 'the hub' and the 'bubble room' have been introduced to support pupils further.

Children move quietly between lessons and into and out of social times. At breaktimes, they play happily together and patiently wait to take turns in activities.

Bullying is very rare in this school. If it happens, pupils trust staff to act swiftly to remedy their concerns. Pupils feel safe and can all talk about adults they would speak to if they had concerns.

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

Leaders have high ambitions for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They have planned an appropriate curriculum right from the early years that is well considered and maps what pupils need to know. In most subjects, this carefully sequences both the knowledge and skills that pupils need to succeed.

However, in some foundation subjects, this is not as well balanced. As a result, sometimes activity choices are not always as clearly linked to the intended learning.

In most subjects, teachers have well-established systems to assess what pupils know and can remember during their lessons.

This means that teachers can then adapt what they teach to inform pupils' next steps. However, while teachers check learning regularly during lessons, leaders have not embedded a system to check what pupils can remember over time.

Early reading is taught well.

Children benefit from targeted and specific sessions to support their particular needs, helping them to develop quickly to become fluent and confident readers. Leaders promote a love of reading throughout the school, including the evolving library, classroom displays and the use of 'reading sheds' which start in the early years to foster a love of reading right from the word go.

In the past, leaders did not ensure that all staff had a secure knowledge of how to meet pupils' additional needs.

Leaders did not make timely referrals for external support. Leaders now act much more rapidly to ensure that all pupils are well supported. In lessons, there is now consistently strong practice in adapting the learning to ensure that all pupils, particularly those with SEND, can access their learning effectively.

This is especially strong in the early years, where precise and personalised support ensures that children thrive.

Behaviour in lessons is calm and focused. Pupils sustain their concentration and are keen to engage and ask questions.

Right from the early years, children are encouraged to think hard, leading to increasingly independent and thoughtful responses from pupils. While attendance for most pupils is generally strong, there are a minority of pupils who do not attend school regularly enough. Leaders' actions to address this are not yet having the impact needed, particularly for pupils with SEND.

There is a strong offer to support the personal development of pupils. Leaders have ensured their personal, social, health and economic curriculum supports children in developing an age-appropriate understanding of the world, relationships and how to keep themselves healthy and safe. Leaders plan a range of trips and residential visits to develop pupils further.

Increasingly, pupils are given leadership opportunities within the school such as the 'FAB' (Force Against Bullying) team, school council and 'eco-team'. Pupils are proud to hold these responsibilities, and younger pupils in the school aspire to have these roles in the future.

There have been a number of changes in leadership over the last couple of years, including senior leaders and governors.

The school has been supported effectively by a local trust, which has helped secure the strategic direction of the school and a clear vision for the future. Leaders know their school well and carefully identify the actions they need to take to continue to develop it. This has led to increasingly strengthened leadership within the school, particularly of SEND, and from what the school call the 'headship team'.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are well trained to identify early any signs that pupils may need help or support. They make swift referrals where they have concerns, and leaders act quickly to secure children and their families the support they need.

They work well with external agencies and are unafraid to hold them to account where this support is needed. Leaders complete appropriate checks to ensure that adults are safe to work with children. Governors know their responsibilities in regard to safeguarding and hold leaders to account.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The levels of persistent absence in the school are too high, particularly for pupils with SEND. As a result, some pupils miss too much of their education. Leaders need to take action to reduce this figure to make sure that all pupils attend well and can benefit from the education the school provides.

• Summative assessment is not yet well embedded across all subjects. As a result, staff do not know how much knowledge pupils have remembered over time. Leaders need to ensure that all subjects have the same systematic approach to assessment so that they can assess what pupils can remember long term.

• In the past, there has not been rapid enough identification of the needs of pupils with SEND. As a result, some pupils with SEND have not been supported well enough in accessing their learning. Leaders need to continue to embed the careful work that has recently been put in place in order to ensure that these improvements are sustained over time.