Lady Hawkins’ School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Lady Hawkins' is a unique and close-knit community school. Pupils value the school's strong family feel, which allows them to be themselves. Staff know pupils as individuals.

Trusted adults celebrate each pupil's success and address any concerns that arise. As a result, pupils feel safe and happy.

The school has high expectations of what pupils can do, which pupils live up to.

Their teachers teach them well. They check what pupils know and understand and offer pupils' constructive feedback to improve their written work. Pupils get to read widely and often.

This helps them to remember more and learn new content, which pupils appreciate. As a result, m...ost pupils achieve well.

Staff set high standards for pupils' behaviour.

They encourage pupils to foster healthy relationships. Pupils meet these expectations. As a result, absence, disagreements and disruption to learning are rare.

Staff and pupils value their school's calm learning environment.

Pupils relish participation in a diverse range of extracurricular activities. Opportunities include foreign travel, theatre visits, singing in Hereford Cathedral and orienteering.

These wider curriculum activities help pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, to grow in confidence and build their self-esteem.

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

Since the last inspection, the school has focused on the right priorities, which has resulted in sustained improvement. For instance, leaders have taken decisive action to improve pupils' future prospects and examination outcomes.

They have invested in strategies to help pupils remember more of what they learn. Subsequently, most pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), progress well.

Pupils follow an ambitious curriculum created to equip them well for the future.

Staff have thought hard about the content pupils should learn. In each subject, this knowledge is laid out in a logical order so that new learning builds successfully on the things pupils have been taught before. Across subjects, staff share their curriculums to help pupils join their learning together.

For example, in English, pupils deepen their insight of 'war poetry' by making links to their knowledge of conflicts in history.

An academic core is at the heart of the school's revised key stage 4 curriculum. This has increased pupils' take-up of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), widening future options for them.

For instance, more pupils secure successful and appropriate progression post-16. Even so, the school knows that more pupils could follow this EBacc pathway. It has clear plans to remedy this.

Teachers deliver the curriculum well. They use their expert subject knowledge to engage pupils. Teachers' regular checks on pupils' understanding help to address misconceptions straightaway.

This immediate feedback helps pupils to consolidate new knowledge and motivates them to achieve more.

The school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND promptly. Most staff design and adapt activities well to meet pupils' needs.

Consequently, most pupils with SEND access the full curriculum. However, on occasion, teaching is not adapted well enough. As a result, some pupils with SEND do not learn as well as they could.

This holds these pupils back.

Reading has a high priority. Staff give effective support to pupils who need extra help to read accurately and fluently.

Pupils benefit greatly from this and quickly grow into confident readers who read widely and often.

Pupils are mature and behave well. Their positive attitudes have created an environment free from disruption.

Pupils know that the school follows up lateness and absence straightaway. Consequently, pupils are rarely late and attend often.

Pupils benefit from a well-ordered personal development offer.

They learn important content, including how to avoid unhealthy relationships, live within their means and stay safe online. Pupils receive a broad range of information about the world of work, and benefit from well-considered experiences that prepare them well for their futures.

Staff are aligned behind leaders' ambitious vision.

Staff know their well-being and workload matter. They are proud to work here. Trustees hold the school to account diligently.

This has ensured they have an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and priorities, which is leading to continued improvement.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, teachers do not adapt their teaching well enough to enable pupils with SEND to access the curriculum.

Where this happens, these pupils do not learn as well as they could. This holds them back. The school should ensure that all teachers have an accurate understanding of pupils' individual needs and adapt their teaching to meet these needs within lessons.