The Heys School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from the calm atmosphere that permeates this friendly and welcoming school.

Staff model how to talk with kindness and respect. This is reflected in how pupils talk to each other and to visitors. Pupils are happy in school.

They are encouraged to take part in community activities and to be responsible citizens. Pupils take pride in their school and in their achievements.

The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour.

Most pupils behave well and there is rarely any disruption to learning. Skilled staff provide highly effective support for those pupils who need more help to regulate their own behaviour and emotions.

The ...school has considerably raised its aspirations for pupils' achievement.

In the main, pupils produce high-quality work, and they demonstrate knowledge through their positive contributions to lessons. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) enjoy the same broad and balanced curriculum as their peers. Pupils achieve increasingly well.

The school has an unwavering determination that no pupil should miss out on the many wider opportunities that the school offers. The strong relationships that staff forge with pupils, particularly those who are disadvantaged, bring this to fruition. Pupils benefit from a myriad of experiences that help them to blossom.

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

In recent years, the school has overhauled the curriculum to ensure that it is suitably ambitious. Pupils study a wide range of subjects that match their interests and aspirations. However, the proportion of pupils studying the English Baccalaureate suite of subjects in key stage 4 remains low.

This is because the school has prioritised giving pupils more choice over their options at GCSE.

The published data for 2023 does not reflect how well current pupils at the school are learning. The revised curriculum is structured in a way that helps these pupils to build well on their prior knowledge.

Pupils are making better progress than they did in the past.

For the most part, the curriculum is delivered well. In many subjects, teachers understand the importance of checking what pupils have understood and they address misconceptions swiftly.

In these subjects, teachers provide pupils with regular and meaningful opportunities to reflect on what they have learned. This is helping pupils to build a rich body of subject knowledge over time.

Occasionally, in a few subjects, teachers do not check that pupils' knowledge is secure before introducing new learning.

From time to time, some pupils develop gaps in their knowledge that remain unchecked.

The school is committed to developing pupils' love of reading. For example, pupils enjoy regular opportunities to read together as a class.

Many pupils read out loud with confidence and fluency. The school has clear strategies in place to identify those pupils who find reading more difficult. Staff know the precise deficits in these pupils' reading knowledge.

This enables them to provide bespoke support which helps these pupils to catch up quickly with their peers.

The school is knowledgeable about identifying pupils who may have SEND. It puts in place effective strategies tailored to pupils' additional needs.

This helps pupils with SEND to learn well.

The school understands the importance of pupils attending regularly. It has implemented effective measures to improve pupils' rates of attendance.

These strategies are starting to have a positive impact. However, there are still too many pupils who are absent from school too often. These pupils miss out on important learning.

In school, pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. They are motivated to succeed. The number of pupils suspended from school has fallen sharply.

This is resulting in less time lost from learning for the whole school community.

There is a well-designed programme for personal, social, health and economic education. Pupils learn about healthy relationships in an age-appropriate way.

The school makes sure that pupils receive the information that they need to help keep themselves safe and to prepare them well for life in modern Britain. Pupils have many opportunities to learn about, and to learn from, people of different cultures, backgrounds and faiths.

The school furnishes pupils with extensive careers education and the expert guidance required to make fully informed choices about their futures.

This helps most pupils to progress seamlessly into further education, employment or training.

The academy trust has provided effective support to the school. Trust leaders work closely with the school and those responsible for governance to ensure that pupils receive a high-quality education while managing the workload of teachers.

This has empowered teachers to focus on meeting the needs of their pupils. The work done by the school to support pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and those with SEND, is impressive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some pupils do not attend school as regularly as they should. This means that they do not benefit from the high-quality curriculum or wider opportunities that the school offers. The school should ensure that it supports these pupils and their families to improve their rates of attendance over time.

• In a few subjects, teachers do not check that pupils have learned the knowledge in the curriculum sufficiently well. On occasion, some pupils develop gaps in their learning as a result. The school should ensure that teachers are fully equipped to identify and remedy pupils' gaps in knowledge before introducing new learning.

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