Yardley Hastings Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils flourish at Yardley Hastings Primary School. Each morning, they arrive excited to start the day.

Stimulating and engaging learning activities spark their curiosity. Staff have the highest aspirations for pupils. Pupils consistently achieve highly.

Pupils live and breathe the school's SMART (self-confidence, motivation, aspirational thinking, resilience and teamwork) values. Pupils strive to be positive members of their school community. They wear the school's SMART badges with pride.

Pupils' behaviour is exemplary.

Pupils told inspectors that everyone is made to feel welcome and that 'everyone looks out for everyone else'.

Staff have ...high standards and expectations of behaviour and learning for all pupils.

Pupils know that all the adults in the school will treat them with kindness and positivity. Pupils feel safe.

Pupils value the school's array of opportunities to take on responsibilities, such as being school council members, librarians, friendship finders, house captains or being a 'buddy' for a younger child.

Parents and carers praise the education and care their children receive. A typical comment was: 'The teachers blend care with ambition for each and every pupil. They know them all and work hard to ensure their needs are met.

My daughter loves being part of a school community that has given her the joy of learning and confidence to succeed.'

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

Leaders have constructed a broad and highly ambitious curriculum. There is clear intent to provide pupils with the knowledge and skills they will need to be resilient, lifelong learners.

The school's curriculum clearly sets out the most important knowledge that pupils should learn at every stage. The school's curriculum is exceptional.

Teachers consistently deliver lessons of great quality.

During lessons, teachers check pupils' understanding regularly, and they skilfully address misconceptions. Teachers are ambitious for all pupils to achieve well.

In mathematics, pupils approach their learning with confidence.

They are fluent when using number. They often use mathematical language with ease. Children in Reception could explain their learning.

For example, one child demonstrated her ability to count accurately and to identify sequences, saying, 'I have four buttons and I have made a repeating pattern.'

Pupils' high levels of engagement in lessons are reflected in their ability to remember, in depth, what they have learned. They are eager to share this knowledge with others.

For example, pupils in Years 1 and 2 could talk about the artists they have studied. Pupils recalled Picasso's blue period and spoke about 'van Gogh's use of bright colours and lines and swirls'.

The school ensures that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are included in all aspects of school life.

Pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as their peers through well-considered adaptations. As a result, all pupils produce work of a high standard across the curriculum.

Pupils speak enthusiastically about books and develop a love of reading.

They enjoy recommending books to their class and listening to teachers enthusiastically read to them. Teachers ensure that pupils read and share texts that explore diversity and different groups in society through the school's 'global reading spine'. This helps pupils to broaden their understanding of the wider world.

Teachers and other adults have received training to ensure that they deliver the phonics programme well. Pupils who struggle to learn to read get extra support and practice.

Children get off to an exceptionally strong start in the Nursery Year and Reception class.

They learn in an environment that inspires their curiosity. There are stimulating, precisely planned activities so that children can understand and practise new skills and vocabulary. Teachers provide a multitude of opportunities for children to practise what they learn.

Promoting pupils' personal development is at the heart of the school's curriculum. The school has devised a 'global curriculum' that teaches pupils about the wider world. The school wants to make sure that its pupils experience the world beyond Yardley Hastings.

They receive a rich set of experiences that help them to understand the wider world and their place within it, guided by the school motto: 'learn, think, act'. For example, pupils spoke with clarity about their 'water week', where they learned about water and poverty. The children undertook a six kilometre walk to represent the 'act' part of the school's motto, and pupils make pledges, raise money and become active citizens.

For such a small school, there is an ambitious range of extra-curricular and enrichment activities available. For example, in Years 5 and 6, there is a residential trip to Cornwall that includes a museum visit and surfing lessons, incorporating a broad range of curriculum content.

Leaders, governors and staff work together as a highly effective team.

The school puts pupils at the centre of everything it does. Staff feel very well supported and are extremely proud and happy to work at a school where they are part of a close-knit team, dedicated to supporting the development of every pupil.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.