Hade Edge Junior, Infant and Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 14 November 2023

Pupils are proud of their school. They champion the school values which include 'respect, perseverance and friendliness'. Staff build warm and positive relationships with pupils. Being part of a small school, they know each pupil very well. Staff, pupils and governors form a united and welcoming school community. Pupils behave well at Hade Edge. They cooperate and get on positively with one another. There is a real sense of family, with older pupils looking out for their younger friends. Leaders ensure that systems for behaviour are consistent throughout school. Pupils say that these are fair. As a result, pupils get on with their learning with little disruption. Pupils enjoy coming to school. Rates of attendance are strong. Leaders continue to ensure that this is the case for all groups of pupils. Following a period of turbulence, leaders and governors have brought about much needed stability to the school. Leaders have prioritised some of the changes required. They have refined safeguarding systems and put in place some positive changes to aspects of the curriculum. The school is ambitious for all pupils; however, these high expectations are not yet fully realised. Leaders are aware that, despite some of their actions to improve the curriculum, there is still more to do. Parents remain fully supportive of the school. They recognise and appreciate the developments that have taken place and say that their children are happy at the school.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the school has not identified deliberate opportunities for pupils to reinforce and recall important prior learning. This means that pupils do not build up a secure body of knowledge over time. This makes it difficult for them to connect concepts and remember important knowledge. The school must ensure that pupils systematically revisit important content to help them recall and embed knowledge securely.
• The school has not ensured that learning opportunities and activities given to pupils in some subject areas match the intended knowledge that they want pupils to learn. As a result, some pupils do not learn important knowledge as well as they might. Some learning activities are not sufficiently matched to pupils' abilities. The school should ensure that learning opportunities in all subjects clearly match the intended learning of that subject area and ensure that activities meet the needs and abilities of all pupils.
• The school has not evaluated the impact of changes to the curriculum in some subjects in a timely manner. Therefore, the school does not have a full picture of how well pupils learn the intended curriculum. This has meant that curriculum changes have not been made as swiftly as they might have been. The school should strengthen curriculum evaluation, so that it can gather and assess the impact of the curriculum on pupils' learning to ensure required changes are enacted as soon as possible.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)