Hannah More Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 7 May 2025

Pupils enjoy being a part of the school's diverse community. Many of them arrive partway through their education, including from overseas. Staff welcome these pupils with open arms. This helps them to feel safe and happy. Nevertheless, the school's quality of education requires improvement. The school has started to raise staff's expectations of what pupils can achieve, particularly in mathematics. However, in other areas of the curriculum, some of this work is at an early stage. Staff's expectations of pupils vary too much between classes. When staff's expectations are lower, pupils do not achieve well. The school has clear behaviour systems. However, some staff do not apply these well. As a result, in some classes, pupils have their learning disrupted by other pupils who have become disengaged. Nonetheless, bullying is rare in the school. Pupils have confidence in staff solving any concerns if they occur. The school's personal development offer is a strength. Pupils benefit from opportunities to develop new talents and interests through a wide range of clubs. The school raises pupils' aspirations, such as through careers fairs. The school relentlessly celebrates its own rich range of faiths and cultures. This helps pupils to understand different beliefs and prepare them well for life in modern Britain.

What the school should improve

• Some teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve. They sometimes set work that does not meet the ambition of the curriculum and accept low- quality work. When this occurs, pupils do not progress as well as they could through the curriculum. The school should ensure that staff set ambitious learning activities that enable pupils to achieve well.
• The English curriculum needs further development. In particular, the reading curriculum at key stage 2 and the writing curriculum at key stages 1 and 2 lack precision in what pupils should know and by when. As a result, too many pupils struggle to read and write in line with national expectations by the end of key stage 2. The school should ensure that the English curriculum identifies the key knowledge that pupils should know and support staff to use this effectively to help pupils learn consistently well in reading and writing.
• Staff do not consistently apply the school's behaviour policy well. As a result, there is sometimes low-level disruption in lessons or poor behaviour that is not addressed effectively at social times and so reoccurs. The school must ensure its expectations of behaviour are understood by all staff so that the behaviour policy is applied consistently, and pupils behave well in lessons and at social times.
• Some of the school's actions for improvement lack precision. This makes it hard for the governing body to have an accurate view of the school and to hold the school to account for its performance. The school should ensure that actions for improvement provide sufficient information for governors to accurately measure the impact of the school's work.
• Some aspects of the school's safeguarding record-keeping are not robust. Some staff also require further training in the school's monitoring of the single central record. As a result, minor errors or omissions made in record-keeping are made and not picked up through the school's own checks. The school must urgently ensure that systems and processes for safeguarding meet statutory guidance, that staff are well trained and that it rigorously checks the effectiveness of these systems.

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