Haydon Abbey School and Pre-School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 20 February 2024

This is a welcoming school where new pupils quickly make friends. Pupils feel that the school is like 'a family'. They respond positively to the warmth and high expectations of staff. Pupils in Year 6 talk with pride about the range of opportunities and experiences they have had through the school. These include attending a range of clubs, being involved in competitions and going on trips. Across year groups, pupils are happy and feel safe. They demonstrate the school's six values of 'Cooperation, Kindness, Honesty, Resilience, Respect and Well-being'. Pupils understand what these mean and, through their conduct towards others, demonstrate them well. Pupils are keen to take on responsibilities and contribute to the school. They enthusiastically put themselves forward for a range of highly prized leadership roles so that they can help run events and be part of changes in the school. The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. Following substantial improvements to the school's curriculum, pupils are increasingly supported to know more and remember more. However, these changes are very recent. In most subjects, pupils have not benefited from these changes for long enough, which means they do not yet achieve as well as they could.

What the school should improve

• In a number of subjects, curriculum planning has not supported pupils to understand or revisit important knowledge. Pupils' learning is hindered because the curriculum has not developed their secure understanding of important concepts. The school needs to embed the substantial curriculum changes so the order that knowledge is taught, alongside the revisiting of earlier learning, supports all pupils to know more and remember more.
• Assessments are not being used to inform teaching across all subjects. This means that pupils continue to have inaccurate understanding and can continue to apply incorrect thinking. The school needs to embed assessment practice so that future teaching addresses pupils' insecure knowledge.
• Governors are not clear about the extent to which changes are improving the quality of education for pupils. This restricts the effectiveness of their work to support and challenge leaders. Governors need to develop their approach so that they have clear understanding of the impact of the school's development plans and use this to sharpen their work with leaders.

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