High Down Junior School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 November 2024

Pupils are happy and enjoy their learning at this school. The excellent pastoral support team assists anyone who is having a tricky time. This helps pupils to be ready to learn in lessons. Staff have high expectations of pupils and have positive relationships with them. This helps the new arrivals in Year 3 settle quickly. By the time pupils leave, they achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics. As a result, they are well prepared for secondary school. Pupils behave well in class. They listen closely to staff's instructions. Pupils share their ideas in small groups respectfully. They are polite and courteous when speaking to visitors. Staff effectively support pupils who struggle to manage their behaviour. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). At social times, pupils play well together. Bullying is rare. The school swiftly addresses any incidents that occur. The school places a strong emphasis on pupils adopting leadership roles. These include school councillors, reading ambassadors and anti-bullying ambassadors. Pupils take these roles seriously. They help to make a tangible difference to the life of the school. For example, the school council helped to make improvements to the range of lunchtime activities.

What the school should improve

• In some wider subjects, the school does not check well enough what pupils have learned in the long term. This means the school does not know when pupils have gaps in what they know and can do. As a result, pupils find it difficult to build on their prior learning. The school needs to develop systems for checking how well pupils have built their knowledge over time so that staff can address any gaps in their learning and pupils can build on their prior knowledge securely.

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