Highgate Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 6 October 2022

Pupils at Highgate understand what the school value to 'be respectful' means. Pupils listen to their teachers when they are explaining what to do or reading a story. Pupils are polite to staff throughout school and hold doors open for visitors. The school building is a calm and orderly place nearly all the time. If pupils have a concern about someone being unkind to them they know that they can tell someone. These issues rarely develop into bullying concerns. Leaders have analysed behaviour trends and spoken to pupils about their thoughts. This has helped leaders to respond to what is happening and make improvements to the daily experience of pupils. For example, there is much more to do at lunchtimes now with a range of activities, and staff there to run them. Older pupils help younger pupils join in with parachute games or running races. Pupils are taught important knowledge about how to keep themselves safe. Pupils know about what to look out for when online and how to resist peer pressure. By the time they get to Year 6, pupils understand how to form and maintain healthy relationships. Pupils enjoy all the reading that they get the opportunity to do. Teachers read to them daily and teach them new words and about characters in the stories. Pupils borrow books from the library that they can continue to enjoy at home.

What the school should improve

• Teachers can miss opportunities to revisit important knowledge that they need to build on to support pupils to acquire new knowledge. Pupil do not grasp the new concepts taught to them when this happens. Leaders need to ensure that they train teachers to use the key concepts that thread through the curriculum to revisit past learning to ensure that pupils have the prior understanding that they need to be successful.
• Sometimes, in foundation subjects, teachers use pedagogical approaches that do not help pupils to retain knowledge and skills in the long term. Pupils do not use lesson time well in these cases and they are focusing on work that does not help them acquire new knowledge. Leaders need to train staff in pedagogy that supports acquisition of the knowledge that pupils need in a way that focuses on what pupils need to know and remember.

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