Hilldene Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 December 2024

Pupils are happy and safe here. They enjoy being part of the Hilldene community. Pupils know they can share any worries they may have with a member of staff. Pupils are polite and welcoming to each other and to visitors. They make a positive contribution to the school. For example, many pupils volunteer for leadership roles such as house captain, school council representative and junior travel ambassador. Pupils take part in activities to support the well-being of the local community, including singing at a care home. Pupils fundraise for local charities, for example by creating and selling a recipe book. A wide range of activities, such as guitar and a social enterprise club, encourage pupils to develop a variety of interests. Pupils appreciate these opportunities. Leaders have designed a broad and balanced curriculum. The school has high expectations for pupils' achievement. Pupils enjoy their lessons and behave well. However, the planned curriculum, including for early reading, is not consistently well implemented. This means that pupils do not build sufficiently deep bodies of knowledge in different subjects, including in areas of learning in the early years. As a result, some pupils do not achieve highly in national assessments and are less well prepared than they need to be for the next stage of their education.

What the school should improve

• There are inconsistencies in the implementation of the phonics curriculum and the support for weaker readers. As a result, some pupils do not develop the accuracy and fluency of their reading quickly enough. The school should ensure that the chosen phonics programme is implemented with consistent precision, including those at the earliest stages of learning to read.
• In some subjects, and areas of learning in the early years, teaching does not consistently focus on helping pupils to secure the important knowledge and vocabulary that the curriculum outlines. As a result, pupils do not develop the depth of understanding they need to be ready for the next stage of their education. The school should ensure that pupils benefit from teaching which helps them to learn the important knowledge that the school's ambitious curriculum identifies.
• Assessment, including in early years, is not well used to check what pupils know and understand. As a result, the school does not have the information it needs to evaluate the impact of the curriculum. The school should ensure that assessment is used to provide an accurate picture of the impact of the curriculum so that areas for improvement can be identified and addressed.

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