Holbeach Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 May 2023

This is a welcoming, warm and thoroughly inclusive place to learn. Pupils are proud to belong to the school community. Pupils are happy and enjoy learning. Leaders use well-planned strategies to support pupils' wider development. The arts are at the heart of school life. Leaders provide many opportunities for pupils to reflect, including through regular music assemblies and singing. Pupils benefit from a range of opportunities to help them to develop a love of reading. Books are available everywhere on site, including in an inviting playground library. Leaders make sure that the curriculum develops pupils' knowledge and understanding well. Some subjects are more effective at doing this than others at the moment. Pupils work hard and want to do well in their learning. Overall, they are successfully prepared for their next steps, including moving on to secondary school. Leaders have high expectations for pupils in all areas of their development. Pupils behave sensibly and show positive attitudes towards their learning. Pupils understand their responsibility to behave with kindness and respect. They said that bullying is not tolerated. On the rare occasions that bullying does happen, staff deal with it quickly. Pupils are kept safe and feel safe in school.

What the school should improve

• In a few subjects, leaders' curriculum thinking is at an earlier stage of development. While leaders are clear about the intended end points for pupils' learning, they have not set out precisely how pupils need to develop their knowledge in order to achieve these long-term aims. In these instances, the curriculum is not supporting pupils as well as it could to develop and deepen their understanding in a cumulative way. Subject leaders should continue to refine and adapt their curriculum thinking so that pupils acquire the necessary knowledge to work towards clearly defined curriculum goals in all subjects.
• Occasionally, teaching does not support pupils to build on what they have learned previously. This affects how well pupils are supported to deepen their knowledge over time. Leaders need to sharpen the training and support for teachers in knowing when and how to adapt the delivery of the curriculum for all pupils.

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