Horton Mill Community Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 25 February 2025

Pupils play a large part in making this school the welcoming learning community that it is. They benefit from the positive relationships that they develop with staff and their friends. Pupils know that the school expects them to behave well. Playground pals and lunchtime helpers support younger pupils to enjoy positive breaktimes. Pupils' conduct embodies the school's aim of 'Going for Gold'. They are respectful and kind to each other. This makes pupils happy. The school has high expectations of what pupils can and should achieve. However, these aspirations are not being met. This is because, over time, pupils in key stages 1 and 2 have not benefited from an ambitious curriculum that builds their knowledge. The school has recently strengthened the curriculum across many subjects. However, it is too early to see the impact of this work. Pupils' learning across a range of subjects is uneven as a result. Pupils enjoy many opportunities to develop as confident, young citizens. For example, they are proud to be members of the anti-bullying team and school council. 'Blue Skies' pupils help to support their peers in their learning. Pupils also benefit from trips that capture their interests, such as visits to parks, farms, museums and to London.

What the school should improve

• Improvements to the design and quality of many of the school's curriculums, including writing and mathematics, are fairly recent. It is too soon to see the full impact of this work. This means that pupils have significant gaps in their knowledge and do not remember what they have learned as well as they should. The school should make sure that the improvements made to subject curriculums result in pupils gaining a strong body of knowledge in the longer term.
• The school does not routinely check that pupils are fully secure with prior learning before they move on to learning new content. This means that pupils do not build on their previous knowledge as well as they should. The school should make sure that staff check what pupils understand so that misconceptions and gaps in learning are quickly addressed before new learning is introduced.
• Those responsible for governance do not have a secure enough understanding of the quality of education that pupils receive. As a result, their oversight of the school's work has not had enough impact on improving pupils' achievement. Those responsible for governance should ensure that they gain the skills and expertise required to offer constructive and effective support and challenge to hold the school to account effectively.

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