Pound Hill Junior School, Crawley

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 6 February 2024

Pupils' behaviour and attitudes to learning are exceptional. Strong relationships and the school's approach to managing behaviour helps pupils to feel responsible for themselves and each other. Clear boundaries and effective communication from staff help pupils to know what is expected of them throughout the school day. The behaviour policy is applied fairly and consistently. Pupils feel very safe at school. The playground is calm, orderly and full of joy. If bullying or unkindness happens, it is dealt with quickly and sensitively. Pupils' good attendance and punctuality is supported effectively. Older pupils thrive when taking on responsibilities such as running the school stationery shop or helping younger pupils in the local infant school. Pupils are role models for each other. The curriculum is ambitious for all pupils. Staff have high expectations for pupils' achievement. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive effective support. Most pupils achieve consistently high outcomes in reading, mathematics and particularly writing by the end of key stage 2. Pupils know the school's values of independence, achievement, creativity, fairness and resilience. Describing these, one pupil summed up the thoughts of many, saying, 'They help us to carry on and make our learning successful, even if things get tough.' Pupils are prepared for their next stage of education well.

What the school should improve

• Subject expertise in teaching phonics and early reading is not yet consistently strong across the whole staff team. As a result, a small number of pupils do not learn to read as effectively as they could. The school should ensure that staff training supports all staff in developing the subject knowledge they need and that this is implemented to teach phonics and early reading consistently well.
• In some wider curriculum subjects, the school does not yet provide enough opportunities for pupils to revisit essential knowledge and vocabulary. This prevents some pupils from having sufficiently secure foundations on which to build and connect their learning. The school should support staff to deliver the curriculum in these subjects so that pupils are consistently well prepared for their next steps.
• Some of the individual targets set out for pupils who need additional support are not always implemented consistently well. This means a small number of pupils are not always learning as well as they could. Although some adaptations to learning and the curriculum are successful for some pupils, the school should ensure that precise adaptations and targets for pupils, where these are necessary, are planned for and implemented effectively in classroom practice.

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