Pepper Hill School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Pepper Hill School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pepper Hill is full of happy pupils. They want to come to school because they enjoy their learning and look forward to seeing their friends and caring adults.

The breakfast club offers a fun and nutritious start to the school day for those pupils who need it.

There are high expectations set for children's behaviour and learning through the well-known 'PROUD' values. These expectations begin right from the moment children enter the school in Nursery and Reception.

Across the school, pupils live up to these high expectations and behave extremely well. In lessons, pupils listen c...arefully to their teachers and are enthusiastic and attentive learners. At breaktimes and lunchtimes, they enjoy playing with their friends.

Relationships between pupils and staff are strong because they are rooted in kindness and respect. Pupils know that their caring adults will help them if they have any worries.

The school communicates well with families, and this means that they are fully informed about what and how well their children are learning.

Parents and carers value feeling part of the school community and appreciate being actively involved in their child's learning. The recent family 'challenge homework' attracted a high number of creative entries.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has designed an interesting and relevant curriculum.

In all subjects, the learning journey is considered from its start in Nursery and Reception. It is structured to give pupils the knowledge and skills they need to learn by the end of Year 2. As a result, most pupils are well prepared for their entry into Year 3.

They benefit from extensive transition procedures through their frequent visits to the federated junior school.

The school acted quickly to prioritise the teaching of reading, following disappointing phonics outcomes in 2023. This work is making a difference to how well pupils learn to read.

All staff are trained in how to teach pupils to read using the school's phonics programme. This means that there is now a more effective approach to teaching phonics, using reading books that match the sounds pupils learn. Pupils enjoy their reading routines and join in with enthusiasm as they read with increasing fluency.

Those who need extra help receive it in a highly targeted way. Pupils enjoy their regular story times and whole-school activities such as the 'Books for Breakfast' family event, as well as meeting their 'poet in residence'.

Teachers have secure subject knowledge and are supported well by subject leaders, both in this school and through the partnership with the federated junior school.

Pupils are helped to remember and use their prior learning via regular recaps at the start of lessons. In many subjects, this means that teachers know what pupils remember and therefore need to learn next. However, in a few subjects across the wider curriculum, assessment is not used with precision to check what pupils know and remember.

This means that teachers do not always address gaps and misconceptions in pupils' learning.

The school has robust systems for identifying and monitoring pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Appropriate support allows pupils with SEND to access the whole curriculum.

This support often includes expertise garnered from external services, use of physical resources and specific extra help. There is strong oversight of how well pupils with SEND are learning, particularly in English and mathematics.

The school places high emphasis on pupils' personal development.

Pupils are proud to be members of their school houses. They feel a sense of belonging as they work collaboratively towards many celebrations and rewards. Pupils enjoy opportunities to attend an interesting range of after-school clubs, including athletics, dance, and arts and crafts.

The school is diligent in making sure that wider opportunities are inclusive and accessible to all. This means that disadvantaged pupils are actively encouraged and supported to take part in the school's clubs, visits and productions.

In this diverse school population, pupils have many opportunities to share their culture, traditions and experiences during 'language days'.

This helps them to show empathy and understanding towards others. Pupils have an age-appropriate understanding about the features that make up British values. The 'pupil parliament' representatives are democratically elected and collect the views of their classmates about daily school life.

The recent 'bend the rules' day allowed pupils to reflect on the importance of having rules to ensure their school runs smoothly and is fair for all.

The governing body understands its statutory responsibilities and shares school leaders' ambition for all pupils to be prepared well for their next educational steps. Staff are overwhelmingly positive about being part of the Pepper Hill team.

They appreciate the consideration given to their workload and well-being, including through recent team-building events.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few of the wider curriculum subjects, assessment is not used with precision to check what pupils know and remember.

This means that, in these subjects, pupils are not always prepared for their new learning as well as they could be. The school should ensure that assessment information allows teachers to address gaps and misconceptions in pupils' learning swiftly and successfully across the entire curriculum.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in November 2014.