Hooe Primary Academy
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Primary
PUPILS
212
AGES
5 - 11
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
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SCHOOL GUIDE RATING
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This pupil heat map shows where pupils currently attending the school live.
The concentration of pupils shows likelihood of admission based on distance criteria

Source: All attending pupils National School Census Data, ONS
01752 668 000

This School Guide heat map has been plotted using official pupil data taken from the last School Census collected by the Department for Education. It is a visualisation of where pupils lived at the time of the annual School Census.

Our heat maps use groups of postcodes, not individual postcodes, and have naturally soft edges. All pupils are included in the mapping (i.e. children with siblings already at the school, high priority pupils and selective and/or religious admissions) but we may have removed statistical ‘outliers’ with more remote postcodes that do not reflect majority admissions.

For some schools, the heat map may be a useful indicator of the catchment area but our heat maps are not the same as catchment area maps. Catchment area maps, published by the school or local authority, are based on geographical admissions criteria and show actual cut-off distances and pre-defined catchment areas for a single admission year.

This information is provided as a guide only. The criteria in which schools use to allocate places in the event that they are oversubscribed can and do vary between schools and over time. These criteria can include distance from the school and sometimes specific catchment areas but can also include, amongst others, priority for siblings, children of a particular faith or specific feeder schools. Living in an area where children have previously attended a school does not guarantee admission to the school in future years. Always check with the school’s own admission authority for the current admission arrangements.

3 steps to help parents gather catchment information for a school:

  1. Look at our school catchment area guide for more information on heat maps. They give a useful indicator of the general areas that admit pupils to the school. This visualisation is based on all attending pupils present at the time of the annual School Census.
  2. Use the link to the Local Authority Contact (above) to find catchment area information based on a single admission year. This is very important if you are considering applying to a school.
  3. On each school page, use the link to visit the school website and find information on individual school admissions criteria. Geographical criteria are only applied after pupils have been admitted on higher priority criteria such as Looked After Children, SEN, siblings, etc.

How Does The School Perform?

Good
NATIONAL AVG. 2.09
Ofsted Inspection
(18/10/2022)
Full Report - All Reports
71%
NATIONAL AVG. 60%
% pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics



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Progress Compared With All Other Schools

UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 9% of schools in England) Below Average (About 9% of schools in England) Average (About 67% of schools in England) Above Average (About 6% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 9% of schools in England) UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 10% of schools in England) Below Average (About 9% of schools in England) Average (About 67% of schools in England) Above Average (About 6% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 8% of schools in England) UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 10% of schools in England) Below Average (About 11% of schools in England) Average (About 59% of schools in England) Above Average (About 11% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 9% of schools in England)
Hooe Road
Hooe
Plymstock
Plymouth
PL9 9RG
01752402042

School Description

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You provide the school with strong leadership and a determined drive for continuous improvement. Since the last inspection many changes have taken place, including the school becoming a founder member of the Horizon multi-academy trust. However, you have not been distracted from the core purpose of your work and have steered the school through this period of transition well. This included a period of significant change in staff, including the forming of a new leadership team and a change of deputy headteacher. You and your leaders have successfully galvanised a strong team that is working effectively to continue to improve the school further. An ethos of teachers working cohesively permeates the school and morale is high. Staff who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire are united in their determination to ensure the very best for pupils. In my meetings with pupils and visits to lessons, pupils were very positive about their school and showed exceptional attitudes to school life. They enjoy very good relationships with each other and staff and they value the teaching and the wider opportunities the school provides. Pupils of all abilities agree that their work has become more challenging and appreciate the range of enrichment activities provided for them. At the last inspection, you were charged with ensuring that the work planned for pupils is more challenging. You swiftly set to work on addressing the areas needing improvement and they have been tackled well. Particularly impressive is the improved progress in writing of the most able pupils by the end of key stage 2, where work is planned to challenge pupils well. Pupils’ achievement has risen because you and your leaders’ actions identified exactly what it was that prevented pupils from achieving their very best, made the necessary changes and eradicated most of those barriers. You were also tasked with improving attendance rates, and actions taken to address this aspect have also been successful. Governors share the same determined drive and ambition of the senior leaders to continue to improve the school. They are very aware of the school’s strengths and of areas that need further development. They use their wide range of expertise to work closely with staff and leaders to ensure that the school’s strategic ambitions are achieved. Governors use their insightful knowledge, backed up by their visits to the school, to challenge leaders and make well-informed decisions. Most parents are very positive about the school and would highly recommend it to others. Comments from parents I spoke with at the start of the day were typically positive, such as ‘Hooe Primary is amazing’, although a proportion of parents did feel that the school could improve communication further, particularly for working families. This view was also echoed by a small selection of parents who used the Parent View free-text option. Furthermore, the school website is missing some statutory information for parents. Pupils join the school with standards that are typically below those expected for their age. At the end of key stage 2, standards in reading and mathematics remain above the national average, and writing is in line. However, in your accurate selfevaluation you recognised that the progress being made by a small number of pupils in writing in key stage 1 was not good enough. These pupils included disadvantaged pupils and some who have special educational needs and/or disabilities with average starting points. Safeguarding is effective. Your safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. You have provided staff and governors with a comprehensive training programme. As a result, staff are knowledgeable of potential warning signs and act to keep children safe. Staff I spoke to knew what to do should any incident or concern related to safeguarding come to their attention. You and your staff have created an environment in which pupils feel safe at school and their parents agree. Pupils vividly recall the assemblies that you lead to provide advice and guidance about potential threats and risks to their safety. They could tell me with confidence how to keep safe in and outside of school, and what actions to take if they did not feel safe. They are also very confident that they will be helped if they report any concern, because they say they have ‘trusting relationships’. Furthermore, pupils were very keen to tell me about the ‘Life Caravan’ and how this has helped them to understand mental health issues, the importance of keeping healthy and the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. They said this prepares them well for the realities beyond school. Pupils were also able to explain the difference between bullying and falling-out and were adamant that bullying rarely happens at Hooe Primary Academy. They are aware that a major risk that pupils face is from the internet and social media and were able to tell me how to keep themselves safe online and how to respond to any concerns they may have. Inspection findings My first line of enquiry was to explore the actions taken by leaders to reverse the declining trend in outcomes in the early years, particularly for boys. The recently appointed early years lead has made significant headway in turning fortunes around for all children, but particularly in improving achievement for boys. She has a relentless focus on raising standards and knows every child’s strengths and weaknesses. This has enabled her to take early action to ensure that every child makes positive progress. Particularly impressive was the language being used by the children to increase their writing development. For example, a group of boys were observed attempting to write more challenging words than expected for their age, such as the word ‘caterpillar’. Deliberate actions have been swift and incisive to raise achievement. Consequently, assessment information and children’s work show that children are now on track to achieve much stronger outcomes than historically and the differences between girls and boys have diminished. Another key line of enquiry concerned the quality of teaching in writing across key stage 1, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and girls who were working at the expected level at the end of the Reception Year. School leaders rightly identified this as an area for improvement. Pupils’ attainment in writing in key stage 1 was around the national average overall in 2016. However, girls and disadvantaged pupils from average starting points were not achieving as well as they should have been. You and your leaders dedicated school resources for focused improvement and your actions have ensured that pupils in Year 3 who did not reach the expected standard in Year 2 have now caught up. Leaders reviewed the approaches to the teaching of writing and made swift changes to the way writing is taught. As a result, the standards of writing in key stage 1 are now high. Although the changes to the approach to teaching writing have had a positive impact for most groups, this is not the case for a small proportion of disadvantaged pupils currently in key stage 1. The third key line of enquiry looked at how effective leaders are at ensuring that the most able girls are being challenged to achieve their very best in writing by the end of key stage 2. Again, the changes to the way writing is being taught have had an impact on the most able pupils’ outcomes. The work that we reviewed together clearly demonstrated that a larger proportion of girls are on track to attain at a greater depth from their high starting points. Furthermore, wider scrutiny identified that a proportion of middle-ability pupils are also on track to attain the higher standards and this is a significant improvement upon past achievements. A large proportion of pupils’ work demonstrates that the more-technical aspects of writing have been secured successfully; consequently, pupils are achieving the higher standards. The fourth line of enquiry evaluated the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, particularly in writing, by the end of key stage 2. In 2016, pupils made similar and better progress than other pupils nationally in reading and mathematics. However, this was not the case for writing, where pupils made significantly less progress. Since then leaders have taken effective action to address this; robust monitoring of the school’s writing interventions has enabled leaders to identify what planned actions are effective in consolidating pupils’ understanding. Teachers’ plans are evaluated regularly by leaders and resources are adjusted accordingly to ensure that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make continued positive progress. My final line of enquiry was how the wider curriculum meets the needs of all pupils. Leaders ensure that the wider curriculum supports pupils to develop a wide range of skills and gain sufficient knowledge across most subjects. They learn particularly well in religious education, science, history, geography, art, music and design technology. Pupils in Year 6 told me they particularly enjoyed design technology, where they designed and built a shelter that they slept in overnight at school. However, scrutiny of pupils’ work in modern foreign languages found that this aspect of the curriculum had not been completed in Year 6. Furthermore, information relating to the Year 6 school’s curriculum was missing from the website. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: pupils in Year 6 are provided with the same opportunities as other pupils to thoroughly develop their knowledge and skills in other subjects across the broad curriculum all groups of pupils make consistently good progress in writing, particularly at key stage 1 the school’s website is compliant and publishes all required information. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Plymouth. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Matthew Middlemore Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and your senior leadership team. I also met with two governors, including the chair. I met with the chief executive officer from the Horizon multi-academy trust and the person responsible for maintaining safeguarding records. You joined me on visits to most classes and we looked at examples of pupils’ work from across the curriculum. I took account of the 39 responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I also considered the views of parents who talked with me before the school day. I considered the 18 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and spoke to staff during the day. I also met with a group of pupils and took account of the 119 responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire. I observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around school. I also reviewed school documents, including: information about pupils’ achievement; school self-evaluation; ongoing strategic developments; information on attendance; and documents relating to safeguarding.

Hooe Primary Academy Parent Reviews



unlock % Parents Recommend This School
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>74, "agree"=>23, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>72, "agree"=>21, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>64, "agree"=>28, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
My Child Has Not Been Bullied Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"my_child_has_not_been_bullied"=>72, "strongly_agree"=>5, "agree"=>10, "disagree"=>10, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>56, "agree"=>41, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
I Have Not Raised Any Concerns Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"i_have_not_raised_any_concerns"=>36, "strongly_agree"=>26, "agree"=>21, "disagree"=>15, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>25, "agree"=>50, "disagree"=>25, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 10 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>62, "agree"=>28, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>5} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>64, "agree"=>31, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>41, "agree"=>51, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>64, "agree"=>31, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>5} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>62, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>49, "agree"=>36, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>8} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022
Yes No {"yes"=>95, "no"=>5} UNLOCK Figures based on 39 responses up to 18-10-2022

Responses taken from Ofsted Parent View

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