Hurst Knoll St James' Church of England Primary School
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Primary
PUPILS
196
AGES
4 - 11
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
Voluntary controlled school
SCHOOL GUIDE RATING
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Can I Get My Child Into This School?

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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
0161 342 3214

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
(05/07/2022)
Full Report - All Reports
40%
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)
Ladbrooke Road
Ashton-under-Lyne
OL6 8JS
01613304049

School Description

You and your deputy are a very strong and capable team. You are well supported by a committed and highly effective governing body which does not hold back on asking difficult and probing questions of school leaders. Under your leadership the school has improved greatly since the last inspection because of your clear vision and dynamic leadership. Your ambition for pupils’ academic achievement, as well as their social and personal development, is shared by all staff and pupils. You have made some tough decisions since your appointment as headteacher and have not held back in tackling underperformance. You have raised expectations in your school and all are working hard to meet these expectations. I was particularly struck by the passion your pupils showed when talking about their school and their well-founded trust in you to keep them safe. This means that instances of bullying or disruptive behaviour are extremely rare. Pupils take great pride in their school and their school community. They behave well during work and play, taking care of each other and of their school. They take enormous pride in their work and speak confidently and articulately across a range of topics. The pupils I talked to struggled to identify how the school could be improved. They spoke with great enthusiasm about how much they loved coming to school. They take immense pride in their leadership roles. They have a strong sense of democracy and the rule of law which is something they have learned from their responsibilities in their leadership roles. This is indicative of the commitment that you and your staff have to developing the pupils into young people who have a strong sense of moral purpose. These children are very comfortable with the concept of tolerance and they celebrate difference. The work you have done to promote equality of opportunity for all is commendable. This is a key part of the core values and Christian ethos you promote in your school. One parent commented that, ‘The school has a family feel to it.’ Writing was an area of improvement at the last inspection. You put in place a strategy to improve the quality of teachers’ knowledge about teaching writing. As a consequence, teachers are better placed to teach writing to a high standard. Leaders have developed writing targets for pupils to work towards, which are now much sharper. Staff understand the expectations around the teaching of writing. Pupils are much clearer on how they can improve the quality of their writing and their next steps for improvement. Progress in writing has improved significantly in all classes. Outcomes in writing are now at least as good as in other schools nationally. Another aspect to improve was to ensure consistency in the quality of teaching. There has been significant staff turnover in senior leadership and teachers in both key stages since the last inspection. Due to good leadership and management by you and your team, the impact of the change in teachers has resulted in minimal disruption to pupils. You provide a wide range of professional development for teachers and teaching assistants so that the quality of provision continues to improve. The improved quality of teaching has led to better outcomes for children across the school. Pupils, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, now make good progress overall. The provision in the early years is a strength. The children thrive in a rich environment with clear systems and routines. The resources both inside the classroom and outdoors are developing children’s learning successfully. This is all led by your highly capable early years team. You have, however, recognised in your self-evaluation that there is some variability in the progress pupils make in their reading. In 2016, some disadvantaged children did not do as well as other pupils nationally. The school’s own tracking shows differences in outcomes for reading. Key stage 1 reading was below national average, with few children reaching greater depth. With the support of your leaders, you introduced a programme to improve pupils’ reading and develop their understanding of a range of texts. This was started in the autumn of 2016 and reviewed in the spring to ensure maximum impact on raising standards. These actions include your highly effective work with parents to help them support their children’s reading. Your mid-day supervisors are also playing a key role in your strategy to improve reading when they listen to children read before and after dinner time. You have worked effectively to improve the quality of phonics teaching in Year 1 so all groups of pupils achieve the level expected for their age. I saw the early shoots of improvement. During the learning walk I saw confident readers; I listened to children read and they talked with enthusiasm and vigour about their reading. Pupils’ reading is starting to improve. Excellent support for children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is ensuring their good progress across the school. Your inclusion team is highly capable and works hard to support the needs of all pupils across the school. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose, and records are of a high quality. These arrangements are understood by all staff, governors and pupils. Staff new to the school have a highly effective induction which ensures that they fully understand their safeguarding responsibilities. Newly qualified teachers were very positive about the induction and support they got from the school. Staff and governors receive regular, appropriate, up-to-date training. This includes training related to the ‘Prevent’ duty and e-safety. Pupils knew about how to keep safe online and in a range of different situations. This is because you and your team have created a strong culture of safeguarding. This culture is understood and shared by pupils, parents, governors and staff. The safeguarding lead in the school works hard to ensure that pupils’ needs are met in a timely way. There are effective relationships with a wide range of agencies to give pupils the support they need. You and your team ensure that pupils are kept safe and their welfare needs are met. You are highly vigilant in relation to the care and support of vulnerable pupils. This means staff are well equipped to spot, and report, any signs of potential harm to the pupils in their care. Inspection findings The inspection focused on a number of key lines of enquiry. The first of these revealed that you have tackled the areas of improvement from the last inspection. These were to improve the quality of writing and to ensure that all teaching was at least consistently good. You and your colleagues have tackled the area of writing successfully with outcomes in writing at least as good as those of other pupils nationally. Writing is now a strength. Teaching has continued to improve since the last inspection with strengths in the early years and upper key stage 2. The next line of enquiry looked at how your leadership team and governors ensure that the most able pupils are challenged. Your honest and accurate self-evaluation correctly identifies this as an area for improvement. The most able pupils make the slowest progress in key stage 1, with very few pupils exceeding national expectations in reading and mathematics. Leaders are addressing this issue and teachers now have higher expectations of the most able pupils. They are also starting to set them more challenging work. You provided evidence of a wide curriculum plan in response to another key line of enquiry. This plan has a clear set of expectations and activities across the curriculum. Teaching and pupils’ outcomes are good in English and mathematics. However, the curriculum does not yet ensure that activities in history, geography and science reflect the same high quality of work that pupils produce in English and mathematics. The spending of the pupil premium funding was followed up during the inspection. This funding helps pupils make at least expected progress across the school. There now needs to be improved targeting of the fund and support. This is to enable a higher proportion of middle-ability disadvantaged pupils attain above the standard expected for their age. We agreed when reviewing the next focus for the inspection that you and your team have very effectively reduced exclusions and increased attendance. Exclusions are now rare. Fixed-term exclusions have been reduced from 8.6% in 2014/2015 to just 0.94% currently. Attendance is now around the national average. The work of the inclusion team has been very effective in reducing exclusions and incidents of poor behaviour. Your strong leadership has established high-quality pastoral care with good systems for pre-empting exclusions. Family support work has developed a good partnership between school and home. Pupils know about different forms of bullying and appreciate that if it occurs it is dealt with effectively. Pupils speak with passion and positivity of the support they receive from you and other leaders. Almost all staff, parents and pupils who shared their views agree that pupils are safe and free from bullying. This is because you have created a welcoming, supportive and positive ethos in the school. Pupils speak positively about the reflection system in school and restorative justice. This has been a key factor in establishing the strong and harmonious relationships across the school. The school has developed well a values-led behaviour policy in line with its strong Christian ethos. Governors are a strength of the school. They are supportive and proud of all that has been achieved. You have established an open relationship between governors and leaders. As a result, governors support and challenge you and your leadership team in equal measure. Governors are highly capable and knowledgeable. Those new to the governing body are proud to be involved in an atmosphere where challenge is welcomed and where the governing board is making real decisions. You have created a strong team of leaders and governors to move the school forward. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: all teaching is consistently good or better children in key stage 1 reach the highest possible levels of achievement, in particular the most able pupils in mathematics and reading pupils’ work in history, geography, and science better reflects pupils’ standards in English and mathematics.

Hurst Knoll St James' Church of England Primary School Parent Reviews



unlock % Parents Recommend This School
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>67, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>67, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>25, "agree"=>50, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>17} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
My Child Has Not Been Bullied Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"my_child_has_not_been_bullied"=>83, "strongly_agree"=>0, "agree"=>8, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>58, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
I Have Not Raised Any Concerns Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"i_have_not_raised_any_concerns"=>25, "strongly_agree"=>42, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>0, "agree"=>100, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 10 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>50, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>25} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>67, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>50, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>8, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>58, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>8} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>17, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>8, "strongly_disagree"=>42, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>50, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>0, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>25} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022
Yes No {"yes"=>75, "no"=>25} UNLOCK Figures based on 12 responses up to 05-07-2022

Responses taken from Ofsted Parent View

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