Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Ms Charlotte Hopkins Headteacher Henhurst Ridge Primary Academy Henhurst Ridge Burton-on-Trent Staffordshire DE13 9TQ

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Urgent inspection of Henhurst Ridge Primary Academy

Following my visit with Mavis Smith, His Majesty’s Inspector, to the school on 16 July 2024 I write on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and the time you took to discuss the school.

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Urgent inspection of Henhurst Ridge Primary Academy

This inspection was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for urgent inspections. The inspection was carried out because His Majesty’s Chief Inspector wished to determine the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements at the school due to safeguarding concerns raised with Ofsted.

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Urgent inspection of Henhurst Ridge Primary Academy

We do not give graded judgements on urgent inspections. However, if we find some evidence that overall standards may be declining, but where no serious concerns have been identified, then the next inspection will normally be a graded inspection, which will be carried out under section 5 of the Act and be brought forward. If we have serious concerns, we will deem the urgent inspection as a graded inspection immediately.

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Evidence

During the inspection, I scrutinised the single central record and other documents relating to safeguarding and child protection arrangements. I met with the deputy director of education and safeguarding lead from the trust and three members of the local governing body. We met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and phase leads, including from the early years. We spoke to teaching and non-teaching staff formally and informally throughout the inspection. We also spoke to staff who run the breakfast club. We met formally with key stage 1 and 2 pupils in addition to talking to pupils informally during the morning break and lunchtime.

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Evidence

We scrutinised documents relating to attendance. We also discussed the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and the relationships, sex and health (RSE) education curriculum and how pupils learn how to keep themselves safe.

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Evidence

Having considered the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Evidence

Arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Main findings

The school benefits from the expertise, support and guidance from the trust. This support helps to ensure that the school’s safeguarding policies and procedures, including safer recruitment processes, are regularly updated in line with government guidance. When recruiting new staff, the school checks whether candidates have a sound understanding of the importance of safeguarding children. In addition to this, all the required safeguarding checks are completed on staff before they start working at the school.

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Main findings

The school ensures that staff receive regular and up-to-date safeguarding training. Staff demonstrate a secure understanding of the school’s safeguarding procedures and can explain how they would raise concerns they have about any pupil immediately. Staff also know how to raise any concerns they may have about adults in school and would not hesitate to do so. Safeguarding records are detailed and confirm that the safeguarding leads follow up any reported concerns quickly. The school has a detailed understanding of the vulnerabilities of its pupils and families. Close working relationships with social care and charities help to secure additional support for families and pupils when needed. This work with other agencies to support pupils and to protect them from harm is effective.

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Main findings

The school takes due account of the safeguarding requirements in the early years. For example, staff have appropriate qualifications, the correct staff ratios and risk assessments are in place, in line with relevant guidance, and are adhered to. In addition to this, there are further safeguarding procedures in place to ensure that children are collected by authorised adults only. These safeguarding arrangements also extend into the breakfast and after-school clubs.

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Main findings

The school has clear procedures in place to analyse attendance data to identify pupils whose absences are regular and persistent. The school then provides additional support to families where this is a concern. This work has been successful in bringing about some improvement to the pupils’ attendance. The school prioritises pupils’ welfare and makes regular checks, including carrying out home visits, to ensure that pupils who are not in school are safe. There is now a more challenging approach to tackling absence, including video calls to check that pupils who are not in school are safe. The school has also started to work more closely with the local authority attendance team to tackle some specific factors that lead to absences, including families who take holidays abroad in term time. The school is particularly mindful of the context of the local community and is very alert to an absence that may be linked to a potentially serious safeguarding issue. It takes

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Main findings

rapid action when needed in response to the safeguarding concerns.

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Main findings

The PSHE and RSE curriculum supports pupils’ understanding of keeping safe very well. Pupils are able to confidently talk about their learning, including about online safety, safe friendships and how to cross the road safely. They are also able to provide age- appropriate responses to questions about the rules of touch, the use of technology and hygiene. The school is very responsive to issues that arise in school. For example, following concerns about pupils sending inappropriate mobile phone messages, the school worked with families and the pupils to help them understand cyber bullying. This has resulted in resolving the issues and pupils now understand how to use messaging systems on mobile phones appropriately. Pupils have a well-developed understanding of what bullying is and is not. The school helps them to understand how to deal with such issues, including telling their peers to ‘please stop’. Pupils say that there are lots of adults they

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Main findings

can speak to if they have any concerns or need help. They also say that staff respond quickly to their concerns.

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Main findings

The school’s safeguarding policies, processes and procedures are in place and are generally followed in a timely fashion. Over the last few years, the number of pupils at the school has grown considerably. This has also led to a proportionate increase in the number of vulnerable families and safeguarding concerns about pupils. However, the trust has not ensured that the school’s safeguarding team has expanded in response to this increase. This has resulted in additional pressure on the school’s safeguarding team to ensure that there is a consistently rigorous and robust oversight of all the safeguarding aspects of the school. As a result, some matters have not been dealt with in a timely way, such as induction training for temporary staff not being completed quickly enough. This has not yet put pupils at risk of harm.

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Main findings

During the inspection, parents shared their views about the school through Ofsted Parent View. The vast majority of parents see the school as a happy and safe place for their children.

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Priorities for further improvement

 The school’s leadership team currently has limited capacity to ensure that oversight of safeguarding across the school is fully robust and rigorous. As a result, some minor aspects of weaker safeguarding practices are not identified and addressed as quickly as they should be. This has not put pupils at risk of harm but has the potential to do so if not addressed. The trust should ensure that there is sufficient capacity within the school to enable it to have oversight of all aspects of safeguarding at all times.

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Priorities for further improvement

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer of REAch2 Academy Trust, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Staffordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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