Hannah More Primary School

Inspection of Hannah More Primary School New Kingsley Road, St Philips, Bristol BS2 0LT

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The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 7 and 8 May 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy being a part of the school’s diverse community. Many of them arrive partway through their education, including from overseas. Staff welcome these pupils with open arms. This helps them to feel safe and happy.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Nevertheless, the school’s quality of education requires improvement. The school has started to raise staff’s expectations of what pupils can achieve, particularly in mathematics. However, in other areas of the curriculum, some of this work is at an early stage. Staff’s expectations of pupils vary too much between classes. When staff’s expectations are lower, pupils do not achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has clear behaviour systems. However, some staff do not apply these well. As a result, in some classes, pupils have their learning disrupted by other pupils who have become disengaged. Nonetheless, bullying is rare in the school. Pupils have confidence in staff solving any concerns if they occur.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s personal development offer is a strength. Pupils benefit from opportunities to develop new talents and interests through a wide range of clubs. The school raises pupils’ aspirations, such as through careers fairs. The school relentlessly celebrates its own rich range of faiths and cultures. This helps pupils to understand different beliefs and prepare them well for life in modern Britain.

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

The school has faced the challenges of a falling roll and reductions in staffing. However, it has maintained an inclusive ethos. The school has ensured that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified early and get the support that they need to help them in their learning. This helps pupils to learn the same broad and balanced curriculum as their peers.

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

The school wants the best for its pupils. It has implemented an ambitious curriculum which reflects the school’s locality. This helps pupils to understand key concepts, such as Bristol’s role in the slave trade.

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

Nevertheless, the school has identified that too many pupils, particularly in key stage 2, do not achieve well. In response, the school is supporting teachers to match work more closely to what pupils can already do using the checks they make about pupils’ learning. In the Reception Year, staff use this information to ensure that activities are closely matched to children’s needs. As a result, children are well prepared for Year 1.

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

However, in some classes beyond the Reception Year, teachers do not use this information well enough. They sometimes set tasks that are not challenging enough and do not match the ambition of the school’s curriculum. Sometimes they accept poor-quality work. As a result, pupils’ learning across the curriculum is not consistently secure. 7 and 8 May 2025

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Most younger pupils learn to read quickly. This starts straight away in the early years. Staff are well trained, and this helps them to spot pupils who need extra help. However, as pupils move into key stage 2, they do not develop their reading skills well. This is because teachers are unclear about what to teach precisely and when. The writing curriculum also lacks the necessary precision as to what pupils need to know and by when. Consequently, pupils do not build on their learning well as they move through the school.

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Historically, pupils’ attendance has been low. The school has recently strengthened its systems to ensure that pupils’ low attendance is dealt with more robustly. The school’s analysis identifies those families who need further support with attendance. As a result, pupils’ attendance has started to improve, although absence remains too high.

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The school has provided additional training to help staff deal with behaviour. However, there is still more to do. At social times, staff sometimes do not deal with incidents in line with the school’s policies. Consequently, some poor behaviour persists.

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Residentials and competitive sport help to build pupils’ character. Through assemblies, pupils discuss sensitive issues that occur both in the locality and globally. This helps them to become compassionate, world citizens. Pupils go on a wide range of trips which help to deepen their knowledge of the curriculum.

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Staff feel that leaders listen to them. They are proud to work at Hannah More. The school reaches out to its parents and carers to help involve them in the life of the school. The school is rightly proud of its strong links with its community, which helps to provide further support for its families.

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The governing body is highly committed to the school. However, some of the school’s strategic actions lack precision. While governors are kept informed of the school’s actions for improvement, it is sometimes unclear as to how success will be measured. This makes it hard for the governing body to hold the school to account for its performance.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Pupils are safe and can name trusted adults they can speak to if they have any worries.

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Safeguarding

During the inspection, errors were found on the school’s single central record, and it did not comply with statutory guidance. However, these errors were rectified by the end of the inspection. The school has made the appropriate checks on staff’s suitability to work with children.

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Safeguarding

Staff know how to identify pupils at risk of harm. They report concerns in a timely manner. However, these records, along with those relating to staff training, are not robust enough. Sometimes there are omissions in recording concerns or staff’s training records that are not identified. While pupils have not been placed at immediate risk or harm, the 7 and 8 May 2025

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school’s checks on its safeguarding systems are not rigorous enough to pick up these errors.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve. They sometimes set work that does not meet the ambition of the curriculum and accept low- quality work. When this occurs, pupils do not progress as well as they could through the curriculum. The school should ensure that staff set ambitious learning activities that enable pupils to achieve well.  The English curriculum needs further development. In particular, the reading curriculum at key stage 2 and the writing curriculum at key stages 1 and 2 lack precision in what pupils should know and by when. As a result, too many pupils struggle to read and write in line with national expectations by the end of key stage 2. The school should ensure that the English curriculum identifies the key knowledge that pupils should know and support staff to use this effectively to help pupils learn consistently well in reading and writing.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Staff do not consistently apply the school’s behaviour policy well. As a result, there is sometimes low-level disruption in lessons or poor behaviour that is not addressed effectively at social times and so reoccurs. The school must ensure its expectations of behaviour are understood by all staff so that the behaviour policy is applied consistently, and pupils behave well in lessons and at social times.  Some of the school’s actions for improvement lack precision. This makes it hard for the governing body to have an accurate view of the school and to hold the school to account for its performance. The school should ensure that actions for improvement provide sufficient information for governors to accurately measure the impact of the school’s work.  Some aspects of the school’s safeguarding record-keeping are not robust. Some staff also require further training in the school’s monitoring of the single central record. As a

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

result, minor errors or omissions made in record-keeping are made and not picked up through the school’s own checks. The school must urgently ensure that systems and processes for safeguarding meet statutory guidance, that staff are well trained and that it rigorously checks the effectiveness of these systems.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school. 7 and 8 May 2025

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 7 and 8 May 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 4 and 5 March 2020

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Information about this school

 The headteacher took up his post in 2022.  The school runs its own breakfast and after-school club provision.  The school uses one registered provider of alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision. 7 and 8 May 2025

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and music. For each deep dive, the inspectors discussed the curriculum with teachers, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, senior leaders, groups of staff, groups of pupils, a representative from the local authority and members of the governing body.

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 Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school site.  Inspectors gathered parents’ views by considering the responses to Ofsted Parent View and by talking to parents. The inspectors also reviewed responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey and pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Jason Edge, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Chris Hansen Ofsted Inspector 7 and 8 May 2025

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achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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