Heatherside Junior School

Inspection of Heatherside Junior School Reading Road South, Fleet, Hampshire GU52 7TH

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Outstanding Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Outstanding Previous inspection grade Outstanding 10 and 11 June 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at this inclusive and welcoming school. Staff work well together to provide a nurturing environment. Pupils feel safe because they trust staff to listen to them if they have any worries. There is an abundance of respect between pupils and staff. Relationships are prioritised and are a real strength of the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Expectations for pupils’ achievement and behaviour are high. Pupils achieve well. This is reflected in published outcomes. The school ensures that every pupil is able to participate fully in both the academic curriculum and a range of enrichment activities. The wider opportunities provided are extensive. Pupils value the sporting, cultural and creative clubs on offer and make excellent use of them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love their school. There is a strong sense of community and belonging. Staff prioritise getting to know pupils and their families well. The pastoral support offered is highly effective. For example, pupils receive skilful support in the school’s ‘Amethyst Room’. Here the school provides bespoke support at the start of the school day and a quieter space during lunchtimes. This helps pupils who need support managing their feelings. It promotes high attendance and punctuality and enables pupils to be ready to learn. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school’s work.

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

The school’s personal development provision is remarkable. The personal, social and health education curriculum is expertly developed and delivered. It gives pupils a deep understanding of how to keep themselves healthy and safe. Opportunities for pupils to take up leadership roles are many and varied. Pupils value the way these opportunities significantly help to develop their character, resilience and independence. As a result, pupils are very well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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

The curriculum is broad and ambitious. The school has identified the precise knowledge it wants pupils to learn and the order in which they should learn it. Teachers are trained well and have strong subject knowledge. They present information logically and routinely check understanding. While the school celebrates that they have identified the detailed knowledge they want pupils to learn and remember in the majority of subject areas, they also recognise that further refinement to this knowledge is needed in some areas.

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

The teaching of reading is a top priority. Pupils who are at an early stage of learning to read receive effective support to catch up. Pupils are given books to read that match the sounds they know. This means that they quickly become fluent and confident readers. A love of books is clearly woven throughout the school. Pupils are avid readers. They speak enthusiastically about their favourite books, authors and their cherished library. They access a diverse and high-quality range of texts, which builds their imaginations as well as their vocabulary.

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

This is a highly inclusive school. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from the same rich education as their peers. The school ensures any 10 and 11 June 2025

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additional needs are identified and met swiftly. Staff modify resources and teaching effectively, so that pupils can access the curriculum successfully. Consequently, pupils with SEND achieve well.

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The behaviour and attitudes of pupils are exemplary. The playground and lunch hall during social times are joyful places. Pupils value each other’s company and show kindness to one another. Any pupils who struggle to meet staff’s high expectations are helped by a team of skilled staff. Pupils learn to understand their own feelings, which helps them manage their own behaviour. Pupils’ attendance and punctuality are prioritised daily. The school’s rigorous, proactive approach and engagement with families are highly effective.

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Governors take steps to ensure they have the knowledge, skills and systems to monitor the school’s provision. This allows them to provide rigorous but supportive challenge. The school is highly ambitious for its pupils and acts decisively in their best interests. Staff are rightly proud to work here. They feel well supported to develop professionally and to manage their well-being. Staff benefit from a range of training, which helps them to understand how to best support pupils’ learning.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a minority of subjects, the school has not refined the deeper knowledge they want pupils to learn. Therefore, in these subjects, some pupils find it more difficult to successfully build on prior knowledge to create deeper understanding. The school should continue to refine the curriculum to ensure that the important knowledge they want pupils to know and remember is clear and supports pupils to build deeper understanding.

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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. 10 and 11 June 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). 10 and 11 June 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.heatherside-jun.hants.sch.uk

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 6 and 7 November 2013 under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not currently use any alternative provision.  There is before- and after-school care on site. This is managed by external providers, who are separately registered.

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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. 10 and 11 June 2025

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  During the inspection, inspectors met with the headteacher, members of the school leadership team, a selection of subject leaders and teachers.  The lead inspector met with those responsible for governance, including the chair of governors. The inspector also spoke with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, history, music and computing. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documents, including those related to pupils’

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wider development, behaviour and attendance. They also observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, around school and during breaktime.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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.  The lead inspector considered the views of parents submitted via Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. He also reviewed the responses to Ofsted’s surveys for school staff.

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Inspection team

Gareth Flemington, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

James Everett Ofsted Inspector 10 and 11 June 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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