Downham Market, Hillcrest Primary School

Overview: Downham Market, Hillcrest Primary School is a happy, nurturing and welcoming school where pupils learn effectively and make good progress. They develop skills such as creativity, curiosity, confidence, coordination and communication, which they remember as 'The 5C's of Independent Learning'.

Strengths:

• Leaders and teachers have designed a bespoke curriculum with reading at its heart.
• A strong reading culture exists in the school, with leaders ensuring a sharp focus on teaching pupils to read from Reception Year onwards.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) provides clear guidance and support for all staff, helping them to support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• Leaders prioritise pupils' wider development, with a well-structured personal, social, health and economic education programme named 'Life Skills'.
• Pupils enjoy the many opportunities available to take on responsibilities, such as proposing and leading lunchtime clubs.

Areas to improve:

• Teachers' subject knowledge in some areas of the curriculum is not as secure as in others, for example languages. This impacts on how pupils deepen their knowledge in those areas of the curriculum.
• Leaders should provide support and guidance to help teachers develop their knowledge so that pupils are able to achieve consistently well in all areas of the curriculum.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff are well trained and know the signs of when a pupil is at risk of harm. They respond quickly when concerns arise, and leaders act on concerns appropriately and record them accurately.