Hawthorn Primary

Overview

Hawthorn Primary School provides a nurturing environment where pupils feel safe and have a strong sense of belonging. The headteacher offers effective leadership with a clear vision focused on promoting wellbeing and achievement, resulting in good standards across all inspection areas.

Strengths

• Pupils make good progress from below-average starting points, achieving good standards in literacy, numeracy, and ICT.
• Teachers create a "calm and courteous environment" with high expectations, using pupils’ ideas to plan "rich learning experiences".
• Support for vulnerable pupils has an "immensely beneficial impact" on their personal development and social skills.
• The school places particular emphasis on developing pupils’ creativity, such as through collaborative art projects inspired by classical music.
• Staff work effectively with parents and the community, providing workshops on online safety and healthy eating.

Areas to improve

• Address the safety issue identified during the inspection.
• Ensure self-evaluation and improvement planning lead to "clear priorities and precise actions" rather than vague targets.
• Improve outdoor provision in the upper foundation phase, which is currently underdeveloped.

Safeguarding

The report states that the school's arrangements for safeguarding meet the requirements, although a specific safety issue was raised with the headteacher and chair of governors.