Heathlands Primary Academy

Overview: Heathlands Primary Academy is a good school where pupils feel safe and happy. The school's values are evident in everything it does, and pupils live up to the expectations of being responsible, respectful, and resilient. The school provides a great start in education for its early years pupils, and they learn to be kind to one another, listen attentively, and focus well on activities.

Strengths:

• The curriculum is ambitious for all pupils and is well-designed and structured.
• Staff support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively.
• The early years provision is outstanding, providing children with a great start in their education.
• Leaders prioritise the teaching of early reading and phonics, and staff are well-trained to teach it.
• Subject leaders are passionate and knowledgeable about their subjects, and they use their expertise to ensure that teachers teach well.
• Leaders have focused on improving writing in recent years, and their work has been successful at raising the standard of pupils' writing.

Areas to improve:

• In a small number of subjects, teachers have not identified the exact detail of what pupils need to know, which means that pupils are not achieving as well as they could.
• A significant minority of pupils are regularly absent from school, missing out on important learning and not achieving as well as they could.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with all staff knowing exactly what to do if they have concerns about a pupil's well-being, and leaders providing staff with regular training and advice.