Homer First School and Nursery

Overview

Homer First School and Nursery continues to be a good school, where pupils are happy, feel safe, and behave sensibly. The school’s values of kindness and hard work are evident in everyday life, with staff providing strong support for all learners, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Strengths

• Pupils enjoy reading and benefit from a strengthened phonics programme, including daily sessions and well-matched books.
• The new mathematics curriculum provides clearer guidance for teachers and a more consistent approach across the school.
• Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is “carefully thought out,” with staff adapting activities effectively.
• Staff feel supported by leaders and appreciate changes to the marking policy that have reduced workload while improving feedback.
• The school is an inclusive community where pupils learn about different customs and beliefs, and bullying is not a problem.

Areas to improve

• The curriculum in foundation subjects lacks detailed sequencing, meaning “some important component knowledge is being missed out” and pupils are not building learning securely.
• Governors need to improve their understanding of the curriculum quality to sufficiently hold leaders to account.
• Some learning activities do not align well with intended outcomes, causing pupils to focus on the activity rather than the learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, although the report notes that some aspects of record-keeping, including recruitment checks, are not systematic enough and require better oversight by leaders and governors.