Yesodey Hatorah School

Overview: This is a friendly and welcoming school where pupils are safe, happy and valued as individuals. Pupils achieve well in their learning, and many describe school as their 'second family'. However, the quality of education for early years pupils is not as strong as it should be.

Strengths:

• The school's curriculum is broad and ambitious, with a focus on English, particularly reading.
• The school's phonics programme is implemented consistently well, and pupils use their phonics knowledge effectively when reading and spelling new or difficult words.
• Teachers use their subject knowledge well to support pupils' learning, particularly in Years 7 to 10.
• Pupils are polite and considerate to others, and they offer a warm welcome to visitors.
• The school provides pupils with a range of well-considered enrichment opportunities, including visits to local youth clubs and workshops to learn about different emergency services.

Areas to improve:

• The promotion of communication and language skills and physical development in the early years is not routinely effective.
• The activities which pupils complete sometimes do not align well to the intended curriculum knowledge, and they do not provide sufficient opportunities for pupils to recap, retrieve and build on what they learned previously.
• The school's RSE programme does not give due regard to the statutory requirements for secondary-age pupils, and the RSE and PSHE programmes do not provide pupils with information about some of the protected characteristics and different types of relationships.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.