Hove Junior School in Sussex has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Passion for Wanting the Best for all Their Children
Hove Junior School is a large, 6 form entry school, situated in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. Currently it comprises of two sites, with a total of approximately 692 pupils on roll, from year 3 to year 6. The school operates as one school, together with West Hove Infant School, as the Hove Learning Federation. The Federation share a governing body, Executive Headteacher (EHT) and Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
Hove Junior School shares a common uniform, curriculum, ethos and vision. The key aim of the school is that of consistent provision and high expectations, resulting in good outcomes. In January 2022 the West Hove Infant School previously located in Connaught Road, relocated into the junior building at Holland Road.
Together with the other location of West Hove Infant School in Portland Road, the schools work closely together to ensure continuity of provision, providing an all through primary experience. The EHT, SLT and staff share a passion for wanting the best for all their children and have worked hard to align policies and practices across all sites. The consistency of approach is clearly evident.
In Hove Junior School, the proportion of pupils with SEN and those eligible for pupil premium are slightly below average, although increasing. Approximately 38 languages are spoken at the school, with the percentage of pupils with EAL being higher at the Holland Road site.
Both schools have welcomed a number of new starters, including a number of children with refugee status from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Stability is high at the Portland Road (PR) site and the school is oversubscribed. The Holland Road (HR) site experiences slightly more mobility amongst its pupils. Attendance is good at approximately 95% and there is no significant gap in attendance between vulnerable groups, with disadvantaged attendance at 94%. There have been no permanent exclusions.
High Expectations
The school has high expectations for the children’s learning and is aspirational for its pupils. A lovely school video prospectus (posted above) on the website promotes the fact that the children are central to all that the school does, with a unique selling point being that the children drive the curriculum. All children progress and achieve well throughout their time at the school, with 2022 end of key stage results being above the local and national averages, across all subjects.
However, the school makes it clear that they also want their children to have fun whilst they are learning and Hove Junior School is a very happy, vibrant place to be. Excellent relationships are evident between children and staff, with children reporting that ‘everyone is gentle and kind’. A school council quote on the school development plan is very pertinent: ‘Our school community is like a jigsaw puzzle. Each person is a piece and we need every one to be complete’.
The last Ofsted inspection in February 2020 graded the school as good and this was Hove Junior School’s first IQM Flagship assessment having been reviewed previously as a Centre of Excellence.
Hove Junior School is a truly inclusive setting. The EHT stated: ‘Diversity is a strength of the school and the children are at the heart of everything we do. Their voice will always be heard and their unique qualities celebrated. No child gets lost in the children and everyone does their very best for each and every pupil’.
The experienced Inclusion Leads at the 3 school sites ensure that inclusive practice and a flexible approach to providing support is adopted. Whether you are a pupil at the HR or PR sites, the offer is the same and the senior learning mentor told me: ‘Both sites have incredible inclusion teams. Super skilled people. Creative’. The focus is on meeting the needs of every individual child, whatever they may be. Mental health and wellbeing of the children and staff is given a very high priority.
Culture and Ethos
The culture and ethos of the original 2 schools of West Hove Infant School and Hove Junior School was very similar, prior to federating and the January 2022 INSET day focussed on the vision and values of the whole school, with its promise to the children. Hove Junior School’s vision and values include a focus on the partnership with parents; happiness and wellbeing of the children; pupil voice; positive learning traits and values. They state: ‘Everyone works together building a secure, safe and inclusive environment to achieve the best possible outcomes for all children’.”
There are fortnightly executive SLT meetings and the school inclusion team meet regularly. Inclusive practices and systems of identification, support and review are well embedded. Pupil progress meetings are held on a termly basis and together with a range of SEND assessment tools and screeners, help to identify pupils for support.
The school endeavours to actively remove any challenges to learning that a pupil may have and continuously seeks to provide the most appropriate interventions for those pupils who need more individualised support. Interventions are purposeful and research driven, with their impact being carefully monitored. They are delivered by highly trained and motivated staff.
The library is the hub of the school at Holland Road, providing safe learning spaces within which a range of interventions can be carried out. Our Assessor witnessed a Just Right group led by the SLM and a ‘Better Reading Partners’ session delivered by an experienced TA. The pupils in the ‘Just Right’ group explained how it helped them to discuss feelings and strategies how to stay at green. BRPs is an evidence-based approach to improving reading, with 3 structured sessions per week, for 10 weeks, with a maintenance programme available if needed. Catch up phonics interventions are carried out in the afternoons.
The school also has a beautiful sensory room, called the galaxy room and they are keen to develop one at the other site. An intervention room provides a space to deliver maths catch up sessions and year 6 have their own library. The rainbow room is used to provide play therapy sessions. The school has an ICT suite on both sites, together with the use of Chromebooks, iPads and laptops. Pupils receive a weekly IT skills’ lesson. Teaching Assistants are assigned to year groups according to need.
A consistent approach to classroom organisation and expectations has been achieved throughout the school. Classroom environments are beautiful, bright and stimulating, with stunning and inviting reading areas. Interactive curriculum working walls exemplify skills being studied and encourage class interaction. Visual timetables aid pupils in understanding what is happening throughout the day.
Hove Junior School offers a ‘fun, exciting, broad and balanced curriculum’. It is topic-based and driven by its pupils. The school’s curriculum statement of intent states: ‘Planning for these topics will be shaped by pupil voice and the children’s questions for learning. These topics means our curriculum is bespoke for our children and engaging and inclusive for all’.
Teaching and Learning Policy
The HLF teaching and learning policy, adopted in autumn 2021, focuses on what is right for the children at the school. ‘The Hove Learning Federation’s approach to teaching and learning promotes a growth mindset for all stakeholders and encourages learners to be reflective, critical thinkers who have opportunities to master understanding and develop their individual strategies for learning. All staff have the opportunities and confidence to research, develop and share best practice so that our classrooms are alive with a love of learning!’
There is a ‘ready to learn ethos’ at the school. The whole school curriculum was reviewed. The school carried out a lot of research; visited other schools and looked at the work of Alex Bedford, with his ‘evidence informed guide to help quality assure the curriculum’.
Working parties were set up for all curriculum subjects, inclusive of a member of SLT. These working parties took the best from each of the schools and produced core knowledge files for each topic. These were then shared with staff through staff meetings and INSET. Each topic commences with a ‘stunning start’.
A maths’ working party produced a progression document from EYFS to Y6 and the focus on maths fluency was evident in lessons observed during the learning walk of the school.
The school successfully introduced the ‘Little Wandle’ synthetics phonics programme and reading is given a high priority. The shared SEND action plan focusses on reading for the lowest 20% over the next 12 months. The school’s feedback and marking policy was reviewed, to ensure a consistency of approach in every lesson. The emphasis is on ‘how do you get the memory to stick’. Previous lessons are reviewed and the big Friday quiz uses connectors back to prior learning.
Enriching extra-curricular activities, together with a range of clubs, trips and visits further enhance the curriculum. One pupil was keen to share how much he enjoys times table club: ‘When I go in, I’m really happy’.
Parents receive termly topic information, in order to help them engage with the learning going on in school and the school offers a breakfast and after school club.
Children Are ‘Ready to Learn’
Behaviour for learning observed during the assessment was exemplary. The behaviour working party studied national research evidence surrounding pupil behaviour and produced a positive relationships policy, which was inclusive and non-behaviourist in its approach, aiming to create a culture of mutual respect and trust. The new policy was adopted in October 2022.
As part of this each class formulates a class charter, based on 3 universal rights, adapted from the ‘UN Convention Rights of the Child’. These are ‘we have the right to learn, we have the right to express ourselves and we have the right to be safe’. Key values underpin what positive relationships are and ‘these values are reflected in the school’s learning characters. Each learning character is assigned a characteristic as a vehicle to promote positive behaviours’. The learning characters reflect the learning skills of independence, perseverance, cooperation, curiosity and imagination and are represented in the learning hexagon which is displayed in every classroom.
Central to the learning hexagon is the expectation that all children are ‘ready to learn’ at the start of each lesson and children identified and demonstrating a particular learning characteristic are celebrated. ‘Let’s think about it’ helps children who are showing signs of dysregulation, through support and communication with an adult. The working party have reviewed the impact of the new approach through the number of behaviourist incidents, which have reduced.
Playleaders and friendship helpers have been introduced to support positive playground activities and the school has developed indoor safe spaces and regulation stations, located outside each year group.
Pupils are provided with a range of opportunities to take responsibility, such as through the school council and eco committee, which are in place on each site and their achievements are celebrated, through gold award celebration assembly, star of the day and child of the week.
A further strength of the school is the high quality CPD opportunities that are provided for all staff, both in-house, through weekly whole cross site staff meetings and by accessing external training programmes. Staff feel very well supported, both in their work and career development. One member of staff said: ‘I feel incredibly supported. I feel very valued in what I want to achieve’.
Another member of staff said they felt very supported following their dreams and I was told how staff talked about how inspiring it was to learn from each other. A number of members of staff are studying for national accreditations.
Communication with Parents
Communication with parents is very good, through a range of mediums, and a PTA on both sites provides a range of fun and fundraising activities throughout the year. They recently held a ‘spooky disco’. A recent parents’ evening was very positive and this term the school has held parent workshops in phonics and early maths.
The governing body links governors to particular areas including SEND, EAL and PP/safeguarding. Governors are committed to, and involved in, the life of the school. They regularly visit the school and engage in governor training to help them fulfil their roles most effectively.
Hove Junior School is part of a range of partnerships beyond the Federation. This includes membership of the Hove Partnership, comprising of 11 schools ‘working together to improve educational experiences and outcomes’.
It is also a member of the Sussex Coast Teaching School Alliance (STCSA), whose aim is to help raise standards by supporting schools. They develop projects and an enquiry-based approach to learning. The school is currently involved in a ‘mitigation to success’ project, linked to disadvantage. The school is always well represented at AHT/DHT meetings; Senco and learning mentor meetings; curriculum leader meetings and at its IQM cluster group.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
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