Inglewood Infant School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Strengthen leadership and governance by making sure that:
  • leadership capacity, including the role of middle leaders, is enhanced so that the headteacher has greater support in delivering the strategies to promote the school’s improvement leaders and governors set high expectations for all pupils, especially the most able pupils, pupils with SEND and those pupils who are disadvantaged leaders monitor the school’s performance more effectively and use this to pinpoint which aspects of teaching and pupils’ outcomes need to be improved
  • governors have an accurate and comprehensive view of the school’s performance in order to challenge leaders and hold them to account for their actions
  • the school development plan is sharply focused on promoting the progress pupils make, especially disadvantaged pupils, pupils with SEND and the most able pupils
  • leaders further develop the curriculum so that pupils make good progress across a range of subject areas, such as history and geography.
• Improve the quality of teaching and thereby outcomes for pupils across different subjects by ensuring that:
  • teachers set work that challenges pupils and helps them to use and apply their knowledge and skills to solve complex problems, especially in mathematics
  • teachers check on whether pupils are finding the work that they are set too easy or too difficult and adjust their teaching accordingly
  • information about pupils’ learning is shared effectively so that teaching more consistently builds on pupils’ prior knowledge, especially where teachers share responsibility for a class.
• Improve pupils’ behaviour by:
  • ensuring that the school’s behaviour policy is consistently applied throughout the school
  • making sure that teachers give pupils enough work to do that is pitched at the right level to motivate them to want to learn rather than misbehave and disrupt others.
• Improve the early years provision by:
  • ensuring that teaching in the Reception classes is consistently good over time, so that children in all three early years classes make good or better progress. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of pupil premium funding should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• The school is going through a period of turbulence. Governors have not ensured that there is a strong leadership structure in the school to support the headteacher in promoting improvement. Apart from the headteacher, there are currently no senior leaders. This is hampering the school from tackling weaknesses swiftly. To her credit, the headteacher is determined to improve outcomes for pupils and her actions are showing some success. Under her steer and with the support of school staff, pupils are making more secure progress and pupils’ attainment is showing signs of improvement.
• The school’s plan to bring about improvement does not provide a strong enough starting point for securing better outcomes for pupils. This is because it does not focus sharply enough on the specific aspects of teaching, learning and assessment that need further work.
• Leaders gather useful information about pupils’ achievement. However, this is not always used well enough to identify gaps in learning for different groups of pupils. This is especially true for the most able pupils, pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils.
• The inclusion manager provides effective support for class teachers and oversees the range of interventions in place for pupils with SEND. However, the arrangements to check that pupils who receive extra support are making gains in their learning lack rigour. Despite the range of additional support on offer, not enough pupils with SEND are making good progress.
• Some middle leaders are becoming increasingly effective. This is beginning to shore up leadership capacity. For example, the English leader has secured improvements to pupils’ writing through introducing a new approach to writing stories. While middle leaders are keen to develop further, at this point in time, the impact of their work is variable.
• Leaders’ checks on teaching do not provide teachers with a good enough understanding of what they need to do to improve. Leaders do not follow up on agreed actions to bring about improvement in the classroom. As a result, weaknesses are not tackled quickly. This means that the quality of teaching is not as strong as it was at the previous inspection.
• Leaders and governors do not make the best use of the pupil premium funding to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Aspirations for disadvantaged pupils are not consistently high enough.
• By contrast, the school sport premium funding is used well to increase pupils’ participation in physical education (PE) and sport. Pupils enjoy PE and sport and eagerly anticipate visits from a variety of sports coaches, including from the local football club. Pupils in Year 2 learn to be sports leaders and take responsibility for helping to organise playground activities during breaks and lunchtimes.
• Leaders ensure that there is adequate coverage of the full range of national curriculum subjects across the school. However, they do not ensure that the teaching of different subjects enables pupils to build on their skills, knowledge and understanding. This is why pupils’ progress in different subjects, such as history and geography, is not good.
• The school’s curriculum builds on pupils’ interests and, importantly, includes a range of opportunities for them to learn about the world beyond their school. The curriculum is enhanced by lunchtime and after-school clubs and regular educational visits to local places of interest. Recent visitors to school engaged pupils in building dens and in learning how to handle and care for animals.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well. Pupils’ cultural development is supported through learning about traditions in other countries, for example, celebrations for the Chinese New Year. They have a developing understanding of people with different faiths and from different backgrounds.
• Pupils are beginning to understand the values that they need to become responsible citizens in modern Britain. For example, they learn about different family groups and have their first experiences of how democracy works through taking part in the school council elections.
• Positive relationships have been established with parents. Parents appreciate the level of care afforded to their children and the opportunities that the school provides to help them develop their children’s learning at home.

Governance of the school

• Owing to a long-term deficit budget and a falling roll, governors have felt unable to build the capacity of leaders to ensure that there is stronger support for the leadership and management of the school. This has hindered the school’s work and has led to a decline in the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement.
• All of the governing body took up their posts since the previous inspection. They demonstrate a strong commitment to the school and its community. However, they are too reliant on the information that they receive from the headteacher. They do not know enough about the quality of education provided at the school. This means they are not well equipped to ask pertinent questions of leaders about teaching and pupils’ outcomes.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• All systems for safeguarding are fit for purpose and the vetting checks on staff are complete. Staff ensure that safeguarding cases are recorded in sufficient detail and kept securely. Staff receive regular information on the most up-to-date safeguarding practice.
• The headteacher and inclusion manager are designated safeguarding leads. Together they ensure that concerns and issues about pupils’ safety are dealt with well, and that pupils are kept as safe as possible.
• There is a strong and embedded culture of promoting pupils’ safety and welfare. Pupils say that they feel safe at school and they learn about how to keep healthy and stay safe. Adults know pupils and their families well. Records show that timely action is taken when there are concerns about a pupil’s safety or welfare. Leaders work proactively to provide the help and support that vulnerable pupils and their families need.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment has declined since the last inspection. Although improving, it is not consistently strong enough to promote pupils’ good progress across a range of subjects.
• Teachers do not, at times, set work that interests, motivates and challenges pupils. Lessons are frequently pitched at a suitable level for the middle-ability pupils. Other pupils either find the work too difficult and begin to fidget, or waste time listening to the teacher explain how to do something they can already do. This hinders the progress of the most and least able pupils.
• The teaching of mathematics in key stage 1 does not consistently support pupils in applying their mental mathematics strategies well to solve calculations and problems.
• The teaching of phonics in the early years and key stage 1 is improving. This is having a positive impact on pupils’ reading skills. By the time pupils move into Year 2, they are able to apply their phonics skills and successfully read a range of books. However, some teachers do not ensure that pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, read regularly enough to help them to become fluent and confident readers.
• In the majority of classes, teachers are employed on a part-time basis and share responsibility for pupils’ progress. However, there is variation in how effectively part-time teachers pass on information about pupils’ learning. As a result, some teachers do not build on pupils’ prior learning well enough. This hinders pupils’ progress in the short-term and over time.
• Teachers have recently embraced a new approach to teaching writing. This is already proving successful in improving the standard of pupils’ work. Pupils’ English books show that most pupils are making stronger progress in this subject than they have in the past.
• Teachers have lower expectations of what pupils can do in some other subjects, especially history and geography. Both subjects are not taught in sufficient depth to ensure that pupils develop their knowledge and skills sufficiently well.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils say that they feel safe in school and know that adults care for them and are always willing to listen to any concerns. Most pupils have positive attitudes to learning and want to do their best.
• Pupils’ mental and physical welfare has a high priority in the school. The school’s motto is ‘Everyone matters’ and this particularly shines through in the level of care given to vulnerable pupils and their families. Nurturing arrangements within the school are exceptional, and the school maintains strong links with outside support agencies. Those pupils who find it difficult to learn because of difficult circumstances at home are given time to talk about their feelings, often in small groups with highly skilled adults. This supports their social development along with their speaking and listening skills.
• Pupils learn how to stay safe. For example, the local police visit the school to teach pupils about road safety. Themed weeks help pupils learn about keeping safe on the internet.
• Pupils say that there is very little bullying in school and know that it is wrong to hurt one another either physically or through name-calling.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Pupils’ attendance is improving although it is still below the national average. Leaders communicate their expectations for pupils’ attendance well. They have been particularly successful in reducing the number of pupils who are persistently absent, for example by providing translated information about the importance of good attendance for the parents of those pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• Most pupils typically behave well, but, where teaching is not well-matched to their needs, pupils lose interest in learning and misbehave. They are slow to respond to teachers’ instructions. This wastes time and disrupts the learning of other pupils in the class. The school has a clear behaviour policy, but this is not consistently applied by staff throughout the school.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Over time, too few pupils have made good progress in reading, writing and mathematics during their time in key stage 1. The most able pupils and those pupils who are disadvantaged do not make strong enough progress in Years 1 and 2. As a result, the proportion of pupils who reach the expected standard or are working at greater depth is below the national averages at the end of Year 2.
• As a result of recent initiatives, standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 improved in 2018. The school’s own assessment information and work in pupils’ books show that this is being sustained. Current pupils are making stronger progress in reading, writing and mathematics than in the past. Nonetheless, this does not represent good progress over time.
• Pupils with SEND receive appropriate support for their needs from well-qualified staff and/or external agencies. However, their progress is not strong enough because some teachers do not have high enough expectations of their achievement.
• Pupils’ progress in subjects other than English and mathematics is not good enough. This is because these subjects are not taught in sufficient depth and pupils are not given enough opportunities to develop their subject knowledge, skills and understanding.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Children start in the early years with knowledge and skills that are below those of children of a similar age. Children make uneven progress from this point. As a result, the proportion of children who achieve a good level of development by the end of Reception, despite showing some improvements, remains below the national average.
• Children make good progress in the Nursery due to the strong teaching that they receive. A new building has enhanced the provision for three-year-old children. Recent initiatives to support children in developing their speech, language and communication skills are proving successful and children are well prepared to enter the Reception Year.
• Sometimes, teachers in the Reception classes do not make sure that children are engaged in purposeful learning and play activities that enable them to develop their knowledge and skills. Where this happens, children’s progress slows.
• Leaders know the strengths and weaknesses within the early years. However, they have not tackled the pockets of weaker teaching. This is why, despite improving outcomes for children, the leadership and management of early years require improvement.
• Teachers make sure that children’s interests, needs and starting points are identified and accurately assessed through close and effective working with parents. As a result, children quickly settle into the school’s routines.
• The early years curriculum provides a wide range of learning opportunities for children to develop their language, literacy, communication and mathematical skills. Equally, children have many chances for physical development through focused PE sessions and through running about as they learn and play together outdoors.
• Most children behave well. However, where the teaching does not meet children’s needs well, children’s behaviour sometimes deteriorates and, as a result, learning is interrupted.
• Children are safe in the early years because leaders ensure that all the requirements for their welfare are met and carefully follow robust procedures for safeguarding.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 112217 Cumbria 10086855 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 2 to 7 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 298 Appropriate authority Chair Headteacher Local authority Michael Boaden Deborah Boekestein Telephone number 01228 558 774 Website Email address www.inglewood-inf.cumbria.sch.uk/ admin@inglewood-inf.cumbria.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 21–22 October 2014

Information about this school

• Since the last inspection, the school has faced significant challenges arising from managing a deficit budget and the major work involved in the removal of asbestos from the school site.
• The school has received a high level of support from the local authority.
• Inglewood Infants is a larger-than-average-sized school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is slightly below average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is above average.
• The school does not access alternative provision.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all year groups.
• The lead inspector carried out a learning walk jointly with the headteacher.
• Inspectors met with pupils, heard a selection of pupils read and observed pupils at breaktimes and lunchtimes.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher, the leader of special educational needs, the early years leader and leaders with subject responsibilities.
• The lead inspector met with members of the governing body.
• The lead inspector held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.
• A range of pupils’ books from all year groups and a range of subjects were looked at.
• Several documents were considered, including a summary of the school’s self-evaluation, the headteacher’s reports to governors, a local authority review and the school improvement plan.
• Inspectors also considered information about pupils’ progress, the use of additional funding, behaviour, attendance and safety.
• Inspectors took account of 25 responses on the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, and spoke to parents before school. The lead inspector also considered comments reported to Ofsted by telephone.
• Inspectors considered the comments made in seven free-text responses.
• Inspectors reviewed the 34 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire and 41 responses to Ofsted’s online pupils’ questionnaire.

Inspection team

Jan Corlett, lead inspector Chris Metcalfe Lisa Crausby

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector