Bilton Infant School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve outcomes, especially in writing, for the small minority of pupils who are low attaining and have special educational needs and/or disabilities by ensuring that:
  • teaching consistently challenges these pupils to do well
  • pupils are clear from teachers’ feedback what they need to do to improve their writing
  • leaders with specific responsibility have sufficient time and resources to evaluate the impact of teaching and additional support on the progress of these pupils.
• Improve behaviour over time for the very small minority of individuals identified by ensuring that:
  • behaviour strategies employed by the school are evaluated more robustly for their effectiveness
  • behaviour management is consistently good in teaching
  • behaviour incidents are tracked more closely by pupil groups to enable leaders to identify any wider trends and patterns.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders and governors have continued to maintain a high standard of education since the last inspection. They are ambitious for the school. All aspects of the school’s work are underpinned by its core values of care, cooperation, responsibility, respect, perseverance and honesty. Leaders know their strengths well and are successfully addressing issues they have identified. This includes outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, which are improving.
• Staff views are unanimously positive in almost all areas. All those who responded to the staff survey agree that the school is well led and managed. Most said that they have good opportunities for training. Leaders are outward looking and participate in training with local clusters, consortiums and networks. These enable joint training to take place as well as personalised programmes for individuals. Teachers, including those with leadership responsibilities, have the opportunity to undertake further research.
• The very stable staffing has enabled leaders to maintain a good quality of teaching. Outcomes for most pupils in reading, writing and mathematics are high by the time they leave the school at the end of Year 2. Most pupils are well equipped to face the next challenge in their education at junior school. Leaders analyse outcomes carefully and know how well pupils are doing. They ensure that most-able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, do very well through challenge and targeted support.
• The very high number of parents who responded to the survey or who spoke to inspectors said overwhelmingly that the school is well led and managed. Almost all who replied said that they would recommend the school to another parent. A very large majority said that communication was good and that they were well informed about their children’s progress.
• The school also engages well with the local authority, through a school improvement partner, in order to seek external validation of its effectiveness. This has involved lesson observations, book scrutinies, review of pupil performance information and work with middle leaders. It also works well with the local authority in gaining additional support for areas including special educational needs, attendance and providing for the needs of pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• There are also good links with specialist support services for pupils who have more complex needs. Leadership of special educational needs and/or disabilities shows a clear understanding of individual needs and good partnership with external agencies. The designated speech and language unit is used less and less as pupils are integrated effectively into mainstream classrooms.
• Leaders evaluate, very thoroughly, the impact of additional funding, such as the pupil premium and the PE and sport premium. Following a review of the way the school spends the pupil premium, outcomes are improving rapidly for disadvantaged pupils currently in school. This is as a result of targeted teaching and support.
• Similarly, well-targeted spending of the PE and sport premium has led to increased pupil uptake in sport, including for disadvantaged pupils. Initiatives such as the appointment of a PE apprentice and increased opportunities for competitions have enthused pupils and increased staff confidence in teaching PE. Pupils’ participation in sport is monitored closely by pupil group, except for those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The broad and balanced curriculum is a strength of the school. It has been designed to embed basic skills of literacy and numeracy across a wide variety of subjects and topics. For example, pupils read poems as part of their project on outer space. The curriculum is enriched by school trips, such as to the transport museum. An array of before- and after-school clubs includes French, Spanish, gardening, martial arts, choir and sport.
• The curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. For example, the topic of transport links to rickshaws and life in India. The school’s values are at the heart of the curriculum. British values go hand in hand with the school’s values. The pupil population is increasingly diverse and leaders promote respect, tolerance and understanding of others. Trips and visitors to the school also present pupils with the opportunity to meet those from different faith backgrounds. There are opportunities for pupils to vote, take on roles and responsibilities, and to contribute to class and school behaviour rules.
• Senior and middle leaders share responsibility for the monitoring of teaching collectively and to good effect. Leaders triangulate evidence from lesson observations, pupils’ books and assessment information. Teachers are held to account for the outcomes of pupils in their class through regular pupil progress meetings.
• Some leaders, including those with responsibility for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, do not have sufficient time to fulfil their leadership and management responsibilities during the school day. The impact of additional funding on low-attaining pupils, who also have special educational needs and/or disabilities, is not as visible as it is for other pupils on the special educational needs register.
• Performance management systems are closely linked to the quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils. Leaders set high expectations of behaviour and conduct, but do not take sufficient account of the impact of behaviour management in monitoring teaching.
• The school has a reputation locally for admitting pupils who have challenging behaviour. However, the number of behaviour incidents recorded for a very small minority of pupils is recurring. Leaders do not sufficiently evaluate the impact of behaviour strategies employed or analyse the number of recorded incidents by pupil group. A very small minority of parents expressed well-founded concerns about the school’s management of behaviour for a small number of individuals.

Governance of the school

• Governors are highly knowledgeable and have a range of expertise and experience. The governing body is organised strategically, with committees focused on performance and standards and the curriculum. As a consequence:
  • minutes of meetings indicate that governors ask challenging questions about pupils’ performance, including for disadvantaged pupils
  • governors commissioned a full audit on outcomes for disadvantaged pupils
  • they receive detailed information on pupils’ performance so that they can evaluate the impact of additional pupil premium funding
  • through regular visits to school, they check carefully how the money is spent and its impact
  • they secure written reports from the local authority school improvement partner in addition to the headteacher’s reports
  • they are acutely aware of their duties concerning safeguarding. Relevant governors have been suitably trained and all appropriate checks carried out
  • they are active in engaging the views of parents and recently consulted on possible amalgamation proposals.
• Governors do not receive a detailed breakdown of behaviour incidents by pupil group and so do not know about any possible trends or patterns.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school has a strong culture based on its values. There is a high level of vigilance where seemingly insignificant incidents are taken seriously and recorded diligently.
• Staff are trained effectively and regularly.
• Staff work in close collaboration with external agencies. Records kept are thorough, maintained in a timely way and held securely.
• Risk assessments, including those on site safety and for individuals reintegrated after exclusion, are detailed and thorough.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Lessons are usually well planned and are designed to build on pupils’ progression and greater depth in learning.
• Teachers use questioning effectively to target specific pupils. This is particularly effective in stretching most-able pupils to think more deeply. For example, pupils have the opportunity in science to carry out investigations such as, ‘Which bird’s beak will pick up seeds more easily?’.
• Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong. In science, for example, they have a good grasp of technical language, which they impart to pupils. This enables teachers to give clear and detailed explanations and also to correct pupils’ misconceptions when they occur. Teachers use a variety of methods to present information, including making good use of interactive white-boards.
• Pupils have the chance to extend their numeracy skills in their topic work. They present information in a variety of ways, including tally charts, bar graphs and Venn diagrams.
• Teachers provide opportunities for writing across the curriculum, including in mathematics where pupils have to supply written explanations to justify their answers.
• Homework is a strong feature of teaching. Children get into the habit of doing homework from the Reception class onwards. There is clear guidance from teachers, and on the school’s website, for how parents can help their children. There is a homework club for those unable to do their work at home.
• Teachers’ expectations of behaviour are high most of the time and teachers are able to keep pupils focused even when they are struggling with their work. These expectations are reinforced positively by teachers issuing ‘value tokens’ to reward good behaviour. The tokens promote and encourage pupils’ engagement in lessons.
• Where additional adults are deployed well, they facilitate pupils’ learning and reinforce expectations of behaviour. For most of the pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, the support they receive enables them to access the curriculum at a suitable level of challenge.
• Teachers teach phonics well. Pupils are equipped with the necessary phonics skills by the end of Year 2 to be able to take on more challenging reading texts. In guided reading sessions, teachers are skilful in identifying and addressing pupils’ misconceptions. As a result, pupils remain engaged.
• There is inconsistency in the quality of some teaching, and expectations for behaviour are not as high as elsewhere in the school.
• Some work is not pitched at the right level or lacks challenge for low-attaining pupils who are also on the special educational needs register. At other times, these pupils sometimes find their work too difficult.
• Feedback from teachers does not consistently indicate how pupils can improve their work. At times, pupils are not given enough opportunity to correct their work. Expectations for the presentation of the written work of lower attaining pupils are not as high as they are for other pupils.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils enjoy their learning. They are keen to find out new information. Those spoken to were particularly enthusiastic about science investigations, mathematics and phonics. Almost all parents who responded to the survey said that their children are happy in school.
• Pupils are confident. They are willing to speak up in class and are articulate in putting forward their point of view. They listen well for most of the time when a teacher or another pupil is speaking.
• Pupils reported that they feel safe in school. The overwhelming majority of parents who responded to the survey agreed. Pupils are assured by the presence of staff who are on hand to help them. Pupils feel confident in talking to an adult if they have any worries or concerns.
• They appreciate ‘Mr Quiet’, which is a corner they can go to if anything is bothering them. They are aware of risks with computers and the internet and what to do if they feel uncomfortable about anything.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. They have had the chance to study life in a range of countries and climates including Zambia, India, Italy and Antarctica. Pupils are aware of the environment and are encouraged to walk to school. They recycle materials in the hall, including batteries, buttons and corks. Pupils have the opportunity to take on leadership responsibilities such as those of ‘eco-leaders’. Pupils appreciate the ‘tokens’ they receive as a reward for promoting the school’s values.
• Strategies to tackle bullying are well established through the curriculum. Feeling safe and anti-bullying posters produced by pupils are visible around school. The school has won a nationally recognised award for its work on anti-bullying. According to school records, there have been no incidents of bullying this academic year. However, a very small proportion of parents indicated concerns about bullying which, according to leaders, relate to the very small minority of pupils who present challenging behaviour.
• The extent to which pupils take pride in their written work, especially lower attaining pupils, is mixed.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils conduct themselves well around school. There is a calm atmosphere throughout the building, including at lunchtimes. The school is an orderly environment.
• In most lessons, pupils behave well. No instances of serious disruptive behaviour were seen during the inspection. In a Year 1 PE lesson, pupils’ response to instructions and conduct were exemplary. Pupils manage their own behaviour well when they are working on their own or in a group without the presence of an adult.
• The school records and analyses misbehaviour incidents, including the most serious ‘red’ ones by class and individual, but not by pupil group. There are far fewer incidents in Year 2 compared with Reception and Year 1, indicating that as pupils get older their behaviour improves.
• A very large majority of the parents who responded to the survey said that the school makes sure that its pupils are well behaved.
• The rate of attendance has been consistently above the national average in recent years and levels of persistent absence have been low. The current proportion of pupils attending regularly since the start of the academic year has fallen slightly, as it has for the small number of disadvantaged pupils, those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language.
• Staff know their pupils and families well and maintain close contact with the small number who are persistently absent to encourage regular attendance. Attendance is tracked closely by individual and by group. Parents have regular updates on their child’s level of attendance, with reminders of the impact on pupils’ progress if their children do not attend regularly.
• Pupils who have achieved a 100% record of coming to school, or whose attendance has greatly improved, receive rewards, as does the class with the highest attendance rate.
• During inspectors’ visits, there were some low-level incidents of pupils losing focus, getting distracted or disengaging with their work in each year group, even when an adult was close by.
• Leaders recognise that there is a very small proportion of pupils who present challenging behaviour in school. This was confirmed through the behaviour incident logbook kept by the school and through discussions with pupils who reported that there were some individuals in each year group who did not behave well. A small minority of parents also expressed concerns around the behaviour of particular individuals. After many years of having no exclusions, there has been a very small number of fixed-term exclusions recently.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Assessment information provided by the school and work in pupils’ books indicate that the large majority of pupils, and especially the most able, are making rapid progress in reading, writing and mathematics. They have benefited from the rich curriculum, and good teaching that challenges them to do well.
• Disadvantaged pupils, including those who are most-able, are now also making rapid progress as a result of carefully targeted spending of the pupil premium grant and good support from adults in lessons.
• Many pupils on the special educational needs register are also making rapid progress as a result of good teaching and effective, targeted support from additional adults.
• In the most recent assessments at the end of Year 2 in 2016, pupils achieved standards that were above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics. However, attainment was below average for the small number of disadvantaged pupils in the school.
• Pupils’ outcomes in phonics, based on the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard by the end of Year 1, have been consistently above the national average in recent years.
• Nearly all parents who responded to the survey said that their children were making good progress.
• Many pupils, including the most able and disadvantaged pupils, have made rapid gains in their writing since the start of the academic year. Pupils are developing more complex sentence structures and most can use joined script effectively. They are able to apply the basic literacy and numeracy skills they have learned in their topic work.
• For a small number of those low-attaining pupils who are also on the special educational needs register, progress in writing is not as rapid as in other subjects. Similarly, these pupils find it difficult to make gains in their reading where the level of challenge in the text is too high.

Early years provision Good

• Leadership and management of the early years are good. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the time they leave Reception Year is consistently above the national average and on a rising trend. Children come from a diverse selection of Nursery providers. Starting points range from above typically age-related expectations, to well below.
• Children currently in school are making good progress as a result of good teaching. They engage well in a range of suitable activities both in the indoor and outdoor learning environments. Activities reinforce phonics skills, for example a treasure hunt to find ‘air’-sounding words. Children are encouraged to develop their independent writing skills through the activities provided. Numeracy is promoted through pupils measuring building blocks and recording the information on charts.
• Children are very articulate and they were able to speak with fluency to each other about their learning when making a string of pasta.
• Adults question children well with ‘why’ and ‘what if’ questions that encourage extended answers.
• Expectations for behaviour are reinforced, in line with practice in the rest of the school, through the issuing of values tokens. These tokens are offered as rewards to children adhering to the school’s values, such as respect for others. Children cooperate well with each other and take turns when sharing equipment.
• Lower attaining children struggle to maintain their concentration when they are sitting on the carpet for an extended period and are not as engaged in the activity as much as those who are most-able.
• The very small number of children who are disadvantaged and/or on the special educational needs register do not attain as well as other children by the time they leave Reception. However, they do make strong progress from their much lower starting points.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 125579 Warwickshire 10000586 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Infant School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 4 to 7 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 171 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Christine Vickers Sharon Harris 01788 811549 www.biltoninfantschool.co.uk admin2420@welearn365.com Date of previous inspection 25–26 June 2012

Information about this school

• Bilton Infant School is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average. The level of social deprivation locally is low.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is about one in 14, which is well below the national average. The percentage of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is above average. The school has a designated speech and language unit on site which currently caters for two pupils. The unit was not in use during the inspection visit.
• The percentage of pupils from minority ethnic groups is just below average, but on a rising trend. The proportion who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who join or leave the school mid-way through a key stage is low.
• Almost all teaching staff and the headteacher were in post at the time of the last inspection. The deputy headteacher was appointed about 18 months ago.
• There are two classes in each year group.
• The chair of the governing body is new to the role since January 2017, but was previously on the governing body as vice-chair.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed 12 lessons or parts of lessons, of which six were jointly observed with the headteacher and/or deputy headteacher. In addition, inspectors made a number of other short visits to lessons and other activities.
• Inspectors heard pupils read during lessons.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, other leaders, other members of staff and a group of pupils.
• Inspectors met the chair of the governing body and two other members. The lead inspector spoke to a representative from the local authority by telephone.
• Inspectors spoke to 26 parents and grandparents at the school gate. In addition, they took account of 68 Parent View free-text responses and 69 responses to the online questionnaire.
• Inspectors also took account of 17 responses to a staff survey.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and scrutinised a number of documents, including those relating to the school’s self-evaluation, as well as governing body minutes, improvement plans, and school information on pupils’ recent attainment and progress.
• Inspectors also considered behaviour and attendance information, and policies and procedures relating to special educational needs, pupil premium funding, and PE and sport premium funding, safeguarding and child protection.

Inspection team

Mark Sims, lead inspector Dawn White Gareth Morgan Tracy Stone

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector