Abbey Infant School

Overview

Abbey Infant School continues to be a good school, providing a calm and orderly environment where pupils are happy and safe. Leaders are highly ambitious, ensuring pupils attend regularly and engage well in learning through a clearly sequenced curriculum and high expectations for behaviour.

Strengths

• Reading is well taught with effective phonics training, ensuring pupils read confidently and fluently, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• Pupils take great pride in their written work, with leaders prioritising handwriting to address post-pandemic declines in dexterity.
• The school offers a broad curriculum and ‘bucket list’ activities, such as theatre visits and learning musical instruments, to broaden pupils’ horizons.
• Leaders provide robust support for SEND pupils, who are swiftly identified and receive effective help to catch up with peers.
• Pupils develop strong personal skills, including ‘life skills’ like tying shoelaces, and learn to respect differences through exposure to various cultures and religions.

Areas to improve

• In a few subjects, the curriculum is not planned and sequenced as well as it could be, meaning pupils do not learn as deeply as they could. Leaders should support subject leaders to strengthen the sequence of learning and review content for consistency.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with staff highly skilled in identifying welfare concerns and leaders rigorously pursuing any issues raised.