Banks Lane Infant School

Overview

Banks Lane Infant School is described as a place where pupils "enjoy attending" and benefit from "warm and nurturing relationships" with staff. The report highlights that pupils are "caring and kind," achieve well across subjects, and display "positive attitudes" with very little disruption to lessons.

Strengths

• The quality of pupils’ personal development is "striking," with children learning in depth about values such as "collaboration and excellence."
• The school has "successfully cultivated a love of reading," ensuring most pupils learn to read confidently by the end of Year 2.
• Staff are "skilled at adapting the delivery of the curriculum" so that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) can learn well and achieve.
• Governors "understand their statutory duties and fulfil their responsibilities effectively," routinely challenging leadership on the quality of education.
• Staff report being "very positive about the support that they receive from leaders to manage their workload and to protect their well-being."

Areas to improve

• The school should ensure all staff have the expertise to select reading books that "closely match" pupils’ phonics knowledge, as occasional mismatches hinder progress for some.
• In one or two subjects, the curriculum is "not as well designed and ordered as it could be," meaning some teachers lack clarity on exactly what knowledge to teach and when.

Safeguarding

The report states that "the arrangements for safeguarding are effective."