Blue Gate Fields Infants' School

Overview

Blue Gate Fields Infants’ School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection. Pupils flourish in a happy environment where they ‘learn, grow and achieve’ together, supported by strong relationships built on trust. The school continues to provide high-quality education with an ambitious curriculum and effective safeguarding arrangements.

Strengths

• Pupils enjoy school, behave well, and show positive attitudes to learning, feeling safe and confident that staff will help them.
• Reading is central to the curriculum; phonics are taught effectively, and books are carefully matched to pupils’ known sounds.
• The curriculum is ambitious, with clear progression of knowledge and skills, such as early years children confidently making amounts up to five.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified quickly and access individualised programmes that help them achieve well.
• Staff feel valued, and the governing body works effectively with leaders to identify priorities and support well-being.

Areas to improve

• Teaching checks of pupils’ knowledge and understanding are not always effective, leading to gaps in learning for some pupils.
• In early years, some teaching does not sufficiently model key vocabulary or extend sentence structures, causing children to miss opportunities to practise essential language.
• Despite strategies to support families, the number of pupils who are persistently absent remains high.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.