Burlington Infant School

Overview

Burlington Infant School is rated as ‘Good’ across all inspection categories. The report describes a school where pupils feel they belong to a supportive ‘Burlington family’, characterised by strong relationships with staff and high motivation to learn. Leaders have established a curriculum underpinned by principles of ‘the head, the heart and the mind’, ensuring broad and ambitious learning experiences, though some aspects require refinement.

Strengths

• Pupils behave well, adhering to the school’s ‘golden rules’ and demonstrating kindness, with effective support for those managing challenging behaviour.
• Reading is prioritised through engaging initiatives such as ‘reading bingo’ and the ‘bedtime bear’, with pupils effectively using phonic knowledge to decode words.
• There is strong pastoral care, including skilled emotional literacy support assistants and mindfulness activities like ‘brain breaks’ and yoga to support mental health.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are ‘well supported’, with valuable guidance from outside agencies such as speech and language professionals.
• Governors are knowledgeable and actively challenge and support subject leaders to ensure clear understanding of strengths and next steps.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must identify essential knowledge in some wider curriculum subjects to ensure pupils gain the necessary breadth and depth for future learning.
• An effective system to check pupils’ retained knowledge across the wider curriculum needs to be established, as leaders currently lack clarity on what information pupils remember.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are ‘effective’, with staff maintaining vigilance through annual training and a mantra of ‘It could happen here’, particularly regarding the extra vulnerabilities of pupils with SEND.