Durrington Infant School

Overview

Durrington Infant School provides an inclusive and friendly environment where pupils feel safe, valued, and ready to learn. The report highlights a "rich, carefully planned" personal development offer and strong leadership that has successfully improved attendance and behaviour. While most pupils achieve well, the school is working to secure writing skills and ensure disadvantaged pupils make consistent progress.

Strengths

• Personal development is rated at a "Strong standard," with a curriculum that reflects pupils’ lived experiences and builds life skills.
• Pupils enjoy a "wide range of clubs, visits and cultural experiences," with financial considerations never acting as a barrier to participation.
• Staff nurture pupils "extremely well," fostering "kind, caring relationships" and a culture where bullying is rare.
• Attendance has improved significantly due to leaders’ "relentless focus" and personalised support for families.
• Inclusion is effective, with staff adapting teaching well so pupils with special educational needs can learn alongside peers.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must thoroughly evaluate the pupil premium strategy to ensure it leads to "consistently positive impact" for disadvantaged pupils.
• Strategies for developing writing and grammar skills need further embedding to improve pupils’ achievement.
• Standards of attainment for disadvantaged pupils in national tests require further improvement to align with national peers.

Safeguarding

The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders establishing an "open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility" and concerns are actively identified and managed.