Farnham Common Infant School

Overview

Pupils feel secure and are proud of their school, benefiting from a "caring community atmosphere" and strong relationships. While personal development and early years provision are effective, the quality of education and leadership require improvement due to significant weaknesses in reading provision and inconsistent support for complex behavioural needs.

Strengths

• Pupils display good behaviour, following rules most of the time and demonstrating values such as "respect, resilience, innovation, empathy and integrity".
• Early years provision is effective, with "clear expectations, strong relationships and well-established routines" helping children settle well and achieve appropriately.
• The curriculum enriches personal development through a "wide range of trips, visits and clubs" and the successful use of the woodland area.
• Staff are described as "thoughtful and considerate of their well-being," and governors are alert to workload pressures.
• Attendance has improved following a "more systematic procedure for monitoring and analysing attendance."

Areas to improve

• The new phonics programme must be "fully established and implemented consistently well" to address weaknesses in reading skills and ensure struggling pupils catch up.
• The school needs to ensure "consistent and effective strategies are in place to support pupils’ behaviour," particularly for the small number with significant needs.
• Approaches to checking how well pupils are learning phonics must be strengthened to provide robust evidence of impact on outcomes.

Safeguarding

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