Merton Infant School and Nursery

Overview

Pupils at Merton Infant School are described as enthusiastic, belonging to a supportive community where personal development is central. The report highlights a ‘well-designed curriculum’ and ‘skilful’ teaching that fosters high attendance and achievement, though it notes inconsistencies in the pre-school provision and some areas of the main curriculum.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate ‘Outstanding’ behaviour and personal development, developing a ‘pocket of tricks’ to manage emotions and showing impressive global awareness.
• The school’s ‘MERTON’ values are explicitly taught, ensuring pupils are ‘motivated’ and strive for ‘excellence’ while treating others with ‘respect’.
• Support for pupils speaking English as an additional language (EAL) is ‘admirable’, with ‘young interpreters’ and explicit teaching of speaking and listening skills.
• Phonics teaching is ‘typically adept and accurate’, enabling most pupils to become ‘confident and fluent readers’ by the end of Year 2.
• Staff are ‘extremely caring and supportive’, with governors ensuring they have the right information to hold the school to account.

Areas to improve

• The pre-school curriculum requires further development to ensure it meets the needs of two-year-olds and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) as strongly as the main school.
• Curriculum changes in writing and mathematics need to be fully ‘enacted, embedded and effective’ to ensure pupils’ skills in all subjects are well developed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.