Mortimer St. John's C.E. Infant School

Overview

Mortimer St. John’s C.E. Infant School is described as a place where pupils “really enjoy attending” and benefit from “positive and caring relationships.” The report highlights a “welcoming family feel” and notes that pupils are “curious and enthusiastic learners” who move around the school in a “calm and orderly manner.” Leaders maintain high expectations for achievement, with a curriculum that generally helps pupils build “secure knowledge across subjects.”

Strengths

• Staff demonstrate “strong subject knowledge” and deliver the curriculum in a “clear and precise way,” particularly in English and mathematics.
• The school prioritises reading with a “clear drive to ensure that all pupils become fluent readers,” supported by regular fluency sessions.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are “well supported” with “palpable care and patience” shown by staff.
• Children make a “strong start in the early years,” responding positively to “well-considered learning activities.”
• The governing body provides “strong support and challenge,” ensuring pupils are “front and centre of all the decisions.”

Areas to improve

• Phonics delivery requires refinement; current approaches sometimes leave “gaps in their phonics knowledge” that are not addressed quickly enough.
• In some curriculum areas, the school has focused too much on “covering a wide breadth of content at the expense of pupils’ depth of knowledge.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”