Netley Abbey Infant School

Overview

Netley Abbey Infant School continues to be a good school, where pupils arrive happily and develop a "love for learning." Leaders have high aspirations for all pupils, fostering a positive environment where children behave in a "calm and orderly way" and feel safe. The school is praised for its dedicated staff, effective safeguarding, and strong community links, though curriculum planning requires further refinement in some subjects.

Strengths

• Pupils enjoy reading, encouraged by a new scheme and the ‘Reading Treasure Trail’, which has fostered a "genuine love of reading".
• Staff support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities effectively, working in collaboration with families to make learning accessible.
• Behaviour is strong, with a consistent approach across the school; initiatives like ‘Bucket Filling’ celebrate everyday acts of good behaviour.
• Leaders develop pupils’ wider experiences well, offering frequent opportunities for music, sports, and cultural visitors, while actively supporting the local community.
• Governors carry out their responsibilities effectively, and staff support one another, contributing to a positive school ethos.

Areas to improve

• In some subjects, leaders have not yet fully identified the precise knowledge and skills pupils will learn, meaning understanding does not consistently build over time as well as it could.
• Leaders need to continue developing the whole curriculum to provide key knowledge, skills, and vocabulary for pupils to learn and remember consistently well in all subjects.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with a robust system in place, clear record-keeping, and appropriate training for all adults.