Phoenix Infant and Nursery School

Overview: Phoenix Infant and Nursery School continues to be a good school, where pupils flourish in a friendly and caring ethos. They respond well to high expectations and parents praise the education their children receive.

Strengths:

• Pupils feel safe at school and staff respond quickly to any concerns about bullying.
• The mathematics curriculum is strong, with pupils showing confidence when tackling new concepts or revisiting prior learning.
• Pupils enjoy their lessons, especially physical education and mathematics, and parents praise the remote learning provided during the pandemic.
• Staff provide a variety of activities to celebrate a range of faiths and cultures, and pupils' cultural heritage is celebrated through regular events.
• Staff receive rigorous, regular training and updates on safeguarding, and leaders encourage staff to make a note of any concern, however small.

Areas to improve:

• Until recently, the school's approach to the teaching of phonics did not best support pupils who struggle with reading. A new systematic, synthetic phonics programme is being implemented, but leaders should ensure that the revised approach enables pupils to develop quickly as fluent, confident readers.
• Some pupils in Years 1 and 2 are not yet fluent readers, partly due to the pandemic.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with leaders and staff placing a high priority on keeping pupils safe, providing age-appropriate teaching about online safety, and encouraging pupils to talk to a trusted adult if they have any worries.