South End Infant School

Overview

South End Infant School is described as a “happy place” where pupils display “really positive attitudes to their learning” and behave well. The inspection judges the quality of education, behaviour, personal development, leadership, and the early years foundation stage as ‘Good’.

Strengths

• Highly skilled staff deliver phonics effectively, ensuring pupils who fall behind receive support to “catch up” and enjoy a wide range of books.
• Pupils understand and live by the school’s values, interacting respectfully and resolving disagreements by reasoning with each other.
• The curriculum is “well organised and constructed,” with teachers presenting information clearly and challenging pupils’ thinking.
• Children in the early years engage in “well-planned learning activities” and are proud of their achievements.
• The school is “ambitious” for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, making appropriate adaptations so they achieve in line with peers.

Areas to improve

• In a few subjects, checks on what pupils know and remember are not well established, leading to gaps in knowledge; leaders must ensure routine checking and fill these gaps.
• The process of checking subject effectiveness is still developing, causing inconsistencies in curriculum implementation across classes; leaders should ensure a consistent approach to teaching.

Safeguarding

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