St Andrew's Church of England Infant School

Overview

This is a ‘happy and welcoming school’ where pupils feel safe and thrive in a supportive atmosphere. The report highlights that children ‘flourish academically and personally’ in the early years, which is judged as ‘Outstanding’, while the quality of education, behaviour, personal development, and leadership are all rated ‘Good’.

Strengths

• The early years provision is ‘highly effective’, with children making ‘exceptional progress’ and developing a secure understanding of number.
• Pupils are ‘enthusiastic about their learning’ and behave positively, embodying values of ‘responsibility’, ‘respect’ and ‘peace’.
• The school has established a ‘high-quality approach to teaching phonics’, helping pupils quickly become ‘confident readers’.
• Staff effectively identify and support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, enabling them to ‘achieve well alongside their peers’.
• Leaders ensure attendance is a key focus, resulting in ‘positive’ attendance rates, and staff feel ‘valued and listened to’.

Areas to improve

• Some staff do not consistently use the school’s approach to checking pupils’ understanding, leading to some pupils retaining ‘misconceptions or gaps in their knowledge’.
• In a small number of subjects, the skills and knowledge pupils need to learn are ‘not yet fully embedded’, meaning pupils do not build knowledge as effectively as in other subjects.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are ‘effective’.