St Michael's Nursery and Infant School

Overview

This ungraded inspection confirms that St Michael’s Nursery and Infant School has “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.” The school is described as a “joyful place to be” where pupils are “happy and cheerful” and feel “welcome and valued.” Leaders have successfully sustained high expectations for achievement and behaviour, ensuring pupils are “well prepared for the next stage of their education.”

Strengths

• The school provides an “inclusive and nurturing environment” with a “broad and ambitious curriculum” that is delivered “consistently well.”
• Staff are “highly skilled at identifying the additional needs of pupils,” ensuring those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are “supported extremely well” and achieve well.
• The school “avidly promotes pupils’ love of reading,” with a phonics programme that helps pupils read “confidently and fluently by the end of Year 2.”
• Pupils display “calm, thoughtful and sensible” behaviour, supported by a strong focus on personal, social and emotional development from the early years.
• Strong community links and local visits help pupils feel “grounded in their local community” and develop a “sense of belonging.”

Areas to improve

• In a “small number of subjects,” the school has not “clearly identified the most important knowledge for pupils to learn,” which hinders some pupils’ learning security over time. The school should provide teachers with subject-specific support to address this.

Safeguarding

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